<><>TheRahman-Ratnam color=" size="9" face="Verdana"> BACKGROUND:Goingback in History, the following question arises. Six years ago, who listenedto Tamil music? Only Tamilians. Five years ago, what did teenagers danceto at discotheques? What else but Michael Jackson, Dr.Alban or the latestWestern dance hit of the day. But one man singlehandedly changed all that.With his universally appealing tunes, A.R.Rahman has demolished all conventionalrules in Indian film music. He amazes with the manner in which he seamlesslyintegrates traditionally incompatible harmonies. If anyone can make a perfectpotpourri of the latest dancehall rhythms, electro-pop, Latin melodies,Western and Indian classical and pepper it all with a local folk touchor even something as otherworldly as Reggae and serve it all in a contemporaryIndian manner that mesmerises listeners, it is A.R.Rahman. His music transcendsall barriers - geographic, age or linguistic. Everyone from 6 to 60, Kashmirto Kanyakumari, as the cliché goes, are fans of his music. He wasthe first to successfully and solidly bridge the gap across the Vindhyaswith Hindi speaking denizens who did not understand one word of Tamil enthusiasticallylapping up his music. He gave film music a trendy legitimacy, a legitimacythat made Indian youth who were till then ashamed of admitting in publicthat they enjoyed Indian film music, dance to Humma Humma, Muqabla Muqabla,Musthafa Musthafa and Chaiyya Chaiyya at every pub, club and disco. Overnight,Indian film music considered 'infra-dig' by the youth became 'cool' and'hep'. All in all, quite arguably, no one has influenced Indian music asmuch as Rahman has in recent times. He isthe man who helped south Indian cinema go national in a way that was consideredimpossible even a decade ago. He bridged the gap between Tamil (and evenTelugu on occasion) and Hindi with that most universal of all languages:music. Predictably Rahman would later say "I hate the discrimination betweensouth, north, Tamil, Hindi. If I represent India that is good enough forme. But we should cross all these barriers." Rahman did more: he made,to use film industry jargon, music a territory in its own right. Thus,the soundtrack of each movie was sold as if it were a separate entity fromthe film itself. And as if to prove him right, his music assumed a lifeof its own, flying off the shelves at record speed even when the film inquestion bombed at the boxoffice. Rahman'sstrength lies not only in his perfect sense of melody and rhythm but alsoin his immaculate sound engineering. His music has been hailed as thatof the digital age and has also been assailed for the very same reason.His music can never be adequately described in words. One has topersonally experience the pleasure of his creations. Many of his compositionsmight actually sound ordinary the first time. But his music has this amazingcapacity to grow on you and establish a firm hold on the listener. Hiscompositions are an intriguing cocktail of musical pieces that literallyblow your mind. His music is unique in its offbeat instrumental interludes,unconventional harmonies, and use of far from perfect voices and thumpingrhythms. |
PEOPLE-SPEAK:SaysGangai Amaran, well known South-Indian composer-singer and brother of Ilaiyaraja,"Rahman's music is of the computer age. It is digital but intelligent,not just noise. He concentrates on his melodies and has not totally deviatedfrom Carnatic traditions". Noted director and lyricist Gulzar says "Heis a milestone in Hindi film music. He has single-handedly changed thesound of music in the movies. He has broken the mukhda-antara-mukhda schemeof composition and replaced the traditional patterns of tuning. He cantune to a near identical rhythm in two different songs. But these songswill still catch the listener off guard even when played immediately aftereach other. Instead of having the fixed format, the song can also run likefree verse with his kind of music." Onevery interesting aspect of Rahman is his preference for untrained voices.Rahman says ".. a defect in the singing adds a human touch." His closefriend and arranger-composer Ranjit Barot adds "In the Hindi music industry,if Kumar Sanu or Udit Narayan don't turn up, the music director startspanicking. But Rahman would probably look around the studio and experimentwith some unknown and untrained voice." He goes on to add, "The manis a whiz coz he eats, breathes and sleeps music. AR Rahman has revolutionisedthe Hindi film music. Before we did Humma Humma for Bombay, the two ofus composed jingles together. Rahman's USP is his ability to combine slicknesswith melody. The songs from Roja still haunt me. Few can make a successfultransition from doing 30-sec jingles to 5 min songs. He's a genius."Bollywood movie mogul Subhash Ghai says of Rahman "Rahman is the biggestrepresentative of Indian music. He is an example for future generations.He is the best fusion of art and science in music". One of his favouritedirectors Ramgopal Varma says," It is a challenge to picturise songs setto Rahman's music." His erstwhile competitors Nadeem-Shravan say, "Themost amazing quality about Rahman is that he has been able to create a'national sound' which in spite of his strong south-Indian feel appealsto a pan-Indian audience". Composers Jatin-Lalit say, "He totally changedthe sound of Indian film music." Internationallyacclaimed Indian Tabalchi Ustad Zakir Hussain reminiscing about the timewhen Rahman played the keyboard along with violinist Kunnakudi Vaidyanathanand drummer Sivamani, on the album 'Colours' says, "He was barely 19 yearsold then but had mastered many different styles of music - western classical,jazz, rock and Carnatic. Even after his work was done he would stay inthe studio, sitting through other musicians' pieces, eyes and ears tunedin, constantly imbibing. Very intelligent, smart and creative. He startedas a young boy working with great composers like K V Mahadevan, for example.He knows the public pulse and has given the public a very intelligent combinationpackage. This reminds me of R D Burman. These guys made it possible tobring together all elements of world music." SingerLata Mangeshkar, known as the 'Nightingale of India' with whom Rahman workedfor the first time in Maniratnam's 'Dil Se' and later in 'Pukar', 'Zubeidaa','Lagaan', 'Water' and '1 2 ka 4', is all praise for him, " Rahman is knownto record only during the night time. But he records with me during thedaytime... when my voice is fresh. I don't like recording at night. AndI've heard that Rahman records mostly in the night. But he made an exceptionfor me. When an artiste shows such consideration for another artiste, itfeels good. Aur kaam bhi achha hota hai. (Even the work done is good),Rahman doesn't take long over his recordings. Jiya jale was recorded in40 minutes." Singer Srinivas, whose career best numbers have been withRahman is totally impressed with Rahman's dedication to music and says," He's totally absorbed in his music and there's nothing else that affectshim. For him music is God. And he gets the best out of a singer." Saysclassical turned film singer P. Unnikrishnan who made his debut with thesong 'Ennavale' from 'Kadhalan' and went on to win the National Award forhis very first song, "I have sung more than 500 songs till date but thisfirst song of mine is something I will remember and cherish all my life.The most wonderful thing is that today ARR is the most sought after MusicDirector in the whole country but as a person he has not changed and eventoday he is the same calm, composed, humble, committed, unperturbed ARR.Thanks to Rajiv Menon for having introduced me to such a wonderful artist."At one time an assistant to Rahman and today an independent composer inhis own right, Harris Jayaraj remarks "I have learnt many things from manymusic directors. If you single out A.R.Rahman, I can quote his relentlesslabour, high enthusiasm, and commitment to the tasks at hand. He wouldnever compromise on the quality of a song. He is quality-conscious andindividualistic." SingerSrinivas, whose career best numbers have been with Rahman is totally impressedwith Rahman's dedication to music and says, " He's totally absorbed inhis music and there's nothing else that affects him. For him music is God.And he gets the best out of a singer." Reocunting his experiences he says,"In 1992, in Coimbatore, was when I went to see Maniratnam's Roja becauseit was a Maniratnam movie. Dreams of playback singing had taken aback seat; I was in Coimbatore and travelling and didn't know howto approach it now. I was just taken aback by the freshness of Roja's music. After a long time, I had bought a tamil film audio cassette. Thisnew person, Rahman, had introduced so many singers; the re-entry of Sujatha,Hariharan , Minmini and Unnimenon. Immediately, I realizedthat this person has an attitude towards introducing new artists, his musicsounds fresh and he was definitely here to stay! On one of my officialtrips to Chennai, I got hold of Rahman's address and went to see him directly. At that time, he was very accessible (he had just started working on PudhiyaMugam). He conducted a voice test; I sang a Mehdi Hassan ghazal andhe liked it. I mentioned that I lived in Coimbatore and he said thatif I moved to Chennai, he might be able to work with me. By the timeI came to Chennai in 1994-95, he had shot through the roof! The gates hadbecome bigger at Rahman's place . It was difficult to even get throughto his office. With persistance and a little bit of luck, I was finallyable to see him again. As soon as he saw me, he remembered. That's Rahman!.. He's human... and he's got GOD inside him as well! He slowly started giving me singing assignments. Rahman's approach is totallydifferent which now many people have started following. For example,Raja Sir has the whole thing in his mind from the very beginning. You don't have a doubtabout what you should sing and you better not! (laughs). Two totally differentschools of music. With Rahman, when you go in, nothing is ready. He just feeds in some basic chords. When you listen to them on yourheadphones, you are transported to some other world. Within two minutes,he creates a masterpiece of a loop. Those chords are just magic. You feel like singing so much! He incredibly motivates you when singing,which is also the reason why artists (singers and instrumentalists alike)give him the very best. Vairamuthu,the lyricist, with whom Rahman shares a special bond remarks "I am consideredto be a great poet, but I don't have any words to describe his genius.A.R.Rahman is not a normal music director. He has some God given gift inhim. Otherwise, how can he compose such soul-stirring numbers? He is arare pearl in an ocean of music.When one composes a song he is alwaysworried as to whether the song will click or not. But Rahman is one composerwho does not care about the commercial success of the song. He is alwaysconfident that if a number is composed wth a good heart and self-confidenceit will be a big hit. He is like a younger brother to me. The total submissionof his (A.R.Rahman) life for the cause of music; his thirst for creatingnot any chaff but only grains appeals to me the most!" Another veteranlyricist Vaali says "I have been in this field for decades and have seena lot of music directors come and go.. But this young boy has held me spellbound!His talent, energy, enthusiasm is a lesson to all youngsters. He is alwaysexperimenting and is always open to new ideas." Grammy Award winning instumentalistPandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt says "Rahman has a good understanding of bothWestern and Indian classical music. I was asked to play for Mani Rathnam'sfilm Anandam (renamed "Iruvar") which Rahman has scored. He has high regardfor others, and gives due respect to other forms of music. I find Rahmanvery innovative, and wouldn't mind doing more films with him." "Rahman'samazing," drools upcoming composer Vishal Dadlani, "I've listened to themusic of Dil Se.. a hundred times and, each time, I learn something new.It is like an encyclopaedia on production." Director Suresh Krissna withwhom he worked on 'Sangamam' and then the Indian version of 'The Returnof the thief of Baghdad', calls him a 'die-hard perfectionist' andsaid "Rahman's manner of working sounds very unusual. Generally music iscomposed, lyrics are readied and the recording is done. But with Rahmanit is not so. Far from it, Rahman composes and mixes the voice with a basicrhythm track. Then he goes on adding the music making innovations, inclusionsand improvisations till the very last minute, or rather till the cassettestage itself. At every point the workaholic in him keeps goading him tofeel that 'there should be something more to it.' The singer, under Rahman'sdirection, is given incredible scope to delve into every conceivable variationand the whole of it is recorded. This system of working was a revelationfor me." Upcoming lyricist Ilayakamban who is working with Rahman in 'Tenali'says "His musical ability to confine the whole world's air in his flute;his glowing inner peace; the simplicity of a mother is what I saw in him."Singer Harini, who was discovered by Rahman in a talent search competitionsays, "The best part about singing for Rahman is the freedom he gives thesinger. Even for my first song he let me sing the way I was comfortablewith, eventhough I was a nobody then." "Singing for Rahman was a wonderfulexperience. I really enjoyed the song. A R Rahman is a wonderful, humbleperson to work with. A complete workaholic and very involved with his music.He is very creative and undoubtedly talented," says singer RoopkumarRathod. Singer Abhijeet echoes his thoughts, "It is every singer’s dreamto work with A R Rahman because he makes you feel like God. I worked withRahman for a beautiful song called E Nazneen suno and for Nayak. Of course,I did get nervous when I had to record with him, especially since he recordsat an unearthly hour like three in the night. But he makes you feel asif you are AR Rahman and he is just an ordinary fellow. Other music directorsshould learn to be humble like him. Today’s music directors do not respecttheir singers. If one singer is not around they replace them with another.Also, they demoralise you when you are in front of the mike." DirectorShankar, again a favourite with Rahman - having worked with him on on someof his earliest films like 'Gentleman' 'Kadhalan' and later 'Indian' 'Jeans','Mudhalvan' 'Nayak' and 'Robot', has only praises for him, "A.R.Rahman- the name speaks for itself. He knows what clicks and what does not. Hecomposes music according to the demand of the situation. He slogs so muchto see that a song is good. He does not want to give anyone in the worldthe chance to tell him that his compositions are bad. What I like bestin Rahman is his fighting spirit and 'never say die attitude' ." Worldfamous guitarist, Jeremy Spencer ,formerly of Fleetwood Mac says 'The onlycontemporary Indian composer I know of and like is A.R.Rahman. His 'Vandemataram'was brilliant'. Lyricist Mehboob, who made his debut in 'Rangeela' andlater penned Maa Tujhe Salaam cannot stop singing the praises of Rahman,"If there is one person whom I revere after God, our prophet, and my familythen it is Mr. AR Rahman. He is like a brother to me. I adore him so muchthat I have no words to describe my feelings for this gentleman." The veterandirector Shyam Benegal who shifted from his long time regular, the equallyveteran Vanraj Bhatia, to Rahman, for the film Zubeidaa says, ', I admirethree things about Rahman. Among the young composers he probably is themost original. He has a strong sense of melody and his harmony is unbeatable.Finally he gives his music a rich tonal color, richness through his combinationof instruments, a character to the music.' Shankar,Ehsaan and Loy, the composer trio can't stop raving about Rahman. SaysLoy Mendonsa, "Rahman is a great musician, a great human being, his musicis fresh, and honest. That's very important, writing something from theheart". Adds Ehsaan Noorani, "A R Rahman is my favorite, he's a genius,his personality reflects in his music, it's fantastic, his music is sopure, it's from the soul." And finally Shankar Mahadevan, "A R Rahman ismy favourite because he's a genius, he knows exactly what he's doing,he's very well versed in classical as well as western jazz, all kinds ofstuff. And he's open minded." DirectorBharathiraaja, known for his movies with rural themes - the ones with Rahmanbeing 'Kizhakku Cheemayile', 'Karuthamma', 'Anthimanthaarai' and 'Taj Mahal'- and once an Illaiyaraja regular remarks "Illaiyaraja is a borngenius. I wanted a change and that's why I shifted to Rahman. There issomething in his music that intoxicates you. You work with him once andyou will never want to work with anyone else after that." Veteran singerChitra says "I have worked with all the music directors in the south beforeRahman came in. When I sang for him the first time I found that I was doingsomething really different from what I had done before. I like Rahman,the music director. But I like Rahman the person even more. I don't howhe manages to keep his feet firmly on the ground even after tasting somuch success in this field. He is the only Indian composer whose stuffstands out." Says director Rajeev Menon "He'll remain my only choice andpreference. He's part of my family. We've been working together for thepast 14 years. In fact he was the one who got me into filmmaking, whileI called him for a lot of my advertising assignments." Acclaimed singerYesudas says, 'He is a genius musician knowing the psychology ofyouth.' Veteran singer Manna Dey remarks "I do not think too much of today'smelodies. I do admire A.R.Rahman, for he is a master of rhythm. He is extremelyexperimental, and leaves no stone unturned in trying out new things." ComposerVishal Bharadwaj opines "A. R. Rahman has elevated the quality of filmmusic to an international level. When you hear Michael Jackson and Rahmanat one go, you can't tell the difference in sound quality. Rahman is aterrific composer. He is a genius." Says old friend and singer Suresh Peters,"I was a drummer, not a singer and Rahman was a keyboard player. Both ofus were working in a band called `Nemesis Avenue'. He was a very talentedcomposer earlier itself, but everything happens only when the time comes.He started composing jingles and they started clicking. He was then signedon by Mani Ratnam and then there has been no looking back. I appreciateRahman's sense of arrangement. No one can teach Rahman how a songshould be composed. He is aware of all the latest in sound techniques.He knows what will appeal to people and what will not. He is very versatileand different from one film to the other. As long as he does not repeathimself, nothing can stop him from reaching the top ." Independent composer,rhythm programmer and close associate of Rahman, Pravin mani says, "...Rahmangives a lot of freedom to his technicians and all those-involved with him,while working. Moreover, he is extraordinarily creative. Rahman is thegreatest person i have ever-seen in my life. He is really a humble person.though he has risen to very high levels, yet he is the same person andbehaves the same way as he used to do in his earlier days, mingles freely..., and that shows his greatness." SingerKavita Krishnamurthy, a Rahman favourite says "It's such a pleasure tosing for A. R. Rahman. He's such a simple guy. He has no ego hang-ups."Singer Sadhana Sargam, another Hindi singer whom Rahman prefers over manyestablished singers, says "When Rehman calls you go without asking questionsbecause you know it's going to be worth it.He's a reserved person and talksvery little but he makes you give your best. He keeps a cassette readywherein he has sung the song himself and listening to it makes your workso much easier, he allows any number of retakes. If you've sung half aline beautifully and haven't sustained that in the other half, he'll retainthat half and make you work on the other half. The result is magnificent.. And Rehman makes his pleasure very evident when he likes something you'vedone... then he won't even be shy." Veteransinger Asha Bhonsle whose career got a revival when she sang for Rahmanin 'Rangeela', says, "He understands the youth of today, he has broughtabout a freshness, a new sound to film music. He's always experimenting,doing something different which is very inspiring for the playback singer."New age Singer-Composer and a close friend of Rahman, Shankar Mahadevansays "I think A.R.Rahman is an absolute genius and is one of the few musicdirectors who completely knows what he is doing. It's an absolute pleasureworking with him as he is a cool and modest guy." Noted Sarod maestro AmjadAli Khan says, "Wonderful! He has a new approach, he has given a new directionto film music. I think even the established music directors want to soundlike him. Perhaps all his songs won't be remembered and hummed after decades.But for the time being, Rahman's tunes are extremely enjoyable." Veteransinger S. P. Balasubramanium says "The man responsible for the varietyin today's music is A. R. Rahman." Hema Sardesai who shot into fame whenshe sang Aawara Bhanwre in 'Sapnay' is effusive in her praise for Rahman,"When Rajiv Menon recommended me to A.R. Rahman, he never gave a secondthought and called me over the phone to be in Madras the next day for therecording. Even though I was on cloud nine, deep down I was feeling asif somebody had pulled a trick on me. God has been great! He came intomy life as Rahman sir." ONe of his blue eyed boys, singer Sukhvinder Singhsays "A R Rahman not only gave me the break (in Dil Se), he taught me alot of techniques in composing music arrangement and recording. He wasthe one to impress upon the need to be technically perfect before any producercould be expected to invest in you." Composers Anand-Milind say, "He isthe only composer to have brought in something new all by himself in along long time." Says Ehsaan of the Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy trio ""A. R. Rahmanis the best! He is a genius and a wonderful human being and it translatesin his music." Populardrummer Sivamani, a childhood friend of Rahman and a professional regularwith him, says "Our association began when we both were really young. Wehad this band called Roots. We just make very good music together. He isa master of laya(melody) and taala(beat). The recognition that I enjoytoday is because of Rahman. There are so many talented people behind afilm music score. I played for Illayaraja for very long, but my name neverfigured on the screen or the cassette cover. Rahman changed it all. Hegives credit to every single member of his team for whatever part theyplay, big or small. That makes him really special. People came to knowabout me only because of him. I thank him for that." Javed Akhtar, notedlyricist, says "I think he is an all rounder, I mean his grounding is veryvery solid. He knows Indian classical music, he is in touch with Indianfolk music, he knows about western music and he has really studied westernclassical also. He knows about Middle Eastern music. So there is no wonderyou see different colours in his songs. But Indian music has borrowed albeitbeing influenced by Middle Eastern music in past also. But, you see, whenRahman takes a raag or if he takes a folk tune, or if he takes notes ofsay Arabian music or South American music. When this music comes to Rahman,it becomes Rahman's music his influences are beyond film music and he hasa kind of courage where he is not afraid to experiment, he is not afraidto fail and that is why he succeeds. We remember only those people whowere not only successful but they have brought something to the arena thatis new. Now this is a another leap, a quantum leap that Rahman has takenand he has given a kind of new sensibility to Indian music listener andthe music maker. The sound, the orchestration, the very structure of thesong. He has challenged the basic structure of Indian film song and hehas altered it, changed it. And, I think his contribution is totally unprecedented.Successful people come and go. Ultimately it's the pathbreakers who'reremembered with the passage of time. People who have walked on untroddenroads. Success is worshipped momentarily, and then forgotten. It's notenough to be successful. It's important to attempt something new. Rahman'scontribution to film music will never be forgotten. He has given a newdimension and understanding to sound. Working with him is definitely agreat pleasure. I get along very well with him. He is one person who isonly interested in his work. Inspite of his stupendous success, he is sohumble and down-to-earth." Sayscomposer and former Rahman associate Sandeep Chowta, known as 'The poorman's Rahman', "Rahman revolutionised sound. He's a trend-setter in moreways than one. The only thing common between us is the fact that we startedout in advertising and moved on to films. There's just no comparison otherwise.Rahman is a legend of sorts. Rahman is unique. He doesn't have set ragas.Yet his chord progressions are beautiful. People sometimes compare me toA R Rahman, it happens. People like Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle and evenAndrew Lloyd Webber have paid tribute to him and called him a legend. Ican't even begin to fathom the reasons for the comparison. He's in anotherzone altogether, he is amazingly brilliant. If people compare me to him,I'd take it as a compliment. " Bhupen Hazarika, the legendary Assamesecomposer with whom Rahman worked on 'Desh Ka Salaam', opines, "Peoplebecome immediately entranced by whatever Rahman composes. He is a phenomenon.He's young and talented. And he has his fingers on the pulse of the newgeneration. Like Salil Chowdhary he knows both western and Indian musicstyles. He's a great talent but his talent shouldn't be overutilised."Many other noted personalities like lyricist Javed Akhtar, actress-parlimentarian-socialworker Shabana Azmi, actress Sridevi, singer Shubha Mudgal, classical instrumentalist-composerPandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt(worked with Rahman on Iruvar and Alai Paayuthe)have repeatedly expressed their liking for the Rahman brand of music. SaysSir Andrew Lloyd Webber, the reknowned composer of musicals, who pickedRahman to score for his musical Bombay Dreams, the first time an outsiderworked on the compositions of an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, " I thinkhe has an incredible tone of voice. I have seen many Bollywood films, butwhat he manages to do is quite unique--he keeps it very much Indian. Forme as a Westerner, I can always recognize his music because it has gota rule tone of voice of its own. It's very definitely Indian, yet it hasan appeal which will go right across the world. He will hit the West inan amazing kind of way; that is, if he is led in the right way. He is themost extraordinary' composer who is still true to his cultural roots, 'and deserves to be heard by an international public" ChoreographerChinni Prakash throws up his hand in mock frustration and says, "Its challengingto choreograph Rahman's songs. He does not stick to the conventional four-eight-twelve-sixteenbeats. He's unpredictable. Sometimes, he gives you a two and three-quartersbeat. What do you do with that?" Ramgopal Varma , who worked with Rahmanon Rangeela and Daud says "There is a bigness in Rahman's music. Everynote reflects the mood of the song. When I used to hear his music for myfilm I used to wonder if I was feeling my story as deeply as he was". "Hismusic has that international quality which is absolutely stunning," saysinternational director Douchan Gersi for whose film 'The Return ofthe Thief of Baghdad', Rahman scored the music. Says Pune based music criticJayanth Deshpande, "The unique brand of classicism brought into Bollywoodmusic by A.R.Rahman mirrors not only the variegated tapestry that is India,but also the global musical culture. Rahman borrows ever so subtly fromAmerican soul or Gospel. He draws generously from rap, disco, folk, reggae,qawaali, Hindustani and Carnatic in his rhythms. And the vocal ornamentsof Carnatic music or ever present. Orchestral textures and harmonies typicalof Western music often grace the background. His is a truly internationalmusic with a distinctly Indian feel. He has experimented as perhaps noother Indian composer has before him or does now. Some may be tempted tocall it Indian fusion music of a highorder. I've heard his music beingused as background in a German TV feature unrelated to music or India." GovindNihalani who was the first Bollywood director to sign Rahman says " I ama lover of music. Some years ago a friend of mine gave me a cassette of'Roja'. I was amazed after I listened to the songs. I decided right awaythat A.R.Rahman will give the music for atleast one of my films. ImmediatelyI came to Chennai and spoke to him. He is an absolute genius. Very Modern! His range of imagination is expansive. He doesn't treat his professionas just composing music for films. He is able to lift a film to a new levelwith his music. Just as a painter is identified by his artistic style heis identified by his tunes. Even If i say I am satisfied he does not stop.Uncompromising spirit!! I am not saying this just to praise him. A. R.Rahman is the only composer in India upto international standards today.In fact I will go so far as to say that he is a composer of the next millennium.He is not a person who merely makes tunes. He is someone who createsmusic. He is constantly observing the trends and developments inhis profession. I believe that is also a reason for his success. First, he reads the script and takes detailed notes of the situations, the mood,and the characterisations. Sitting before his keyboard in the studio atnight he would say, "Give me a word!Give me a phrase." And he would workout a rough tune on the spot. Then he records it with a singer. But thereal magic starts when once he has the song before him on his computerscreen. He plays with it, takes a phrase from here and puts it there. Blockby block, verse by verse he builds up his song. YOu can see the colouredbits forming fascinating patterns." He paid the ultimate compliment whenhe said " Its like watching a master sculptor in action." Acedirector Subhash Ghai, with whom he worked on 'Taal' is all praise forhim, "Rahman is the rhythm of 'Taal - The Rhythm'. I wouldn't be able tomake Taal without this remarkable musician, thisgreat soul who was born to give Hindi music a new life. I am privilegedto work with a man who has been inspired and blessed by God above. I don'tmind changing all my nights into days to work with him. You know this greatman only creates fresh tunes in the night and sleeps during the day. Rareman, rare way of working. That's how all great men are. He creates accordingto the director's need. He is a widely knowledgeable composer, with knowledgeof all kinds of music of the world. He can play Western Symphony with asmuch ease as Hindustani or Carnatic classical which is a very rare qualityin composers. Rahman has a strange kind of spirituality within which helives. He knows technique, has a rare sense of sound and a great ear. Hecan make any besura (tuneless) voice sing well. This is obvious from singerswho have sung beautifully for his albums but have