A piece on A R Rahman: Unpublished and Unedited

The following piece is an unedited, unpublished one from July 2005, long long before the maestro won his international accolades. Am pasting it here for anyone interested in the music man.

Here goes:
Are we late? Some scribes who scrambled to make it on time to Oberoi’s Orchid in chaotic Bangalore exclaimed. ``Is Rahman so punctual? The man who works at odd hours to dole out the out-of-world’ music?’’ asked a bewildered journalist.

For, they found the man, just as one expects A R Rahman to look like…with that typical Rahman hairdo, the charm in demeanour and striking simplicity, but unusually chatting up with a few mediamen. Just that his back was turned to them.

It took them another minute to discover he was just a Rahman-struck fan attempting the elusive music maestro’s hairdo. He went on to get himself photographed with the musician. For courtesy’s sake, the audience hid their bemused smiles. Rahman turned up a neat half hour later.

Even they were star-struck, as they fired a volley of questions – what makes him tick? What makes him different? Him as the composer and singer. Him as a director’s composer or the singer’s. Him internationally speaking…
London’s reviewers of Bombay Dreams, the ensemble of grand music and choreography, dubbed him an `entirely fertile melodist’. The $7 million London production shot Rahman into international limelight and is still riding high on rave reviews.
For the minstrel who makes music for masses, going international himself is key to make Indian music world music. He’s only too eager about the musical The Lord of The Rings, the $ 13.6 million stage production to open in London, New York and Toronto.
``Bombay Dreams was actually about fighting to get our culture on the stage of the West,’’ says Rahman, still fresh after the musical’s colossal success. Excitement show in his voice as he speaks of how the enormous interest by Indians who’ve made a mark there, the creative team’s efforts and the enormous interest generated in the London media placed the whole team on the home tide. ``It was very exhilarating,’’ he beams, raring to go more international.

The urge to make Indian music more and more acceptable globally is strong.

``It’s strange,’’ says Rahman. ``People thought classical music would take over international stage. They continued debating -- `That kind of music will take over or this’. You finally find tabla and sitar samples from CD-Roms available in the market being taken over. They (the West) use these samples to make their productions exotic, like in the film American Beauty.’’

He however welcomes the long-deserved break that Indian music is getting abroad. ``I think Bombay Dreams played a big role in that bridge. It made a statement that our music could be international and can survive. A lot is happening in the music scene as Bombay Dreams after effect.’’

So inspired is he to make Indian melody go world, that he suggests music composer Ilayaraja’s symphony should have happened 10 years ago. ``When I listened to it I thought here was music our younger generation could relate to. He is brilliant and more classical-based. I draw from folk, be it Indian, African, Russian or Bulgarian.’’

``I really wish we had symphony theatres in our country.’’

For the South’s Sultan of strings whose first film Roja catapulted him into national fame, it’s a long way from his position as a keyboard player, an arranger heading to become today’s music sensation.

His break-free attitude made him experiment constantly all these years and continues to. He works at odd hours and inspires his team to do its best.

``It’s like what Maniratnam did. He never dictated what to do, to me. He just let me do what I wanted. It’s about teaching them (team mates) how to do it and letting them free,’’ says Rahman. That’s why he still looks up to Maniratnam who gave him the Roja break.

``Roja is being noted now as one of the 10 global bests. Then we felt it has to be something special. After 10-15 years, it’s getting its recognition,’’ says Rahman, convinced he cannot repeat the Roja feat again.

``Because it’s the first one!’’

Roja set the stage for crossover film music, an absolute trend-setter for the Western blend. Fifteen years hence, Bombay Dreams has taken him a step further, showcasing his steady progress to global vistas.

Aiding him in this growth is technology, which he swears by and uses to his best advantage, be it for improvising sounds or even flawed voices for ``ultimately it’s the music that matters’’, which is a reason his 3D world tour is generating a lot of curiosity. In the 3D world tour spanning London, Amsterdam, Vienna, Sydney, Melbourne, Singapore, Bangalore and New Delhi, parts of the show are to be `watched’ by the audience through 3D glasses.

``I would have been a dumb guy not able to achieve things like transferring songs on the internet, if not for technology. For the film on Mangal Pandey, we recorded a mujra in London and transferred it through the internet the same evening to Mumbai,’’ says ARR.

But ask him about Bollywood vs Southern film industry and he says the sensibility is entirely different. ``Two different worlds. In Mumbai, they’re (films) as good as their last film. But then it is art that matters.’’

Not even age, he says, while he mentions Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhonsle can go on singing for 10 years more. Talent in the voice matters.

But the same Rahman has worked only for one film with Kumar Sanu. ``He has a good voice. I’ve been suggesting his name to many people, although he is associated with Nadeem-Shravan. Most said he would not fit into those songs. I think he did.’’

And of course quality. The composer who avoided watching films he made music for has begun watching them, for quality’s sake.

Three days after his whirlwind stop at Bangalore, Rahman enthralled Tsunami survivors with his singing, went into the sea on a fibre-glass boat with some fishermen and even spoke to school children.

``I am inspired at times by the opposites, by the violence happening around. I compose, with the hope that music brings peace…’’ his words ring in your ears when you read this.