Is Rahmania Over? By Suma Nagaraj September 8th, 2010 Poor A R Rahman is at the receiving end again.
The CWG theme song, Jiyo Utho Badho Jeetho, (inspiration for the song title falls somewhere between Swami Vivekananda's clarion call, Arise, Awake and Stop Not Till the Goal is Reached and 4 Non Blondes' Bigger, Better, Faster, More, I think) is facing a lot of flak from all quarters, I feel for all the wrong reasons. First, A R Rahman is a creative genius, but he's no Miss Shumway and can't magically wave a wand across a sheet of paper and come up with a catchy tune every time he's asked to (or paid upwards of Rs 5 crores to). Secondly, odious comparisons to Waka Waka (which was insufferable, if you ask me) are grossly unwarranted. All those screaming from the rooftops that there's no catchphrase like `Waka Waka' in the CWG theme, there is. If a catchphrase is all you wanted, how about Jiyo Utho? Or Badho Jeetho? Thirdly, I feel the whole anti-Rahman movement is some kind of a ploy to take attention away from the many ills that plague the Commonwealth Games. This song is just that a song, another of our attempts to ape what other mega sports event organizers would do. Since Rahman enjoys global recognition and appeal (thanks to one of the most lacklustre compositions in his oeuvre), he was promptly signed on for better visibility in the global sports scenario. Now how the Games will play out is anybody's guess. If only a song could avert a debacle, we wouldn't be having this argument, would we? But signing him off as creatively bankrupt and horror of horrors, rumours of him being asked to "recompose" the tune is an insult to a musical genius who's remained humble in spite of wild success, fame and fortune. He's not had a great score in the last 2 years (his last best was Dilli 6) and the one song the world knows him by, to put it in the words of a random commenter on some article on the Internet, sounds like a jingle he composed during his lunch break. Genius is genius because, by definition, it's not ordinary. Now if every tune he composes is extraordinary, what does that make him? I think he should be given the room to breathe and the time to clear out the ordinary tunes in his head and bring out more of those melodies we love him for. What do you think of this controversy? Vote on our poll below: Does A R Rahman deserve all the criticism over the CWG theme? No, leave him alone. Yes, he was paid for it. Undecided - which is the majority here? Haven't listened to the song, not interested. Can we move on already? Why do we need a CWG anthem? Courtesy: http://in.yfittopostblog.com/2010/09/08/is-rahmania-over/
