Oscars: Godspeed, Rahman!
This year's Oscars have a special meaning for India because of one man -- A R
Rahman.
If you don't know it already, his compositions for Danny Boyle's much acclaimed
movie, Slumdog Millionaire have earned him three Oscar nominations -- Best
Original Score and Best Song [Jai Ho and O Saya].
While the maestro has won several awards at various events -- most recently the
BAFTA -- the Oscars still remain the BIG one.
So, we decided to get some of his contemporaries to wish him luck at the
Oscars. Here's what his contemporaries have to say about the musical genius and
his chances of winning an Oscar.
Javed Akhtar (Lyricist)
I wanted to meet Rahman after I heard the Tamil songs from Roja. I was very
impressed. I got my chance when I went to Chennai in the early 90s. He came
across as a very humble person and still is even after 15 years of working with
him. He has no ego. I have never heard him bragging or boasting about himself.
And he never speaks ill of anyone.
His other good quality is the fact that he is very accomodating. Once a
producer and director of a film decided to change the situation of the song and
told me and Rahman to make the song accordingly. I felt it was inappropriate
for them to make the demands as it was not justifying the song as well as the
film. Rahman, however said that we should just do what they wanted. 'We should
not let them down,' he told me.
I was very impressed by that gesture. He showed no ill feeling. He is a true
Sufi whose only interest is music. There is a childlike innocence about him.
Udit Narayan (Singer)
Rahman has done India proud because of his music. He has raised the bar of
Indian music to a level like no other music director could do from here.
I hope he wins Oscars just like he won the Golden Globes Award.
My association with him began when he called me to sing for Tamil film,
Kadalan.
I told him it would be difficult for me to sing for the film because Tamil was
a very difficult language. He however convinced me and said that my voice would
only do justice to the song.
I had apprehensions because it was the title song of the film but somewhere
Rahman was convinced that I was the only man who could do justice to the song
and he proved to be right.
The song was not only big hit but it also gave me confidence to sing in Tamil
which I thought was a very difficult language then.
Another thing about Rahman is that he always works in night. He never works in
day time as he loves the silence of night. He believes work is worship and I
feel the creative genius in him is inborn.
One of the best qualities of Rahman is the fact he is always open to
suggestions. I owe a lot to him because I have sung many of my hit songs right
from films like Lagaan, Rangeela, Bombay and Dil Se.
A R Murgadoss
Rahman sir was a great musician even before I joined the industry. So getting
an opportunity to work with him was like a dream come true.
I am a huge fan. When I met him to work on Ghajini, it was like a big fan going
crazy on meeting him. I went all the way from Mumbai to Chennai to meet him to
fix him for the film. It was just a matter of 10 seconds and he was confirmed.
It all happened so quickly that I couldn't believe myself. The experience
working with him was another excitement. He is a very hard worker and everyone
knows that by now. He works through the night without sleeping and working with
him, I had sleepless night too.
I would shoot in the morning and have recordings in the night. I started having
jet lag but it was all worth it. He will always give you options to choose
from. The first song he composed was Guzarish and he gave me two tunes to chose
from.
I feel very proud of him. Indians have started proving themselves on an
international level. He has made India so proud and I hope he gets many more
laurels for our country. He is an asset.
Prasoon Joshi (Lyricist)
Rahman is very spiritual and divine. Everybody who knows him will know that. We
have a great understanding between us. I believe that a writer and composer
should have bondage beyond work and we share that.
We are close to each other. He follows lyrics very well. We jam together and it
is always fun. He is someone who dares to experiment and so do I. He likes to
venture into unknown territories. He approaches tunes and music out of the
blue. It is never planned. He gets his music from within. I have never seen him
taking references from other music.
He draws his inspiration from himself and so do I. Maybe that is why we get
along well with each other. He would never take cliched tunes for songs. The
Delhi 6 title song was his idea. He wanted it to be funky. Many didn't agree,
he composed the tune and proved that it would be good. He always tried to do
something new and different.
He has an appetite for difference. Even during Rang De Basanti, when the song
Pathshala was made, people didn't like the usage the word but he stuck to his
instincts and every one knows to what level the song went. He is always ready
to experiment.
