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: The track is also featured on a number of world music compilations. This must be the first time in Indian film music history that a background theme has become as popular as a song. It’s instantly recognizable by millions of people.
ARR: The idea of the theme came to me when Mani Ratnam told me the story of Bombay. It’s a film about national integration—a love story between a Hindu man and a Muslim woman. Mani sir wanted five songs for the film and said he’d give me two weeks or something like that. Two weeks went by and I didn’t have a single tune for him. [smiles]
A few days before I was going to meet him, I had this idea of surprising him with a musical theme. It was composed for the flute and based on Raag Jajaivanti, the same raag on which Mahatma Gandhi’s favorite bhajan “Raghupati Raghav Rajaram” is based. For me, the bhajan has a mood of divinity and patriotism. “The Bombay Theme” is different, but somehow it reminded me of Gandhiji’s way of thinking.
When I played it to Mani Ratnam, he didn’t say a word for five minutes and then asked: “Where are the tunes?” [both laugh] “Do you still want tunes?” “No, no, this is lovely.”
NMK: Did you deliberately base it on the same raag as Gandhiji’s favorite bhajan?
ARR: It wasn’t a complete coincidence as somewhere I wanted it to have a feeling associated with Gandhiji. But I wasn’t conscious of it at the time. I was writing music for a film by Suhasini, Mani Ratnam’s wife, when the feeling of “The Bombay Theme” came. I thought it made a musical statement about non-violence and was better suited for Mani Ratnam’s film.
The music encourages us to see the inner self rather than the outer.
NMK: The use of the flute is so moving and haunting. Is there an obvious choice of instruments when creating a happy or sad mood?
ARR: It depends on many factors. I like using the South Indian violin, the flute, the veena and the sarangi. They are wonderful instruments. There have been generations of Indian composers who have used the shehnai in a sad scene and the sitar in a happy scene. If a film’s hero passes an exam and he’s jubilant, you’ll hear sitar tarannums. It’s good to break set patterns. Also, I don’t usually like repeating the same palette of instruments unless absolutely necessary.
The right musician can play any instrument and make it sound good. The intelligent musician knows when to play and when not to. He could play two notes and those two notes might add a lot to a song.
In Mani Ratnam’s Raavan, we used the African kora along with Indian folk instruments to create a tribal effect. Thanks to state-of-the-art recording technology today, any instrument can sound good. You can produce a clear texture and yet be experimental and original.
NMK: Strings used to be very popular in background music in India. Is this still true?
ARR: In the old days when a producer had to pay forty string players, he wanted the violin to be heard throughout the track. Some composers would use violins throughout a song, even when they were not really needed.
The use of the violin had become somewhat formulaic. I have tried to use it in a different way by creating an Arabic or philharmonic kind of sound. Sometimes I keep the violins 80 percent off the mix and just add snippets to a song.
There is a danger that music should reflect the budget of a film—not what it can do emotionally. Eight bars can create emotion, but you have to face the producer later. And if you’ve hired an entire orchestra and play him an eight-bar track… [laughs]
NMK: So they want to know where the money went?
ARR: Yeah. [laughs] But things are changing. No one asks how the budget was spent, as long as you deliver a good score.
I don’t think it’s always necessary to create a big sound—the idea is to widen musical boundaries and make sure there is detailing in instrumentation. We have such a wealth of music in India, so many folk and classical artists. And when produced right, all kinds of music can work.
NMK: Ketan Mehta’s The Rising is a film based on the life of Mangal Pandey and the 1857 mutiny against the British. What sound must a historical film have?
ARR: Many Hollywood trailers use “Carmina Burana” to create a big sound. Audiences now expect a full orchestra in a historical film. The music in The Rising had to have an epic quality to match the large canvas of the film.
So I used a full orchestra and choir, and because The Rising had a rural setting, we could bring in folk music, and horns from Kerala. It helped to create a tribal feel. Most of the background score was recorded in Prague.
NMK: Why Prague?
ARR: I guess we didn’t have the budget to go to London. [laughs] The musicians in Prague are excellent. The beautiful Vltava River flows next to the Rudolfinum Concert Hall where we were recording. It’s famous for its great acoustics—a really inspiring place.
The art of background music is fascinating because it doesn’t follow formula. Though you must always bear in mind how the audience will perceive the music. Are you holding their interest? Are they getting bored? Is there too much music? You need silence to create balance too. It’s a fantastic balancing act.
