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: When you’re working on a song, you become so close to it. How do you stay objective?
ARR: I ask myself many questions. “Is the song any good? How to make it better? Is it too repetitive?” Doing too much can be bad too. A good song can be massacred if it’s too long and people feel: “Oh God, this is going on forever.” You must know when to stop. That’s important too.
If I think a song is mediocre, I delete it.
NMK: The placing of the song in Indian cinema has become formulaic, partly because films have an eighty-year history of relying on songs. So I am sure it’s tough coming up with entirely new song situations.
But do you think the songs themselves also run the risk of following formula?
ARR: Certain types of songs, love songs in particular, can be accused of following formula. You may think there’s nothing to composing a love song, and so a tune may come easily. But a tune that comes too easily can have a tired sound. The moment a song is hackneyed, it will sound dated no matter how many beats you might add.
If the song follows a trend that a hundred composers have followed, I will get bored of it too.
NMK: How does one avoid formula?
ARR: An artist has to develop his or her voice to make any sort of mark in any art form. The artist’s personality must outgrow the influences that have helped at the start. But you know one can’t make a mark by forever copying others.
Give the same dialogue to five actors and each actor will deliver the lines in their own way. They don’t do it on purpose—it’s just their individuality, expression, and personality coming through their performance.
It’s the same in music. You don’t have to try hard and be someone else. Your own musicality, the way God has made you, and the experience of life will make you original. Never believe that you are less than anyone. What you regard as an inferior quality may be just the thing that sets you apart.
NMK: Let’s take the mujra song “Main vari vari” in Ketan Mehta’s The Rising (2005), how did you make it different from the countless mujras before it?
ARR: Mujra is indeed one of the most familiar song styles in old Hindi cinema. Javed Akhtar gave me the lyrics and I loved them. The tune was then composed on the words. Creating a new mix of voice, tune, and lyrics helped to give it a new sound. I also sneaked in drums and a bass guitar—a bass guitar isn’t traditionally used in a mujra, so that added a new touch.
I was in London then and the talented playback singer Kavita Krishnamurthy was transiting through. She had gone to Scotland and was on her way back to India. I called her and said: “Stop! We need to record.”
We went into the studio and recorded the whole song in one night. She caught a flight the next morning and we sent the song for the shoot. The tablas were recorded in India and uploaded on the Net. [both laugh]
NMK: Hindi cinema lost a brilliant poet/lyricist in Majrooh Sultanpuri when he passed away in 2000. I once asked him to tell me what attracts one to a song and he said: “First the voice, then the words, and finally the tune.” Do you agree?
ARR: I think it’s the way the whole song is put together. Some stars believe it’s the actor miming the song in the film that makes it attractive, but that isn’t it either. Of course an actor’s interpretation adds tremendously. But if an actor is miming a bad song, his performance alone can’t save the scene.
NMK: There is a current trend in Hindi films of avoiding lip-sync songs and using songs in the background. This approach isn’t really new because we have brilliant examples of directors in the past who have used this technique. I am thinking of songs like “Jhunariya kat’ti jaaye re” in Mehboob Khan’s Mother India (1957) and “Waqt ne kiya kya haseen situm” in Guru Dutt’s Kaagaz ke Phool (1959).
I wonder why background songs are now popular. Is it because lip-sync songs are less valued today?
ARR: Indian filmmakers are exposed to world cinema and they want to bring some change to the formula. Personally, I love lip-sync songs. The old films have the finest examples. Rarely does a background song become as big a hit as a song an actor mimes on the screen.
I don’t believe we should lose songs in our films. Why lose what’s good? Songs are the great strength of Indian cinema, but you do need to believe in them fully, and not half-heartedly.
