Loud Music

Various Artists - Slumdog Millionaire

Like the film. the soundtrack to Slumdog Millionaire is all curry-flavored ghetto fabulousness. M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” makes a cameo, but the star of the album is the songwriter who M.I.A. calls “the Indian Timbaland”: A.R. Rahman. Rahman — unknown here, but one of the world’s top-selling artists — juxtaposes the folk sounds of Mumbai’s slums with the techno of its city streets. On opening track “O . . . Saya,” tribal drumming, murky electronics, metal guitar and M.I.A.’s declamatory rhymes swirl, evoking the chaos that threatens to overwhelm Slumdog’s orphan hero. Relief comes in the closing cut, “Jai Ho,” where lavish orchestration and digital beats unite in a well-earned victory dance.