not done well later.I love him both as a composer and as a friend. He is very sweet to talkto. The only thing is you talk and he listens. He has a sharp intellectand understands not just the sound of music and quality of voice but alsothe market forces and how to move from post to post. Rahman is undoubtedlya genius. He's divine and simple. " Rahman's favourite singer Hariharansays, "His strength is the way he designs sound. He has revolutionisedfilm music. He is perpetually on a quest to get the best out of you andmakes you feel at ease which is important. I have sung some of my bestsongs for him." Indian-bornCanadian director Deepa Mehta with whom Rahman has worked on 3 films - 'Fire', 'Earth' and 'Water' - says, "Brilliant, I think he is the mostconsummate composer that I know of in the world. His music comes from thecharacters and is an extension of them. I think he is the best.He is themost brilliant film composer in India today and is in such demand thathe has altered his normal working day to begin at six in the evening andgo through the night, so that he can compose undisturbed by producers'calls. A.R.R. is a very young man of prodigious talent with an immensesensitivity to the film's context and characters. Whatever I say abouthis genius will be stating the obvious. He finds the sound for every characterin the film. He finds the character's sur. Raag, rhythm, reggae, folk,classical, he's got it on his finger tips. He's so cinema literate. Hecan discuss Ingmar Bergman's Autumn Sonata and he can talk about SubhashGhai's Taal, all in one breath." Singer Alka Yagnik opines "He's a one-man-show.Once he's taught you the song, he gives you a free hand. He lets you singit the way you want to.". Noted Qawwal, The late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan,who worked with Rahman on 'Vandemataram' said ldquo;The young boy Rahmanis the only person with humility in this entire industryrdquo;. Up andcoming composer Ismail Darbar who pipped Rahman's 'Taal' to the NationalAward in 2000 with his score in 'Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam' is an ardent admirerof Rahman. He says, "His work speaks volumes. There's no one like him.Which is why I didn't mind when he walked away with all the awards forTaal. He's just so good. When it comes to making electronic music he'sthe best. I know I can't even compete with him there." Says another leadingBollywood composer Anu Malik, "I appreciate A.R's work. He has a penchantfor being international. I think he is talented. A.R. has taught me thevalue and meaning of sound in my recording and thanks to him, today I ammy own arranger." Oneof his closest associates, long time friend and sound engineer H. Sridharreveals some little known facts of Rahman,"I had known Rahman many yearsbefore I started working with him on Roja. While he was doing jingles,we would often meet and compare notes on music trends and synthesisers.Rahman's biggest asset is that he treats each song as his first song. Heprays before each session. I believe there is some power in his God, faithand religion. I can give you countless examples when he became so inspiredafter his prayers. He is very open-minded about what a song needs and giveseach song a completely individual taste. It is the way he soothes you intoa song that I call his signature. There is a visual texture in his mindwhen he composes music. When you see the song picturised you can immediatelyconnect. Rahman allows musicians to be themselves. He understands theirsoul. He also has a fabulous way of getting notes out of a musician withouttelling them in so many words. Rahman never ceases to amaze me. He is sucha fine musician apart from being a music director; his strength is fusion.He is also a techno-junkie. If you give him a set of headphones he willmost probably rip it apart to understand why it works so well! I sometimessay that we are techno-brats. But Rahman knows that a song shouldn't speakthe technical language but should have soul. Rahman is humble and verygenerous with money. He hates to see people suffer. I think his philosophyis that people should derive happiness from his music, even if it is asad tune. He has this tremendous need to be perfect." Hot shot directorof the bubblegum generation, Karan Johar says "The only music composerfrom the current lot who will be remembered for a long time is A.R.Rahman." CommentsBritish-based international chart star Apache Indian, who worked with Rahmanon a track for the film 'Love Birds', "He's very talented as a songwriterand singer. I think he can do great things." His mentor and favouritedirector Mani Ratnam says, "I have found that Rahman is a favourite becausehe is new and above all different. He knows the pulse of the audience.He has a very good sense of tune. He knows what kind of orchestration isnecessary for a scene and what music suits the mood of the scene.He hasthe music in his mind, and uses every musician as an artiste, probablybecause he has been an instrumentalist himself. He tries to extract somethingextra from every one of his musicians as well as his playback singers.He believes in their additional input. Rahman improvises. I found in hima new and different composer who never compromises on quality. Rahman isevery director’s dream." He has no ego problems and tries to come out witha new number with the same kind of passion with which he did the earlierone. But he is best summed up, perhaps, in the words of Cinematographer-directorRajeev Menon who worked on many ads and the films 'Minsara Kanavu' and'Kandukonden Kandukonden' with him, " Music comes to him instinctively.When you see him play, his skill is such that you really believe God existsin his work." India'sleading newspaper 'The Times of India' carried a feature titled "Men weregard: Our tribute to the men without whom this world would be quite,quite insipid" in which it picked Rahman as one of them and wrote "Musicmaker A.R.Rahman has given these raucous and raunchy times melody and mood.His style is individual to the extent of sounding repetitive sometimes,but when you hear his work, you feel at last the kind of involvement withthe spell of sound that was R.D.Burman's. What is most attractive aboutRahman's music is his ability to link modern rhythms and experiments withsound with our enormous legacy of classical and folk music." India'sleading newsmagazine 'India Today' paid glowing tributes to him when itpublished the following lines - "Sometimes a song is just a tune for amusic director, whose rhythm invades you, which you hum in front of a bathroommirror that has a warranty never to break. Sometimes a song is just anintricately woven lacing of words that embraces you on a still, lonelynight. Sometimes a song is just a voice for a music director, whose passionmakes your hair stand. When A.R. Rahman takes you on a journey-- and tohear it is to feel you have no choice but to journey with him...... ."India's leading women's magazine Femina published a feature in its July1999 issue listing Rahman as one of the 14 "Men we'll still want to seearound in 2009" |
EARLYDAYS:A. R.Rahman or Allah Rakha Rahman was born actually A. S. Dileep Kumaron the 6th of January in the year 1967, in Madras (now Chennai), to a musicallyaffluent Tamil Mudaliar family. The second of four children he hadthree sisters Kanchana, Bala (now Talat) and Israth, Kanchana being elderand the other two younger. His father R.K. Sekhar was a composer, arrangerand conductor in Malayalam movies and had worked under the likes of SalilChowdhary and Devarajan. His mother was Kasthuri (now Kareema Begum). Dileep'sbaptism in music happened early in life. Dileep's earliest memories of the studio are with his father. On one of those visits, a music directorSudarshanam Master found the four year old playing a tune on the harmonium.He covered the keys with a cloth. It made no difference. Dileep replayedthe tune effortlessly. This impressed the music director who suggestedthat he be trained in music. Dileep started learning the piano at the tenderage of four. He recieved his early training in music from Dhanraj Master. Buthe wanted to grow up to be an electronics or computer engineer. He saystoday, in reminiscence " I was not crazy after music. I was more interestedin technology". He was first drawn to music strongly when his fatherbought a synthesiser, one of the very first in film circles then, fromSingapore. Till then he now says, "As a child, music seemed to be a meansof earning bread and butter. I had no special fascination for it... itwas associated purely with work. Yet I couldn't take my eyes away fromthe synthesiser, it was like a forbidden toy." This instrument was an objectof much curiosity to the young Dileep and caught his fancy. Dileep usedto spend hours experimenting with the novel instrument. This instrumentwas to shape the future of this child. It was perhaps divinely ordainedthat the synthesiser would become Dileep's favourite instrument since itwas the ideal combination of music and technology. Rahman'searly years were one of struggle and hardships. At the age of 9, his fatherpassed away following a mysterious illness with rumours abounding thathe was the victim of black magic practised by his rivals. UnfortunatelyR. K. Shekhar passed away the very same day his first film as composerwas released. It was at this time that Rahman's belief in God first tooka beating. Much of his time was filled with hospital visits, pain and anxieties.It is an issue that Rahman outrightly refuses to discuss even today. Afterhis father's death the pressure of supporting his family fell on the youngDileep. At first the family subsisted by lending out his father's musicalinstruments. At the age of 11, he joined Illaiyaraja's troupe as a keyboardplayer in order to earn for his family's upkeep. He also learnt to playthe guitar. Thus Rahman formally entered the world of music. He also beganto play the keyboard for programmes on television. It washis mother Kareema Begum who encouraged him to follow in his father's footstepsand fully supported him in his vocation. But all this had an adverse effecton his formal education. Infrequent attendance and an unaccommodative managementforced him to shift schools from the prestigious Padma Seshadri Bal Bhavanto the Madras Christian College and finally he dropped out of school altogetherwhen he was doing his 11th grade. He also played on the orchestra of M.S.Vishwanathan,Raj-Koti and Ramesh Naidu and accompanied Zakir Hussain and Kunnakudi Vaidyanathanon world tours. He also appeared playing the keyboard on a few popularmusic shows on televison like 'Wonder Balloon' on the Madras Doordarshanchannel. He also supposedly composed a few short pieces of music in Ilaiyaraja'sfilms, a notable one being the theme music in K.Balachander's 'PunnagaiMannan'. Allthis experience enabled him to earn a scholarship to the famed TrinityCollege of Music at Oxford University from where he obtained a degree inWestern Classical Music. He came back with a dream to bring an internationaland contemporary world perspective to Indian music. After he returned,he continued to be a part of various local music troupes. He was also apart of local rock bands like Roots, Magic and Nemesis Avenue where heperformed with his future colleagues like Suresh Peters, Ranjit Barot andSivamani Anandan. This, he says, was a very valuable learning experience.Thus Dileep came to be totally immersed in music. The only source of joyto him was music, so much so, that friends like guitarist John Anthonywould say, "Who is the Prime Minister of India, do you know? Get out andsee beyond your nose in Kodambakkam". But he was not at all surehe wanted to turn professional. Dileepthus firmly established himself this way and worked for nearly 8 to 9 yearswith various music directors. He also worked as an arranger for Illaiyaraja,M.S.Vishwanathan, Ouseappachan and Raj-Koti. He has this to say of hisstint with Illaiyaraja "Until then I thought you had to drink or take dopeto be a good artist. But Ilayaraja was making such beautiful music andleading a pure life!'' " I was under the impression that if its music,whoever it is, they must have some bad habit. When I saw them with drinksand drugs I thought 'Oh! they are music people. They have to take drinks,smoke and cocaine to get their inspiration'. The man who changed theseimpressions altogether was only Ilayaraja. He proved that he can make goodmusic without any bad habits! Even now he is an inspiration for me beingso religious today." Butthe young and enthusiastic Dileep felt shackled by just plain arrangingand could barely withstand the monotony of playing in an orchestra allthe time with all his creative urges being suppressed. The kind of soundhe liked was already there in fusion - in L. Shankar and L. Subramaniamwhom he worked with, and in the then popular 'Shakti' group. He playedon the keyboard for T. V. Gopalakrishnan and Kadri Gopalnath, with Sivamanion the drums. He says, "It gave us some kicks.'' At this time, Vizi Manuel,the lead keyboard player in Illaiyaraja's troupe advised him to try otheralternatives for pursuing a musical career, like advertising. This wasa suggestion that appealed to him and he explored some avenues seriously.The complexes increased. "I thought, what if the film world ends? I learntdriving, so that I could survive as a driver.'' The restlessness pushedhim into making jingles for ads. Fortunately for Dileep he soon got hisfirst break in advertising when he was asked to compose the jingle to promoteAllwyn's new Trendy range of watches, in 1987. The ads were a success andDileep's work in them was appreciated. Dileep quit playing in orchestrasand moved full time into advertising as a few more offers came his way.Thus began Dileep's 5-year successful saga in advertising where he wenton to not only compose more than 300 jingles, but would also be the steppingstone to his entry into films. Workingas a jingle composer not only gave him an outlet to his creative urgesbut also gave him the much needed exposure to the music industry. The peoplehe came in contact with during his work in advertising gave him a pathwayto the film world. During his stint in advertising, he released his firstever complete music album, of Islamic devotional songs, titled 'Deen IsaiMalai', in Tamil. This was later followed by 'Set Me Free', an album ofEnglish songs which was the launch album of singer Malgudi Subha, by Magnasound,where Dileep set the songs to tune. Subha had earlier sung for Dileep inmany jingles. Both the albums went somewhat unnoticed in the market. He also set to tune the poems of poet-author Randhir Khare. Aroundthis time, in 1988, one of his sisters fell seriously ill and numerousattempts to cure her failed. Her condition progressively worsened. Thefamily tried everything from medicine to religious methods like havansand prayers in the church. The family had given up all hope when they camein close contact with a Muslim Pir - Sheik Abdul Qadir Jeelani or Pir Qadrias he was popularly known. The family had earlier gone to the Pir whenhis father had similar troubles, but were too late to save him. With hisprayers and blessings, Dileep's sister made a miraculous recovery. Rattledby the bad experiences earlier in the case of his father and now his sisterand influenced by the teachings of the Pir and the succour that they foundin him the entire family converted to Islam. Thus A. S. Dileep Kumar becameAllah Rakha Rahman. Today, Rahman says 'Islam has given me peace. As DileepI had an inferiority complex. As A. R. Rahman I feel like I have been bornagain.' Bothhis father and mother were believers in Astrology. His mother took himalong once to a astrologer to get the horoscope of Bala (Talat) done. Sheasked the astrologer to suggest an Islamic name for Dilip. The astrologeron seeing Dilip immediately told his mother to name him as Abdul Rahmanand shorten it to A. R. Rahman. When his mother asked the astrologer whythe other initial 'R', the astrologer replied "Give him a name with twoinitials and mark my words, he will grow up to be a great man". His motherdid accordingly. But the A and R would later become Allah Rakha on thesuggestion of reknowned composer Naushad Ali. In aninterview, he was to say about his father, " My father passed away whenI was 9 years old. My mother used to narrate many tales about my fatherwhich used to make me very happy. My father was regarded to be highly knowledgeablein music by many people. I still listen to many of the old songs tunedby him. I think that its his enormous knowledge of music that has comedown to me by the grace of God". Whenasked what prompted him to convert to Islam, he says "I remember my fathersuffering. He was taken to eight to nine hospitals, including the CMC hospitalin Vellore and the Vijaya hospital in Madras. I saw him suffering physicalpain... I remember the Christian priests who would read from the Biblebeside his hospital bed... I remember the pujas and the yagnas performedby the pundits... by the time, the Muslim pirs came , it was too late.He had already left us. After my father passed away, for some years whenI was a teenager I believed there was no God. But there was a feeling ofrestlessness within me. I realised that there can be no life without aforce governing us... without one God. And I found what I was looking forin Islam. I would go with my mother to durgahs. And pirsaab Karim MullashahQadri would advise us. When we shifted to this house, we resolved to stickto the faith." Rahmanbecame a very religious and devout Muslim. After this period his careergraph began to take the upward path. More and more advertising offers camehis way. In 1989 Rahman was very intent on having an own studio so thathe would have dedicated recording facilities where he could not only equiphimself with the latest infrastucture but also experiment with music athis convenience. At this time, the Pir came to his house and blessed himsaying that he would attain unparalled success. The very next day the Pirpassed away. Thus Rahman decided to establish his studio at the very spotwhere he had been blessed by the Pir. He called his studio Panchathan RecordInn and it was attached to his house in Kodambakkam. Even today,the first thing that you notice when you enter his studio is a framed photographof the Pir. The studio abounds with Islamic inscriptions. This studio wouldlater develop into one of India's most well equipped and advanced recordingstudios. In his established state-of-the-art sound and recording studiohe began experimenting in sound engineering, design and production. Healso began a collection of sound samples, creating one of the most comprehensivesonic libraries in Asia. Continuingwith his stint in the advertising world Rahman did a lot of popular adslike those for Parry's, Leo Coffee, Springz Mineral Water, Boost featuringSachin Tendulkar and Kapil Dev, Titan, Remanika Sarees, Premier PressureCooker, MRF Tyres, Hero Puch, The Hindu Young World and Asian Paints. Healso scored the title music for television channels like JJTV, Sun TV, and Asianet. He also scored the music for numerous television and radiocommercials, scores for corporate films and documentaries, multi-mediaaudio-visual scores national integration programmes, social awareness andpublic campaign programmes and international documentaries in many languages.These scores range from 10 seconds to a complete hour. The jingles thathe composed for the Leo Coffee ad starring Aravind Swamy and the AsianPaints ad directed by Rajeev Menon also won him awards and recognition.He also won an award for composing the theme music of the Madras TeluguAcademy's Spirit of Unity Concerts. Later he would say about his stintin advertising " Working in ads contributed to the precision in my music.In jingles, you only have a few seconds to create a mood, or convey a messageor emotion. Jingles taught me discipline." |
THEYEAR - 1992:Duringthis period, on one of his trips to Bombay he met the veteran Hindi musicdirector Naushad Ali who was very impressed by the young Rahman's workand asked him to try his hand at composing for films. Rahman was initiallya little hesitant about entering films mainly because of the attitude ofmost movie makers towards music, where songs were used as just fillersand something to give the audience a break during a movie. But in 1991,he was given an offer that would change his life. At the awards functionwhere he received the award for Best Jingle Composer for the Leo Coffeead,he was approached by the man known as the Spielberg of India, Mani Ratnam.In the course of his interactions with Mani Ratnam, he was offered theresponsibility of composing music for the director's forthcoming film.Rahman, inspite of his reluctance to seriously take up work in films, acceptedthe offer since Mani Ratnam had the reputation of a director with a keentaste for good music and he was sure the director would do justice to hiscompositions on screen. Rahmanwould later say, "I wasn't sure myself why I accepted Roja. I was offeredRs.25,000 for it, a sum that I could make in three days composing ad jingles.I think it was the prospect of working with Mani that enticed me. Maniis no the usual kind of director who uses songs as fillers. He takes greatpains over the music of his films. I love his picturisations, he can elevatea routine song by 400 percent; give it a new dimension." All the same,as a newcomer Rahman was terrified over his film debut. Expectations werehigh. What a fall if he failed! "Mani praised everything I did. Later Irealised it was to keep me going. He discarded whatever bore the influenceof others and picked out tunes that had my individual stamp. ''This isyou!" he'd say.'' Rahman'sD-Day arrived when 'Roja' was released on August 15th, 1992. It was awaitedwith curiosity since it was Mani Ratnam's first film without Illaiyaraja.Sceptics doubted the ability of a 25-year old debutant. The entire filmworld and filmgoers were in for a pleasant surprise. Rahman delivered thegoods and how. To call the music a superhit would be an understatement.Rahman became a household name in Tamil Nadu overnight and the score of'Roja' was the first step in his changing the face of Indian film music.'Roja' not only won the heart of millions with its music it also won everyconceivable award in music that year. Rahman also got the Rajat Kamal forbest music director at the National Film Awards, the first time ever bya debutant. He was flooded with offers to do more films. He graduallycut down on his work in ads and subsequently moved into film music fulltime. And there was no looking back for A. R. Rahman. With 'Roja', A. R.Rahman had finally arrived. Recallingthe massive success of his first film, Rahman says, "I was lucky to seta sound in the first film. And I had the right people like Mani Ratnamguiding me to achieve it also and by the grace of god it set and the peopleknow from the moment the song is heard that this is Rahman's." Mani Ratnam,in response says, "I was not trying to any favours for Rahman. Iwas trying to do a film, I wanted good music and I was searching for somebodywho would and I heard a demonstration tape of his which he had sent across.I thought that in the first note of the piece that he had sent me was reallybrilliant, really outstanding piece. So I went across to his studio andhe played me some more, lots of things which he had done for jingles anda few other musical pieces he has done for somebody else. They were quiteamazing and I had no doubts that he would be right for my film. How muchhe would grow, I was not looking at. I was looking at predominately myfilm at that point of time. He was ready to break a lot of conventionsthat were there in terms of music at that point of time, in terms of recordingat that point in time. So I was very lucky to find someone who was willingto break away and do something different. To that extent it was absolutelyperfect. He is the perfect bridge between today's technology and Indianmusic. He has the soul of Indian music inside and there is a lot of engineeringand recording talent in him. He is able to blend the two together. He isa very talented person." Producersbegan to queue up at his doorstep. But even at that young age, Rahman wasvery mature and sagacious. He did not let success go to his head and wasvery choosy about what he accepted. He had his priorities set right fromthe beginning. For a person who had struggled throughout his childhood,he did not let insecurity get the better of him and wisely opted for qualityover quantity and refrained from signing films blindly. "Rather than makingmoney, I believe in making people happy; all other things are secondary.That is why I am not interested in a lot of movies but only in one at atime. I like directors whom I can vibe with. Ten years of experience inthis field has made me quite frustrated. I have evolved a technique whichrequires a lot of time. Other music directors record a song in seven oreight hours. But I am different. We do a basic sitting and we record it.We record the voice and I add instrument by instrument to improve the quality."He also began to formally learn Indian classical music, Carnatic from Dakshinamurthyand N. Gopalakrishnan and Hindustani from Krishnan Nair. He took classesin film music from Nithyanandham and Western Classical from Jacob John.He also learnt the qawwalli style from Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan". |
THEYEAR - 1993:Thefollowing year, 1993, saw a lot of new releases that made him more popular.His second film 'Pudhiya Mugam' with director Suresh Menon was also a successbut was not in the same league as 'Roja'. It was his third film "Gentleman"with debutante director Shankar that firmly established him as the newking of Tamil film music. 'Gentleman' became a bigger hit than 'Roja' especiallythe song 'Chikku bukku rayile'. Rahman also did a film in Malayalam called'Yodha' for the brothers Sangeeth and Santosh Sivan, and two films in Telugutitled 'Super Police' and 'Gangmaster', all of which were moderate successes.But his Malayalam and Telugu films have remained relatively unknown tilldate,inspite of having the classic Rahman touch in them. 'Yodha' particularlywas offbeat featuring Nepali, Tibetan and Buddhist music in tune with thefilm's setting. Hisother films in Tamil in that and the subsequent year were 'Uzhavan' withKadhir, 'Kizhakku Cheemayile' with Bharathiraaja, with both of whom hewould work on many more films in the future, 'Vandicholai Chinnarasu', and 'Pudhiya Mannargal'. All the scores were only moderately successful.But it was his second score for Mani Ratnam in 'Thiruda Thiruda' and forK.Balachander in 'Duet' that really stood out. Rahman redefinedfilm music with his score in 'Thiruda Thiruda'. While the film itself didnot do too well, the music became an all time chartbuster and the Tamilsongs of 'Thiruda Thiruda' appeared on Hindi language countdown shows.It was for the first time that Tamil songs became popular on a nationalscale. His equally unconventional score for 'Duet' centering around oneinstrument - the saxophone, played by one of its noted Indian exponentsKadri Gopalnath, was also widely appreciated and is considered to be oneof Rahman's best scores. |
THEYEAR - 1994:In late-1994,'Roja' was dubbed into Hindi. Needless to say, both the movie and the musicbecome phenomenal successes. This heralded a new trend where every Rahmanfilm was necessarily a trilingual with the film getting dubbed into Teluguand Hindi. 'Roja' was also later dubbed into Malayalam, Marathi and Bengali.At the time of Roja's success in Hindi, Rahman's second film for Shankar,'Kadhalan' featuring dancing sensation Prabhudeva was released. It wasas if the movie was structured around the brilliant score that Rahman producedfor Kadhalan. While the entire score was a runaway hit, one song 'MukkalaMuqabla' caught the imagination of the entire nation, never mind if thesong was in Tamil. "Muqabla' became the flavour of the year. The song wasplayed at every club, disco, restaurant, marriage hall and street corneracross the country and went down in Indian movie history as one of themost popular songs of all time. There was not a soul in the country whowas neither dancing to it or humming it. With this song Rahman became anationally recognised figure. The song was plagiarised freely by Bombay'stunesmiths and nearly a dozen versions of the song were churned out, afeat that earned 'Muqabla' and Rahman a place in the Limca Book of Records,the Indian equivalent of the Guinness Book of Records. ButRahman was more pleased about the immense popularity of the song 'EnnavaleAdi Ennavale' which won Carnatic vocalist Unnikrishnan, making his filmdebut with this song, the National Award, because he felt that it is easyto compose a dance number like 'Muqabla' which is here today and gone tomorrowbut is real hard work to produce an everlasting gem like 'Ennavale'. Hesaid that he had been inspired by a 2000 year old Tamil composition. Overnightmost Rahman tunes in Tamil reappeared in Hindi albeit under the baton ofother music directors. Three other releases of Rahman that year were 'Pavithra', 'Karuthamma' with Bharathiraaja and "May Maatham', a film that was originallysupposed to be made by Mani Ratnam but was later made by his cousin Balu.One interesting story about May Maatham went thus. Producer G. Venkateshwaran,incidentally Mani Ratnam's brother, sold the rights of the music of thefilm to three companies simultaneously on the strength of Rahman's score.Lahiri, Pyramid and HMV shelled out huge sums, sure of the score's successbut unaware of the producer's subterfuge. When the deed was discoveredthe companies took GV to court. He finally sold the rights to Pyramid whohad offered him the highest sum, mollified Lahiri by offering them therights of his next film with Rahman, Indira -diretced by Suhasini Maniratnam,and had an out-of-court settlement with HMV. In 1994 Rahman also won theFilmfare Award, Tamil Nadu State Award and many others for 'Gentleman'.He also won the Filmfare-R. D. Burman Award for best new musical talent. Followingthe unprecedented success of 'Muqabla' Rahman realised the importance ofnot only having to do original Hindi scores but also ensure that the dubbedHindi versions of his Tamil films were released simultaneously, to preventthe continued blatant lifting of his tunes by Bollywood tunesmiths. Hestepped into the cutthroat world of Bollywood when he signed two Hindifilms, one for director Mahesh Bhatt and one for the Seengals of CompactDisc India to be directed by Priyadarshan. While the film with Mahesh Bhattwas shelved even before a scene was canned the other film was taken overby R.Mohan('Good Knight' Mohan) of Shogun Films and would appear much lateras 'Kabhi Na Kabhi'. But his first original release in Hindi would actuallybe the third film that he would sign. PopularTelugu director Ramgopal Varma was also setting foot into Bollywood justthen with two films, one a remake of one of his Telugu films 'Gaayam' whichhad a script by Mani Ratnam and the other titled 'Rangeela'. Followinga strong recommendation from friend and colleague Mani Ratnam, Varma signedon Rahman for 'Rangeela'. Following this, directors from Bollywood clamouredto work with the 'whiz-kid' and Rahman also signed Bollywood movie mogulSubhash Ghai's Magnum Opus 'Shikhar' and noted art film director GovindNihalani's 'Droh-kaal'. But 'Shikhar' was shelved and Rahman was forcedto opt out of 'Droh-kaal' when he lost all his compositions for the movieowing to a computer system crash. But later Rahman would work with bothdirectors, with Ghai in 'Taal - The Beat of Passion' and with Nihalaniin 'Takshak'. Rahman was very frustrated about not being able to work in'Droh-kaal' and rued the loss of his compositions for the movie. He recountedlater that it was one of the most unique experiences for him. |