When I learnt he was nominated for Oscars, I was sure he will win. I have a
strong feeling that he will win. Actually even if he doesn't, it really
wouldn't make a difference because he is someone who doesn't need awards and
accolades to prove his work.
We will be honoured if he wins. After working with him, I have realized that he
is a very calm person. He is very straight forward and not an overtly jump to
joy person. I have never seen him talk in the superlative. He doesn't lose his
cool. He is very sure of his convictions.
Naresh Iyer (Singer)
It was 2005. The Channel V Super Singer contest with Adnan Sami as the host.
Out of the 24,000 contestants, by God's grace, I got into the last 25. Rahman
Sir was the co-judge at that stage. It was he who broke my result to me.
He told me, I have good news and bad news for you. Then he said, 'the bad news
is that you are out, and the good news is that you would be singing for me next
week.' I was very upset when he said I was out because I was very sceptical
about him calling me to sing. I thought he was trying to console me because I
was out of the contest.
He was very kind, and though he told me he would call me within a week, after
four days itself, his engineer Aditya Madhi called me. I came down from Mumbai
to Chennai. I was thrilled and nervous to enter his studio. I was worried about
living up to his expectations.
He then told me he was working on a few projects, and he wanted me to try some
tracks. Some of the tracks were used in the final version. My first song was
Mayilirage for S J Suryah's film. That became very popular thanks to Rahman
Sir.
It is only because of him that I am what I am. People heard my voice for the
first time through his songs. I owe him a lot. Other people started calling me
only because I was discovered by him.
My second was Roo ba Roo and Tum Bin from Rang De Basanti which was a huge hit.
I didn't expect the songs to be such big hits. I am grateful to Rahman Sir to
have faith in me. After that, he has been calling me pretty regularly. My new
film with Rahman Sir is Delhi 6.
You will be surprised when the final track of any song comes out. That is
because he works a lot on every song. He is a complete man in music, an
extraordinary composer, very good music arranger and very a good sound engineer
too.
I feel he has always been ahead of times, and still he is. You cannot forget
the contribution of the late H Sridhar, his sound engineer. He was also a major
force in creating the sound that we hear finally.
He is a wonderful human being, a very jovial and friendly person. Inside his
studio, there are no formalities. He treats you more like a friend, and makes
you very comfortable. He never treated me like a newcomer. You will never know
how the music session ends. When you come out of the studio, you really feel
like going back again.
I have been going around the world with him on stage shows. The experience is
thrilling as well as nerve wracking as the very best singers are there with
him. So, there is a pressure to rise up to the level. You have to give your
best at all his stage shows.
As far as sound is concerned, he has created a revolution from Roja onwards.
Even in Slumdog Millionaire, the sound is unique. For westerners, it was really
new sound as there are a lot of Indian elements in the film.
Rashid Ali (Singer)
I have worked with Rahman for about eight years. He is an open minded person.
He listens to different kinds of music which helps him. He always has a story
or the scene in mind when he makes his singers sing. I think this is what sets
him apart from other composers.
His music is always very catchy, fresh and youthful. He is someone who never
gets angry and is very cool. He is very precise in what he wants. He gives you
time and options and is very patient. He has a variety of views coming from the
west. I have great respect for him and feel very proud to know he is nominated
for the Oscars.
He is someone is very down to earth despite the fact of his popularity. He is
known as a person who works more during the nights because it is very peaceful
and inspirational with no distractions. I am very happy that he is nominated
for the Oscars.
I expected this long ago but it is just a matter of time. He definitely
deserves it. He didn't get the recognition that he deserved and that's why the
delay. He is very versatile and I would like to wish him all the luck and may
God be with him always.
Rashid Ali (Singer)
I have worked with Rahman for about eight years. He is an open minded person.
He listens to different kinds of music which helps him. He always has a story
or the scene in mind when he makes his singers sing. I think this is what sets
him apart from other composers.
His music is always very catchy, fresh and youthful. He is someone who never
gets angry and is very cool. He is very precise in what he wants. He gives you
time and options and is very patient. He has a variety of views coming from the
west. I have great respect for him and feel very proud to know he is nominated
for the Oscars.
