Granted the script itself was clumsy (albeit with what I think is an all-star cast), the music just added to the clumsiness.  Where there should have been light, silly musical banter behind the weak jokes, there was no music.  Where there was a slightly adventurous scene (the boat ride to Eden East), AR Rahman turned it into a *real* adventure sequence with the background music.  When Vince Vaughn speaks in Shakespearean tongue through a short sequence, AR Rahman adds music that you normally hear at the beginning of a wild west duel scene.

Music direction is very under-rated in the US  – in India it’s quite the opposite – and with this film, AR Rahman clearly bombed in what can only be described as “lost in translation” issue (both in terms of culture and communication).  Most audience members won’t chalk this movie failure up to music direction – but I know that the blow could have been softened with a normal music director pick.

AR Rahman wants to challenge himself but he really ought to stick to what he knows best and not make any sort of transition so as to embarrass himself on the Hollywood circuit.  In fact, his Oscar win was exactly due to this; a foreign director producing a movie in India that had the perfect blend of exoticism, comedy, and adventure.

Featuring a battery of established Indian actors/actresses, it also stars Kal Penn who folks in the US recognize from National Lampoon’s Van Wilder and Harold and Kumar go to White Castle.

This movie, needless to say to those who know me well, struck a personal chord for me as it mirrored the events that shape the person I am today.  I wonder whether that indicates that I’m “normal” like other American-born Indians or if the story is unique in itself.

Nitin Sawnhey did the soundtrack of the movie.