THEYEAR - 1995:In early1995 'Kadhalan' was dubbed into Hindi as 'Humse Hai Muqabla' and needlessto say, went the same way as the original. In April 1995, Rahman's thirdfilm with Mani Ratnam, the controversial 'Bombay' was released. The successfulpartnership that he had forged with his mentor went to new heights withthe music of this film. The music of 'Bombay' was one of the most awaitedscores and was hailed as a classic. With this film, Rahman also formallytook to playback singing. Rahman had lent his voice to his compositionsearlier too but they had been part of the chorus or bit pieces like 'Marhaba'in 'Urvashi' in 'Kadhalan' or background pieces and interludes like 'Yelelo'in 'Chinna Chinna Aasai' in 'Roja'. But 'Hamma Hamma' in 'Bombay' was Rahman'sfirst complete song. With 'Humma Humma' Rahman came to be regarded as mucha playback singer as a composer. It became an amusing and common sightat various award functions to see the comperes trying to cajole Rahmaninto singing on stage and Rahman coming up with hilarious excuses to avoidthe same. 'Bombay' also became the first Rahman film to be released inTamil, Telugu and Hindi simultaneously. 'Humma Humma' became an instantchartbuster and went on to become the blockbuster of the year. Rahmancomposed a haunting and surreal instrumental theme with a long and eerieflute prelude to capture the sombre mood of the film. The evocative, soul-stirringand sensitive theme music, with a remarkably outstanding flute interludeby his flautist Naveen, of 'Bombay' touched the hearts of many andwas included by popular British-Indian Artiste Talvin Singh as a part ofhis album "Sounds from the Asian Underground' and aroused a great dealof curiosity in A. R. Rahman's music among international music connoisseurs.A critic named Kingsley Marshall had this to say of the Bombay Theme -"Establishing itself through soundtracked strings, which sits menacinglyin a cradle of drifting flute rises - epic horns introducing a full orchestralprogression. Although classical music is more than a little unusual ina compilation of dance music, the beauty of the piece warrants its inclusion- in a class above most of the material I've heard in the last couple ofmonths with regards both production and arrangement. Simply stunning."The music of 'Bombay' became the biggest seller in the history of Indianfilms toppling 'Hum Aapke Hain Koun' from the top. Till date 'Bombay' hassold close to 15 million units in all languages. Followingclosely on the heels of 'Humse Hai Muqabla' and 'Bombay', Rahman's firstoriginal score in Hindi, 'Rangeela' was awaited with great expectations.Carrying the tremendous burden of the enormous expectations of the publiconce again, Rahman did not disappoint. 'Rangeela' became an instant runawaysuccess. With 'Rangeela' Rahman had successfully stormed the Bollywoodbastion. Though Aamir Khan's performance in the film did help in sustainingthe film at the box-office, it was Rahman's music that brought the crowdsin droves to the theatres. Every song in the film became a phenomenal hit.With the songs 'Rangeela Re' and 'Tanha Tanha' Rahman brought veteran singerAsha Bhonsle back into the limelight. Crowds danced to the music in thetheatres and forced the theatres into showing the songs again. People whistledin the theatres as his name appeared in the credits of the movie. He hoggedequal space with the actors on the publicity material of the film. Forthe first time a music director was also considered as one of the 'stars'of the film. The Tamil Nadu distributor of Rangeela, apprehensive abouthow Rangeela would perform there, since it was a Hindi film and none ofthe stars were particularly well known in that part of the country, tookthe advice of his brother-in-law, Ganshyam Hemdev, of Pyramid Music, anddid away with the actors altogether from the posters and replaced themwith a mugshot of Rahman with the catchline "The first original score ofA.R.Rahman in Hindi". And sure enough, crowds flocked to watch the movielike crazy and for the first time a Hindi film was a runaway success inTamil Nadu. Late1995 saw the release of 'Indira' directed by Suhasini Maniratnam whereRahman came up with a score with a rural touch. The score met with lukewarmsuccess with a couple of songs 'Thoda Thoda' and 'Nila Kaigiradhu' becomingpopular. By the end of 1995, Rahman was the No.1 composer in the country,all at the age of 28. Hailed by various critics as 'the true successorto R.D.Burman' and the 'Messiah of Music' he had endeared himself to theBombay film crowd as well but Bollywood music directors were none too happyabout his success. Not only were they now unable to rip off his tunes withouta care but they had to compete with him on their own turf to boot.Rahman began to reportedly charge over 1 crore rupees (10 million) perfilm, more than three times that of his nearest competitor. But most producerswere readily willing to shell out even that amount forcing him to furtherhike his fees as a deterrent and keep the producers at bay. The ones whocould not sign up Rahman took someone else and asked him for a 'Rahmanjaisa gaana'(literally - Rahman type song - meaning a song in the styleof Rahman's music). He had become a national idol and cult figure. Hisstyle of music had become the rage of the day. Rahman'smusic also began to arouse interest internationally. He was treated likea God and crowned with titles like 'Isai Arasan'(Emperor of Music); 'IsaiPuyal' (Musical Storm) and 'Melody King'. Adulation that was reserved forthe biggest of film stars was showered on him. Moviegoers cheered wildlyand threw money at the screen when his name appeared on the credits. Filmsthat were sold on the strength of the stars in it or its directors nowbegan to sell just on the strength of the name A. R. Rahman attached toit and attract fabulous initial responses when released. The music rightsof the movie, till then just a nominal source of additional income forthe producer, became a separate territory in its own right and commandedprices equivalent to the distribution rights. Any Rahman sound track usedto sell out within hours of its release. For the first time one could seecrowds queuing up outside music stores on the morning of the release ofany Rahman soundtrack. Crowds that used to leave the movie hall for a breakduring the songs stayed put firmly in their seats and took in every noteof the songs in Rahman's films. People came in to music stores and askedif there were any new releases by Rahman, instead of the practice of askingfor a film by name or by a that of a starring popular actor. But Rahmanhad a sound head on his shoulders and took none of this overwhelming acclaimto mind. He had his feet firmly planted to the ground and went about hiswork with the same devotion and dedication as before. He did not give adozen interviews a week and shoot his mouth off like most others did. Infact he became very elusive and remained as media-shy as ever. He rarelyif ever met the media, going to great lengths to avoid them and would noteven say more than a 'Thank You' at awards nites inspite of rpeated requestsfor rendering a song on stage. This earned him the nickname 'ArtfulDodger'. In 1995he yet again won the Filmfare Award and the Tamil Nadu State Award , amongmany others, for 'Kadhalan'. He was also a very strong contender for theNational Award. But according to Chetan Anand, the Chairman of the Juryfor the National Awards for that year "Rahman's music in 'Kadhalan' hada great deal of variety which established the versatility of the composerand swung most members in the jury to his side, but since 'Kadhalan' wasa typical masala movie, we thought it would send the wrong signals to filmmakers and decided against giving it the award". End 1995 also sawthe release of an album of his favourite lyricist, Vairamuthu's doublealbum of poetry amp;'Thenvandhu Paayudhe' where he scored the backgroundmusic for Vairamuthu's recitation. But the album remained very inconspicuous.He consolidated his hold on Bollywood and signed more Hindi films withShekhar Kapoor's 'Tararampampam' (which is yet to be made), Boney Kapoor's'Pukaar' to be directed by Raj Kumar Santoshi and Ramgopal Varma's 'Daud'. Freshfrom the success of his "Bandit Queen", director Shekhar Kapoor planned"Tararampampam" as a mega musical with 10 songs. Rumours that Rahman himselfwould be producing the movie abounded. But Kapoor took for foreign shoresleaving the movie unmade as yet. He also agreed to do a film in Hindi forhis schoolmate turned director Shivendra Singh titled 'Waqia' and latera second film with him titled 'Ittefaq'. Rahman was to work with Gulzaron both the movies. Both the films never got made unfortunately. Rahman'sfirst score for Rajnikanth was released, with 'Muthu', in 1995. The scorewas awaited with high expectations and one witnessed serpentine queuesoutside music stores on the morning of the soundtrack's release and cassetteswere even sold at a premium. Though the music did very well it was criticisedfor not suiting Rajnikanth's superstar image. The song 'Thillana Thillana'became a chartbuster. He also did 'Lovebirds' the same year where he sanga song with the international Bhangra-Rap star Apache Indian. Hismusic also received international recognition when his tracks were usedon the BBC Clothes Show and other international fashion shows. He was invitedto compose the theme music of the 1996 Cricket World Cup that was to beheld in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Rahman accepted the offer but laterbacked out for unspecified reasons with some sources saying that he hadquoted lack of sufficient time to do a befitting job. He also signed threefilms with Hollywood-Indian producer Ashok Amritraj, one film each in Tamil(Jeans),Hindi(Love You Hamesha) and English(Jungle Boy). He was also offered 'Kamasutra'by the Indian-American director Mira Nair and 'Fire' by Indian born Canadiandirector Deepa Mehta. He accepted only the latter. He would go on to do'Earth' and 'Water' with Deepa Mehta, to complete her Elements trilogy.He later said in an interview that much as he wanted to work with MiraNair he turned down Kamasutra because he did not want to be known internationallyas the 'Kamasutra Boy'. Reflectingon the runaway success of his rhythm based tunes, he says, " I had somegolden rules when I started my first film, 'Roja'. These rules were - goodlyrics, good thought, good melodies, good recording and good presentation.But I think Gentleman was to break the rule completely because Shankarwanted commercial music for the film to break the monotony of the serioussubject. So we did it, and gave it full blast to them. Unfortunately thesuccess of the rhythm-based compositions reached the masses much fasterthan normal 'Roja' type of music and the trend became an epidemic becauseit was easy and safe. I was pushed by producers to make similar kind ofstuff. But rhythm-based compositions can be listened to only for a veryshort time, though we put in too much energy in polishing it. But later,I realised that the golden rules were going out of my hand. I think weare back to normal." On thepersonal front, 1995 proved to be a momentous year for him. Thatyear, on March 12, he got married to Saira Banu, sister-in-law ofthe Tamil actor Rahman and the daughter of a Madras based businessman. |
THEYEAR - 1996:Rahman'spopularity touched such heights, that other composers began to cash in,rather innovatively, on his name rather than his music. Many albums like'Fantasy' and 'Beauty Palace' which actually had music composed bysomeone else but was falsely credited to Rahman were released in the market.Usually such albums had Rahman's photograph splashed across the album coverto draw the attention of buyers. And most people bought such albums withoutquestion if they saw the name A. R. Rahman on it. So much so, that themusic company Magnasound re-released one of Rahman's first albums 'SetMe Free' under the title 'Shubhaa' without the consent of Rahman, whichled to the souring of relations between the two. In its earlier avataras 'Set Me Free' the focus was on singer Malgudi Shuba and Rahman was amere footnote as Dileep. But this time around, the spotlight was on Rahmanand Shubha was relegated to the background. Magnasound publicised the releaseas 'Rahman's first international English album'. Hoardings publicisingthe album sprung up overnight in major cities. Rahman was livid. "I'm notashamed of my old album. Neither am I trying to hide my past," explainedthe music director. But he wanted the public to know that 'Set Me Free'was a six-year-old album which was done as an experimental venture withsinger Shubhaa. Magnasound, he said, was wrong in trying to pass it offas a brand-new album. Magnasound sold 2 lakh copies in no time, an increaseof over 10000% in sales since the previous time. But Magnasound's ManagingDirector Madhav Das was unapologetic about it, "See, we had the rightsto the album. And today A.R.Rahman's name is an instant guarantee to success.So, what is wrong in exploiting that?". That summed up the brand equityof the name 'A. R. Rahman'. Relatively,1996 proved to be a listless year for Rahman, career wise. He had onlyfour major releases, 'Indian', 'Lovebirds', 'Mr. Romeo', and 'Kadhal Desam'along with Bharathiraaja's extremely low-profile 'Anthimantharai'. Thoughthe music of both the films , Indian and Kadhal Desam did very well theydid not take him to any newer heights on counts of both creativity andsuccess. From 'Indian', starring Kamalhassan, 'Akada', 'Maya Machindra'and 'Telephone Mani' became huge hits. In 'Kadhal Desam', his second filmwith Kadhir, he went the whole hog and sang 3 of the 6 songs with'Musthafa Musthafa' becoming extremely popular. With 'Musthafa Musthafa',Rahman arrived as a singer. 'Mr. Romeo' and 'Lovebirds', both starringPrabhudeva. bombed. His background score for Deepa Mehta's 'Fire', wheresome enchanting new compositions were embellished with snatches from hisscore for 'Bombay', was internationally appreciated. But the soundtrackof 'Fire' was not released in India and was available only through mailorder from a German company. This denied the score not just public acclaimbut also prevented the masses from listening to one of Rahman's best soundtracks. Thatyear, he was offered a very prestigious multilingual project, 'Kaalapani'by director Priyadarshan with whom he was already working on 'Kabhi NaKabhi'. But, reportedly on the request of lyricist-writer Javed Akhtarwho had scripted 'Kabhi Na Kabhi' that he concentrate on any one of Priyadarshan'sfilms he opted out of 'Kaalapani'. Following the failure of his 'Trimurti',Subhash Ghai decided to put 'Shikhar' on hold and make a relatively low-budgetfilm called 'Pardes' and he asked Rahman to handle the score. But Rahman'sresponse as he recounted later was "At that time I was extremely busy with7-8 films. I told him that if I had to work with him I had to give himpriority and I if I gave him priority I wouldn't be able to do these films.So I said let me finish these and then we will work together. He said alrightand demanded full priority on the next film". And he later went on to doGhai's 'Taal - The Beat of passion'. He alsowent on his first ever concert tour, to Malaysia, in October 1996 wherehe was greeted by hysterical crowds. For this concert he specially composeda song 'Bosnia Oh Bosnia' since the concert was in aid of Bosnian War victims.This song was rendered by a chorus of 40 children accompanied by Rahmanon the piano. The lyrics were in the local Bahasa-Malay language. The concertwas a humongous success. It featured all the top singers from India includingHariharan, S. P. Balasubramnaniam and others. For the first time Rahmansang in public when he rendered 'Musthafa Musthafa' at this concert. Asalways, he won numerous awards that year, the notable ones being two FilmfareAwards for 'Bombay' and 'Rangeela'. In end-1996,Rahman went on a signing spree in Tamil films. He signed Kadhir's nextfilm 'Kadhalar Dhinam'. He then signed his friends R. M. Sait and AnwarAli's "Love Letter'. There was lot of speculation that Rahman was producingthis film along with his friends. But this turned out to be false. 'LoveLetter' was later retitled 'En Swasa Katre'. He also signed 'Engineer'starring Arvind Swamy and Madhuri Dixit to be directed by Shankar's assistantGandhi Krishna. Unfortunately the film has remained unmade till date owingto a cash crunch. One other film that has remained unmade was "Mudhal Mudhalaaga'starring Arvind Swamy and Karisma Kapoor directed by Mani Ratnam's assistantPerumal. Onevery interesting incident that occurred that year, was at the annual Screen-VideoconAwards for cinematic excellence in Mumbai. Following the super successof 'Rangeela', everyone took it for granted that Rahman would win the awardfor Best Music. Even the organisers forced him to come all the way fromMadras to Mumbai, saying that he had got the award and he had to receiveit personally. On the night of the Awards ceremony, everyone at the eventand those watching the show live on T.V. were shocked into stunned silencewhen the award for Best Music Score was given away to Rajesh Roshan fora fairly popular though largely copied score in 'Karan-Arjun'. Even thecompere of the show Javed Jaffrey was taken aback and immediately rushedto Rahman in the audience and asked him for his reaction. All that Rahmansaid was 'God is Great!' which immediately won the hearts of everybody.Such is the humbleness of this man. |
THEMAN BEHIND THE MUSIC:Gradually,criticism also began to pour in. He was said to be very slow and was accusedof taking his own time in composing, something that reportedly forced ManiRatnam to drop a song from 'Bombay' to release the already delayed filmon time. Rumours were rife that Mani Ratnam had dropped him from his nextproject for this reason but they were proved to be unfounded. But Rahmanmade no bones about it and said that he was no machine that could churnout scores on an assembly line endlessly and admitted that he did takehis time over his scores. He added that it was essential that he take histime in order to do a quality job and made clear the same to his directorsbefore taking up the assignment. "What is the use of quick delivery ifyou don't get good stuff? I'm not lazy. I need time to get involved sothat something undefined comes naturally to help the movie. I can't doit in a week - all I had for Karuthamma.'' Theabove problem threw up another quirk in Rahman's scores. Due to the lackof time in completing scores Rahman began to serve up his lesser knownearlier compositions in new avatars. This happened for the first time whenhe used the 'Raakozhi Rendu' song from 'Uzhavan' as 'Aa SiggueggulentaVaraku' in the Telugu film 'Super Police'. He followed this up by usingthe song 'Baboo Love Cheyyara' from 'Gangmaster' as 'Yaaron Sun Lo Zara'in 'Rangeela' . Then 'Anjali Anjali' from 'Duet' reappeared as 'MilgayeWoh Manzilen' in 'Kabhi Na Kabhi' . This dubious practice earned Rahmana lot of criticism but he didn't seem to care. This feature would becomea hallmark in many of his future scores. He would reuse 'Porale Ponnuthayi'from 'Karuthamma' as 'Gurus of Peace' in 'Vandemataram', 'Ottagathai Kattiko'from 'Gentleman' as 'Musafir' in 'Vandemataram', 'Maanpoove' from 'Yodha'as 'Chevaanam' in 'Pavithra', and 'Jumbalakka' from 'En Swasa Katre' as'Jumbalika' in 'Thakshak'. But he would top himself when he would go onto reuse not one but two songs for 'Pukar'. 'Oh Bosnia' would reappearas 'Ek Tu Hi Bharosa' and 'Nayagara' from 'En Swasa Katre' as 'Kay SeraSera'. Anothercharge against him was that his music was getting repetitive. InitiallyRahman countered it saying that it was his individualistic brand of musicand therefore might sound that way but later he brushed away the oft-repeatedallegation saying "hellip; the accusation is getting repetitive. You callit predictable, I term it as my style. They are ways of looking at it.If you call my style predictable, that means you have understood Rahmanhas been dealing with a particular brand of music alone. Once you hearthe music, you know it is has been composed by Rahman. That is what I amall about. That is my identity; that is the identity of my music. ". "If I stick to my what you call my trademark sound, I am accused of soundingthe same, and if I try to do something different , people complain thatit doesn't sound like Rahman's music. Its a no-win situation for me. Leftto myself I would like to be adventurous and try out styles I haven't triedbefore." Rahmantakes both acclaim and criticism in his stride. When told that that manyare of the opinion that he has given a new dimension to music he respondsby saying that many also feel that he is lousy. He adds further that 'I accept I am lousy at times. It depends on the inspiration I get. Onecan't be on the same creative plane always'. Manyof his colleagues in Madras and Bombay, unable to compete with him tookthe route of slander and took digs at him calling him 'only a jingle composer'and saying that he would fizzle out in a couple of films. The same 'composers'who copied him left, right and centre made grandiloquent statements like"Let us see if he is around after two years, Rahman's type of music isjust a temporary passing fad which will wear out once the crowd gets usedto his music, he will not be able to sustain himself". Always one to shyaway from controversies, Rahman refused to be drawn in to a war of wordsand responded characteristically with a very curt "Music speaks, statementsdon't.". And as expected he replied with his music which blew all the othercomposers out of the scene. Whenasked about the influences in his music he says "Nobody can be completelyoriginal ... because the notes are already there... from the notes we forma raag and from the raag a tune... it is a process. As far as possible,to my conscience, I try to be original. The rest is up to Allah." Explaininghis approach to composing he says, "Once I complete a composition, a weeklater, I listen to it and after two weeks, I take it up again. In the processmy music grows. Sometimes even after a shoot, I listen to the music findits allwrong and get down to re-working. Sometimes it gets all done justbefore themusic is mixed. For most, once the shooting is done, its allover but I don'twork like that." Music is like a medicine that cures. Justlike a medicine, it tastes sour at the beginning but as time passes itstarts to work. If you take sweets for example, they taste great at thebeginning but they vanish without a trace immediately. Songs are also likethat. You like some songs immediately on hearing but you forget them inthe same speed. And there are songs that you hated the first time you heardit, but as time goes on you get a real satisfied feeling hearing it. So,as far as music is concerned you can't decide anything immediately. " Otherfilmmakers, whose offers he turned down spread rumours about him. Whenasked why he turns down so many offers even when he is offered stacks oftempting money, Rahman, as philosophicaly as always, says, "I would saythat I'm fighting as hard as I can to be exclusive. I don't have the capacityto handle more than 4-5 films at a time. And once I accept a project itis my responsibility to give my fullest to it. When I refuse offers, Ido feel terrible. Some could feel disappointed by my refusal. I say nomainly because I know I won't be able to do adequate justice to their projects.At times, they look as if I've broken their hearts. Sad... its just thatI can't please everyone. And as far as the money goes, Money can't buyyou happiness. The biggest offers I get are for 'live' shows. The amountI'm offered for one concert is much more than what I would earn after sloggingon 10 films! But I'm afraid you can't buy creativity... Everyone comeswith the same offer- 'state your price, we'll give you what you want...'.Rather than huge fees, I'd appreciate interaction on a film's score. Inreality, the best music emerges from any composer when there's an exchange of ideas... when there are stories that inspire you. Then the project keepsmoving... when you're not into the spirit of things, you can get stuck.And then delays in delivering the score become unavoidable. So I'd rathernot get into projects which don't excite me from the very outset. I don'twant anyone to feel that I've let them down later .. honestly that's howI've been brought up. Don't get into something you'll regret later." Oneother criticism levelled at him was that his hip-hop tunes had no scopefor good lyrics. This allegation was also disproved when lyricist Vairamuthuwon National Awards repeatedly for songs set to tune by Rahman, namelyfor 'Roja', 'Pavithra', 'Kadhalan' and 'Minsara Kanavu'. Rahman himselfinsists on good poetry for his songs, "Lyrics lend immortality to a melody.The eternal, evergreen hit songs are always the ones with profound lyricsndash; lyrics that remain true and meaningful even after years." To thecriticism about the use of technology in his music he says " We are headingtowards the millenium. We have to keep abreast of times. Do they expectme to continue living in the 19th century? What is wrong in resorting tomodern technology? You have to keep pace with the world around. A computerI bought six months ago had three minutes' waiting time to get started,but today's computers take just three seconds to start. I can now recordmy music on a hard disk and carry it around, and synthesise it with anykind of ethnic music anywhere in the world. If we are to compete globally,we have to be in step with the times. But you have to hold yourself backfrom going overboard. Technology is like a monster which has to be tamed.You must know how to handle it. I spent three years to bring the musicsoftware I use entirely under my control." Rahmanis probably the foremost user of technology in music in India today. Hecan probably be described as the man who pioneered the use of technologyin Indian music. India's leading Information Technology journal , ExpressComputer, profiled the use of technology by Rahman. He avoids making musicon tape, and prefers to carry his music on his portable computer. Also,he composes most of his music in-flight and his favorite platform is theMacintosh. Rahman, the progenitor of tunes the nation dances to, is a poweruser of technology. A proud owner of 12 PowerMacs and two PowerBook portables(now 15, with the addition of the first iBook in India), he swears by technology."I cannot live without my computers today. Most of my music is made onthem - so much so that I carry my music on my portable even when I am travelling,"he says. "I prefermy computers to traditional tape, as I can rerecord on the machine, whichis not possible on tape. Also, it gives me the additional flexibility ofediting a song up to one lakh times, which I can do only once on tape.Also, minor flaws within a musical sequence can be rectified on the computer,which is otherwise not possible," he says. But why the Apple Macintosh?"It is perhaps the easiest and best platform to use, especially in theareas of music and creative arts. I have experimented with other technologiestoo, but the Mac is something that is very close to me now. It is a machinewith an attitude," he says. Moreover, a majority of music professionalsacross the world work on the Macintosh for their music. Rahmanis currently running his set-up on Apple's G3 processors, but plans toupgrade to G4 very soon. "I use PowerMacs to formulate various types ofmusic and musical patterns. The computers in my studio are not networked,so each performs a different function. Everything is integrated into thefinal score at the end, which is further refined a number of times beforeyou finally get to hear the end result. More than just the basic composition,the post-production work is made much easier by the Macintosh," says Rahman. Anotherstrange criticism levelled at Rahman was that he made excessive use ofsingers without the knowledge of the nuances of a particular language,like he made Udit Narayan sing in Tamil and also the use of untrained singers.To the first allegation Rahman replied that it was quite true and saidthat he had reduced the use of Hindi singers in Tamil. To the second, Rahman'sreaction was " Why should any actor or actress sound like S. P. Balasubramaniam,P. Susheela or Chitra? Why can't a new singer sing in his own raw voice?It's the done thing in jingles and non-film music. Only in films, theyinsist on an established voice. I ventured to break the convention andthe public has accepted it." On whyhe uses so many different voices in a film, irespective of whether theysuit the character or not, he says " I do it for varieity. Otherwise thingswould get monotonous. There was a time when the album of a film would haveonly two voices. Today different singers sing for the same character. Thetimes have changed. The attention span of the average listener has decreasedand his geographical purview has broadened. The listeners no longer thinkin terms of peprfect or imperfect. They want different voices, standardsbe damned." Yetanother criticism that was levelled at Rahman in the initial stages ofhis career was that he was at home only with Western rhythms and wouldnever be able to give typical Indian tunes. But Rahman quickly disprovedthat allegation and demonstrated that he was equally at ease with IndianClassical and Folk rhythms and melodies with his scores in 'Indira', 'KizhakkuCheemayile', 'Karuthamma', 'Iruvar', 'Uzhavan', 'Taj Mahal' etc. Oneother allegation was that Rahman ahd become very arrogant and treated filmmakersvery badly and made them wait endlessly. Says Rahman "In Chennai,I hsve a small studio where all the music happens. I can do only thingat a time there. Even when a track is being transferred, all other workcomes to a standstill, because I like to supervise everything myself. Idon't believe in handing over a job to someone else and wait for the results.This leads to people waiting for me sometimes. But its not deliberate." InitiallyRahman had to encounter a great deal of opposition in Bollywood. Peoplewere waiting for him to falter. But as one Bollywood composer acknowledged"He just does not fail. He knows the pulse of the public better than anyother composer in India today. He is not only in touch with the Zeitgeist,He is the Zeitgeist.(Zeitgeist - The taste and outlook that is characteristicof a period or generation)." By theend of 1996, the relative non-success of scores like 'Mr.Romeo' and 'Lovebirds'prompted the know-alls in the industry to comment that Rahman was facinga burn out. Also the failure of dubbed Tamil scores like 'Tu Hi Mera Dil'made the critics carp that he was running out of steam and was recyclinghis own tunes and had exhausted his limited repertoire. They also remarkedthat the public was now tired of the 'Rahman sound'. Oneother very notable thing that Rahman can be credited with is the fact thathe has consistently introduced a whole host of new talented singers, thenotable names being Suresh Peters, Shahul Hameed, Aslam Mustafa, Unnikrishnan,Sreenivas, Mahalaxmi, Harini, Minmini, Sujatha Mohan, Nithyashree etc.He even got his secretary Noell James to sing in films. Once, in 1995,Rahman was invited by Padma Seshadri Bal Bhavan, his former school, tobe the judge in a singing competition. Rahman promised that he would givethe winner of the contest a break in cinema. True to his word, he introducedthe winner of the contest, Harini, with the song 'Nila Kaigiradhu' in 'Indira'and then gave her 'Telephone Mani' in 'Indian'. This song was a big success.She then went on to sing many more songs for Rahman. He has also givena fresh lease of life to the careers of fading and failing singers likeAsha Bhonsle with 'Rangeela', Hema Sardesai with 'Sapnay' and SukhvinderSingh with 'Dil Se..' . He also brought to the mainstream Sreenivas andlet him prove his worth after being a chorus singer for a long time. Rahmansays, "That is because I know the difficulty of not being given achance to prove yourself when you are talented. When God has made me asuccessful music director today, then why not use it to the best by introducing new talent? I will be sinning if I don't provide an opportunityto talented people." Alsoa very important reflection of Rahman's humility, fairness, honesty andsense of equality is reflected in the fact that he is the only composerwho ensures that his entire team ranging from the rhythm programmers tothe instrumentalists and chorus singers are credited on the inlay cardof the album. If, today, Noell James, Febi, Feji, Sivamani are householdnames the credit goes to Rahman's sense of fair play. Sivamani has repeatedlythanked Rahman for bringing him into the limelight. An interesting characteristicof him is that he never watches the movies he has composed for. He hasonly watched two till date, 'Roja' and 'Rangeela'. "The songs arerarely picturised the way they were narrated to me. I don't want to feeldisappointed at not having composed to the feel of the picturisation." Rahmanis also known for some strange personality quirks. Like his inclinationto work during the nights and sleep during the day. When asked how he developedthis unexpected and unusual habit of sitting up all night and working andmaking others work with the same passion, the same perseverance, the sameprecision to come up with nothing but the best, the best that will satisfyhim and satisfy a filmmaker like the filmmaker who is madly in love withhis music. He says he used to work the whole day when he worked asa jingles man, working on all kinds of ad films. He started workingon the few films that came his way after 6 pm. Soon he was working from6 am to 6 p.m. and then from 6 p.m. to 2 am and then it went on from6 am to 6 p.m. the next day. The unusual man's unusual schedule nowstarts at 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. and then goes on till 6 am. "Fora creative job, there are no working hours. When something doesn't workout, I usually continue working. Initially I used to work in the day, butMy work used to get extended into the night and slept at 2''O clock andthen it got later and later and I used to miss my morning prayers. So Ithought why not work in the nights and sleep in the day." "It started whenI was working on films and jingles simultaneously. It used to be nine tonine in a studio, ten to five on jingles, three hours of sleep, and backto the studio. Then I realised that I actually liked working in the night- it was quiet and serene. There was another reason too. When I used towork till three or later and hen fall asleep, I missed out on my prayers,so I decided to stay awake for a few more hours and complete praying. Bythen it would be six. So, now I sleep from nine to three." Speaking abouthow he relaxes, he says."After I finish a film, I mostly take my familyto the Dargah where we pay our respects to the Aulia. Otherwise I meditateand sometimes Internet. I like to see what people talk about me and whatthey are bitching (sic) about me." Commentingon his responsibilities towards his listeners he says, "Once music listenerstrust you, you've got to live up to their faith. You can't tell peoplethere wasn't enough time to do justice to the music or that the directorgave me the wrong brief. All listeners care about is the quality of thework. So I better do my best. Since buyers spend their hard earned moneyon music I think its our responsibility not to betray their trust. If youlose their trust you've had it." |
