The interview which appears below, was originally published on The Hindu in June 2008. ©The rights to this material are reserved to the owner. If you have any concerns or comments, please send an email to info@rahmaniac.com.
It’s the story of a spiritually inclined father, a noble mother, and a gangster son. It’s about not compromising on a unique storyline for the sake of finances from interfering financiers. It’s about a son, pooling in all his resources to produce his father’s film. It’s about A.R. Rahman and his music journey.
It’s about “Ada…a way of life,” a film directed by Tanvir Ahmed (of Akarshan and Aag Aur Toofan fame) and produced by his son Kazaan. The film, to be released in July, has newcomer Ayaan as the protagonist and Nauheed Cyrusi as his love interest. The film has 10 songs, including an instrumental version.
Says Rahman, “Tanvir came to me when I was composing music for ‘One, Two Ka Four’ (2001). He told me about the film’s shoestring budget. Because of budget constraints, I employed some new voices instead of depending on expensive, established ones, started scoring music in 2004 and completed it in 2008. So, each song is very different from the other as they were composed in different years. That’s why they named it as my musical journey.”
West to East
Rahman has employed new singers Rashid Ali and Parul Mishra in Ada… He adds, “Rashid is actually a guitarist with a U.K. band. I saw him singing in a concert in London. He and I have similar taste in music. But, it took him some time to learn the Indian style as he belongs to a different school—Bryan Adams type, ‘you know.’” His second find, Parul, who has sung the female version of “Ishq Ada,” has won a Delhi talent hunt contest. Rauqeeb Alam, the film’s lyricist, was introduced to Rahman by P.K. Mishra who gave the soundtrack for Roja.
Rahman is among the very few music directors who don’t discourage small-time director-producers but take them as blessings, “Yes, it is difficult to bring something great out of the box when you have limited resources. You can’t get good songwriters because they have no time. But the lesser the number of high-profile people, the more the musical freedom. The best thing that has happened to ‘Ada…’ is that Nokia is promoting the songs through iTunes and BIG Music has released the album. Otherwise often I put in a lot of hard work and it gets wasted due to lack of promotion,” he adds, quoting Tehzeeb and a “lot of Tamil films” as examples. “Those who don’t promote music are musically challenged,” he says.
But he has no qualms with new directors. “They know what they want. More than us (music directors), it’s them who have to live with our music. They have to listen to it again and again and shoot the scene accordingly. I don’t blame them for being demanding. It’s only filmmakers such as Mani Ratnam and Ashutosh Gowariker who dare to accommodate classical music in their films.”
He has no complaints with today’s music scenario either. “Through iTunes and legal downloads, a lot of music is popularized. The rights of the music composer are protected too. Earlier, these rights used to be written off. This would be beneficial for the new generation music directors.”
But he is candid about the problems of singers who come through talent hunts. They often fall flat when given new compositions to sing. “It’s frustrating having to make them sing one line repeatedly. But, a few sail through easily,” he says. Feeling confident about working in Hollywood after composing music for Shekhar Kapur’s Golden Age (2007), he is also relaxed after completing his three big forthcoming films, ‘Yuvvraaj,’ ‘Delhi-6,’ and ‘Ghajini.’
