http://abhiramn.blogspot.com/2008/05/jana-gana-mana-r-rahman.html
All countries have a National Anthem. National Anthems symbolize the values of the country it represents and are as sacred as the National Flag. Jana gana mana is the National Anthem of India. It was authored by the Nobel prize winner Rabindranath Tagore. The music score to the poem that was originally written in Bengali was also composed by Tagore. It was instituted as the national anthem of India in 1950. It is interesting to note that another poem by the legendary Tagore is the National Anthem of Bangladesh. Jana gana mana describes the vastness of India and hails victory to India's destiny. In India, the Anthem is sung in schools before the bell rings to mark the end of the school day. The Anthem concludes all public events. Movie theatres and theatrical plays used to play the National Anthem after the show is over. People would raise and sing along and then leave the hall. Today, nobody even cares to stay back for the credits at the end of the movie. Youth festivals conducted every year for school kids even have competitions in rendering of the Jana gana mana. Different countries follow different traditions when the Anthem is played. In Canada and US, you put your palm on your chest and sing. In India, you have to raise, stand in attention with arms on the side and look ahead with your head held high. The poem was written before the partition of India. There are references to the Sindh regions in the poem which are now part of Pakistan. There have been pressures to remove references to these regions from the Anthem and substitute them with Kashmir. But the Supreme Court of India ruled rightly that the wordings of the poem cannot be changed. There are other controversies too surrounding the national anthem regarding whom the poet dedicates the poem to. Those are subject to lengthy discussions on their own entirety. Indians are said to be most patriotic when watching Cricket matches and when they are watching movies related to the subject. All jokes and controversies aside, the National anthem stirs something inside you, pulls a string or two in your heart and fills your mind with patriotism when you hear it or sing it. Jana Gana Mana - by Bharat Bala and A. R. Rahman is an effort to showcase the flavours of the national anthem with the aid of soulful music. This was a project in which over 35 top artistes of the nation came together to sing or play the Indian National Anthem, "Jana Gana Mana". The project had started as "Desh Ka Salaam" which was telecast in Indian TV channels and on the web on August 15, 1999, in which several great Indian musicians, from the classical to the contemporary, came together to give a soulful and modern rendition of the National Anthem. It seems at first, a daunting prospect that a compilation of songs would require you to stand stiff at attention through its entire duration – the album being Jana Gana Mana, and consisting of renditions of our national anthem by the country's foremost musicians – but, at the risk of courting blasphemy, there is possibly a way out. Think of the anthem not as an intimidating expression of patriotism so much as an intimate outpouring of passion. (And what is patriotism if not some form of passion?) Think of it as a love song to a beloved nation, a devotional chant to a sacred entity, even a musical meditation on one's motherland – and you'll find that sitting down may be completely appropriate, perhaps even necessary to deal with the emotions that wash over you when DK Pattammal, in that singularly brassy timbre that has coloured so many patriotic songs in the past, launches into her clarion call of Jaya he, Jaya he, Jaye he. And when AR Rahman sings the same lines – towards the end of the collective vocal version, where each singer renders a portion of the anthem, each voice piercing through a hazy cloud of ambient sound that suggests a heavenly choir in deep meditation – it's a soothing caress, a serenade. Could this be an indication that what the anthem stands for has changed down the years, down generations, that what was once a unifying rallying call has now mutated to an individual declaration of love for one's country? That's one way to look at the renditions by – if there ever was a time for a deep breath, it is now – Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Vikku Vinayakram, Nityashree, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Amaan and Ayaan Ali Bangash, Pt. Jasraj, Lata Mangeshkar, Ustad Sultan Khan, SP Balasubrahmanyam, Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma, Rahul Sharma, Dr. Balamuralikrishna, Shobha Gurtu, Ravikiran, Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan, Ghulam Murtuza Khan, Ghulam Qadir Khan, Bhupen Hazarika, Saddiq Khan Langa, Pt. Kartick Kumar, Niladri Kumar, Sudha Raghunathan, P Unnikrishnan, Jagjit Singh, Rashid Khan, Asha Bhosle, Kumaresh-Ganesh, E Gayathri, Begum Parveen Sultana, Pt. Ajoy Chakrabarty, Kaushiki Chakrabarty, Hariharan, Kavita Krishnamurthy and Shruti Sadolikar. Each performer leaves behind a private stamp on this most public of properties. Listen to Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia negotiate the anthem with his flute; the absence of the words we know so well leaves you with simply the contours of the raga roots of the composition (in Bilawal/Shankarabharanam, though there are sketches of other ragas too, notably a stirring Todi by Begum Parveen Sultana). Notice how Pt. Bhimsen Joshi rounds off Taba subha name jage, squeezing microtones into what is usually a staccato three-note climb. And, in the most unexpected (and valuable) addition, see how Rabindranath Tagore's original rendition has the words rolling off his tongue in the manner of a sagely benediction. It's the same piece over and over, and yet each time it's different. Each one of us has a unique equation with our nation, and this fascinatingly unique album is a reminder of that. -- regards, Vithur Whatever God wants to give, no one can deny; Whatever God wants to deny, no one can give. Be happy always