THEYEAR - 1997:Early1997 saw the release of his fourth film with Mani Ratnam, 'Iruvar' andthe legendary Madras movie house, AVM's 50th anniversary film 'MinsaraKanavu'. 'Iruvar' was an offbeat film and had a topical score with a coupleof brilliant jazz and classical numbers in addition to two nostalgic numbersfrom the MGR era, among others. Though the music was appreciated by thecritics, it did not win much favour with the public at large, probablybecause the music sounded dated keeping in sync with the period the moviewas set in. In the case of 'Minsara Kanavu', when AVM wanted to make amovie to commemorate its 50th anniversary, it was not sure of what kindof movie it would be or who would make it. All it was sure of was thatit wanted A. R. Rahman to score the music. First thing, Rahman was signedup by the studio and he was asked who he wanted the director to be. Rahmansuggested the name of cinematographer and friend from college, Rajeev Menon.Rahman had composed jingles for many ad films directed by Rajeev Menonand also worked with him in 'Bombay' which was cinematographed byMenon. The music of 'Minsara Kanavu' was a major success and also fetchedhim his second National Award. The songs 'Ooh La La La' and 'Poo PookumOsai' (Awara bhanwre in Hindi) became major hits. His second original Hindifilm 'Daud' for Ramgopal Varma was released in the same year. Though itwas in typical Rahman style, it did not live up to his high standards.One highly unusual composition 'Zahareela Zahareela pyar' caught the fancyof many but was too unconventional to became a huge success. Fiveyears of working in the same kind of movies made Rahman yearn for somethingdifferent and get out of the rut. In 1996, when Rahman had gone to Bombayto attend the Screen Awards ceremony, he met his childhood friend G. Bharat.During this meeting both had discussed a proposal for an album to commemorate50 years of Indian Independence in 1997. In 1997, the International musicgiant, Sony Music, whose portfolio included the likes of Michael Jacksonand Celine Dion, entered the Indian market in a big way. They were lookingto promote Indian artistes internationally. And the first person to besigned up by Sony Music from the Indian sub-continent was, who else but,A.R.Rahman, on a 3-album contract. The financial details of the contractwere not disclosed but Industry experts believe it to be the largest ofits kind in India. Rahman suggested the idea that he had discussed withBharat to Sony Music India and was immediately accepted. Called'Vandemataram', it was a tribute to the motherland and featured songs tomark the 3 colours of the Indian Flag . Sony asked him to choose from anyof its international stars to work with and supposedly even suggested thename of Celine Dion. But Rahman settled, very appropriately, for the PakistaniSufi music star Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Dominic Miller. Rahman had decidedthat he would definitely work with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan after he attendedhis performance in Delhi. Explaining his choice, "I don't want to collaboratewith just a name. I must feel something for the person and relate withhis work. I've seen several famous names collaborating on songs and albums, but they remain just two names. There's no chemistry. It's like oil andwater. They can' t come together." Rahman worked overtime on it to comeup with a memorable album. He devoted so much time to this prestigiousproject that his film assignments went behind schedule. He went all theway to Pakistan to record the 'Gurus of Peace' number with Khan Saheb.Rahman composed, arranged and sang all the songs on the album. Recountingthe time when he hit upon the tune for 'Maa Tujhe Salaam' - "In lateJanuary, on the 27th day of Ramzan, an auspicious time when legend hasit that angels open the gates of heaven and all prayers are answered, Idescended on my studio. It was 2 a.m. and my sound engineer had disappeared.And so I called Bala and when he arrived I told him you're the sound engineer.And then I sang for the first time, a few verses for just the two of us."It was magical," says Bala. "He laughed, then he cried," says Rahman. Twomonths hence, in March 1997, amidst Sony Music executives in Mumbai, camea sort of penultimate test. Shridar Subramaniam, director, marketing, SonyMusic India tells the story best. "Everybody was really nervous. It's anexhausting song and Martin (Davis, head of Sony Music Asia) doesn't speaka word of Hindi, but in 40 seconds we knew. It was fresh, new." It gotbetter. In May, at a Sony conference in Manila, where the bigger the nameyou can drop means the more attention you get, they got 20 minutes. Whenthe songs from the album was played, pre-release, at the Sony Music conferencein Manila, Sony Music executives representing various Sony Music sub-labelsreportedly went berserk and clamoured for the international rights of thealbum. They played the song; pandemonium reigned. The head of Columbiarecords ( a Sony label) said, "It's unbelievable, I want it." The headof Epic records (another Sony label) said, "I don't care, I want it." SaysSubramaniam: "It was the hit of the conference." Rahmanbecame the first Indian artiste of popular music to go international when'Vandemataram' was released simultaneously in 28 countries across the worldunder the prestigious Columbia Label of Sony Music on August 15th, 1997.Rahman himself performed live at Vijay Chowk in New Delhi on the eve ofthe Golden Jubilee of Indian Independence to a packed audience that comprised the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Inder Kumar Gujral. The album was a megasuccess and sold over 1.5 million copies in India(a remarkable figure fornon-film music in India) and did extemely well internationally too becomingthe largest selling Indian non-film album internationally. The song 'MaaTujhe Salaam' got repeated airplay in the world music category on radioand television channels across the world. With 'Vandemataram' Rahman leftall his contemporaries far far behind and moved into a new dimension altogether.His full-throated rendition of the title song "Maa Tujhe Salaam", loadedwith raw emotion touched the hearts of many a music lover. Interestinglythe Indian release had only 7 songs while the International release hadtwo additional songs 'Masoom' and "Musafir'. Later 'Masoom' was releasedin India in the album 'Gurus of Peace' and 'Musafir' in the album 'MTVTotal Mix'. Thealbum was lapped up eagerly by both the masses and the classes and wasdescribed variously as 'brilliant', 'the ultimate expression of freedom','a mantra that instills a sense of pride and belonging', 'a classic' and'evocative'. India's leading news magazine 'India Today' in its year endissue picked Rahman as one of the faces that made a difference in the year1997 "hellip;because Vandemataram is the national song once again" andwrote " Forget Roja, forget Bombay, forget everything. Even if he had nevercomposed a successful piece of film music in his life, he would have gonedown in history for one unforgettable night: August 14th 1997. That wasthe night A. R. Rahman gave his country its most rapturous 50th birthdaypresent - Vandemataram - Maa Tujhe Salaam. It was as if the very soul ofIndia had found its voice once more hellip;". Oneof the many glowing reviews for the album went "Good music has personality.It is a lot like a short story that has embedded messages which the readermust uncover. Unlike a short story, however, good music has many more suggestivequalities. On the one hand it must quickly grab the listeners attentionand on the other hand it must be so richly woven that the listener keepswanting to come back for more. Vande Mataram is an example of music withpersonality. What separates this collection from the others is the provocativemusic and lyrics. What makes this collection enchanting is the raw unbridledemotion that AR Rehman projects through his musical score. What makes thecollection timeless is that a thousand years of musical influence, fromKhusro to contemporary, is cleverly woven into the composition." Speakingabout the intent behind the album, Rahman said, "The primary objectiveof the album is to inspire a feeling for the country. And the sentimentsso aroused go beyond caste, creed and colour. The feelings which inspiredthe album come from the heart, and can solve a lot of problems. If peoplelook beyond religion and caste barriers, and think only of the country,that's enough. I personally think Vande Mataram is an ongoing movement,and people will feel good about it for the next 50 years." Rahmanhimself underwent a physical transformation in order to feature in themusic videos of the album and grew long hair, much to his dislike initially.In his dedication in the album he says, " All perfect praises belong tothe Almighty alone. I dedicate this album to the future generations ofIndia. I wish that this album inspires them to grow up with the wealthof Human values and ethics that this country is made of. I wish that theyouth of today would wipe out phrases like 'Chaltha Hai' from their vocabulariesand find themselves motivated Human beings". 'Vandemataram' touched theheights of fame, appreciation and recognition when it made it to the finalrounds of the prestigious Cannes Film Festival and was in line for an awardbut lost out ultimately since the event co-incided with the Indian nuclearblasts. He was asked by people at the festival "Here he was singing hisheart out about peace and his country and his country was terrorising theworld with its nuclear blasts! Which was the true India?". Vande Mataramwas one of the video film clips that was in the competition for the topprize. But as luck would have it, the film was shown the week that Indiaconducted its nuclear blasts. ''On the one hand, we were singing in praiseof our mother earth and on the other, we were blasting it away. Peoplekept asking us, what the hell do you think you all are doing," says Bharatbala.But even so, their song made it to the finals. From being the No.1music director, Rahman also became a top pop star, though he didn't appreciate'Vandemataram' being branded as a pop album. 1997brought him further personal joy and happiness when he became a father.He named his daughter Kathija. Other movies that were released in 1997were 'Rakshakan' and 'Vishwa Vidhaata' in Hindi which had the same musicas 'Pudhiya Mugam'. Rahman was very upset with the producer of 'PudhiyaMugam', Suresh Menon for having sold the dubbing rights of the music tothe makers of 'Vishwa Vidhaata' without his consent. Both the movies didnot do well, though the music of 'Rakshakan' did fairly well. He baggedthe Filmfare Award yet again, for 'Kadhal Desam'. He signed Mansoor Khan's'Josh' but again opted out owing to time constraints. Aamir Khan, impressedby the music that Rahman gave for his 'Rangeela' pursued him doggedly todo his next film 'Mela' for director Dharmesh Darshan, but once again timeconstraints prevented Rahman from accepting the offer. Noted painter M.F. Hussain offered him his much talked about film with Madhuri Dixit -'Gaj Gamini' which also Rahman was forced to turned down due to paucityof time. He was also asked to compose a song for the revised version ofIndia's first 3-D movie 'Chota Chetan'. Again Rahman was forced to declinethe offer. He took up one interesting offer from Director Suresh Krishnaand Producer 'Pyramid' Natarajan. The film, 'Sangamam', was a low-budgetventure with a musical subject and would feature out and out classicaland folk songs. He also signed Director Vasanth's new film for the sameproducer. The title for the film, 'Rhythm' was suggested by Rahman himself. Post-Vandemataram,some changes in Rahman's personality could also be seen. The earlier elusiveand evasive Rahman became more accessible and gave more interviews andappeared to have become media-savvy. No longer reticent and shy he openedup a bit. He explains the change thus "Earlier things worked on a levelof mysticism. I was this mystic from the down South who made music. Butyou can't hide from people all the time. I need to relate to people. Ihave also realised that if I stayed away from people, they would get frustratedand start misunderstanding me. But, there are times when I go back intomy shell, it helps me make better music. Because, then , I'm involved innearly every part of music." |
THEYEAR - 1998:1998began on a good note when the music of 'Jeans', his fourth film with Shankardid very well. In fact, initially the movie took a bad opening and laterpicked up and became a big hit on the strength of Rahman's music. One ofthe first Hindi movies that he signed, 'Kabhi Na Kabhi' was also finallyreleased. One song 'Mera dil ka woh shehzaada' became very popular butthe rest of the score did not catch on. He signed his fourth film for Producer'Pyramid' Natarajan - 'Udaya' to be directed by Maniratnam's former assistantAzhagan Perumal. But 1998 would musically belong to one film. The Rahman-Ratnamcombination touched greater heights with the release of their fifth filmtogether, 'Dil Se..', which became a rip-roaring success and also an all-timecrowd favourite. The song 'Chaiyya Chaiyya ' became a humongous success.The entire score came in for wide spread appreciation and was hailed as'Rahman's most versatile score till date'. For the first time, the 'Nightingaleof India' Lata Mangeshkar sang a song for Rahman, the song being'Jiya Jale' which also hit the top spot. Rahman later revealed why he doesn'twork with Lata mangeshkar very often, "Most of my songs are so freaky thatI feel embarassed to approach her. I feel they won't do justice toher reputation." In thesame year, Bharatbala approached him to do a sequel to the super successful'Vandemataram', titled 'Vandemataram 2'. But Rahman did not take up theproject for reasons he would later describe as 'This whole idea of doingthe first album came up so suddenly and was so interesting that I had mercilesslypushed all my producers behind schedule. There were too many projects hangingfire. I'd promised to complete the pending films as soon as I was throughwith the album. I was supposed to do a couple of songs for the second albumbut after a song like Vandemataram I knew I would have to do somethingreally exceptional to match the previous effort. So, I just decided totake a break and then start work on it again". He won numerous awards forthe music of 'Minsara Kanavu', including the prestigious National Award,Filmfare Tamil Award for the sixth time in a row and the Screen Award for'Vandemataram'. In October, he performed at the 70th Birthday celebrationsof Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi. In November he won the Viewer'sChoice Channel [V] Award for Vandemataram, after being chosen by over 4.4million fans. 'Dil Se..' swept the film music awards categories at theChannel [V] awards winning awards for Best Score, Best Song and Best Maleand Female singers. Later he won the Channel [V]-IMI Award for Best Producerfor 'Vandemataram' along with Bala and Kanika. Hissecond film with Priyadarshan 'Doli Sajake Rakhna' was also released inNovember and the music was a fair success but paled in comparison to DilSe.. . He signed an English-Hindi bilingual for director Ketan Mehta titled'The Rising' which was to be based on the 1857 First War of Indian Independence.His second film for Deepa Mehta, 'Earth', where he came up with a totallynew score was released at the Toronto Film Festival in September and themusic came in for all round appreciation. He also signed his second filmfor Rajnikanth, reportedly rather reluctantly, titled 'Padayappa',to be directed by K. S. Ravikumar. He reportedly took up the film afterthe superstar himself made a personal reuqest to Rahman to score musicfor the film. In thefirst week of December he went on a concert tour to Dubai where the Al-Shababstadium was packed with crowds in excess of 50,000. He performed with thechoicest of singers like S.P.Balasubramaniam, Hariharan, Udit Narayan,Chitra, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Sadhana Sargam, Shubha, Anupama and his entireorchestra consisting of drummer Sivamani Anandan, guitarist Kabuli andflautist Naveen. At this concert Rahman demonstrated the falseness of theclaim that he used only electronic instruments in his music. He introducedhis entire 50-piece orchestra to the audience and told the crowd that itwas the hard work of all those people that made good music and not electronicgadgets alone. The crowd was treated to renditions of more than 30 splendidsongs from Rahman's ever increasing repertoire. In December, he was invitedby 'Mukti' a social service organisation to perform in a concert to promoteAIDS awareness. He composed a song specially for the occasion. Titled 'ZindagiSe Pyar Karo', the song was a reflection of the theme of the AIDS awarenesscampaign 'Love life, prevent AIDS'. He performed the song to packed crowdsof over 60,000 at the concert on the 24th of December at the Andheri SportsComplex in Mumbai. He signed his first Kannada film 'Ram' in addition to his fifth filmwith one of his favourite directors Shankar, titled 'Mudhalvan'. Whilehis first film with Rajkumar Santoshi, 'Pukar' is very eagerly awaitedhe went ahead and signed another film 'Rashq' with the same director starring,Aishwarya Rai, Aamir Khan and Shahrukh Khan. Late in 1998 a second daughterwas born to Rahman. She was named Rafia. Allthis success has not been without its fallouts for Rahman. Some mischievouselements of society spread canards in early 1998 that Rahman was fundingMuslim fundamentalists in Tamil Nadu, something that was totally unfoundedand caused him a great deal of grief. Later in the year he began receivingthreatening calls from Fundamentalist groups for singing Vandemataram andwas accorded armed protection by the Government. What was amusing thathe received threats from both Hindu and Muslim Fundamentalists, from theHindu Fundamentalists for 'defiling a Hindu song' and from the Muslim fundamentalistsfor 'singing an anti-Islam song'. Rahman dismisses all these controversiessaying that while his religion is very important to him, his patriotismfor his country is in no way inferior. Rahman feels that all this securityis extremely cumbersome and hampers his work but has no choice in viewof the perceived threat to his life. Expressing his views on religion,"God and religion are very personal. Now it has become politics. I thinkreligion should be left to a person. The mosque or temple should be withinoneself. That is the best thing." "I don'tknow what all this hullabaloo is about. I am not scared of death. My lifeand death are in Allah's hands. I will live only till he wants me to live.I will die only when he wants me to die. I can't understand all these policemenfollowing me wherever I go. It hurts in so many ways. It hurts my feelingsin so many different ways. It makes me lose faith in man. But what canI do? I have to follow the crazy system created by a crazy world. But Iam not scare of dying anytime", Rahman says. He remarked in an interview,"It is better that I clear everything up. About the rumour that I helpedfundamentalists, how can it be that I provide funds for them, when I havereceived death threats from the extremists and the state government hasposted police personnels to guard my residence? Another rumour concernedmy giving away money as charity to such organisations. Charity is doneto satisfy my urge to do more for the poor. And anyway I have to tell you,I don't give charity only to Muslim charities, I donate to Hindu and Christianorganisations too. The money I give as charity is limited as I have toimprove my instruments. I have invested heavily in technology and thereis not much left to indulge in mass charity. The amount I give is definitelynot enough to help the extremists to buy arms with my money!" Hisshy demeanour hides a soft and generous heart. His close associates recount his stopping at a busy Mumbai intersection to give alms to beggars liningthe street. "He just thrust his hand into his pockets and gave them allthe money," said one. Another time in Chennai he got out of his car tohelp a cyclist who lay in an epileptic seizure. He encounteredcontroversies on the personal front too when he was charged with throwingout his father's close associates and converting people. All the chargesturned out to be totally unfounded and baseless. Rahman defended himselfsaying, "A rumour has been going around that a beggar I picked up at aDargah has become an absolute tyrant and has become the reason for sendingout M K Arjunan. M. K. Arjunan was a very close associate of my fatherand my adviser. He helped our family in the time of our need by lettingme play the keyboard in his orchestra. The truth is Arjunan's sonwanted to set up a recording studio in Kerala. I gave him some of my instruments.And M. K. Arjunan went back to Kerala to help his son set up his recordingstudio there. Therefore there was no question of an outsider making himleave,was there? And while on this point, I did not pick up any beggaron the streets. Another rumour which is spreading is that I convert peopleclose to me. What nonsense. If I had converted people, Noel, Shivakumar,Shridhar etc. would have changed religion! When I am not perfect myself,howcan I convert others? I follow my religion, let others follow their own.The whole thing was cooked up by a freelance journalist called Bismi, whomarried my sister and later divorced her. He met her when she was doingsome stage shows and we sort of forced her into marriage with him. Butunfortunately we came to know that he was only after my money. He usedto be very upset with my giving to charity. Anyway as soon as my sistercame to know that he was only after the money she separated. But duringthe time when he was around he learnt a lot of the family's inner issuesand now he is spreading rumours to upset me." |
THEYEAR - 1999:In January1999, he performed at the Screen Videocon Awards in Mumbai on the 16thwhere he unjustly lost the Best Music Award, where he had been nominatedfor 'Dil Se..' to some very ordinary music in 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai'. Inhis performance he presented, for the first time, songs from '1947-Earth'- 'Raat Ki Daldal Mein', 'Piano Theme' and 'Rut Aagayi Re'. February sawthe release of 'En Swasa Katre'. He bagged the Filmfare Award for a recordninth time for 'Dil Se..' in the same month. The director of 'Ratchagan',Praveen Gandhi asked him to score the music for his next venture, starringPrashanth, titled 'Jodi'. But Rahman begged off owing to his busy schedule.But Gandhi went ahead and reused the music of 'Doli Sajake Rakhna' forJodi. In an interesting move the Producer, Murali Manohar released themusic at the Muhurat of the movie in February. He signed Rajeev Menon'snext film 'Kandukonden Kandukonden'. Continuing with his award winningspree he picked up the Dinakaran Cine Award for Best Music for 'Jeans'.'Doli Sajake Rakhna' was dubbed into Tamil as 'Oonjal'. In lateMarch the music of Rajnikanth's 'Padayappa' was released after a long delay.The expectations were immense and most considered the music to be disappointing.But the sales told a different story as 1.2 million music cassettes weresold out in just two days. A new record in the Indian music industry. In'Padayappa' Rahman tried to compose a score that would be apt forRajnikanth and came up with a nice blend of the 'Rahmanesque' and the 'Rajnikanthish'.Some bizarre rumours that some fans of Rajnikanth gave death threats toRahman for his score in 'Padayappa' were also floated. But they were unfoundedand Padayappa was a resounding hit. In end March Rahman bagged the DinakaranCine Award for his music in 'Jeans'. This was quickly followed by his 10thFilmfare Award also for 'Jeans' in early April. April also saw the releaseof Kadhir's much delayed 'Kadhalar Dhinam'. This was Rahman's third filmwith Kadhir who became his brother-in-law the same year when he marriedone of his sisters. The music was an instant success and was a huge crowdfavourite. He signed Aamir Khan's home production 'Lagaan' and the thirdof Deepa Mehta's Elements trilogy 'Water', a bilingual. He was also slatedto work with the legendary composer Andrew Lloyd Webber on Shekhar Kapoor'snext film which was to be a movie version of Lloyd Webber's much acclaimedmusical 'The Phantom of the Opera'. Following the lukewarm response tothe reused score of 'Jodi', Rahman consented to compose two new songs forthe movie. He also began working on Maniratnam's next film 'Alai Paayuthe',this being the sixth film of this now legendary combination. Rahmanappeared on a Television show previewing 'Sangamam' and described its musicas 'a milestone in Tamil cinema'. A new record was set when TIPS Cassettesand Records Industries acquired the music rights of Subhash Ghai's eagerlyawaited 'Taal' for Rs. 5 Crores (Rs. 50 million). The music was releasedin the second week of June with TIPS struggling to meet the overwhelminginitial order of 20 lakh(2 million) CDs and cassettes. The song 'Ishq Bina'made it to the top of the charts even before the release of the music attractingdescriptions like 'When A R Rahman meets showman Subhash Ghai, the resultcan be nothing short of an extravaganza.' Producer-Director Subhash Ghaigushing about 'Taal' said "My moments with A. R. Rahman at his music studioare embedded in my memory. The voices of Ashaji, Kavita, Alka and Sukhwinderechoing the poetry of Anand Bakshi, had me visualising my characters Mansi,Manav and Vikrant going through the emotional highs and lows of life evenbefore the actual picturisation. That's the charisma of 'Taal' music. 'Taal'will always be dear to my heart, and to me it is definitely my most favouritework too date. The credit goes to A.R.Rahman and Anand Bakshi without whom'Taal' would not have happened." Early June saw the release of 'Sangamam'.After a long time, Rahman was working in a low-budget film; centered arounda village dancer. The score was totally folk music and classical musicbased. He made use of traditional instruments extensively. The tunes wereappreciated widely. Ananda Vikatan magazine called him the 'real hero ofSangamam'. June12th 1999. A momentous day for Rahman. The music launch of Subhash Ghai's'Taal", Rahman's first truly Bollywood film, his earlier ones 'Rangeela','Daud', 'Kabhi Na Kabhi', 'Doli Sajake Rakhna' and "Dil Se..' being withSouth Indian directors like Ramgopal Varma, Priyadarshan and Mani Ratnam.The launch was a gala event. Held at New Delhi's 'Siri Fort Auditorium'it featured live perfomances of the songs which was webcast live on 'Rediff-on-the-net'.The music was praised to the heavens. At the press conference that followed,Ghai remarked, "I credit the name of the movie to composer A R Rahman.This movie is a romance and I could have called it any thing -- Dil,Pyaar, Hum Bhaag Gaye, but it was A. R. Rahman's presence in the moviethat gave me the confidence to call it 'Taal'. 