The interview which appears below was originally published in Nasreen Munni Kabir's book, A.R. Rahman: The Spirit of Music. ©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.
NMK: Great Indian film composers like Naushad Ali and Shankar-Jaikishan have famously borrowed tunes in the past from Middle Eastern music. Does Arabic music still have an influence on Indian film music?
A.R.R.: I think Arabic music has a really big influence on world music now. Arabic sounds and music samplers are used extensively. In fact, I wanted to record the strings for “Mayya mayya” in Egypt, but we didn’t have the time. We used Arabic string samples in the end.
NMK: The other Guru song, “Tere bina” is dedicated to the brilliant Pakistani Sufi singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Did he influence you?
A.R.R.: As I mentioned, he sang “Gurus of Peace” on the Vande Mataram album. And much before that, for over fifteen years, I had listened to Nusrat Saaheb’s music. You can feel his personality in most of his work, especially in “Mustt mustt.”
No one can escape being influenced by other artists. The influence can be direct and tangible and sometimes it can take another form. Musically, a composition may undergo change, but the soul of the artist who has influenced you remains at the core.
When working on Guru, I thought why not write a song on the lines of Nusrat Saaheb’s popular “Sajna tere bina?” The feel of “Tere bina” is similar to the original but somewhat transformed. It is a love song and when we made a template, I added a chant.
Mani sir heard the song and said: “I don’t think it will fit in Guru.” He didn’t use it. Just a month before the music album was released, he said: “Play me that song again.” This time he told me to go ahead and edit “Tere bina.” Then he filmed the song on Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan. Things like that have happened too.
NMK: It was such a big hit.
A.R.R.: Yeah.
NMK: When you compose a song, is it often shot in a drastically different way than you had imagined it?
A.R.R.: With Mani Ratnam you can never expect the expected. [laughs] The way, for example, the song “Tere bina” in Guru was used did surprise me a bit. When I first saw it, I said: “The song doesn’t match the scene. The characters are sad and this is a happy song.” So I eliminated sixteen bars off the beginning and gave the song a slow start. Now I’m fine with it.
Mani sir gets these wild ideas, which you don’t get at first, but end up accepting. [smiles]
NMK: Many have said that beside your obvious love for music, you love cinema too. Do you ever compose a score with a close-up or a top-shot in mind?
A.R.R.: No, I don’t think about shot compositions. But obviously I do when working on a background score.
NMK: You had worked with almost every leading music composer in South India as a session musician. Did any Indian film composer influence your music?
A.R.R.: Yes, of course. I learned many different things from different composers. There was Mr. Ilayaraja, the great composer, who was once my father’s keyboard player. I worked with him for a year and a half. What I learned from him was discipline. The composers Vishwanathan Ramamurthy and K.V. Mahadevan also had a significant influence on me through the lyrical quality of their songs in the 1960s and ’70s.
R.D. Burman was the first Hindi film composer that I became fascinated by. I liked Laxmikant-Pyarelal and then heard Naushad Ali, whose music has great love and passion. You hear a style that is uniquely him. He created a sound that still melts your heart. I then later discovered the more complex and fine melodies of Madan Mohan, S.D. Burman and Salil Choudhury.
I could go on listing name after name, but to me each composer is like a flower from a garden. They are all unique in their own way.
NMK: How do you react to people who rightfully believe that Hindi film songs of the past were superior to the songs produced today?
A.R.R.: Music is often a reflection of the times in which it is composed. In the earlier days, after the freedom struggle, there was the joy of independence in India. There were a lot of meaningful lyrics in cinema because the Urdu and Hindi poets who were writing the songs in the 1950s had strong political beliefs. Besides the social messages that some songs had, these gifted poets wrote fabulously romantic songs as well. The tunes of that period were also more rooted in Indian traditional music, whether classical or folk.
But the world is a different place today. And music has to be relevant to now. The pace of life is fast and frantic and audience expectations have vastly changed.
When I started composing film music, I used to stay close to the brief given to me. As I evolve as a person, understand more about life, I want to do many things such as implement film music in a way that can try to bring that old charm back. I believe beautiful film music can try to be made relevant to any period.
NMK: Is that why you’re starting a film company?
A.R.R.: That’s right. The vision of YM Movies is to provide a platform for new ideas and change the perception of music implementation in films. I’m keen that we produce family entertainment that enriches our lives.
I’m hoping it will also help to change the status of musicians in India. A musician is a professional, whether he or she is successful or not. The profession itself must be regarded as a stable profession.
