*Rahman honored by colleagues* *By Moviebuzz* | Monday, 02 March , 2009, 10:28
The Cine Musicians Union (CMU), one of the oldest unions in the film industry and the parent organization of all musicians on Sunday (March 1) honored the first ever Oscar winner in their fraternity A.R Rahman. He said that it was not only God's blessings which saw him win the coveted Gold-plated statuettes but also saw him selected to collect them on behalf of his fellow Indian musicians. “It’s the aspiration of all (the musicians) and God selected me to collect the award on their behalf. This award belongs to every person in the music industry,’ was Rahman’s theory on winning the Oscars. He repeated ‘Ella Pugazhum Iraivanuke’ (All Glory to the Almighty)," which he spoke at the Oscar awards ceremony last week. Rahman added: “I used to wonder why Naushad, Ilayaraja, M.S Viswanathan, Madan Mohan and others did not get the awards. But they have people’s love, which is greater honor than the Oscars.” The surprise of the evening was the presence of veteran Carnatic musician Balamurali Krishna, who was the chief guest and Ilayaraja, which set to rest speculation in the music world about their differences with Rahman. Balamurali Krishna said: “The Oscars awards is a recognition of Rahman’s musical creativity and hard work”. Heaping laurels on Rahman, the maestro Ilayaraja said: “There are only a few who possess immense talent and still go on to make it big. Rahman is a phenomenal musician. If MSV is Athara Sruthi, I am Panchamam and Rahman is Panchamam” On his part, veteran director K Balachander, who first introduced Rahman in his home production* Roja*, directed by Maniratnam, said: “Rahman is a rare genius. When other music composers make castles with their music, Rahman builds monuments’. MSV blessed Rahman with many more such awards and said it was a new beginning for the Indian music industry. Rahman in his speech pleaded with his fans not to create hatred between the music directors by comparing them. Said Rahman: “ I have been seeing the hate mails flooding the net. I request my fans from degrading someone else’s music, the music lovers should stop making such comments and using abusive languages” Ilayaraja presented Rahman with a golden chain while Harris Jayaraj presented a golden ring to the Mozart of Madras. The function was hosted by S A Rajkumar and Abu Gabriel of CMU. Among those who took part included Shankar Ganesh, Deva, Srikanth Deva Yuvanshankar Raja, Karthik Raja, Vijay Anthony, D Imman, T M Soundararajan, L R Eswari, Karthi, Chinmayi, Thippu, Chitra, Swarnalatha,Mano, drummer Shivamani among others.... *The views expressed in the article are the author's and not of Sify.com. * http://sify.com/movies/tamil/fullstory.php?id=14863982 -- regards, Vithur
