The interview which appears below, was originally published on Ananda Vikatan in April 1998. ©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.
There’s a general opinion that after Sonia Gandhi, A.R. Rahman is the person who is most difficult to meet. As Sonia has started coming out and meeting people, it’s only Rahman who can still claim this distinction.
Although he works without proper sleep, even during afternoon hours, he came and sat with us in a fresh mood. It takes some time for Rahman to open up to us. But once he relaxes, he answers spontaneously with a sense of humor.
Q: Usually, you take a lot of time to compose music, and it looks like you take extra care in adding value to each layer of music. Is that so?
ARR: What’s wrong with aiming for perfection in music? According to me, composing a song isn’t just about creating “Tana Na Tana Na” with a harmonium and getting approval. To make it unique, 70% of the song’s music has to be composed, and I’ve started doing that. If I need to make it even better, it would be a different tune, and another 70% would go into that. Wouldn’t all this take time? I’ve almost fallen into that trap. Because of this, I only get about 4 hours of sleep a day.
To produce music without disturbance, to make the tune satisfactory to me, I have to remain in the studio. There’s no other alternative. If I don’t eat in the morning, my mother stands in front of the studio, worried. Getting a good tune may even take five hours. If I leave it in the middle, won’t the thought process be disturbed?
Q: True. But however strict you may be, there may be some events that can distract you while composing. What do you do about that?
ARR: That’s true. But above all these distractions, it’s prayer alone that calms and disciplines my mind. It’s good meditation. If something good happens to us, it’s because of God. Even if it’s a bad event, God is the cause. So, when we worship God, the mind forgets everything, and peace prevails. With that same peace, when I enter the studio, I get fresh thoughts.
Q: In Tamil Cinema, your entry into music has created a new trend. Your different, unique, and accurate music has made people turn towards you. So, there have been people who have started imitating your style, thinking they would achieve success by doing so. Isn’t this detrimental to the industry?
ARR: You’ve asked me something that’s been on my mind. There shouldn’t be any status quo in Cinema Music. We should keep trying new things all the time. We should do it without fear. With the current trend, if the same music is heard over and over, it would create boredom. Don’t take the audience for granted. I think there’s come a time when we should try to do something different all the time (and this includes me too).
Q: Have you planned anything special for this? You could do many albums like Vande Mataram.
ARR: It’s not an easy task to do an album. It should be of international standards to make an impact. It requires a lot of energy.
Q: Why can’t you create an album with Bharatiyar songs similar to Vandemataram? If we read those songs normally, they give us goosebumps. Imagine what would happen if they were combined with your music!
ARR: (His face changes. He smiles and starts singing the song “Nandalala” from Bharatiyar’s poems). How did you foresee this? I would make an album of Bharatiyar songs with Bharatbala.
Q: Advance thanks. OK. Let’s come back to Cinema. Is there any difficulty in getting Carnatic Singers to sing for Cinema Songs?
ARR: They all have a lot of energy. Solid energy! They can sustain their voices for a long time, making them go up and down. At the same time, they’re all used to singing while keeping time by tapping their laps with their hands. When Nityashree came for recording, and when she was asked to sing a song, she remained silent for quite some time. After a while, she started “Thadarina Thdarina”. It was good. I recorded that too. After that, she started off in a high pitch “Kannodu Kanbathellam”, just like how she would sing in a stage performance. She understood quickly and sang very well in a good tone.
Q: Who is your favorite singer? Why?
ARR: I like P. Susheela’s voice a lot. In Susheela’s voice, there’s very clear pronunciation, voice quality, youthfulness, and sweetness.
Q: True! She started with the song “Aalayamani” and has sung many songs, each one being an example. All the songs that you’ve been singing are in a very high note. Why? Aren’t you trying melody songs?
ARR: It’s not like that! In cinema, there’s a certain style that becomes associated with each of us. For Illayaraja, melody songs are very appropriate. In his “Then Paandi cheemayile” song (Naayagan), the voice modulation is superb. Similarly, MSV is a technician in modulation. For me, the outcome of my singing in high notes has come out well, and I started liking it. It has become my signature style. As you’ve pointed out now, I will start singing melody songs from now on.
Q: From an international perspective, do you feel that we’re lagging in Cinema Music?
ARR: We can’t say that. If we look at Indian cinema, there was only mono sound before. They said it would take at least 20 years for us to convert to Digital Sound. But what happened? We transformed to Digital Sound at a very rapid pace. We’ve reached international heights in Digital and Dolby effects.
Q: But are we using all these sound effects to their maximum “imaginative” potential? Dialogues like “So, let me leave” are being shown with DTS effect. Isn’t this a sad trend?
ARR: (Smiling) It hasn’t been used in the correct sense. Everything will become normal soon.
Q: As an Indian citizen and a Music Lover, what do you think about the terrorism that has suddenly sprung up in Tamil Nadu?
ARR: It’s a dreadful disease (says Rahman in a very fierce manner). It’s the desperate nature and failure that create such situations. It may be because of some bad event happening to them or to someone in their family. Some people capitalize on such situations, enrage these youngsters, and force them into terrorism. This sort of bad happening must be immediately controlled. Otherwise, it would spread like a dreadful disease.
Q: What do you feel can be done best to control such a situation? Your personal opinion.
ARR: My answer is to eliminate religious and caste fanaticism. People who believe in Allah must also believe that He has created Hindus along with Muslims, and see them with love. Everyone must get the feeling that all are God’s children. When will the time come when everyone sees each other as God’s child?
Q: Finally, a question. Music is like a sacred ritual. We may have to wait for hours or days to get what we want. As long as we were bachelors, it wasn’t a problem. Are you finding it the same even after you became a family person?
ARR: For the sake of some important matters, we need to sacrifice some things in life. “I can only be like this, and can devote only this much time to the family, and my wife knows this well. She also adjusts a lot for my sake. So, there hasn’t been any problem between us. I’ve allocated a separate time slot for my two-year-old daughter Khateeja.”