He is someone is very down to earth despite the fact of his popularity. He is
known as a person who works more during the nights because it is very peaceful
and inspirational with no distractions. I am very happy that he is nominated
for the Oscars.
I expected this long ago but it is just a matter of time. He definitely
deserves it. He didn't get the recognition that he deserved and that's why the
delay. He is very versatile and I would like to wish him all the luck and may
God be with him always.
If I have to talk about Rahman, I have to go back to the days when I knew his
father. In fact, I was more familiar with his father Sekhar, than Rahman. I can
say I knew him from the day I sang my very first song. That was in 1961. M B
Sreenivasan was the music director, and Sekhar was then his assistant. He was
an assistant to everybody; Dakshinamurthy, Arjunan, Baburaj, Devarajan and
Raghavan.
I did a film with Sekhar as the music director -- Pazhassiraja. I still
remember both of us went to Udaya Studio in Alleppey to record the songs. He
was such a dedicated and hard working person. If I were to compare his
struggle, I would compare it with Ilayaraja's. He used to run around a lot and
work. Maybe that's why his life was cut short. When he passed away, his
children were very small.
After many years, I saw Sekhar's son working with Ilayaraja. He was Dileep
then. What I noticed in him and liked about him was his mounam [silence]. I
feel it is this silence that catapulted him to such great heights. I feel a
person's growth is in his mounam and such a person will always be thinking
about achieving more goals. If you want to learn more and achieve more, you
should think and only when you remain silent, you can think.
That was what this young man did those days. I also noticed that there was a
craving in him to know more and learn more.
Here, I want to tell all those young people who want to emulate Rahman that you
first look at his journey so far. It was a long journey of struggle. His
success is because of the way he chose to overcome the difficulties. It is like
there are two paths in front of you, and the easier path is not the right one.
Though tough, Rahman chose the tough path -- the right one -- and with hard
work, he overcame all the difficulties. That is what the young generation
should learn from him. Music has been his tapasya. And he is still continuing
that and such people will come up successful in life, and whatever they do.
I remember my father's words. He used to tell me, you should be like pure
honey. If you are so, everyone will come to you. Similarly, Rahman is like pure
honey, and naturally his purity attracts everyone.
When he called me to sing for his films, I didn't look at him as the small boy
who was Sekhar's on. For me, even if the music director is a small child, I
respect him as a music director. I only want my music director to sing the song
for me. I don't consider a person who cannot sing at all as a music director.
In the case of Rahman, he knows his music, he teaches his singers properly, he
has the ability to tell his singers what he wants from them, and he is also a
good singer.
When he first started as a composer, I met him on a flight and he told me,
'Anna (brother), I have this desire in me to create songs that are of high
standard.' I told him, 'Don't think of such things now. You take the road that
is open in front of you.'
I can understand how people pressurise him to come up with numbers that were
similar to his own earlier hits. But look at him now, he composes only for the
best.
I believe in destiny. God has decided that this young man should devote his
life to music. It is also God's decision that Rahman would be a globally known
musician.
Rahman is like a flower that has blossomed so well now but it is up to him to
continue the journey with the same dedication and same sincerity. When one
becomes arrogant of one's achievement, one stops growing. That can happen to
anyone -- me, Rahman or X or Y. That is what I want to tell Rahman, continue
your tapasya.
Sujatha (Singer)
It was 1991 or so. I had just started singing after a long gap, and a friend of
mine who was in advertising asked me whether I would sing a jingle for Nivea
Talc. Those days, it was considered below one's dignity to sing jingles for
ads. So I refused.
But my friend was insistent that Dileep, the music composer was a very talented
young man and he wanted me to sing. When it was conveyed to Dileep that I was
suffering from a very bad cold he said he wanted a husky voice.
I went and sang the jingle. I would tell you I fell flat at his ability. It was
pure magic singing for that young man. I never knew I had such a deep voice. I
never knew you could do so much with your voice in just thirty seconds. It was
a revelation for me. That was Rahman magic!
