Bass, Rahman bass.

You like something Rahman has created.

Let me re-phrase it - some piece of music that Rahman has magically woven is amongst, if not your outright favorite pieces of music ever created.

There are many many reasons for this, most of which I do not understand clearly.

But the one I do, is found in the lower ranges of the frequency range. The bass. The thump.

Think back to a time before Rahman - all music, especially late 80’s and early 90’s Bollywood music sounded like a tactless cacophony of mid and treble frequencies.

The backing vocalists were often shrill and usually out of tune. The instrumentation was a showcase of the number of instruments found in the studio, as against a coherent story.

The use of quantity over quality prevailed and from this quagmire of mediocrity, Rahman raised the floor of music creation and production.

Songs in the movie “Yuva” illustrate this point. If you use good set of speakers / headphones (no, your cell phone speakers are dogshit to the power of horseshit. they do not count) - you will use the bass guitar, bass drum and other sounds in the low frequency that fill out the sound spectrum.

Be it the bass interludes in Dhakka Laga Bukka (Hutt jaa hutt jaa re, from the 3:50 mark to the end) or Baadal ( the first 10 seconds creating the repeating pattern), the 4 on the floor thump of Fana or the electronic synth tapestry that underlies most of these songs.

Kabhi Neem Neem to me stands above the rest of this towering creation - a simple ballad which excels in every department - lyrics, arrangement, instrumentation and yes the use of low frequencies (the drop that comes at the first “lajja se marey re jiya…. and onwards.)>

If you listen again, and really listen, you will hear it. And then you will nod your head. Maybe do a little dance. Break out that smile.