“The Hundred FootJourney,” by director Lasse Hallström is a fusion of French & Indian elements & the music reflects that.The film centers around a battle royale between a French & Indian restaurant owners in a tiny French village. A 100 feet is what separates the two restaurants. Hallstrom’s previous films include “Chocolat” “Cider House Rules” & “My Life As a Dog.”

AR Rahman (“Slumdog Millionaire”) fame composed the music spiced with musical elements from Western Classical and Indian Classical traditions. You can hear hints of Beethoven, Mozart and Ravi Shankar in the music. All tracks have a blend of Western
classical and Indian classical music. Watch out for the sitar, kanjira, ghatam, flute, violin for the Indian musical elements.

**1. Bright, new feeling. Instrumental piece in a symphony styple. Listen to the violin, mridhangam & ghattam for the Indian flavor.
***2. Slow & pleasant instrumental piece.
**3. The droning of the tampura sets the rhythm, while the flute & santoor giveit that Indian flavor. Starts soft & mellow & builds up to a full-bodied crescendo.
***4. The opening notes of the sitar hook you right into this pleasant track, which morphs into a Western Classical symphony piece.
***5. Mr. Kadam is the title of this song. He is the owner of the Indian restaurant.The track opens with a fantastic bansuri (flute) notes in the classical North Indian style & then blends in the Indian & western elements with sitar, cymbals, guitar, violin.
**6. “The Clash” has a dark undertone with an emphasis on bass notes at the start. It reminds you of a Mozart piece. Except this one has sitar and kanjira (Indian tambourine)
added in.
**7. Destiny, Fire, War is the name of the track. Starts off on a foreboding note & midway turns mellow & picks up pace. AR Rahman sings in Indian raga.
8. “The Gift” - whimsical & dreamy.
9. Starts on a pleasant/ melodious note.Celtic edge (reminds me ofThe Lord of The Rings a bit). Midway changes when AR Rahman’s vocals kick in singing in Hindi .
10. There is an edge of melancholia mixed with happy sounds in this Indian classical music inspired track.
11.Bright & happy piece with sitar, flute, shenai & guitar. Mostly instrumental.
12. Reunion is just over a minute.The string section dominates - sitar & violin with tabla.
**13.Short & sweet piece. Delightful mix of Indian & Western music elements.And yes, there is definitely some Mozart going on there mingled with tabla & sitar.
14. Modern sounding French & Hindi track by AR Rahman & Solange Merdinian.
15. Modern sounding,synth.Reminds you of European electronic/trance music.Instrumental
***16. This is perhaps the only track that has a strong Bollywood influence if you can call it that. Upbeat, peppy tune that you can dance to. Strong sufi element. Sung by Nakash Aziz,
AR Rahman & KMCC Sufi Ensemble.

Kamla Oct 2014