'Taal' means music and musicmeans 'Taal'. The whole credit goes to A R Rahman and Anand Bakshi. Rahmankept me awake many nights, but after listening to the songs, I felt itwas worth all the trouble." The lead actress Aishwarya Rai commented, "It'ssoul-stirring. I'm sure you are going to enjoy the music as much as wedid. The music is the easily the best I have heard and it's definitelygoing to outlive the release period and it's divine, soul stirring andstraight from the heart." "The music of 'Taal' is a trip which youcan never forget. You have to experience it. I feel it is the best musicfrom Mukta Arts till date", said Anil Kapoor. 'Taal' was a resounding initialsuccess when it sold 10 lakh cassettes in two days. Rahman'scomposition 'Ekam Satyam' which he recorded in London in May was pickedby Michael Jackson for a charity concert in Munich in June 1999 whose proceedswere to be donated to the underprivileged children of the world. On June19th Rahman travelled to Singapore to attend a concert to honour the composersof yesteryears Vishwanathan - Ramamurthy. At the concert heaps of praisewas showered on him. Singer S.P.Balasubramaniam called Rahman his son andsaid that Rahman was a great human being because he respected elders andwas very humble. Vairamuthu revealed that Rahman came even as the producersof 'Rhythm' and' Sangamam' were after him to complete the music and backgroundscore of their films. He also revealed that Rahman was busy with the musicof Maniratnam's latest, 'Alai Paayuthe'. Rahman acknowledged all this inhis typical unassuming shy style. M. S. Viswanathan went to the extentof hugging Rahman on stage and referred to him as his son. Rahman madea short speech wherein he revealed how as a small child he saw M. S. Viswanathan'scar pass by. He said a few more words in praise of M. S. Viswanathan inhis typical Madras Tamil and ended by saying that if he spoke more he woulddo "olaral" (talk rubbish). A number of Rahman compositions were performed- Padayappa by S.P.Balasubramaniam, Nenjinile by S.Janaki, Jumbalaka byRafi, Un Pattu Selai Madippula by Maharajan - to thunderous ovation fromthe near capacity Singapore crowd. On June27 he rendered the song 'Ekam Satyam' alongwith International pop starMichael Jackson at a concert for underprivileged children in The OlympicStadium in Munich, Germany. He performed along with a troupe comprisingdancers Shobana and Prabhudeva. The song was sung together by Rahman andMichael Jackson. The concert was part of the 'Michael Jackson Friends'series. The song was penned by Kanika Bharat. The song, written in Englishand Sanskrit, was recorded by Rahman in London within a week. Accordingto Bharat, the song has a lot of attitude, reflecting the energy, passionand dynamism of India. Jackson heard the song in Paris and immediatelywanted Rahman for his show. He reserved the best slot of the concert, thefinal slot, for Rahman. The other performers in the show were Luciano Pavarotti,Stevie Wonder, Alan Parsons, Vanessa Mae and Boyzone. Jackson renderedthe English lyrics while the rest of the song was rendered by Rahman. Jacksonrendered the English portions of the song while Rahman sang the Sanskritportions of the number. The crowd was a huge 60,000. This was Rahman'ssecond collaboration with a famed international ariste, after Nusrat FatehAli Khan. During his visit to Paris he also met French composer Jean MichelJarre who invited him to work with him on an album. In July,he signed noted Indian director Shyam Benegal's next venture 'Zubeida',scripted by noted film critic and the editor of Filmfare magazine,Khalid Mohammed.On the 11th of July, Rahman participated in a Kargil BenefitEvening at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi the proceeds of whichwere donated to the Central Defence Welfare Fund. He rendered the Vandemataramsong 'Maa Tujhe Salaam' with the lyrics changed to 'Hey Jawan Tujhe Salaam'.In July he became part of an unique international project, "Listen" whoseaim was to raise $99 million for the downtrodden children of the thirdmillenium. ldquo;Being the only representative from India, it is my responsibilityto deliver the composition according to international standards. Havingstarted to work at the age of 11 after losing my father at 9, I understandthe plight of kids who have to work for their survival,rdquo; said Rahman.For the ldquo;Listenrdquo; project, Rahman was to compose a modified versionof one of Beethoven's symphonies. In India, two NGOs mdash; Save the Children,and Consortium for Street Children mdash; were expected to benefit fromthe proceeds of the project. The ldquo;Listenrdquo; campaign included twoone-hour international TV specials, two albums, two videos and a spectacularthree-hour international television concert from India. "Listenrdquo; hasthe support of 99 creative artists. They include film stars Brooke Shields,Liam Neeson, Vanessa Redgrave, Goldie Hawn, Jeff Bridges, Jamie Lee Curtisand Susan Sarandon; musicians Peter Gabriel, John Lee Hooker, Sting andRahman; visual artists Jeff Koons, Sheela Gowda and Robert Wilson, andsongwriters Diane Warren and Lamont Dozier. With this Rahman well and trulymade an impact on the International music scene, closely following on theheels of the concert performance with Michael Jackson in Munich. The albumwas expected to be released the next autumn. In mid-Julyhe participated in a fund-raising event in Chennai and donated Rs 5 lakhto the Kargil Relief Fund. End-July saw the release of the music of '1947',the Hindi version of Deepa Mehta's 'Earth'. On the 30th of July he wonthe Cinema Express Award for Best Music in 'Jeans'. The music of'Jodi' was re-released with the two additional songs composed by Rahman.'Jodi' was dubbed into Telugu under the same name and 'En Swasa Katre'followed suit as 'Premante Pranamistha'. 'Taal' was dubbed into Tamilas 'Taalam'. Rahman teamed up with Bharatbala and Kanika once again togive a new sound to India's National Anthem. He was part of a concert with30 of India's greatest musicians in 'Desh Ka Salaam'. 'Taal' was releasedin mid-July and Rahman's music was hailed as the true hero of the movie.India Today magazine described it thus "A. R. Rahman's glorious music fillsevery frame , becoming almost a fourth character in the triangle". Rahman'snew project 'Desh ka Salaam' with Bala and Kanika which involved the musicalreinterpretation of the Indian National Anthem 'Jana Gana Mana' and wasmeant to be a tribute of the entire nation to the martyrs of thelast 50 years was unveiled simultaneously on all television channels ,all radio channels broadcasting in India and the Internet at 8 P.M. IST on the 15th of August 1999, in the process creating media history. Theproject involved two musical pieces and videos featuring someof India's best musical talents. The first video featured the instrumentalversion composed by Rahman and was played by the best instrumentalistsin India and was shot at Ladakh with Pandit Shivkumar Sharma and his sonRahul Sharma on the Santoor, Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt on the Mohan Veena,Kartick Kumar, Niladri Kumar, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia on the flute,Ustad Amjad Ali Khan on the sarod and also his sons Amaan Ali and Ayaan Ali both on the Sarod, E. Gaayathri on the veena, Vikku Vinayakramand sons Uma Shankar and Selvaganesh on the Ghatam, Ustad SultanKhan on the Sarangi, Ravi Kiran, Kadri Gopalnath on the Saxophone,Ganesh and Kumaresh on the violin and A. R. Rahman himself on theSynthesiser. Thevocal version featured a rendition of Rahman's version of the song by LataMangeshkar, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Pandit Jasraj, Asha Bhonsle, Hariharan,Dr. Balamurali Krishna, Pandit Ajay Chakravarty, Kaushiki Chakravarty,S P Balasubramaniam, Jagjit Singh, Shobha Gurtu, Parveen Sultana,Dr. Bhupen Hazarika, Dr. D K Pattamal, UnniKrishnan, Rashid Khan, SudhaRaghunathan, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Nityashree, Saddiq Khan, UstadGhulam Mustafa, Ajay Chakraborty and A. R. Rahman himself. Rahmanretained the basic tune of the national anthem and developed a new tempoand instrumentation for both the versions. The entire project wasmusically produced, composed and arranged by A. R. Rahman. The videos weredirected by Bala and Kanika. After his highly successful and acclaimedmusical reinterpretation of India's National Song 'Vandemataram' in 1997this was Rahman's unique attempt at the musical reinterpretation of India'sNational Anthem 'Jana Gana Mana'. "Its our way of paying a musical tributeto all the poeple who have been martyrs for the cause of the nation", saidRahman. In mid-AugustRahman signed another English film, 'The Return of The Thief of Baghdad'directed by noted anthropologist Douchan Gersi and starring Chiranjeevi,Charlotte Ayanna and Omar Shariff. The film was to be simultaneously remadein Indian languages by director Suresh Krissna. He also signed Govind Nihalani'snext film. He also returned to work with Ramgopal Varma when he signedhis forthcoming film starring Jaya Bachchan, Amitabh Bachchan, AbhishekBachchan and Urmila Matondkar. In early September he won the InternationalViewers' Choice Award at the MTV Video Music Awards for 'Dil Se..' . Theaward was presented to him by the Managing Director of MTV India, AlexKuruvilla at a special ceremony in New York City on September 9. The musicof Govind Nihalani's 'Thakshak' was released on September 15. He agreedto work on Filmfare editor-scriptwriter Khalid Mohammed's directorial debut,tentatively titled, 'Fizaa'. In September,on the occasion of her 70th birthday legendary Indian singer Lata Mangeshkarcompiled a list of the ten best songs sung her which included the Rahmancomposition 'Jiya Jale' from Dil Se.. . Calling it her favourite compositionof the 90s she said, "A.R. Rahman's style is amazing. No doubt his styleis Indian. But there's heavy Arabic influence. I don't think that man thinks of anything except his music. At first I didn't think all that much ofthe tune. But when I heard the recorded song I was floored. I got to singan outstanding number after quite a while," Rahman carried forward hisascent on the international music scene when he tied up with Sir AndrewLloyd Webber to work on a dance musical entitled 'Bombay Dream'. He alsoperformed with Sir Webber at a concert in Dublin in October 1999. Speakingon 'Bombay Dream', Rahman said "It is the increasing popularity of Indianfilm music in the overseas market which has forced the west to sit up andtake note of the `richness' and `diversity' of Indian notes. There is awhole new movement of Indian music happening all over the world today.Madonna is singing our songs, Michael Jackson is crooning Ekam Satyam.Even Stanley Kubrick incorporated Indian notes in Eyes Wide Shut. The factthat Taal entered the Top 20 of the UK audio charts has encouraged peoplelike Webber to explore more and experiment with Indian music too. I waslucky to be able to meet him. I know it's not going to be easy, but bothof us are determined to give it a shot." MidOctober saw the release of 'Taj Mahal', Rahman's fourth film with Bharatiraaja.A rural love story Rahman came up with a brilliant music score to matchthe flavour of the film. The music became fairly popular but the moviebombed. This was followed by the release of 'Kadhalar Dhinam' in Hindias 'Dil Hi Dil Mein'. Late October saw the release of 'Shankar's 'Mudhalvan'.This was Rahman's fifth film with Shankar. Both the movie and the musicbecame blockbusters. 'Mudhalvan' was a native score that reminded one ofhis 'Gentleman' score for the same director. 'Mudhalvan' was dubbed intoTelugu as 'Oke Okkadu'. Interestingly Rahman appeared in promos of themovie 'Thakshak' wearing the movie's promotional T-Shirt, with "Thakshak'and 'Jumbalakka' written on it, and playing the keyboard for the song 'Jumbalakka'.Visuals of Rahman from the 'Vandemataram' video were used by an Indiancompany Bharati Telecom in an ad promoting National Integration. He wasalso reported to be working with French composer Jean Michel-Jarre on aprivate album. EarlyNovember saw the release of Rajkumar Santoshi's much awaited 'Pukar'. In'Pukar', Rahman took his propensity to recycle his own tunes to new heightswhen he reused two of his earlier songs, the 'Nayagara' song from 'En SwasaKatre' and his non-film 'Oh Bosnia' number, which was originaly presentedin his 1996 Malaysia concert. 'Nayagara' reappeared in 'Pukar' as 'KaySera Sera' and was a huge hit. 'Oh Bosnia' became 'Ek Tu Hi Bharosa' andthis was Lata Mangeshkar's second song with Rahman. TIPS Records releaseda special collection of Rahman songs in November 1999 entitled 'The A.R. Rahman Signature Collection'. This was specially autographed by Rahmanhimself. In its 21 November issue India's leading newsmagazine 'India Today'declared Rahman as one of the 'Faces of the New Millenium' saying 'OnlyRahman can replace Rahman'. Rahman signed his fourth Telugu film with veterantelugu director Kranti Kumar. The movie was titled 'Tommidi Nelalu'. Butlater it turned out that he was not doing the movie. As theyear and the millenium came to a close encomiums were heaped on Rahman.The Times of India, India's leading newspaper hailed Rahman as one of the100 greatest Indians of this century and placed him in the Entertainersand Artists category. Rahman achieved another milestone when he becamethe first Indian to own the much sought after Apple iBook laptop computer.Outlook magazine, in its December issue assessed Rahman to be the thirdhighest earning Indian entertainer just behind Sooraj Barjatya and SubhashGhai and ahead of other icons like Sachin Tendulkar and Shahrukh Khan.He reportedly earned a whopping 25 crore rupees. On December 12th he wonthe Zee Sangeet Award for the music of Dil Se.. . In its year end issue,India's leading newsmagazine 'India Today' carried a feature titled 'TheNineties' Decade-The people who made a difference' in which it selectedRahman along with Shubha Mudgal in the music category and hailed him as'The man who single-handedly reinvented Indian film music.' Unconfirmedreports in the media said that Rahman would feature in Micheal Jackson'snext release scheduled for early 2000. In the year end countdown showson Tamil television, 7 out of the Top 10 songs were composed by Rahman. 1999was in many ways a momentous year for Rahman. 1999 was the year in whichRahman extended his horizons as a composer. A major highlight of his Hindisoundtracks released that year was his effective use of Hindustani classicalmusic and north Indian folk music. After Dil Se.. found mass acceptanceacross the nation, in 1999 it seemed that Rahman had finally won over thenorth with his scores in 'Taal', 'Thakshak', '1947' and 'Pukar'. This leftpeople in Bollywood with no more ammunition to attack him with. His scoresthat year had a breathtaking range and extended from North Indian folkand fusion in 'Taal' to Hindustani and Western Classical and period musicin '1947' and 'Taal', South Indian folk and Carnatic classical in 'Sangamam'and 'Taj Mahal' and contemporary pop and techno music in 'Kadhalar Dhinam'and 'En Swasa Katre'. It was also observed in 1999 that Rahman was increasinglymoving away from what has been traditionally acknowledged as the 'Rahmansound'. 1999 encountered a more explorative and experimentative Rahman.All in all, nationally he became the only music director who's music mostpeople bought without batting an eyelid or reading a review or listeningto a teaser. 1999was the year in which Rahman increased his presence on the internationalmusic scene. This ranged from interactions with Jean-Michel Jarre to collaborationswith Andrew Lloyd Webber, David Bryne and concerts with Micheal Jackson.He also got to work with artists across the entire spectrum of Indian classicalmusic, both Hindustani and Carnatic and instrumentalists and vocalists,when he composed 'Desh Ka Salaam'. In the midst of all this Rahman hadthe busiest year in movies. He had all of eleven releases, the most forany music director this year and the most for Rahman in his entire career,something very unusual for Rahman who normally has 3-4 releases a year.He had 'En Swasa Katre', 'Padayappa', 'Kadhalar Dhinam', 'Sangamam', 'Jodi','Taj Mahal' and 'Mudhalvan' in Tamil and 'Taal', '1947', 'Thakshak' and'Pukar'(music release only) in Hindi. 'Taal' was the biggest hit of theyear and at the end of the year had sold over 75 lakh cassettes and 5 lakhCDs and was continuing to figure on top of the sales charts. Thedecade began with Rahman entering the Tamil music scene with 'Roja' andit ended with Rahman making a global impact albeit in a small way. In thecourse of the decade Rahman changed many things in music. And as the decadeand the millenium drew to a close Rahman was widely and ungrudgingly acknowledgedas the man who brought about a revolution in the sound of Indian musicand was hailed as the man responsible for popularising Tamil film musicin India and Indian film music globally. |
THEYEAR - 2000:Thenew millenium, that is the year 2000, began with the release of the videoof the 'Vandemataram' song 'Masoom' featuring Rahman. The video was telecastby India's National Television Network, Doordarshan at the stroke of midnightbetween 31st December 1999 and 1st January 2000. At the Millenium Concertheld in Cairo, Egypt with the pyramids as a background, on New Year's Eve,Jean-Michel Jarre played the 'Bombay Theme' to a spellbound internationalaudience. In the first week of January he received as many as four nominationsfor the Screen Awards 1999. He was nominated in the Best Music Directorcategory for 'Taal', in the Best Male Playback Singer category for 'IshqBina' from 'Taal' and twice in the Best Background Music category for 'Taal'and '1947-Earth'. After a long hiatus he signed his first Tamil filmin a year, for director Praveenkanth. The film titled 'Star' had Prashanth,Simran and Aishwarya Rai in lead roles and was Rahman's third film withthe director. In an interview to India's leading English newsmagazine,India Today, during a short visit to India, leading world music group 'DeepForest' said that they were talking to Rahman about working in collaboration. He wonthe first award of the new millenium when he bagged the award for BestMusic Director for 'Taal' at the Stardust Cine Honours on the 7th of January.In January Rahman went on an unprecedented award winning spree .He followed up the Stardust Cine Honours by winning the Filmgoers Awardfor Best Music Director for 'Taal' and then on January 23rd he bagged theScreen Award for the music of 'Taal'. The same day he was declared thewinner of the Dinakaran Cine Award for Best Composer for the music of 'KadhalarDhinam' and 'Mudhalvan'. But the crowning glory was when, on January 26th2000, on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Indian Republic, theGovernment of India bestowed the prestigious title of 'Padmashri' on Rahman,for his outstanding contribution to music. The 'Padmashri' is India's fourthhighest civilian honour and is conferred on only a select few. Reactingto his receiving the award Rahman said "I am extremely happy and surprisedat receiving this award. I hope I can justify my receiving this award.Till now I have been receiving mainly film awards. This is the first timethat I have received such an award. I thank God, my mother, all the peopleand the Govt for this award." On January26th, 2000, the Golden Jubilee of the Indian nation becoming a republic,'Desh Ka Salaam' was finally released as 'Jana Gana Mana'. Billed as atribute to those who struggled to establish the Indian republic the musicwas arranged and produced by Rahman and featured vocal and instrumentalreinterpretations of India's National Anthem, 'Jana Gana Mana'. It containedexclusive renditions of the national anthem, both vocal and instrumental,by more than 65 musical maestros from all over the country.The pieces wereperformed by numerous luminaries of Indian music from playback singersto classical vocalists and instrumentalists. The original composition byRabindranath Tagore was recreated into magnificent arrangement and productionby A. R. Rahman. From classical to the contemporary, artists crossinggenerations, harmonised into a powerful and soulful rendition of the NationalAnthem. Thevocalists on 'Jana Gana Mana' were D.K Pattamal,Pt. Bhimsen Joshi,LataMangeshkar, Pt. Jasraj, Dr. Balamuralikrishna, Jagjit Singh , Pt. AjayChakravarty , Smt Shobha Gurtu, Begum Parveena Sultana, Dr. Bhupen Hazarika,Ustad Rashid Khan, Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan, Smt Shruti Sadolikar, Dr.S P Balasubramanium, Sudha Raghunathan, Asha Bhosle, Hariharan, KavithaKrishnamurthy, P.Unnikrishnan, Nityashree, Sadiq Khan, Kaushiki Chakravartyand A. R. Rahman. The instrumentalists were Pt. Hari Prasad Chaurasia,Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Amaan Ali Bangash, Ayaan Ali Bangash, Pt. Shiv KumarSharma, Rahul Sharma, Vikku Vinayakram, Uma Shankar, Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt,Kadri Gopalnath, Ravikiran, E. Gayathri, Ustad Sultan Khan, Pt. KartickKumar, Niladri Kumar, Kumaresh, Ganesh and A. R. Rahman. Thealbum "Jana Gana Mana' was formally released at a formal function on themorning of January 27th in the hallowed Central Hall of the Indian ParliamentHouse in New Delhi by none other than the Indian President Mr. K. R. Narayananand the Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in the presence of avery distinguished audience. Mr Narayanan expressed happiness that so manyartistes had come together on the project. This particular tryst with nationalismfor Rahman began during the Golden Jubilee celebrations of India's Independencein 1997 with 'Vandemataram' and came a full circle in the Golden JubileeYear of the Indian Republic in 2000 with 'Jana Gana Mana'. This was theresult of an endeavour that began three years ago to give India back tothe Indians through music and films that touch the emotions of all Indians."Jana Gana Mana' was an extension of 'Desh ka Salaam' that was broadcastthe previous year. SaidPandit Jasraj of the venture, "Bharat, Kanika and Rahman have done a greatjob. We all know how difficult it is to get even two artistes to do a duetand they have managed to bring together 65 of us. They are really and trulythe three musketeers." Said rahman of the venture "Though it was difficultto bring together artistes from varying streams to work together, the spiritof nationalism in every heart made it very easy. Rejecting the definitionof this album and 'Vandemataram' as 'pop-patriotism' Rahman said 'We havemade more people listen to the National Song and Anthem more often. I wishto take patriotic music to the poeple. That is why I lent music to Vandemataramand aroused the emotions of the people. Likewise I felt I should do itwith Jana Gana Mana also. I feel people sing the national anthem out ofa sense of duty and not out of a sense of joy. I want them to sing it withemotion. That's why I have taken up this project. Because we were workingwith the National Anthem we could not change the tune. All we have doneis make it a bit slower and give it more rhythm and soul." "Thealbum is an attempt to bring out the inherent soul in both the vocal andinstrumental renditions of the national anthem. The music is totally unlikeVande Mataram which had been adapted to modern beats. While Vande Mataramwas a popular album, this one is a completely non-commercial venture. Afterall, it is our national anthem and we didn't change its music or try togive it a modern touch. Its rendition was made slower, though, purely togive it soul. And it is meant for the people, as the album is not my property.The idea behind Jana Gana Mana and Vande Mataram, was to directlatent nationalism towards the mainstream. ", added Rahman. In theevening of January 27th , Rahman participated in a special cultural showtitled 'Bharat Gaurav Gyan' in commemoration of the Golden Jubilee of theIndian Republic, in New Delhi. In front of of an audience comprising ofthe Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee Rahman sang 'Maa Tujhe Salaam'and 'Jana Gana Mana'. In late January, Rahman was nominated for the BestMusic Director Award for 'Taal' in the Filmfare Awards 1999 and the BestMusic Director Award for 'Taal' and Best Male Playback Singer for 'IshqBina' from 'Taal' in the Zee Cine Awards 1999. In early February rumoursabounded about Rahman turning down all new offers for films and concertsas he was shifting base to London where he was to score the music for SirAndrew Lloyd Webber's play 'Bombay Dreams'. On 13th February he won theFilmfare Award for Best Music for 'Taal'. This was his 11th Filmfare Awardand his fourth for Hindi films. Rahman signed up Bharatiraaja's next film'Alli Arjuna' to be directed by Saran. On February 22nd, the music of themuch awaited Mani Ratnam movie 'Alai Payuthey' was released along withits Telugu version 'Sakhi'. The music was of a subdued nature but neverthelesslike always sold in huge numbers. This was Rahman's sixth film with hismentor. One of India's leading film magazines "Stardust', in its annualranking of the 50 most powerful people in Bollywood, published in its March2000 issue placed him at number 38 , eight notches above the previous year's.Rahman turned down an offer from Subhash Ghai to work on his next film'Yaadein' as he wanted to concentrate on 'Bombay Dreams'. In earlyMarch Sony Music released the concert recordings of Rahman's 1998 Dubaiconcert in a 3 cassette pack. On 7th march, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber flewdown to Mumbai to formally launch 'Bombay Dreams'. A musical to featureAsian performers and to be staged worldwide he musical was to be in Englishand the characters to be based on the city of Mumbai. It was to be producedjointly by Shekhar kapoor and Really Useful Group, Webber's productioncompany. Speaking at the launch Shekhar Kapur said "A.R. Rahman's a genius.When Cate Blanchett visited India last year, she took back several Indiansounds, and since then, she's been badgering me to get Rahman to scoremusic for Hollywood films." Webber heard A R Rahman's score for Mani Ratnam'sDil Se. So impressed was he with Chaiyya chaiyya -- the song, thechoreography, the visualisation -- for the composer, it was love at firstsound. The sound of Rahman's music. that Sir Webber asked Kapur to introducehim to Rahman. Rahmanis the first composer to be invited by Webber to work in a musical. BombayDreams will have Webber as the producer and Kapur as the collaborator.Said Sir Andrew at the launch, "Four or five years ago, people didn't havethe same access to Hindi film or Indian music as they have today. I becameincredibly impressed by Rahman's music. I asked him if he would come toLondon, and he did. I also asked him if he would be interested in doinga stage show. At that point when he said "Maybe", I thought I better comehere and ask him. I am very happy to say that he has just said yes. I sawa very exciting Hindi film dance sequence on Channel 4 and asked Shekharto give me more such music. And that's how I met the amazing Rahman. Heis the most extraordinary melodic composer who is still true to his culturalroots, and deserves to be heard by an international public. I am not writingthe music for Bombay Dreams. It will be entirely by the maestro here. DilSe's music was great and amazingly contemporary. This is for thefirst time that I have invited another composer to write a musical forthe stage. I am very excited to be able to explore this possibility withA R Rahman. My production company has produced several plays by writersother than myself, but this is for the first time I will be working withanother composer. I regard A R Rahman as one of the most exciting youngcomposers of our time. I am grateful to Kapoor for bringing us together.This man is a fabulous composer, one of the most exciting today. he issimply brilliant. What you might possibly call the best. His work is verydifferent, very unusual and he himself is such a simple and humble guythat it would be a pleasure for us to work with him. He will bring a differentkind of flavour to a musical production in the West." He decidedto hear more of Rahman, from Bombay and Roja to Taal and Rangeela. ldquo;Withoutbeing told who the composer was, I would identify that it was Rahman,"he says. Waxing eloquent about Rahman's work Webber said "The time hascome in the West (I believe) for Asian music to make a strong presenceand Indian music is going to be at the centre of this new movement. Forit is strong on both melody and percussions. Someone like Rahman couldprovide the leadership. Yes, I feel very strongly about his music." Rahmansaid that though he was heavily pre-occupied with music assignments inIndia, he would devote considerable time for the new project, which wouldnot only be an extension of his career but also showcase Indian cultureto the West. In turn he said, "I am happy to be associated with my friendShekhar Kapur and the legend Andrew Lloyd Webber,God willing, it will besuccessful, an extension of my career and Indian culture abroad. I am agreat fan of the legendary musical theatre composer. I loved some of hissongs like Don't cry for me, Argentina. It is indeed flaterring to realisethat that my talent has been spotted amidst so many talented artistes.That certain aspect of insecurity of whether I will be able to live uptopeople's expectations is also there." He also added that he would be shuttlingbetween London, Chennai and Mumbai for the project. Rahmansigned up for director Rajkumar Santoshi's next film 'Lajja' which wasto be made ahead of his other film 'Rashq' which was also to have musicby Rahman. Not surprisingly rahman opted out of 'Lajja' when Santoshi decidedto make it a quickie. On March 11th Rahman completed a clean sweep of theyear's major awards by bagging the Zee Cine Award for Best Music Directorfor 'Taal'. It looked like Bollywood had finally accepted that Rahman washere to stay. On 15th March the music of Rajeev Menon's 'Kandukonden Kandukonden'was released along with its Telugu version 'Priyaralu Pilichindi'. Themusic was a stunner. All the songs had a classical base and was an instantchartbuster. Encomiums were heaped on Rahman at the release function. Speakerslike Kamalhaasan said "'All these people go on and on about his musiclook at him, he's as cool as ever, I think he's composing some tune evennow in his mind that he's least bothered about all these praises! Be likethis Rahman, its a great new high!' But an innocuous remark by lyricistVairamuthu, "I agree wholeheartedly that Rahman is a great composer. ButI do wish his music would not totally swamp my lyrics to the extent thatnobody can make them out", sparked off a whale of controversy. Rumoursof a rift between the two took flight. But Vairamuthu hastily clarifiedthat all was well between them and it was just a friendly advice. But storiespersisted that Rahman had totally broken off with Vairamuthu and had begunto promote an upcoming lyricist IlayaKamban. On March23, Kamalhaasan's next film 'Tenaali', a full length comedy to be directedby K.S.Ravikumar was launched. This was K.S.Ravikumar's third film withRahman after 'Muthu' and 'Padayappa' and was his first home production.Rahman