Thanks for sharing this once again Madhavan... worth a read once again... On Mon, Sep 21, 2009 at 11:23 PM, Madhavan Rajan <[email protected]>wrote:
> > > I remember RGV wrote this in his blog but couldn't find now in his blog. > However, I found a web link that has the same content. > > > http://movies.indiatimes.com/News-Gossip/News/Ram-Gopal-Varmas-Rahman/articleshow/4223179.cms > > I was making a Telugu film called *Kshana Kshanam *with a first-time music > director called Keera Vani, now known as M.M.Kreem. One day at the recording > studio while we were having lunch, Rickey, a rhythm programmer working with > M.M.Kreem at that time, mentioned to me that I should work with this very > talented keyboard player called Dilip. That was the first time I had ever > heard of A.R.Rahman. I didn’t take Rickey seriously. Much later when I > happened to listen Roja’s songs at Mani Ratnam’s home, long before the film > released, I was blown away with the sheer originality of the songs’ > orchestration and tunes. I immediately wanted to sign him for a film I was > making with Sanjay Dutt called *Nayak*, and for *Rangeela*. But my > investors preferred Anu Malik, as they felt the success of the music of * > Roja’*s dubbed version was a fluke, and that this kind of music would not > work in Hindi. The very fact that A.R was not signed by any top Hindi > filmmaker after *Roja* is proof-enough, they reasoned. They said that Anu > Malik was at the top of his form after *Baazigar*, and that we would get a > much bigger price for the audio. > > I bartered with them that I will sign Anu Malik for *Nayak *if they > allowed me A.R for *Rangeela*. They agreed, but the plain truth behind it > was that they were not really interested in “Rangeela” as Sanjay Dutt post > “Khalnayak” was a much bigger star than Aamir at that time. After 20 days of > shooting for *Nayak *Sanjay got arrested in the serial blast case and the > film was shelved. (Much later the script of *Nayak* I made it as *Sarkar* > ). > > Before A.R, I have worked with Ilayaraja, M.M.Kreem and Raaj Koti, and knew > on a personal level many other music directors and their working styles. > What struck me first when I met A.R was the incredible dignity with which he > carries himself. There is neither an iota of arrogance nor a halo of pride > which success invariably brings to people. After telling him the story of > *Rangeela*, I showed him references of some Hollywood musicals, and > described to him the visual style I was planning to capture the film in. > Once he went through the situations, the compositions he came up with used > to surprise me, though not always pleasantly. That is because his tunes were > so original in his interpretation of the emotion of a situation that a > conventional ear will take time to let it sink in. That I think is the > reason one tends to like his music more and more as one listens to it again > and again. A case in point is the *Hai Rama*song where my brief to him was > that I wanted to shoot an erotic number, wherein more than the romance I > wanted to capture lust in Urmila’s and Jackie’s faces. > > After the brief I was subconsciously expecting him to come up with a tune, > something on the likes of I* Love You* (*Kaate Nahin Katthe Yeh Din Yeh > Raat*) in *Mr. I*ndia. What he came up with was the *Hai Rama *tune, which > sounded to me like some classical Carnatic raga, and my first reaction was > that he had lost his head. But when I kept hearing it, it grew on me like an > obsession, and I finally said that we will go ahead with the tune even > though I was still unsure, deep inside, of how it would fit into the > situation. But when he finished the entire track with the orchestration it > was beyond my wildest imagination that an erotic song can be made to sound > like that. He captured the intensity of the eroticism and the purity of its > feeling in the beginning alaap, the cello themes, and through the wild > tablaas which elevated the effect of the images I created, many times more > than what they would have been otherwise. > > One other trait I noticed about the difference between A.R and other music > directors is that where the others pretty much dictate to the musicians and > the singers about what they want, A.R interacts with them; in a manner of > making each and every one of his solo musicians and singers feel as if it is > their song and not his, thereby placing the onus on them to feel from within > to get the best out of them. This I have never ever seen remotely practiced > by any other music director. > > Whereas most music directors record the final track first, with all the > orchestration and get the singer to dub the last, A.R invariably gets the > singer to dub on a base rhythm track first and does the orchestration later, > as he wants the orchestration to rise from the depth of the feeling in the > singer’s voice. That’s the reason why with every one of his tracks you can’t > recognize where the music ends and the voice begins, and vice versa. Each > and every instrument is made to be played with the same emotional depth as > that is in the singer’s voice. > > Not knowing technicalities of music I would think the phenomenon of A.R > owes not only to his obvious talent but also to his incredible patience, > focus, and dedication towards a song he is creating. The moment they finish > recording a song, most music directors forget about it and move on to > whatever else they are doing. A.R invariably keeps revisiting his song and > effecting changes onto them (Read it as sculpting and polishing). Until a > time the tracks have to leave for the audio company, he treats each and > every song of his like his own daughter whom he is preparing for a marriage > with the listener. > > Also, A.R is the only artiste I have met who does not have creative > arrogance. I mean that he never defends his work if it were to be > criticized. He was recording *The spirit of Rangeela *theme in Chennai > while I was shooting in Mumbai. When he sent the track to me I didn’t like > it, at first hearing. Not just me but the entire unit didn’t. I called A.R > and told him that it was not working. Without a second’s pause he said he > will work out something else, and this he said after having worked on the > track for more than a week. > > As I was playing the *spirit theme *in my car over and over again, at some > moment it hit me like a thunder bolt, and I told him that I must have been > out of my mind not to have liked it in the first place. He smiled and said > “I knew you would like it eventually”. > > The aesthetics of his song tracks are beyond compare to any other music > director’s. What I mean by aesthetics is, if the melody is the story, the > various instruments and the way they are recorded, played, and their > inter-volume levels and tones would be like art direction, cinematography > etc. So purely in melody one might still feel a difference in their own > individual favourites, of what they like more and what they like less, but > his aesthetics are always perfect irrespective of the overall effect of the > song. > > I can never forget a line of Rahman’s, which he said to me while at his > studio, “I’ve decided that whatever goes from here has to be good”. He said > it with neither arrogance nor extreme confidence. It was just so very simply > said just as a decision he took and that single sentence made me understand > A.R’s greatness, more than his music itself. I have known many including > myself who said, thought, and wished the same, but with the exception of A.R > I have yet to meet a single man who practiced it and continues to practice > it. Jai Ho! > > -- > Cheers, > Madhavan.R > Be a Music Fan; not a Music Pirate! > > > -- regards, Vithur