I went around telling everyone about this young and extremely talented
musician. I told all those willing to listen that he would scale great heights.
This was around two years before Roja happened.
I must have sung a lot of jingles for Rahman. I would say I was there almost
every other day. In the mornings, he used to go to play the keyboard and at
night, he did his own recordings.
Then Roja happened. I was to sing a song for him but as I was away in Kerala, I
did only the humming of Kadhal Rojave. I still remember him giving the thumbs
up sign after I did the humming.
The next song I sang for him was Puthu Vellai Mazhai which was a huge hit. That
is my favourite song as it was only after that I started singing in Tamil. Even
today, at all the stage shows, people request for the song. Till then, I had
sung only in Malayalam. From that film to Guru, I have sung in all his albums.
He is one man who values personal relationships and has not changed a bit even
after achieving so much. It is this simplicity that I like about him.
I have gone with him to almost all the stage shows. His second show was in
Dubai and it was a huge, huge hit. Slowly, singers from the north started
dominating his shows as the audience prefers his Hindi songs. In the beginning,
he didn't sing much but now, he sings a lot of songs.
I would say he is one man who has God's blessings in plenty. I feel God is with
him all the time to guide him properly but then he is so spiritual. So also his
mother. In fact, I congratulated his mother first when I came to know that he
had won the Golden Globe Award. She deserved it more because she has been such
a good influence on him.
BlaaZe (Rapper)
fter my BA Cinema degree from Columbia College, Hollywood, I returned to India
and the first thing I did was, I sent a letter to Mr Rahman's studio in
Chennai, with my demo. Then whilst living in Mumbai, I started to work with
Louis Banks, the jazz legend. At that same time I met Sivamani. A year later,
Sivamani introduced me to Rahman in a studio in Mumbai, at 2am.
Another year passed, and my wife met Mr Rahman in Chennai. He seemed to
remember everything and was just waiting for the right project. He asked me to
come immediately that day. I quit my 9-5 job the very same day and flew to
Chennai at 10pm. It was at his studio in Chennai that I got to actually sit
with him and realise how blessed and lucky this moment was for me.
He had called me there to work on the song from the film, Boys. However that
night as we met and spoke, he decided to see if I could do something on the
background score of Rajnikanth's Baba. I did that the same night and was back
in Mumbai for lunch the next morning, with no job, and no certainty of whether
that track would be liked...
In a few days time, the call came from Rahman's office that the song was liked
by Rajnikanth, and so the journey truly began.
Now, about Slumdog Millionaire, I had actually gone to the UK last year with
Rahman to meet Danny Boyle as a lyricist for a couple of songs (Dreams on Fire
and Gangsta Blues) in the film.
I would describe Rahman's work in Slumdog Millionaire as absolutely fantastic.
The soundtrack is truly a fresh perspective on world sound that only Mr Rahman
can create. I think it reflects the freedom he had, to do what he loves. In
films here, there are sometimes several restrictions with concern to
sound/actors/themes etc... but Danny Boyle was such a trusting and sincere
person that their vibe was amazing.
My favourites in the film are Mausam -- and of course Gangsta Blues. Gangsta
Blues was a great idea by Rahman. It was great fun working on it as I had to
re-invent my own sound and style. This was also possible because there wasn't
too much pressure from Danny Boyle to do something in a certain way. He just
wanted to hear different things. And this was a truly different frequency for
me.
In the song Dreams on Fire, the idea was something we came up with whilst
seeing the rushes of the film, but it was co-written with Wendy Parr, and she's
written some beautiful lyrics on it indeed.
With each and every Rahman song in Slumdog Millionaire, there is magic in it,
so it was special for sure, and expectations are always sky high! Working with
Rahman? We just have fun.
My favourite Rahman album is Pray for me, brother because it really tries to
heal the world, one person at a time. Very real!
I would describe him as God's gift to music.
Himesh
Rahman is my favourite from his very first film. I love the divinity in his
music and he deserves every bit of his success.
I really want to collaborate with him on a film where I am the singer actor and
he is the music director. I feel what makes him great is that besides being a
genius at work he is a very good human being