returned, after 'Indian', to work for Kamalhaasan with thisfilm scotching persistent rumours of bad blood between the two. This wouldbe the first time that Rahman would be working in a film of this genre.On March 30th, Rahman was conferred the Padmashri by the President of India,K. R. Narayanan in the Durbar hall of the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.On the 14th of April the Filmfare South Awards for 2000 were announced.Rahman bagged the Best Music Director Award for 'Mudhalvan'. This was the8th year in succession that he was winning the Filmfare Awards for Tamiland it was his twelfth Filmfare award overall. He was also nominated underthe Best Music Director Category for 'Taal' in the Zee Gold Bollywood InternationalAwards 2000, awarded for popularity of Hindi films in the USA. Followinghis nod to movies like Star and Alli Arjuna which would feature Rahman'searlier tracks from another language, a wave of criticism was unleashedagainst him. Rahman justified his move thus - 'It is the question of time.Since I am going off abroad people don't want to lose the frequncy of myreleases. I can't do everyhting at the same time. So I pick up the besttracks and give them those. Its not my fault. They ask for it. If I amnot in a position to do a film for them they ask me to atleast let themreuse my tracks from other movies." When asked if he Bombay Dreams wouldbe a channel to Hollywood, "I am not interested in Hollywood. There ismore fun in what I am into already. Right now what I need to do is learna lot of things and spend time to create music rather than shuttling betweenhere and there." On being told that his chances to latch on to the internationalpop scene were bright "I don't think I'll fit into that scene becasue Iam more of a composer than a pop performer. That needs a different kindof energy which I don't think I have. You need to be more of an extrovertfor that." He also at this time explained his move towards more offbeatfilms like 'Lagaan','Zubeida',' Fizaa',' Water' thus "When you take upa big movie people expect big things and want to hear big things. If youare doing a non-commercial film with an international spectrum but a smallbudget like 'Earth' the songs are of a different genre. I did not wantto get typecasted as a commercial music director. This is why I am doingmore alternative films." The website indiainfo.com rated Rahman as oneof the 10 most powerful people in Bollywood. Rahmanmade his first movie appearance, albeit in a clipping, when he was shownreceiving a Filmfare Award from K. Balachander for the film 'Minsara Kanavu'in the film 'Kandukondain Kandukondain'. In May he was nominated in theBest Music Director category at the India International Film Awards. OnMay 27th he bagged the Zee Gold Bollywood International Award for BestComposer for "Taal' making its his sixth straight award for 'Taal'. Onthis visit he was honoured by the United Tamil Foundation of New York forhis outstanding contribution to music. Meanwhile director Sanjay Guptawas in hot pursuit of Rahman trying to get him to compose for his nextfilm 'Kaante'. HMV re-released the soundtrack of Alai Payuthey with 3 newsongs, 'Endrendrum Punnagai', 'Mangalyam' and the Sultan Khan version of'Snehidhane'. Sony Music released 'Jana Gana Mana' on cassette and CD inretail shops finally but intriguingly enough there was not a shred of publicityregarding the release. Rahman took his award winning spree to newer heightswhen he bagged the award for Best Composer for 'Taal' at the InternationalIndia Film Awards in London on June 24th. This was his seventh award for'Taal'. The rumours regarding the split between Vairamuthu and Rahman andVairamuthu having lured away Rahman's keyboardist gained more credencewhen his long time keyboardist, Harris Jayaraj signed up as composer fortwo movies, 'Minnaley' and 'Majnu' with Vairamuthu as lyricist. After makinga clean sweep of all the other awards Rahman lost the National Award forBest Music Director which went to Ismail Darbar for 'Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam'.It was announced that Rahman would hold two concerts in North America,in New York City on September 23rd and at the Skydome in Toronto on September30th. Fora shy and reticent person who always shied away from controversies, peopleseemed keen to drag him into more and more of them. After the earlier instanceswhen he was a victim of bizarre and baseless accusations ranging from convertinghis associates to funding terrorists, he came in for more of a similarnature in July 2000. First, on a milder note, people seemed to be in ahurry to label him copycat and were unearthing the original songs, fromwhich Rahman had supposedly copied, at an incredible pace. But most ofthe allegations were either totally false or there were only some coincidentalor passing resemblances. But to be fair there were a couple of songs composedby Rahman with striking resemblances to other numbers. After this he wasaccused of delaying the release of 'Rhythm'. The story was that PyramidNatarajan, producer of 'Sangamam', 'Rhythm' and 'Udaya' had not paid Rahmanfor 'Sangamam'. And therefore he was dragging his feet on completing thework for 'Rhythm'. The producer suposedly toyed with the idea of replacingRahman with another music director in both 'Rhythm' and 'Udaya' but ranout of money to even complete the shooting of 'Rhythm'. Then the producersupposedly approached Rahman and begged him to complete work on the musicof 'Rhythm' so that he could make money from music sales and complete themovie. But the most serious allegation was from the internet portal indiainfo.comwhich alleged that Rahman was a religious fanatic. It reported that Rahman'smother was stalling the telecast of the second part of an interview toSun T.V. because the producer refused to delete Rahman's reference to thesong 'Sankara nadasareerapara' from the movie 'Shankarabharanam' as oneof his favourite songs composed by another music director. Rahman's motherreportedly wanted it removed because she did not want her Muslim son torefer to a Hindu song as his favourite!!! The article described Rahmanas a religious fanatic and condemned him for tolerating his family's religiousfanticism. It questioned how a composer who had tuned Vandemataram andJana Gana Mana could do such a thing. Indiainfo.com stood by its articleand claimed that it had thouroughly investigated the whole issue beforepublishing the piece and the journalist in question was one Kalyan Kumar,formerly with the Tamil edition of India Today. Addedto the above was the continued stories about Rahman's split with Vairamuthu.If some magazines were to be believed the whole thing started when directorof 'Udaya' Azhagu Perumal introduced upcoming lyricist Ilayakamban to Rahman.Pleased with his work Rahman asked him to do a song for 'Udaya'. This apparentlymiffed Vairamuthu who till then was sole lyricist to Rahman. Presentlya whole host of lyricists like Piraisudai, Arivumudhan, Ilayakamban, PazhaniBharathi and Vaali are slated to work with Rahman. In July Rahman signedShankar's next film 'Nayak' starring Anil Kapoor, a remake of 'Mudhalvan'.In addition to reusing some songs from the Tamil original Rahman wouldcompose three new songs for the film. This would be Rahman's sixth filmwith Shankar. On July 14th Rahman deposed as a prosecution witness in thebevy of corruption cases against former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha.Deposing before judge A C Arumugaperumal Adityan, Rehman said that in July1995 Jayalalitha's secretary Jawahar Babu had called him up saying thatshe wanted to see him. Rahman and his mother went to see the then chiefminister at the secretariat. Jayalalitha requested him to perform at thewedding of her foster son, Sudhakaran, whom she has since disowned. Sudhakaran,a co-accused in a corruption case against Jayalalitha, is one of the threenephews of Sasikala Natarajan, Jayalalitha's close friend. Rahman saidthat 10 days before the function, Bhaskaran (Sasikala's nephew) and hiswife came to his house to invite him to the wedding on behalf of the groom.As is the custom in Tamil Nadu, they invited him with the card placed ona silver plate holding a 'kumkum' (vermilion) container and two silk saris.It is common practice at Hindu weddings to present vermilion and clothingto friends and relatives on behalf of the bride and groom. From the bride'sside, legendary actor Sivaji Ganesan's son Prabhu invited him. A receptionwas held on September 6, 1995, a day before the marriage, and Rahman andhis troupe performed for an hour. The ace music director told the courtthat he had performed free of charge. In earlyAugust the music of Khaled Mohammed's 'Fiza' was released. For the firsttime Rahman took on the mantle of Guest Composer and scored his first fulllength qawwalli song 'Piya Haji Ali' for this film. The song was greatlyappreciated by critics and received reviews like 'the best song of theyear' putting to shade the equally appreciable score of Anu Malik for thefilm. Rahman finally said yes to Sanjay Gupta's 'Kaante', work on whichwould start only in late-2001. Around this time some rounds of the popularquiz show Mastermind was shot in Chennai. Among the participants were theactress Kasthuri who had chosen 'The music of A. R. Rahman' as her areaof specialisation for the quiz. On August 10th the much delayed and muchawaited score of 'Rhythm' finally made it to the stores. Though the scorewas above average even by Rahman's standards it did not live up to themassive expectations from it. But the score sold more than 3 lakh cassettesand CDs in just 2 days. On August 14th Rahman appeared at the Planet Mstore in Mumbai to promote Jana Gana Mana and followed it up with a visitto Music World in Chennai. At both places he was mobbed by huge crowds.Amidst all this came the news that Maniratnam had signed up an upcomingcomposer by name Dina to score the music for his next two productions ,one to be directed by himself and one by his assistant Azhagam Perumal.There were contradictory reports that Dina would only be doing the Perumalfilm while Mani himself had put off his next film so that Rahman wouldbecome a little free and also try to bring about a patch up between himand Vairamuthu. All the reports appeared to be speculation and nothingwas concrete. Around this time Rahman also trimmed his hair and returnedto his pre-Vandemataram days look. A furthertwo concerts were added to his North American tour - one in Los Angeleson October 6th and another in San Franscisco on October 8th to make itthe first ever concert tour for Rahman and a mammoth one at that. Rahmanappeared in ads on Indian channels in the US endorsing the Raaga musicmegastore chains and encouraging people to avoid buying pirated goods.Though all the shooting was completed for 'Tenaali' the movie was on holdsince Rahman was yet to compose 3 songs for the movie and director K.S.Ravikumaropted to put off the release of the movie to October from August than settlingfor below par compositions from Rahman. Rahman had reached such a positionthat getting his 'dates' for a movie were proving to be more difficultthan that of top-of-the-league actors like Kamalhassan. In early September'Rhythm' was released in Telugu as well. Rahman signed yet another moviewith director Rajkumar Santoshi. Titled, 'The Legend of Bhagat Singh',it was to be a Hindi-English bilingual featuring Indian and Internationalperformers. One of India's leading newsmagazines, 'The Week' publisheda survey it had conducted to determine the most admired Indians. Rahmanwas placed at No. 12 just behind Kamalhaasan and ahead of the likes ofShahrukh Khan and Pandit Ravishankar. Further signifying his shift to Bollywood,Rahman signed a movie for the Amitabh Bachchan promoted AB Corp(formerlyABCL) to be directed by ad-man turned director Rakesh Mehra, starring AbhishekBachchan. Rahman followed this up by giving the nod to Shankar for hisnext mega film, 'Robot', starring Kamalhassan and Priety Zinta. Themovie, a science fiction film was to be produced by Media Dreams the newproduction house floated by Pentafour and would be Rahman's seventh filmwith Shankar. In September the media carried reports that Rahman had beensigned by the UK based Shakespeare Foundation to score the music for anew play on Shakespeare's life. He was supposedly offered an astoundingRs 300 crores for it. In areader poll conducted by Stardust Magazine for the year 1999-2000 Rahmanwas adjudged Best Composer for 'Taal' by an overwhelming 48% of the respondents.On September 23rd, the first of the four concerts of Rahman's North Americantour was held at the New York Colloseum in New York City. Rahman previeweda song from 'Bombay Dreams'(sung by new singer Karen) and one from 'Zubeida' to a massive audience of 20,000 which was treated to an array of songs,mostly restricted to the very recent films, by singers like S.P.Balasubramaniam,Hariharan, Udit Narayan, Kavitha Krishnamurthy, Sukhvinder Singh etc. Rahmancame armed with a 82-member strong troupe. Academy award winning Britishlyricist Don Black, best known for writing the songs for James Bond movies,said as a special guest at the event that Rahman's genius was in his originalityand skillful improvisation, the "richness and diversity" he could bringto Indian notes. Black, who was working with Rahman on Andrew Lloyd Webber'sdance musical 'Bombay Dreams' received a special award for promoting worldmusic. The audience was treated to another surprise by the introductionof percussionist Vikku Vinayagam on the Ghattam. This was quickly followedby an equally successful one in the Toronto Skydome on September30th which was graced by Hollywood superstar Steven Seagal who was reportedlyinterested in hiring the services of Rahman for one of his forthcomingfilms. Here the audience strength was at 40,000. Responding prehaps towidespead criticism over his use of pre-recorded pieces in the New Yorkconcert Rahman emphasised that the entire Toronto concert was being performedcompletely live and no recorded CD music was being used. The third concertwas staged in Los Angeles on October 6th and the final one on October 8thin San Francisco. The most jarring feature of the concerts was the openexpression of displeasure at the choice of songs by the public at the conert.It appeared that Rahman had misread the composition of the crowd and playedtamil songs where there was a predominantly Hindi crowd and vice-versa.That apart the concerts were a resounding success. In anuncharacteristic interview to Junior Vikatan magazine Rahman alleged thatsome vested interests had tried to sabotage his US concert tour by influencingthe American Consulate to deny visas to key members of his troupe. He saidthat they had to run from pillar to post to get the visas and many of themlanded in New York only on the day of the concert and since they had notime for rehearsals they ended up using lot of recorded music in the concert. In early-October the music of Tenaali was released in Tamil and Telugu.In mid-October trailors of 'Zubeidaa' broke on air riding on Rahman's namewith the line 'A.R.Rahman is back scoring music for the story of a princess'.The music released on 16th of October . It was an unconventional albumfor Rahman, featuring mellow songs. 'Muthu' was taken up for dubbing inHindi. The grapevine reported that Kamal Haasan was trying to persuadeShankar to drop Rahman from their next project 'Robot'. In an interviewto Ananda Vikatan magazine Rahman clarified a whole host of rumours, firstlythat nothing was wrong between Vairamuthu and him and they would certainlywork together in the future. He also confirmed that he was doing Shankar's'Robot' and denied that he was doing any musical in association with theShakespeare Foundation. On November1st he presented himself in the Chennai High Court once again to testifythat he had not received any gifts from Jayalalitha for her foster son'swedding and had only performed out of respect for the bride's grandfatherSivaji Ganesan. The grapevine reported that Rahman would perform with JenniferLopez at a football tournament scheduled in India in 2001. It seemed likeRahman would never stop winning awards in 2000. On November 12th he addedtwo Bollywood Music Awards, for Best Composer and Best Song to his ever-burgeoningkitty. Rahman returned to work with mentor and veteran Tamil director K.Balachandarwith 'Paarthale Paravasam'. The film to be launched in early January 2001would star Madhavan and would be completed in five months. In Novemberthe Birmingham Film Fest paid tribute to Rahman by organising a showcaseof movies with his music titled 'Sound on the Screen:A.R.Rahman'. Rahmanalso appeared at the festival. In an interview to India Abroad News Servicedirector Deepa Mehta said that she had more or less shelved 'Water' inview of the protests against the movie. The news was a big disappointmentfor Rahman fans since since Rahman had himself rated his music for thefilm as 10 on 10. The ABCL film was tentatively titled 'Awaaz'. In earlyDecember Rahman signed up for one of Indian cinema's most ambitious project.The project was 'Taj Mahal-The Great Indian Experience', India's firstfilm on IMAX that was to be made by none other than Bharatbala. In thelast week of December the state govt. of Tamil Nadu bestowed his sixthBest Composer State Award for 'Sangamam'. He received two nominations forthe IMI-Zee Sangeet Awards for Thakshak but didn't win any. Theyear 2000 proved to be a very subdued year for Rahman in terms of outputbut was unparalleled for the awards and honours that he received and hispublic performances. He had only 6 releases viz. Alai Payuthey, KandukondainKandukondain, Rhythm, Thenali, Zubeidaa and Jana Gana Mana. Apart fromthis he donned the role of Guest Composer for the first time in 'Fiza'.While Jana Gana Mana was a milestone in terms of the acclaimed names heworked with, 2000 did not see him break any new ground with regard to creativeoutput. Alai Payuthey will probably rank at the bottom among his six movieswith Mani Ratnam. Kandukondain Kandukondain saw him go more classical thanusual but failed to be pathbreaking. Rhythm disappointed while Tenaliwas as lacklustre as a Rahman score could get. The saving grace was Zubeidaawhere he managed to a great extent in recreating a period score that wasmellow. It appeared that Rahman seemed to have hit a plateau. The mostsignificant development was his teaming up with Sir Andrew Lloyd Webberand Shekar Kapoor for 'Bombay Dreams'. 2000 was most fruitful in termsof the recognition he received. Except for the National Award he pocketed every other award that was given. In all he bagged he closeto two dozen awards. The crowning glory was the bestowing of the PadmaShri by the Goverment of India. |
THEYEAR - 2001:2001'sfirst music release was a Rahman score. The much awaited soundtrack ofOne 2 Ka 4 released on 3rd January. With the trailor breaking on TV inthe first week it appeared that Love You Hamesha would finally see thelight of the day. Rahman also signed three new films, one in Tamil, S.A.Rajkannu's'Prashanth' and two films in Hindi, one for choreographer turned directorAhmed Khan and one for producer Vashu Bhagnani. The film by Vashu Bhagnaniwas meant to be a remake of the Tamil film 'Minnale'. Following this healso signed his fourth film for intimate friend and director Kadhir titled,'Kadhal Virus'. On January 12th he personally received his sixth TamilNadu State Film Award for Best Composer for the film 'Sangamam' from TamilNadu Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi. He also grew his hair back to his Vandemataramlook. To add to the ever growing list, he also gave his nod to Priyadarshan'sinternational venture in English on the life on freedom fighter ChandrasekharAzad titled 'The Last Revolutionary'. The stories and newsreports regardinghis performance with Jennifer Lopez at the finals of the Sahara MilleniumFootball Cup in Calcutta on January 25th multiplied though there was noofficial word from any quarters. Rahman appeared at a ceremony in Hyderabadwhere the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Nara Chandrababu Naidu honouredthe team behind Mudhalvan on the mega-success of its Telugu version 'OkeOkkadu'. Late January saw the release of the music of Love You Hameshafinally. Love You Hamesha was panned by the critics. As January 25th passed,it turned out that the much talked about performance with Jennifer Lopezat the football tournament were totally unfounded. Rahmanmade a suprise appearance at the launch of producer K.T.Kunjumon's 'Swasam'.What set the tongues wagging was Rahman's appearance inspite of the factthat he was not scoring the music for the film. The same day Rahman alsoappeared at the launch of Kadhir's 'Kadhal Virus' were Maniratnam and Bharatiraajawere present. In February Rahman composed the theme track and backgroundmusic for a special short film on the Indian Navy to coincide with theInternational Fleet Review that was held in Mumbai from February 17th fora week. The filmwas titled 'Jaya He' and was directed by Bharatbala andKanika with Amitabh Bachchan doing the voice over. The event was held inIndia for the first time. This intended to build bridges of friendshipacross the oceans and bring men-of-war together in a gesture of peace.The major countries that participated included United States, United Kingdom,Russia, France, Japan, Australia and South Africa featuring 25 foreignships from as many as 19 foreign countries. The gossip rags put out anotherstory about how Rahman kept Aamir Khan's wife and executive producer ofLagaan, Reena Khan, waiting at his residence when she had gone there togive him his remuneration for the film. The stories spoke about how shewaited for an entire day and therefore missed her flight back to Mumbai. Rahman,extended his support to the composer of yesteryears, Naushad in the settingup of a school for music titled 'Naushad Academy of Hindustani Sangeet'.Sony Music released another recording of the Dubai concert in a bid tocash in on the public's expectancy of the release of the US concerts. Meanwhilethere was talk that Rahman would perform in a concert in March in Delhi, organised by former US President Bill Clinton to raise money for thevictims of the devastating Gujarat earthquake. After it changed hands fromSushilkumar Agrawal, HMV released the music of the Hindi version of Muthu,'Muthu Maharaja' in early March. Rahman was spending a lot of time in thisperiod in London on Bombay Dreams. Around 50% of the work was completed.In an interview, when he was asked what he felt about his own growth asa composer since the Roja days, he replied 'Roja was an effort to do musicthat crosses mainstream yet be alternative-and not remain just film music.My effort primarily has been to give more and more to the film industryas this is the only form of recreation for millions in this country.' Counteringceaseless and baseless criticism on he being repetitive and gizmo-oriented,he said 'There was a repetitive phase four or five years ago, but I thinkI've got over that. In those days, many directors associated me with Prabhudeva,and wanted me to only do dance songs. But when you do dance music, youtend to use the same beat. That wasn't what I consciously wanted to do.So I began incorporating other sounds. In Taal and Thakshak, I used northIndian influences, unlike my earlier films, where my music was south-oriented.Today, my music is more rounded, more balanced. To satisfy the director,I create three or four variations of each song. Then we all decide whichtune will work best, and thus avoid repetition. Each film requires a differentattitude, and the use of technology depends on the film's subject. In today'stimes, technology is an extra attribute. It makes things easier. But Idon't depend solely on technology. About 90 per cent of Zubeidaa has beenrecorded with acoustic instruments.' Thebarrage of allegations continued when website tehelka.com, known for itssensationalisation of news carried an article that accused Rahman of growingtoo big for his boots and spoke of the Tamil film industry turning itsback on him. Among the many things that the article related was that directorslike Bharatiraaja, Mani Ratnam and Rajeev Menon had given up on him andthat Kamal Hassan was trying to force him out of Shankar's 'Robot'. Italso alleged that Rahman had refused Rajnikanth's next and had insultedhim resulting in the superstar being furious with him. According to thepiece, both Rajnikanth and Kamal Hassan were under the impression thatRahman's accusation that someone big in the industry had tried to sabotagehis US concerts was directed at them. In mid-March The Hindu reported thatRahman had signed actor-dancer Javed Jaffrey's directorial debut that wouldbe co-directed by Sangeeth Sivan with whom Rahman had earlier worked on'Yoddha'. In oneof his best interviews ever, Rahman spoke in depth about various issuesto the magazine AV Max. Revealing his outlook to compising he remarked'I believe that only when you have fun can other people have fun too. Ifyou feel tortured, people listening to you will also feel tortured. SoI make it as less torturous for people as I can. Describing his mentalstate before he singed 'Roja' he said, "During 'Roja', I couldn't foreseewhat was to come, in that sense it is very special. Before I signed 'Roja',I was very satisfied with what I had. I had producers asking me to composefor commercials and whatever ambitions I had had long been subjugated.Just before 'Roja' happened to me, I went into a state of spiritual vacuum,and temporal ambitions took a secondary place. In such a state, every momentwas surprise. I tended to take what came as it came rather than hope andforesee too many things and have too many ambitions. Yeah, the successof 'Roja' surprised all of us, but I tended, and still tend to look atit philosophically. I think it worked out better this way because it isno use having too many ambitions and getting frustrated in the process."Commenting on public opinion he said, "It can be a little confusing attimes. It is an odd fact of my career that whenever the music of a filmI have composed for is released, the first reaction is one of non-acceptance.The reaction is that Rahman is burnt out, he is getting repetitive, hehas no future. Four months down the line, after the film releases, thesame people say that the music is very good. When I tried and worked ona new sound, and I felt that at least now they would stop saying I wasrepetitive. But they complained that the musc was too radical. Give themsomething that they can predict and they don't like it. Give them somethingcompletely new and they don't like that either." On criticism heopined, "Initially, it used to hurt, but then I tried to analyse that theywere trying to say. One criticism is that all my tunes sound alike. Nowthat is not true, but it could be the use of certain instruments. I usedthe pan flute in a couple of songs and since they sounded alike, it isassumed that the tune was being repeated. So I switched to a bamboo flutefor some time. I have switched back to a pan flute it takes time for peopleto realise that it is not the tunes but the instruments that are beingrepeated and how the instruments are used is a signature style of the composer,it takes time to establish that it is the feel of the instruments thatis the same and not the tune." On themuch spoken of 'Rahman sound' he conceded that there was such a thing 'Itis like a personal signature. Take Mohammed Rafi, for example. He mightsing in different raga, but no matter what he sings, you know that thisis a Rafi song. It is also like a RD Burman track. No matter what he composes,you know this is a RD Burman composition by the way it sounds, by the waythe instruments are arranged, and by the way the song flows. It is possiblethat every musical composition is imbued with a bit of the personalityof the composer. When I compose, I am not conscious of a particular style,but yes, people do say that there is something called a Rahman sound."Speaking about his inspiration he stated, "Personally, I would say thata sense of spirituality helps a great deal. And it is important that youstudy life as well. Both these things will make a better human being, andtherefore, a better composer out of you. Life teaches you what real painand happiness are, and these things help in creating better compositions.It works like this: if the film demands happy music the composer only hasto tap into the wellspring of happy experiences from his own life to createthe right ambience for that tune. I think this is more improtant than learningall the technical gymnastics of music." Explaining his reasons for stayingaway from the limelight, he stated "I always wanted my music to be famous,not me. But I accept that people relate the music to the person. I havetried to stay away from becoming a commodity. I have tried to stay awayfrom becoming a face on a soft drink commercial or something like that,and it has worked fine so far. The advantage with this is that the daythese people drop me, nobody will get the impression that I am over anddone with, musically." On March23 Rahman won his 13th Filmfare Award for his music in the film Alai Payutheyat the south Filmfare Awards. Sony Music unleashed the pre-release publicityfor the music of Lagaan revealing that it would be released on April 6th.The anticipation of the music heightened among the public. After a longseries of collaboration in Bharatbala's 'India Pride' series like Vandemataram,Desh Ka Salaam, Jana Gana Mana and Jaya He, Rahman teamed up with him onceagain to score the background music for a short film called 'India on IMAX'.The film directed by Bharatbala was shot in IMAX and was meant to showcasethe diversity of India using the power of the IMAX technology. The shortfilm was screened for the first time at the inauguration of India's firstIMAX theatre, set up in Mumbai by the Adlabs group, on the 25th of March.The film would later be screened at IMAX theatres across the world. Rahmanwas also present at the launch of this IMAX theatre. After opting out ofhis first film 'Gaja Gamini', Rahman agreed to compose for reknowned painterM.F.Hussain's second film 'Do Kadam Chal Ke Dekho'. The movie 'Kaante'was officially launched and the movie was a multi-composer filmwhich wouldinvolve other composers like Viju Shah, Lucky Ali, Adnan Sami and Salimand Suleiman Merchant. Rahman was no longer involved in the movie. On March31 Rahman participated in a charity music show in Chennai titled 'NetruIndru Naalai' to raise funds for the organisation 'The Banyan' involvedin caring for disabled children. The concert which was centered aroundchildren had Rahman conducting the music for two songs, 'Achcham Illai'from Indira and 'Chanda Suraj' from Vandemataram. He later made a publicdonation for the organisation. It was speculated that Rahman would scorethe music for Kamalhassan's next film 'Pammal Sambandham'. But it turnedout that Deva was doing the music. He lost the national award to Anu Malik'sRefugee for which he was in contention with scores like Kandukondain Kandukondain,Alai Payuthey and Zubeidaa. The Times of India caused a furore by reportingthat Shankar had replaced Rahman with Harris Jeyaraj in Robot. But it turnedout that it was false news. There was also news that Shankar was launchinganother movie titled 'Power' starring Aishwarya Rai, Lara Dutta and Prashanth.But there was no confirmation if Rahman would score the music for the film. Bharatbalarevealed more information on India's first IMAX film, Taj Mahal.The film would be released in August 2002 and would be exhibited all overthe world. To be produced by Scott Swofford of Vineyard Productions thefilm received financing from India Lotus Inc, a consortium of Indian techenterpreneurs like Kanwal Rekhi, K B Chandrasekhar, B V Jagdeesh and GururajDeshpande, and the IMAX Corporation. Rahman seemed to be on an uncharacteristicsigning spree and the latest film in his kitty was 'Dil Ne Jise Apna Kaha'starring Salman Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Sohail Khan and directed by debutantdirector Atul Agnihotri. Rahman, participated in a special feature in theTamil children's magazine Chutti Vikatan wherein he replied to queriesfrom children. A special show on the music of 'Lagaan' was aired on DDMetro on April 1 and had everyone in raptures about the music. 