Slumdog Millionaire - Music from and Inspired by. .

So like a good Danny Boyle fan and like most of the people who saw Slumdog Millionaire I fell in love with this film and its soundtrack. Using A.R. Rahman as a composer was a brilliant move; Rahman got to parody the Bollywood format of music that he's so familiar with, and quite successfully explored the gritty and urban in addition to his classical repertoire.
The other touch of brilliance that some seem to be overlooking however, is the use of M.I.A. The use of her breakthrough single "Paper Planes" caused a knee-jerk reaction to immediately dismiss it as Pineapple Express was released.
And that's fair enough - "Paper Planes" has exploded to a cross genre popularity not heard since Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy." That being said the song was used twice - the original, as well as a chilled out funkafied, 70's style DFA remix, which made me pause and and listen to it with new ears, refreshed by the context. Sure the lyrics talk about weed, but they're just as much about livin' in the streets (which, as a Jewish girl from LA, I'm all about) and a level of materialism that can be found in third world countries and likely among the drug dealing population. If you haven't committed "Paper Planes" to memory, you can read the lyrics for yourself here.
The music from Slumdog Millionaire whet my appetite for more urban India meets London influenced sound that's like a late night drunken kebab with curry sauce. So I started listening to M.I.A. again to try and remember why I liked her in the first place despite the lack of gunshots and registers in her other songs. I found surprising satisfaction in some tracks off of the recent Kala with the boisterous, vaguely garage and old school hip hop influenced "XR2," which makes me want to dig out my gold hoops and wreak havoc on a bus somewhere cold and rainy. The other one that just plain makes me feel just a bit cooler than I actually am is "20 Dollar." It's laid back and rhythmic in a way that nods at the blunt smoking hip hop greats, and is actually a rude-girl interpretation of the Pixies' "Where Is My Mind," which goes to show you just how gangsta I actually am.

If this has inspired you to listen to a lot of MIA, you might also be interested in checking out the weirdly wistful remix of "Boyz" by Brazilian remixers The Twelves.