A.R. Rahman is modern India’s music phenomenon – Mozart of Madras, as he is famously referred to. Naturally, his coming will be a ceremonious arrival. ahead of his December 22 concert in Bangalore – One Heart Tour – Rahman was in the city for a press interaction. It was little surprise that he came with an entourage. That was not all – there were multiple layers of screening before one actually made it to the remarkable Rahman. However, once you entered the sanctum sanctorum, the genial, soft spoken, and refined composer offered such a warm welcome that you conclude that gatekeepers are meant to be tough. After 26 years of unprecedented success, innumerable international projects and global awards, Rahman remains deeply introspective and committed to his music.
Excerpts from the conversation:
It is 26 years since Roja was released, your first film as a music composer. What are the major changes you see in yourself in these years? Has the function of music itself changed in films?
I think it has been an interesting period, back then I was doing very few films. Then there was my journey from Tamil to Hindi to International projects to Broadway – it has been very eventful, but I am still a learner. It keeps me going.
As far as the function of music is concerned, it could do more. But the good thing is that there are no gatekeepers now. Anyone can put anything up for people to listen, it gets popular too. The fact that it has made room for freedom of expression is amazing. There’s a lot of clutter as well. Earlier, you could search for a particular composer and expect to find him, now there’s so much rubbish that you need to search. You have to go through a lot of torture, before you unearth amazing stuff. (laughs)
You got the Best Background Score award earlier this year. Is the award bifurcation a good move – that is Best Music and Best Background Score? Do people really listen to background score?
Award bifurcation is good. Now filmmakers have two composers, one for melody and the other for background score. As a result, you bring in different strengths. People are listening to background score. On Instagram and Twitter people even put up their favourite bit. For instance, they say from 44:06 minutes to 45.35 minutes etc. It feels very good when people pay attention. They are specific and articulate, it is incredible.
But wouldn’t the unity of idea be hampered with two composers?
Of course, every film has its own demands. For instance, in a film like Rockstar , or Shankarabharanam it would be foolish. You will be destroying the integrity of music. But if it is a commercial film that needs item songs, it will work. In some films background score is like wallpaper, in others it is a character. It needs to say things which the film is not saying or wants to say.
From a shy, reticent composer, you are now an international superstar. I remember you saying that you were full of self-doubts each time a big project came your way. Has that changed?
(smiles) Probably not. There are certain projects that still make me nervous. For example, a friend of mine commissioned me to do a symphony, Confluence of Pearls . I feel I am not ready for it. It is not musically ready, but spiritually ready. You need to be clean in mind and spirit. The whole idea is to refine. The more you refine, you are able to do things that you didn’t do before. It’s a very important process that everyone needs to go through. Because, if you are good right from the beginning, where will you go. There won’t be any journey.
Can you speak about the process?
Hmmm… I don’t know. (Laughs). Sometimes you just have to jump into fire. Like Rumi says: “Forget your safety/ Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation.”
You became a superstar with Roja. If you reach the summit in your very first attempt, you’re expected to scale higher and higher. How did you cope?
What we need to understand very importantly is that we have to have our own inner parameters. At times, you freewheel, at times you go step by step, and at others, many steps ahead. The work that I am doing is not a one person thing, the team is very important. For instance, in the Hindi film industry, there are lyricists like Gulzar, Javed Akhtar, Majrooh saab etc. Their lyrics are so good that the tune embellishing it just lifts everything up. I understood very soon that it is not me alone. It is the vision of the director, singers – a combination of many things takes your composition higher.
For instance, everyone said Dil Se is remarkable. That is because the brief was so high, I had to live up to it. So when someone comes in and asks for the sky, you fall somewhere on the roof (chuckles).
I feel the same about Bombay too…
Absolutely. It connected with humanity and there’s mysticism too.
Indian composers have brought in many strains of music into their own: From Western classical to Baroque to Jazz. Do composers abroad also have an equal felicity with Indian forms of music?
There are many people out there who surprise you. They know the rarest ragas. They know a folk singer in Coimbatore, who you don’t know. People have doctorates in subjects that we know nothing about. Then there also basic people who don’t know where India is on the map. You find two extremes.
For instance, when you worked with the Fukuoka Seiryo Symphony Orchestra, they seemed to get the tone and texture of Indian musical idioms so well…
When you keep a score, everyone speaks the same language. But what I wanted to know is how they would respond to our classical music. So I split them into groups of ten and played ragas for them. That was fascinating – the kind of moods and feelings it evoked in them was very interesting.
Pullinangal song in the film 2.0 is wonderful…
Shankar wanted a soft voice. But I told him that I was hearing an African Baaba Maal kind of a voice. I wasn’t even sure if anyone could sing it. It was a very raw, gut feeling. I am glad you appreciate it.
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Aa member from his entourage tells me my time’s up. ‘One last question,’ I request. They don’t relent. As I pack up with unasked questions, “You must be a student of music too…” Rahman says...
Rahman has an unsullied inner self, his music and his faith in the power of mysticism is intense. The layers that one needs to cross to reach him, is of little consequence.