'Lagaan'which was scheduled to be released on April 6 was premiered on Doordarshanon April 1 and was actually available in overseas markets on April 3. Thescore was also released on the internet before the official release. Thyemusic was outstanding and was fully in consonance with the period and storyof the film. The soundtrack sold out within hours of release. Rahman appearedat the soundtrack release in Planet M, New Delhi to promote the soundtrackof Lagaan. Rahman also put in appearances at Planet M in Mumbai to promotethe music of Lagaan. On April 8 he recieved his 13th Filmfare Award, for'Alai Payuthey' at the Filmfare Awards ceremony in Hyderabad. He acceptedan offer to compose for actor-director Parthiban's film 'Yelelo'. On April14th Rahman was present at the launch of 'Yelelo' along with stalwartslike Mani Ratnam, Shankar and Kamal Hassan. At the ceremony Rahman revealedthat he had accepted the film because of its rural subject and would tryto blend Irish folk music with Tamil folk music in the film. Sudha Raghunathan,the acclaimed Carnatic classical singer rendered the title song of themovie at the launch function. He won over another serious filmmaker whenveteran director M.S.Sathyu signed him up for his next film, 'Neecha Aasmaan'.On April 30, Rahman was awarded the Awadh Samman, a honour conferred onoutstanding artistes by the Government of Uttar Pradesh. Rahman receivedthe same from Vishnu Hari Shastri, the Governor of Uttar Pradesh. Speakingto a newspaper, Andrew Llyod Webber commented on the upcoming 'Bombay Dreams'thus, "I haven't heard a musical in the last 20 years which has got suchgood tunes. Rahman is fantastic. His music is so beautiful, and I believewhat he is writing is so far ahead of the game that we could be talkingabout the future of musicals for a very long time. I really look on Rahmanas someone I can pass the mantle on to." The M.S.Sathyu film was titled'Neechcha Aasmaan'. The pre-release promotions for Lagaan spoke of Rahmanvisiting Bhuj thrice with all his accompaniments to get the right feelfor the score. Themusic of 'Star' released in May. There were five songs, one original, oneresued from Earth and three reused from 'Thakshak'. The album was way belowthe mark. All the songs dubbed from the Hindi originals were infintelybetter in their inital avatar. The new song was no great shakes either.Coming a full 7 months after his last Tamil release , 'Tenali', 'Star'did precious little to regain the ground Rahman had lost to composers likeHarris Jayaraj(Minnale) and Karthik Raja(Dumm Dumm Dumm) in 2001. Somenew films for Rahman were producer Tahir Hussain's 'Ada' in Hindi. KamalHassan revealed in Filmfare in June that Rahman had been signed to do themusic of his forthcoming film to be directed by K.S.Ravikumar, post-PammalSambandham. Rahman also gave the nod to Mani Ratnam's next, their seventhtogether, tentatively titled 'Kannathil Muthammittal'. In an interviewto Minnambalam ezine Illaiyaraja clarified about a controversy thaterupted three years ago in 1998 regarding a ring. In a musical functionarranged to felicitate musical greats Illayaraja and M S Vishwanathan,aring was presented to each of them. A R Rahman had presented the ringsand put them on their fingers. Raja immediately removed the ring and presentedit back to Rahman. Explaining what had transpired that day, Raja clarifiedthat he does not wear gold ornaments and also disliked jewellery. Whenthe ring was put on his finger he was caught unawares. The first thingthat he did was put it back on Rahman's finger. He had refused rings evenfrom MGR on stage once. The press had blown it out of proportion and writtennegatively about his relation with Rahman. He didn't do it to insult anyone,he explained. In June, noted cricket expert Harsha Bhogle revealed whenwriting in The Week magazine that the New Zealand born coach of the Indiancricket team, John Wright, had along with the Star Sports channel, usedvideos set to the music of Rahman's Maa Tujhe Salaam to motivate the Indiancricket team during a tough series against Australia earlier in the year. Co-incidingwith the summit between Indian Prime Mnister Atal Behari Vajpayee and PakistanPresident Parvez Musharaff, there were reports that Rahman would performin two concerts in Pakistan later in the year as a part of the effort toincrease the people-to-people contact between the two countries. On July5th the music of 'Nayak'was released to a characteristically disappointedresponse. Five of the songs were carried over from the original, Mudhalvanwhile there were two new songs which sounded like a half-hearted effortfrom Rahman. Rahman made a donation of Rs. 5 lakhs for earthquake reliefin Gujarat. Rahman was awarded the Best Music Director Award for his workin 2000 by Film Today, a Tamil film magazine. Rahman accepted ProducerK Prabhakaran's Ashoka starring Arjun and directed by Shaji Kailas. Rahmanhad early done a movie called Love Story for the same producer but thatmovie never saw the light of the day. The Rahman composition Bombay Themewas used in ad for a Mineral water in France starring the famous Frenchfootballer Zenadine Zidane. Erstwhile Rahman flunkey Harris Jayaraj's secondrelease Majnu, wholly reminiscent of his first Minnale took the chartsby storm. Rahman'salmost year long absence from the Tamil scene save for the reused 'Star'which bombed, was taking a toll on his stature in the Tamil film industry.Rahman was likely to score the music for Rajnikanth's forthcoming film.Rahman received a double nomination in the Zee Gold Bollywood Music Awardsscheduled to be held in New York on the 10th of November. He was nominatedfor 'Zubeidaa' and 'Lagaan'. Rahman's 'Bombay Theme' was featured in twoother international albums, 'Paradisiac' and 'Flying Carpet'. Further 'KehnaHi Kya' was included in the music curriculum in Ontario in Canada. On August15th 2001, Rahman completed 9 years in the Indian Film Industry. DirectorRakesh Mehra stated that Rahman was doing the music for his next film 'SamjhautaExpress', earlier titled 'Awaaz'. In an interview to MTV, Rahman revealedthat he was working on Tanveer Ahmed's 'Ada', Shyam Benegal's next 'Ganga'and Khalid Mohammed's "Tehzeeb' starring Shabana Azmi and Tabu. On August25th, Rahman was felicitated by the Al-Ameen Foundation in Bangalore andwas awarded the Al-Ameen Community Award. Shaad Ali, assistant to ManiRatnam sounded out Rahman to work on his Hindi remake of Alai Payutheywhich was being produced by Yash Chopra. For the Tanveer Ahmed film, Ada,produced by Jhamu Sughand and starring Dilip Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan,Rahman completed recording six songs. Rahman was nominated twice, for Lagaanand Zubeidaa, at the International Bollywood Music Awards to be held inNew York on Novermber 10th. In early October, Malaysian information ministerKhalil Yaakob, who was on a visit to India to study the Indian film industryled a delegation on a vist of Rahman's hi-tech Panchathan Record Inn aswell. Rahman came in for another round of severe criticism for his slowpace of work. It was more than a year since he had had an original releasein Tamil. Films like 'Udhaya', 'Alli Arjuna' and 'Paarthale Paravasam'were said to be delayed because of his failure to record the songs on time.In October Rahman gave the nod to Tamil actor Nasser's directorial venture,'Dheem Tharakita Thom', starring Mohanlal in the lead. Goingback to one of the very first languages he worked in, Rahman agreed tocompose for director Priyadarshan's dream project on the weavers of Kancheepuramto be made in Malayalam on a shoestring budget. An American company calledMondo released an album of Rahman's Hindi and Tamil songs along with onesong each of R D Burman and Vishal, called Mondo India to promote his musicin the western world and it drew rave reviews wherein Rahman was describedas "possibly the greatest of the modern filmi composers, and a man whocan seamlessly marry Indian and Western melodies, instruments, and techniquesin a way no one has managed before. He is to the Bollywood scene what EnnioMorricone or Nino Rota have been to European cinema: people who transcendthe idea of score and soundtrack to bring forth pieces like "Dheeme Dheeme"that can stand alone as pieces of music." The music of Paarthale Paravasamwhich was due to be released in late October was delayed amidst reportsof several music labels fighting over the rights to the soundtrack. 'BombayTheme' was featured in yet another International compilation 'Cafe DelMar Vol 5 ' in what was the fifth occasion after 'Anokha', 'Chakra', Paradisiac'and 'Flying Carpet'. TheBombay Theme was featured in yet another French compilation titled 'Fly'and was also used in the ad for a French brand of mineral water titled'Volvic' featuring footballer Zinedine Zidane. Paarthale Paravasam finallyreleased amidst a mjor controversy over the rights between HMV, ChallengeMusic and Hit Music. K. Balachander sold the rights of Paarthale Paravasamto both Challenge Music, a Pondicherry based company and HMV. When HMVlearnt of it they questioned KB who offered to buy back the rights fromChallenge music. Challenge Music, for whom Paarthale Paravasam was thefirst major release, refused and went ahead with the production of thecassettes. HMV went to court and obtained a stay order from the MadrasHigh Court restraining Challenge Music from producing or selling cassettesof Paarthale Paravasam. Defying the stay order, Challenge Music wente aheadand distributed the cassettes saying that it had already manufactured 3.5lakh cassettes and would be ruined if it was not allowed to sell them.Armed with the stay order HMV organised police raids to seize cassettesreleased by Challenge Music. Finally the music released on all the labelsthough HMV's was claimed to be the genuine one. The music was very experimentaland unlike Rahman and received a overwhelmingly positive response fromfans but was received very badly by listeners by and large. K.Balachanderand Rahman-The Duet duo-failed to love up to the massive expectations andboth music and film met a sorry fate. Rahmangave the nod to a new film, 'Naran' starring Kamal Haasan and Amitabh Bachchanto be directed by K S Ravikumar which said to be man and beast story. Whilethe movie was a Tamil-Hindi bilingual Rahman suggested that the movie bemade in Hindi as well. Rahman was also signed up for the Hindi remake ofAlai Payuthey , 'Saathiya' to be directed by Shaad Ali, Mani Ratnam's assistant.The film would feature music from Alai Payuthey along with new compositions.Rahman took up a Telugu assignment after nearly 7 years when he acceptedproducer A.M.Rathnam's film that was launching his son Jyothi Krishna asdirector. In an interview to the Tamil magazine Anandha Vikatan cricketinglegend Sachin Tendulkar revealed that he was a great fan of Rahman's music.At a delayed ceremony, Rahman was awarded the prestigious V Shantaram Awardfor Best Composer for 'Taal'. There were reports that Rahman had optedout of Nasser's 'Dheem Tharakita Thom' which was retitled 'Popcorn' withYuvan Shankar Raja as composer. Even Parthiban who launched 'Yelelo' withmuch fanfare seemed to have abandoned the project and moved on to otherthings. ManiRatnam held a press conference to announce the completion of 'KannathilMuthamittal' with the music expected to be released in late December. DirectorVasanth said in an interview to The Hindu that he was working on makinga 'different' love story titled '9-30 to 10-00' that would have music byRahman. Shankar too put his mega-project 'Robot' on the backburner andcommenced work on a small budget movie called 'Boys' with Rahman's music.There was no word yet on Rajinikanth's next movie. Rahman meanwhile startedwork on Raj Kumar Santoshi's ambitious 'The Legend of Bhagat Singh'. Thesong that he recorded was described by the producer Kumar Taurani of TIPSFilms as "It is a unique song which, besides giving the periodic feel,has a fresh feel about it." The newspaper Dinmani reported that a 9-thstandard schoolgirl called Vidya had sung for Rahman in 'Kannathil Muthamittal'.Rahman had chosen the girl from his alma mater Padma Sheshadri Bala Bhavan.Sify.com carried a story that Paarthale Paravasam had flopped because ofthe delay in the release of the music and added that record companies weredemanding that Rahman scores be released atleast 45 days prior to the releaseof the movie and TIPS was sore about Rahman not delivering the music ofKannathil Muthamittal on time. MeeraSyal, the writer who was writing the script for 'Bombay Dreams' said inan interview to Savvy Magazine that it was Rahman's involvement that finallymade her accept and that his music was fabulous and as a person hewas intense yet unassuming. Rahman's sister Rehana, in an interview toKungumam magazine spoke in depth about her relationship with him, 'He'sa born genius', we kept fighting with each other while we were kids, thewhole family lives for Rahman by doing everything we can to support him,Rahman is also interested in photography but doesnt get adequate time toexplore it further." The music of Alli Arjuna finally released on 19 December.The music was a rehash of songs from multiple movies , '1947', 'Pukar'and 'One 2 Ka 4' and took Rahman to a new low. Meanwhile the music if KannathilMuthamittal and its Telugu avatar 'Amrutha' was eagerly awaited. Participatingin a seminar organised by the Indian Performing Rights Society in Chennaion December 22, Rahman spoke about the importance of valuing IntellectualProperty Rights and was also felicitated by the IPRS on the occasion. Rahmanreceived his felicitation from Naushad. 2001was every bit unlike what we have seen from Rahman thus far. He had justone original release in Tamil, Paarthale Paravasam which was a massivenon-success. His other two releases Star and Alli Arjuna were irresponsiblerehashes of his earlier work. Coupled with the massive success of othercomposers like Harris Jeyraj, Karthik Raja and Yuvan Shankar , Rahman'sstock in the Tamil industry probably touched its lowest level ever. Peoplewere questioning his commitment to the Tamil industry. His forays in Bollywoodwere not particularly memorable either. Though no one can accuse him ofbeing lackadaisical in his score for One 2 Ka 4 , which was probably thebest conventional Bollywood score from Rahman so far, the fact that themovie was terrible took the music down with it, calling into question Rahman'schoice of films and filmmakers. His score in Nayak, partly reused fromMudhalvan, was also torn to shreds. Zubeidaa, the music of which releasedin 2001, received much critical acclaim but did not attract attention independentof the film itself which was aimed at a niche audience. The saving gracefor Rahman in an abysmal 2001 was Lagaan. A film with massive expectationsand lot of hype that could have proved counter-productive. But Rahman delivered.And the music became a massive hit. But the appeal of the music was largelyin context of the film itself. By way of awards Rahman picked up the usualbunch of Filmfare and assorted other awards. But without question 2001was the most subdued and lacklustre year in Rahman's 10 year long career,making one hope that all the attention Rahman was paying towards BombayDreams would pay off in the subsequent year. |
THEYEAR - 20022002began with everyone hoping that Rahman would firmly put a dismal 2001 behindhim. The first significant event of the year was Rahman receivinga double nomination for Lagaan at the annual Screen Awards. Rahman wasnominated for both Best background Score and Best Score categories for'Lagaan'. In reaction Rahman said, "My effort was to combine classicaland folk to create period music. I think what has worked about the musicof Lagaan is that all the departments—lyrics, background score and vocals—connected.Everyone gave their best. While composing, the involvement with the script,cast and director makes a lot of difference. And in Lagaan I was involvedin every aspect of the film. People like Aamir Khan and director AshutoshGowarikar are the kind of people who live a film. You look at the scriptthrough their eyes and you know what to do, and what not to do. " DirectorPravinkanth took out a huge ad in the newspapers on Rahman's 35th birthdayon January and used the opportunity to announce his next film 'Thullal'supposedly with music by Rahman making one seriously question Rahman'swisdom in continuing his association with the director. Some newer reportsspoke of Rahman actually doing Nasser's Popcorn which was supposedly basedon the life of Illayaraja. Evenas Parthiban put off 'Yelelo' came in the news that Karunanidhi was writinga song with the Pongal festival as its theme for the film. January 11thsaw Rahman taking the Zee Cine Awards for Best Composer for 'Lagaan', thefirst awards of the year. January 12th marked the first release of theyear for Rahman, the much awaited Kannathil Muthamittal, his seventh outingwith Mani Ratnam. Much was expected from the combination and in keepingwith the demands of the film Rahman turned out an appropriate score thatwent down well with his fans but not so much with the masses at large.Rahman was nominated for the music of Lagaan at the 48th Filmfare Awardson January 17th. In a strange incident the quirky Bal Thackeray announcedthat he was declaring a ban on synthesisers since it was spoiling Indianculture and music and vented his ire on Rahman describing his music asthe sound of washing vessels. On January 18th, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy baggedthe Screen Award for their peppy score in Dil Chahta Hai beating Rahmanwho was nominated for Lagaan. Severaltamil newsmagazines reported that Rahman had signed K.Balachander's nextto be directed by his assistant Selva inspite of the debacle of PaarthaleParavasam. The Times of India also reported that Pakistani Sufi singerAbida Parveen was supposed to record a song for 'Saathiya' but was unableto make it to Chennai for the recording because of the prevailing politicalclimate between India and Pakistan. Kamal Hassan also announced plans forhis next film with K.S.Ravikumar now titled 'Panchatantram'. There werereports that he was planning to approach Rahman to score for the movie.Outlook magazine published a snippet that the Delhi based health productscompany Morepen Labs was in the final stages of negotiations with Rahmanto compose a 'Health Anthem' for their upcoming ad campaign. Dinmani newspaperreported that Rahman had asked for gists of a few important prose/ poetryfrom classical tamil literature. Lyricist Ilayakamban had given such acollection to Rahman. Rahman planned to use them in subsequent movies. Rahman dashed to London to be present at the official launch of BombayDreams on February 7th. The glittering function was attended by severaldignitaries and several encomiums were showered on Rahman. Remarked Webber," In Rahman I met someone who I believe could carry the torch of musicaltheatre into a new dimension". IN a question by the BBC on what the hefelt the difference was in composing in India and London, Rahman remarkedthat back in India he got Mom's food while in London he had to live ontinned food. The musical would premiere in London's Apollo Victoria theatreon May 31 and have regular shows from June 19. Rahmanapparently met director S.J.Surya on a flight from Mumbai to Chennai andgave the nod to compose for his next film 'New'. Meanwhile Kamal Hassanput his project with Rahman, Naran, on hold and went ahead with 'Panchatantram'for which he signed Deva. Rahman gave the green signal to the makers ofa T.V. serial based on noted Tamil literateur Kalki's epic Ponniyin Selvan.To be produced by a Singapore based company Hebron Image Makers the serialwas to be directed by T.V.Raja starring M.N.Nambiar, Vijayakumar and K.R.Vijayaamong others. The serial was to be screened on Sun T.V. Vairamuthu is topen the lyrics. Meanwhile it was also clarified that Kannathil Muthamittalwas held up only because of censor issues and not any delay on the partof Rahman. Several critics praised Kannathil Muthamittal's music as reflectinga 'new found maturity' in his music. Rahman's films for Vashu Bhagnaniand Ahmed Khan converged with Vashu Bhagnani launching his next productionstarring Kareena Kapoor, Tusshar Kapoor and Abhishek Bachchan directedby Ahmed Khan. Rahman hit back by bagging his 14th Filmfare Award for 'Lagaan'which he received at a glittering ceremony in Mumbai on February 16th.Women's magazine Femina once again named Rahman in a list of men womenlike - "The small, humble man for his soul-stirring music and for makingus sing ‘Vande Mataram’ again. On February12th Lagaan became only the third Indian film to be nominated to the Oscarsthus providing Rahman another platform to deliver his music from. Sonymade plans to promote the music of the film as well. Says Shreedhar Subramanium,managing director, Sony Music: “Internationally the album is being releasedas a mainstream album. We’ve modified the product, included the song bookand made it multilingual. We’re also tying up with Columbia Tristar andselling the music at the venue, retailing at theatres.” Being a periodfilm, the music has been marketed differently. The background score hasalso been added to the album. Though the main target is the Indian community,the hype spills over to the international media." Kannathil Muthamittalfinally released on February 15th and was unanimously acclaimed as ManiRatnam's best movie to date. Mani had consciously diluted the importanceof the songs in the movie. There was some criticism about Rahman's backgroundmusic being inadequate. The movie featured a sequence where Amudha, thelead character carries a purse with her that always contains the photographof Rahman. Producer A.M.Rathnam widely publicised 'Enakku 20 Unakku 18',the Tamil dubbed version of his Telugu film 'Nee Manasu Naaku Telusu'. Aftera prolonged wait of three years Rajnikanth finally announced a new filmtitled 'Baba' scripted by himself. Rahman gave the nod to compose the musicof the film. On March 12th Rahman was nominated twice in the Best Musiccategory for 'Zubeidaa' and 'Lagaan' at the 3rd International Indian FilmAcademy Awards to be held in Malaysia on April 6th. The Arjun starrer 'Ashoka'was revived as 'Chanakya' and the film directed by Shaji Kailas went onthe floors again. Rajnikanth's 'Baba' too went on the floors on 24th Marchin a low profile launch. Sony Music released a new double cassette of Lagaanwith the dialogues and a new song Zin Kinak Zin which was not picturisedin the film on the same day. 'Lagaan' failed in its quest for an Oscarwhen it was pipped to the post by Bosnian film 'No Man's Land' but Rahmanhad his moment under the Hollywood sun when O Re Chhori was played duringthe listing of nominated films at the awards ceremony. Rahman made a tourof Landmark and Music World stores in Spencer Plaza, Chennai to interactwith listeners, in March. In its April 2002 edition, Filmfare magazinewrote about Rahman thus, "A.R.Rahman was his usual humble self. After receivinghis award he quietly sat with the Times of India employees in the wingsso that the latecomers could get front seats. Rahman tujhe salaam!" In aresounding testimony of Rahman's growing stature as a global artiste, Londonbased music group the Bollywood Brass Band announced that they were comingout with an album titled, 'Rahmania', a tribute to Rahman containing 16of Rahman's tracks mixed and played by the band. The album is to releasein June. Said Mark Allen, manager of the group "A.R. Rahman is a wonderfulcomposer, and has also led a revolution in production quality using moderndigital techniques. Musically he brings in a lot of South Indian vocaland drum styles, but he seems to listen to everything from everywhere,so you could say he is a world music artist". On the 6th of April, Rahmanwas awarded the IIFA for Best Music for 'Lagaan' at the 3rd InternationalIndian Film Academy Awards in Malaysia. On the 7th The Guardian newspaperof England carried an interview with Andrew Lloyd Webber in which Webberdescribed Rahman as being in the league of Paul McCartney. In keeping withthe attention that Bombay Dreams was generating, this was followed up byan article on Rahman in the London tabloid THe News of the World. The articlespoke of him having sold more records than Madonna and Britney Spears puttogether. Forthe umpteenth time reports spoke of the long-stalled 'Engineer' being revived.But there appeared no concrete moves on the same. Rajinikanth roped informer Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi to write a song for his 'Baba'thus making it the second time Rahman was composing a song penned by theKalaignar, the first time being in 'Yelelo'. The Bollywood Brass Band'sRahmania released on April 15. On April 25, Rahman appeared at the launchof ImagineAsia, an eight month long festival in London meant to showcasecinema from the Indian sub-continent. Bollywood was showcased at the Selfridgesstore in London with Rahman music playing in the store throughout the festival.Speaking to the Press Trust of India, Rahman revealed that he had beenoffered two Hollywood projects by Sony's Columbia Pictures but refusedto divulge any more details. Director S.J.Surya confirmed that Rahman wouldbe scoring the music for his forthcoming film 'New' expected to go on thefloors in the latter half of the year. Rahman was nominated in the BestMusic category for 'Lagaan' at the 3rd Annual Zee Gold Bollywood Awards.Rahman was also invited to be part of the Indian delegation at the prestigiousCannes' Film Featival to be held in late-May. With the impending releaseof Bombay Dreams, the publicity for the musical was touching a feverishpitch with every mainstream publication and newspaper according extraordinarycoverage to the musical. It was supposed to have 70% new compositions andthe rest were reworked from Rahman's earlier compositions. Meanwhilean article in Dhina Bhoomi newspaper spoke of Rahman setting one of A.B.Vajpayee'spoems to tune for a compilation album planned by Director Priyadarshan.The music of 'The Legend of Bhagat Singh' released in early May and perhapsfor the first time , a composer shared as much space on the inlay cardas the lead artiste when Rahman's mug shot got the entire bottom half ofthe inlay card of the film's CDs and cassettes. A report in the Dinamaninewspaper said that Rahman would compose the music for a short film tobe made by Director Priyadarshan for this year's Independence Day and wouldstar child artiste Keerthana and the Indian Prime Minister Atal BehariVajpayee. A report in the Economic Times on the highest tax payers in thepast year from the entertainment industry listed Rahman at No. 27, thehighest tax paying composer/musician in the country. Rahman apparentlypaid taxes to the tune of Rs. 60 lakhs in 2001-2002. Thepublicity for Bombay Dreams touched a feverish pitch with Webber managingto get nearly every publication of note to do a feature on Bombay Dreams.The first preview held on May 31 also received a favourable response. 'ShakalakaBaby' which was released as a single also became an instant chartbuster.The British press hailed Rahman as the 'Asia Mozart'. Amidst all theseglowing reports came in news that Rajanikanth's baba was getting delayedbecause of Rahman. The Legend of Bhagat Singh was released on June 7thand Rahman was hailed for his music and background score while the movieitself was described as 'close to a masterpiece'. The songs picked up withthe release of the film. Sony Music announced that it had picked up therights for the Bombay Dreams soundtrack and a forthcoming Instrumentalalbum of Rahman. In an interview to The Hindu veteran Malayalam composerIsaac Thomas Kottukapally revealed that he had a long standing associationwith Rahman and Rahman's first ever independent music composition was ajingle for an ad film made by Mr. Isaac in Cochin in 1987. Themuch awaited musical Bombay Dreams has its soundtrack released on the 17thof June and two days later the show itself was premiered at the ApolloVictoria Theatre in London. Speaking about Rahman the show's producer,Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber said "ARR is the best composer I've heard in mylifetime." Lyric writer Don Black said, "Rahman is a genius. It has proveda weird, if uplifting, experience. You can't compare Rahman to any othercomposer - for a start he is very religious. He sits down and improvisesfor about an hour and I say 'I love that' and he develops those bits. Ina way, I'm a song detective." There are other benefits. Normally when youwrite with a composer it is hard work. But with Rahman being a spiritualperson, it is very much 'it will happen when it happens'. If you are inthe middle of a song and it gets difficult he is quite happy to leave it.The other thing is he has a wholly different attitude to deadlines in thecreative process from the Western one, which I'm obviously used to. Hisapproach is the song will come when it comes, which is a bit nerve-wrackingto start with, but — along with a bit of prompting from me regarding deadlines— it eventually seemed to work." DirectorSteve Plimlott says, "Rahman is a melodic genius, and I don't use the word'genius' very often. In India, people say he's their Mozart, and it's sortof true." The star studded premiere show was attended by Sir Andrew LloydWebber, his wife Madeliene Webber, socialite Ivana Trump, director ShekharKapoor, pop star Bob Geldof, actor Sir Michael Caine, TV personality SirDavid Frost, Shahrukh Khan, Juhi Chawla, Naseeruddin Shah, Subhash Ghaifrom Bollywood, musicians Talvin Singh and Nitin Sawhney, IndustrialistLaxmi Mittal, former Miss World Diana Hayden among others and ended witha standing ovation being accorded to Rahman and Webber.The critics, fansand the press were almost unanimous in their praise of Rahman's music inBombay Dreams. The CD rose to No. 6 on Amazon's sales charts. Saida fan, "This album encapsulates the essence of Bollywood, from the firstsweeping strings to the breath taking dance numbers. I was not a fan ofasian music, but this album has certainly made me change my mind. A R Rahman'sground breaking music fuses ethnic indian with western beats. The songsare simply stunning and lyrical. IN a review in Mid-day, South Asian filmexpert Naman R S wrote, "Rahman can now take his rightful place as oneof the greatest living composers on the planet. From tender ballads torambunctious foot-stompers to a satisfyingly percussive background score,he pulls out all the musical stops and creates a work that showcases hisunique talent." The BBC wrote " It was inevitable with any 19 track albumto have a mixed bag of hit and miss songs, some were amazing others forgettable,but all in all a remarkable achievement." Times Online opined "it's incrediblycatchy, full of soaring ballads and — when the drums stop pounding — gildedwith beguiling instrumental colour." Butthere were a couple of dissenting opinions as well. The Independent wrote,"A R Rahman has written a few pleasant tunes, but the overall sound ismore background than foreground, and a lot of the music is routine "oriental"stuff, the sort of thing one would hear in an old movie." And This is Londonmag said, "The music by the famous Indian composer, AR Rahman, played bya tiny, 10-strong orchestra, falls blandly between two worlds. Far toooften it sounds more western than Indian. The mix is dull. So the chanceof hearing a fresh score scarcely materialises." Theshow itself received a mixed response with descriptions that ranged from"disappointing" to "refreshing". Reuters summed up the reaction of theBritish Press as,"British critics gave theatre impresario Andrew LloydWebber's latest musical adventure, an extravagant version of Bollywoodlove story Bombay Dreams, a qualified thumbs up on Thursday after its Londonpremier." The Daily Mail said "Once you enter the spirit, the show, cannilyproduced by Andrew Lloyd Webber, is a delight.And it brings to a mainstreamaudience the astounding musical talent of AR Rahman, the 36-year-old "AsianMozart" from Madras who has sold more records than Madonna and BritneySpears combined." The Daily Express wrote "Great fun, great costumes, anda refreshing change from every other West End show." But the Independentwas very critical, " It's a shame that this potentially thrilling subjectis crippled by formula and mediocrity. Bombay Dreams may have the rightingredients, but the whole samosa is less than the sum of its parts." Backin India The Hindu said that Bombay Dreams opened to a disappointing responsebut added, "The only winner, according to critics, is A.R.Rahman's musicand even if Bombay Dreams fails to take off, as seems likely, his own popularitywould only soar." On June29th Rahman appeared at the annual Bollywood Movie Awards in New York toreceive the Best Composer Award for 'Lagaan'. Daxco Digital, a leadingacoustics firm announced that it had been selected by Rahman to equip anew state-of-the-art studio that he was building in Chennai. To be spreadover a area of more than 5000 sq. ft. area Rahman's famed Panchathan RecordInn would move here on completion. Slated to be completed by end-2002 itwill house a recording studio as well as a film mix stage . The studioswill not only house a full-blown Recording Suite but also a Film Mix Stagewhere final mix-downs will take place. The Acoustic Design & Architecturalplans for the studios were made by Studio 440 , acoustic architects fromCA, USA who have designed studios for Interscope/ Universal Music Group, Warner Brothers , Burbank , California and Saban Entertainment , justto name a few. The studio is expected to be one of the best in Asia. BombayDreams, which had a slow start, went on to become a major hit through word-of-mouthpublicity and its run was extended by more than year. A relieved AndrewLloyd Webber announced plans to take Bombay D reams to Broadway in 2003-2004.Bombay Dreams ended up becoming the biggest West End hit of the year. Themusic of Bombay Dreams was released to wide spread publicity in India inmid-july with Rahman making an appearance at Planet M in Mumbai and MusicWorld in Chennai to release the music. The British press crowned him withthe title 'Mozart of the East'. In India too, the Bombay Dreams score turnedinto a chart-topper, hitting the number one spot for five continuous weekson MTV India World Chart Express the list includes top albums from theUS and Australia. And Sony Music, which had the rights to the music, saidit had a hit on its hands and had already sold 150,000 copies despite thefact that it was priced at a premium like other international numbers andwas in English. Webber summed up, "In Rahman, I met someone who I believecould carry the torch of musical theatre into a new dimension." Recountinghis experience of working with Rahman on Bombay Dreams, lyricist Don Blacksaid, "Rahman is a genius, but as he comes from such a different culture,working with him took a bit of time getting used to! You'd be chattingabout a song, and suddenly he's get up and leave the room. Before I gotto know him well I thought, 'Has he gone to the loo? Is it something Isaid?' but what he actually does is just get up, go out, and pray. He'sa very spiritual man. he has a wholly different attitude to deadlines inthe creative process from the Western one, which I'm obviously used to.His approach is the song will come when it comes, which is a bit nerve-wrackingto start with, but along with a bit of prompting from me regarding deadlinesit eventually seemed to work." July27th marked a momentous day in the history of contemporary Indian music.It was ten years to the day that the music of Roja was released. In the10 years that followed this occasion Rahman had brought about a sea changein Indian music and taken it international. And it was only rhe beginning.The icing of the cake was the announcement of the award of the NationalFilm Awards for the year with Rahman bagging the Best Composer award forLagaan, this being his third national award, a feat unmatched by any ofhis contemporaries. The much awaited music of Baba released in early Augustto a tepid response. The music did not have the mark of Rahman in it andwas greeted by disappointment by both Rahman and Rajni fans. The musicwas widely proclaimed to be the worst of the Rahman-Rajni partnerships.With the movie also flopping, Baba added to Rahman's recent streaks offlops in Tamil cinema. Rahman signed debutant director Ranjith's 'Swami'which was the Tamil version of the bilingual film titled 'Nandanam' inMalayalam. Rahman also signed director S.J.Suryah's 'New'. The movie waslaunched at a gala ceremony on August 15th with Rahman being prominentlyfeatured in all the publicity material. 'New' was to be remade in Teluguwith Mahesh Babu as 'Naani'. In an interview to Gulf News Rahman said thathe was exploring the possibility of a concert in Dubai in 2003. August15th marked the 1oth anniversary of the release of Roja, a day that heraldeda metamorphosis of Indian film music. Rahman announced plans for a concerttour of the USA and Canada in early 2003. In itsedition dated August 18th, India's leading business magazine, BusinessToday carried feature on India's most Global corporate brands. one of whichwas Rahman. 16% of all people surveyed across the globe said that theyhad heard of Rahman. "The numbers tell the story of Alla Rakha Rahman'sstanding in India: 107 million albums sold. International recognition hasbeen nudging him for some time. With Andrew Lloyd Webber's Bombay Dreams,though, Rahman may have arrived. Miramax is taking the show to New York,and the buzz in Chennai (Rahman's base) is that he has signed on for acouple of Broadway musicals. The man himself is busy working on one ofthe five films he does every year", wrote the magazine. On August16, it was announced that India's leading telecom services company BhartiTeleservices had signed up Rahman as Brand Ambassador for its wirelessservice Airtel. The news was significant as it market the return of Rahmanto where he started his career - advertisements. Rahman would not onlycompose the jingle for a series of ads, he would actually star in the adspromoting the Airtel brand. In addition Rahman would also compose fiveexclusive ringtones for Airtel customers. Of the five ring tones, two willbe from the ad film itself, for which Rahman has composed the music, anothertwo will be youth oriented while the third one will be akin to a lullaby."We will spend Rs 100 crore as part of our marketing initiative on AirTelbrand in the fiscal 2002-03 and are planning to involve Rahman in our corporatecampaign for 'Bharti' as a mother brand," Bharti Enterprises joint managingdirector Ranjan Bharti Mittal said. He saidthe new brand campaign delivered AirTel's new positioning 'Live Every Moment'in a simple yet real fashion. On association of the renowned music composerwith the brand, Mittal said the new AirTel TV campaign celebrates a person'sinherent need to communicate simultaneously and grab that moment to liveit completely. "Rahman reinforces the leader-innovator and Indian cum internationaldimensions of AirTel," he said. This marked a new career move for Rahman.Rahman was reportedly paid a whopping Rs. 20 million, according to industrysources. This was the first time that Rahman has associated himself withany brand anywhere in the world although he had endorsed Filmfare in aprint campaign earlier. SaidRahman, "Just like AirTel, the concept of bridging emotions, distancesand cultures is a concept that I often try to reflect through my musicas well. I am pleased to feature in the AirTel ad campaign. In fact, Ibegan my career by doing ad jingles so its like going back to my roots.The adfilm is directed by my friend Rajiv Menon and is shot both in Chennaiand London. Let’s hope people like this commercial, God willing. However,I am not sure whether I will endorse other brands in the future." "TheAirtel ad actually was a true account of what once happened while I wasrecording I chanced upon a tune and had it played back to my studio onthe mobile. So when Bharti approached me with the creative I was quitesurprised. I was apprehensive about how I would look before the camera,but I think the reactions and response show that I haven’t been too badafter all." Thead directed by long time Rahman friend and reknowned ad-film maker anddirector Rajeev Menon for ad agency Rediffusion debuted on August 30thacross major Television channels and became an instant success. The adfeatured Rahman arriving at the airport to see a sobbing child. Rahmanpulls out his harmonica and composes a tune to placate the child. He callsup his studio over the Airtel mobile phone and plays the tune for themto record. Enroute to a concert performance Rahman ropes in assorted musiciansfrom the street and records the complete song over the mobile phone andmakes it just in time for the concert. The jingle was a major hit and washeard ringing from every mobile phone in town for several weeks. If thefigures are to be believed, the ad had a sledgehammer-like impact. Thecompany’s brand tracking research shows that top of the mind recall forthe Airtel brand has gone up from 73 per cent of customers interviewedto 78 per cent. On 17thSeptember Mani Ratnam and the producers of Roja announced that Roja wouldbe relaunched for an international release. Rahman appeared at the pressconference. An article in Ananda Vikatan spoke of Rahman composing fordirector Bharatiraaja's new venture, 'Kangalal Kaidhu Sei'. Rumours thatSubhash Ghai was wooing Rahman to compose for his next directorial venturewere floating around in the press. Rahman recorded a song for Ahmed Khan'sdirectorial venture with girl band Viva. The Arjun starrer Chanakya wasrenamed yet again, as 'Parasuram'. Rahman released the debut title of MandolinSrinivas' brother Anil Srinivasan, 'Into the Light'. Reports spoke of Rahmanhaving broken away from the traditional one-time payment system of Indianmusic composers to a royalty based fee system. BusinessStandard, a leading Indian business newspaper carried an article on Rahmangoing international. The article spoke of Bombay Dreams' success and Rahmanbeing the only bankable star in the film industry. Amit Khanna, chairman,Reliance Entertainment and also a lyric writer: "He’s not imitative, hespaces himself out unlike other directors who sign up whatever they canget and are looking at quantity rather than quality. As a result, in 60per cent to 70 per cent of the cases he delivers." Harish Dayani, executivedirector of Saregama HMV, which released Sapney: "He is the most bankablestar of all and I wouldn’t hesitate to pay a premium of as much as 50 percent to him compared to other music directors."The article sang glowingpraises of Rahman. "The music maestro has also cleverly marketed himselfas a recognisable brand. Rahman has also played his financial cards withreasonable skill. He is one music director who prefers to be paid royaltyrather than a one-off lumpsum amount.Rahman’s popularity is undoubtedlyincredible especially at a time when the music market is facing hard times." Rahmanwas repeatedly asked in numerous interviews if he was quitting the Indianfilm industry and moving to London, following the success of Bombay Dreams.Rahman said that he had turned down offers to compose for five new musicals.He said that making music for the Indian film industry continues to behis passion. "These are the songs that made me important. I will neverleave the industry for better opportunities". In 10 years Rahman had madea successful transformation from a shy studio composer to a suave and savvypublic figure. In an interview Rahman remarked, Making music today, believesRahman, is now more challenging. "I think there is more pressure now, theaudience taste is much more elevated and they are more demanding. But it'sgood for us. They are much more open to new things. I am scared of meetingpeople, because I can't say no to them. I usually end up saying yes evenwhen I want to refuse." Themusic of the delayed Kadhal Virus was finally released on October 12. Themusic was released by Sony Music which was venturing into regional musicfor the first time. The music saw some amazing new compositions from Rahmanand met with a good response. The Amir Khusro Sangeet Academy conferredthe title of 'Sangeet Nawaz' on Rahman and received the award from UstadBismillah Khan, the shehnai exponent at a ceremony in Chennai. Rahman signedShyam Benegal's ambitious bio-pic on Subhash Chandra Bose, 'Netaji - TheLast Hero' which was to be a international project.. On October 21, Rahmanrecorded the first song for Subhash Ghai's new venture and the film wasformally announced on October 24. The film would be launched on December24th. Rahman released 'Ashtaruchi' an album of Carnatic classical musicproduced by Bharat Kalachar. On October25th, Airtel released the five exclusive ringtones composed by Rahman.The five ringtones were ‘Dream’ - the ability to dream, the confidenceto achieve; ‘Desire’ - the passion & spontaneity of the moment; ‘Buddy’- the spirit of friendship; ‘Sizzle’ - the togetherness of fun & frolic;‘Little One’ - the joy of the moment with your child. With the releaseof these ringtones Airtel's network was jammed for hours with customer'srushing to download them. In an interview to India Today, Shekhar Kapurrevealed that Rahman would score the music for his next film 'Pani' a storyon water wars in India in future. The music of 'Saathiya' the remake ofAlai Payuthey was released on October 29th. 7 songs were reused from theoriginal while two songs were new compositions. On October 31, Queen ElizabethII graced a special Red Cross charity show of Bombay Dreams and commendedRahman. On November 3rd it was reported that Rahman could possibly performat an international conference for NRIs to be organised by the Governmentof India on January 9, 2003. Hisforthcoming films include 'New', 'Ashoka/Chanakya/Parasuram', 'Engineer','Mudhal Mudhalaaga' , 'Udaya', 'Theekul Viralai Vaithal', 'Prashanth','Yelelo' , 'Robot', 'Boys', '9-30 to 10-00', 'Thullal', 'Swami', 'KangalalKaidhu Sei' and Selva's untitled next in Tamil and 'Rashq', 'Ittefaq','Waqia', 'Neecha Aasmaan', 'Do Kadam Chal Ke Dekho','Dil Ne Jise Apna Kaha', Ada', 'Ganga', 'Tehzeeb' , 'Awaaz/Samjhauta Express','Netaji The Last Hero', Shekhar Kapoor's 'Pani' and Subhash Ghai, Ahmed Khan, Javed Jaffrey's untitled ventures in Hindi, A.M.Rathnam's'Nee Manasu Naaku Telusu' in Telugu and Priyadarshan's 'Kancheepuram' inMalayalam, and 'Taj Mahal-The Great Indian Experience', 'The Rising', 'The Return of the Thief of Baghdad', 'The Last Revolutionary' and'Water' in English and the non-film 'Ekam Satyam', 'Listen'. Besides thishe also has the serial 'Ponniyin Selvan' and Instrumental album of hishits for Sony. He is also,reportedly, currently working on his next non-filmproject, where he is tuning the poems of the famous Tamil poet and freedomfighter Subramania Bharati alias 'Bharatiyar'. His future plans includea private album with singer Asha Bhonsle. |
EPILOGUE:Theman behind the music is still much of an enigma. "If a music artiste wantsto blossom into a full-pledged person, it's not enough if he knows onlyclassical music; nor it's enough if he's well-versed only in raagaas andtechniques. Instead, he should be a knowledgeable person interested inlife and philosophy. In his personal life there should be, atleast in somecorner of his heart, a tinge of lingering sorrow," he says. Whenasked if turning religious helped his work, he says "After a point, itis energy which comes from above and removes your insecurity. Then youcan go ahead. The world can abuse you but your confidence cannot be shaken.You want fame, but once you get it you lose your head. So just leave itto God and carry on with your work. It makes it all easy. If I put it inmy head that I did it, then I fall flat because I can't take the next step.When asked why there is so much back-biting about him, he says "See, youcan never be a better person to everyone,'' he says ingenuously. "To achievesomething you have to offend someone. I am doing five films and someonesays, do mine too. I say no. And he goes around saying, "Rahman? Bullshit!''because I'm no longer useful to him. Besides, so much is happening outside,you need to hang on to something peaceful''. When asked if he is scaredof disappointments he states frankly "Disappointments? Failures?The holy book says they test you. A few years down the line you see thesetback was a good thing, it stopped disaster''. He wants to be like aboat on a river without a sail, the currents having freeplay. 'I am likea boat in the river, I go where ever it takes me', he says. Rahman's visitsto dargahs and long prayer sessions have been criticised as unprofessionalinterruptions of his schedule."If there's no mental peace, what schedule?I need that spiritual cleansing, I meet the friends of God who have learntso much and helped so many.'' He sees dargahs as beyond religious conflicts.The Sufi way of love answers his need. Rahman discloses also that withthat gain in confidence, he has become more considerate towards others. If allthis reveals a man mature beyond his years, he responds by saying " I havebeen with older people since I was eleven.Only when I saw my photographin the newspaper while scoring for Roja did I discover I didn't have greyhair, why, I was quite young!'' He continues "I know there is no pointin all this success. I remember father, I remember how he suffered. AndI learnt the hard lesson. When a musician is in demand everyone flocksaround him... otherwise he's abandoned like a shirt that is torn and tattered.I've seen the callousness of the world with my very own eyes at ayoung age. Today, I know that success doesn't last forever. It could disappearsuddenly one day. In fact,I feel every new film that I take up will bemy last one. If I'm wanted today, I could be discarded tomorrow. they'llsimply say, 'look this boy has failed and he thought he was in a positionof advantage.' " He adds, "Each movie is like a child to me. If the childis beautiful, its a matter of pride for me." Rahman,for whom music is not just a profession but 'a spiritual experience', completed9 years in the film industry on August 15th 2001. In this short span hechanged the very face of film music in India and touched heights that nomusic director ever had previously. He has built up a repertoire of scintillatingscores that anybody would kill for. He has become a national icon. He isalso arguably the most well known Indian composer of popular music internationally.He has successfully taken popular Indian music international. He has fansnot just among expatriate Indians but also among natives of places likeBrazil, Sweden and Australia. He changed the image of a music directorfrom being a paan-chewing, harmonium-clutching copycat to that of a technology-savvyperson. He took Tamil music global and established the universal appealof his music, whatever the language the lyrics be in. He set the standardsby which music came to be rated in India. The benchmarks set by him werewhat others aimed to achieve. The soundtracks of his unsuccessful scoressold more than the soundtracks of the successful scores of other composers.He also collected inumerable accolades for his work - a Padmashri, 14 FilmfareAwards in 10 years (9 years on the trot in Tamil and 5 in Hindi), 3 NationalAwards, 6 Tamil Nadu State Awards and numerous others - a feat unparalleledand not likely to be overhauled in the foreseeable future. Every directorof repute yearns to work with him and every actor hopes to dance to histunes, literally. At theage of 35, when many others are just starting out, Rahman has garneredachievements that many others cannot in a lifetime. He has already workedwith internationally reputed artistes like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, MichaelJackson, Jean Michel Jarre, Sir Andrew LLoyd Webber, Deep Forest, ApacheIndian, Zakir Hussain, Dominic Miller, L.Shankar, David Byrne, Kadri Gopalnath,Vikku Vinayakram, Ustad Sultan Khan and Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt amongmany others. On a recent trip to India, David Byrne met Rahman and wasso impressed that he went on to record some sessions with Rahman for aprojecthe is currently completing (as yet unreleased). It can be safelysaid that the current modern era will be considered as to have been greatlyinfluenced by the 'Rahman School of Music'. Rahman lists among his musicalfavourites Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Carpenters, Carnatic, Rock and fusionand among film composers Naushad, S. D. and R. D. Burman and in Tamil K.V. Mahadevan and Vishwanathan-Ramamoorthy. Whenasked what music means to him, he says "Many things. Its hard to define:bread and butter, peace, happiness, and devotion. When you are workingon a piece and it turns out to be good its like a moment of magic. It givesyou a lot of happiness when you think that millions are listening to yourmusic. Its also a whole process- making it likeable to myself first andthentaking it towards perfection. Music is beyond description and withoutboundaries. We have to keep expanding our horizons and make room for newthings. take a small butterfly or insect - if you look at it closely youdiscover so many new things. When I do something, I want to be original.I sit, just blank my mind and pray. and I come up with something. Mostlyits good and gets approved. It could be so simple and even a child couldhave composed it, but to give it soul that's what's important. Music isa spiritual thing not a formula. "If a music artiste wants to blossom intoa full-pledged person, it's not enough if he knows only classical music;nor it's enough if he's well-versed only in raagaas and techniques. Instead,he should be a knowledgeable person interested in life and philosophy.In his personal life there should be, atleast in some corner of his heart,a tinge of lingering sorrow." "I'minspired any time I watch a good musician playing. When I'm programmingmy music on my own, I always think of some great drummer or some greatbass guitarist. When I'm playing on the keyboards, I think of how beautifullyanother musician plays the instrument. And that inspires me to play." "WhenI see Mughal-e-Azam I feel the whole sound track has been produced witha continuous, intense feeling. No cracks, no jerks. It took Naushad twoyears of concentration, as if he couldn't see anything else''. Whenasked if dealing with constant pressures of delivering somthting differentwould lead to a burnout, Rahman says, "I believe that a burnout occurswhen one is not happy with what he is doing. Probabaly he's doing it outof family pressures or financial hassles. But not for the passion of it.But I am in this profession because I thoroughly enjoy doing what I do,and wouldn't want to do anything else. That's the reason why I have neverfelt overworked or then felt like taking a break from my work. At times,all I want to do is absorb the things happening around me and study moreabout music. But everything that I do has to be related only to music.So, there's no concept of a burnout occuring in my life. God forbid." "Aboveall I am a strong believer in destiny. I also believe that destiny canbe changed by prayers." "I amsurprised when good things happen. I am cool when something bad happens,also. I trust God and in that way helps me to get rid of unnecessary thingslike jealousy, greed and all that stuff. Although I'm not fully out ofit, at least I am almost at the surface of getting out of it. These thingskind of give me a security for doing music. I don't have to worry if whetherI'll be good, if I'll be successful, I'll be a failure or if I'll be thrownout or anything like that. Your almost like a vacuum, straight about everything.Which gives you a completely sublime, lonely feeling apart from others." Neverone to boast or brag about his accomplishments, he credits all his inspirationand success to Allah. "I am whatever because of my parents' prayers toAllah. I am whatever I am because the prayers I pray conscientiously, sincerelyand with full faith five times a day. I will be whatever I am only becauseof Allah, I know it. He has given me everything. He can take everythingaway and I accept His decision without any questions, without a murmur.Allah is my everything. I am just an infinitesimal creation of His. Hehas created me for a specific mission. I will be committing a sin if Idon't fulfil that mission. That's my only belief. That's the only thingthat matters to me. I don't care for all the other temptations of the world.I am born for music. I live for music. I will live for music till the veryend. That's Allah's will. That's all I Know", Rahman says. "The problemis, you can create only as long as you have the gift, only as long as thealmighty wishes. After that, you can stand on your head, it still won'tcome. If God wills it so, it may happen to me too. I can take that. I belivethat every individual, even an atom, can move only with the will of God.I don't take credit for doing all this. If I did, then I would fall flat.'' "Destiny has been the biggest influence in my life. Without the willof God I would have never reached where I have. That's why I believe Iam like a boat in a river without a sail and a firm destination". Apartfrom the Almighty he credits all his success to his mother who encouragedhim to take up music when his interest lay in electronics. His maxim isthat only total dedication and concentration to one's profession can helpin producing good work. Rahman is certain that this dedication must increasewith fame. Rahman makes his presence felt again despite maintaining a lowprofile in public life. It is well known that he is seldom seen at socialgatherings, film parties or functions. "Fans, VIPs wanting to meet you,functions, parties - the moment you stop making good music all will stop.The only formula is - yes, we are back to it - total concentration on thework." All this success has not uprooted him from his roots, "Beyond whatpeople achieve and strive for the only things that are really importantare - personal values, family and friends." Ever the great improviser henever stops till he is fully satisfied. "If an album is to please all agegroups, go beyond current fads, it must have a couple of memorable melodies.'Hai rabbas' don't satisfy me. They make hits but are soon forgotten. Youwant to do something that lasts.'' Rahmantreats his compositions with a Sufi's dedication. When a tune comes tohim he ceases to function normally. "When music comes to me," he confessedin an unguarded moment, "I stop sleeping. I continue to work on spontaneouslyat nights for seven to eight hours at a stretch. When I finally pop offto sleep early in the morning I have these dreams that people are waitingfor me. I can't even complete these dreams ." In responseto all the acclaim he has received, he says "It's a great responsibility.I am trying my best to combine traditional and contemporary styles. Butsometimes the result isn't in my hands at all. It depends on the film andthe director. Trends come and go but I have to keep doing my own thing."."You have to learn from the inside out. None can teach you,none can make you spiritual. There is only teacher and that is your soul. ForRahman, who eats music, thinks music, breathes music and lives music, thebottomline is that his music should reach out to the soul of humankind."I know there are many people who say I don't know what music is. Thereare so many who say that what I create is not music. But I know the peopleare with me. The people love my music. I know Allah is with me all thetime while I am creating and with Allah by my side I know nothing can gowrong. My music comes from somewhere deep within me. I could have createdany kind of music but I create only that kind of music that comes fromwithin my being. My music has a mission. It has to reach the bodies, thesouls of the millions for whom I strive to create my music, music thatsprings from deep within me. I am a within man more than without. It isthe language of the heart and the soul together that makes my music. AndI don't have to make great efforts because my kind of music does not comeby force or necessity. It has to flow from within me. That's the only wayI know how to create. There's no other way. Let the people who don't likemy music say what they want, I say again and again. Allah be with them.It is this music which he helps me create which appeals to both the bodyand the soul that is going to be one of the greatest forces that will helppeople from all over the world come closer, become one in body and soulin the millennium to come. I am working on that music for the future." Amidstall this heady success, Rahman remains unchanged. He is as humble, modest,shy, low profile, unassuming, self-affacing, devout and down-to-earth ashe was at the beginning of his career. A man of few words he believes inletting his work do all the talking. He prefers to save his energies forhis work instead of fighting out numerous controversies. His personalityis summed up in his favourite prayer which goes thus "O God, if I worshipthee for fear of hell, burn me in hell, and if I worship thee in hope ofParadise, exclude me from Paradise, but if I worship thee for thy own sake,grudge me not thy everlasting beauty." The man has given immense pleasureto millions of music lovers world-wide with his compositions, music thatbrings a cheer to one's face and helps in forgetting one's troubles. Itis probably these very divine qualities that made him the great man heis and the same will hopefully help him touch greater heights and touchnewer glories and keep millions enchanted with his blissful music for yearsto come. §§ § § §
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