Portrait of an artiste as a shy man A.R. Rahman has composed the music for Adaa, which is nearing release. He tells S. Ramachandran that some of the songs have an Italian feel Allah Rakha Rahman is a nice man to know. Other musicians may like to strut their stuff, but Rahman — who arguably changed the tone of modern Hindi film music when he arrived with a bang in Bollywood more than 15 years ago — is curiously awkward about his new venture, which is being billed as a musical journey. You can tell that he is upbeat, but Rahman is still not one to wax eloquent about his music. On the contrary, he sounds almost tongue tied when he talks about the new film. Rahman has composed the music for Adaa,directed by Tanvir Ahmed. The film’s been long delayed but is nearingrelease. And Rahman has ensured that the tracks for Big Music — aglobal music company — are nothing short of chart-buster material. “Work on the music actually began in 2001. We did a couple of songs but the film was delayed. It was completed recently. The film has as many as 10 tracks and I have attempted some new things in this film’s music,” he says enthusiastically. Alittle probing reveals that the “new things” are what the directordescribes as the Italian feel that some of the songs sport. This isalso the first time the music director has allowed his name to beappended to a film album’s title. The music album of Adaa is called A Musical Journey By A.R. Rahman.“Well, Tanvir wanted the film to have a musical feel, not just by wayof dance and music but also a musical connection,” he says. This is the first time that Rahman is working not only with Tanvir Ahmed but also with Big Music. And the experience seems to have been a good one. “Big Music first heard my songs and the executives there understood how they would sound later after the completion of the film. I took an extra three months for this album and you will like the result,” the composer-singer says. The tracks have been penned by Nusrat Badar, and they feature Rahman’s favourite singers, Sonu Nigam and Sukhwinder. Among the other singers is a French crooner. “There are all kinds of songs in the 10 tracks. There is one track with mass appeal, another is a soft rock kind of song, one is with trance music and some have nice ballet music,” he says. And there are a few songs, he adds, that are “not exactly Sufi music, but have that feel.” TheItalian and French connection, he explains, seeks to add exotica to thealbum. The range and versatility of the songs, Rahman feels, willappeal to a cross-section of listeners. And Rahman knows quite a bitabout crossover audiences, having composed the music for ShekharKapur’s Hollywood film Elizabeth: The Golden Age, and the stage productions The Lion King and Bombay Dreams. Among his forthcoming productions is Aamir Khan’s Ghajini. Known to be a shy, behind-the-scenes man, Rahman has gradually been stepping out of his shell, one inch at a time. Surprisingly, the man has started enjoying live performances. It took a while before he began to take pleasure in performing and singing before a live audience, but Rahman admits that the experience moves him these days. “The audiences cheer for you and show you they love you,” he says. “I always thought I wasn’t a great performer. This is why I pushed myself and tried to satisfy the audiences. This year, I have had a lot of concerts and more are planned,” says the music director. The man who stormed Bollywood with Rojain 1992 when he was all of 26 is also characteristically reticent aboutthe A.R. Rahman Foundation, an organisation that deals with charity andeducation. We prod him a bit, and he reluctantly opens up. “I startedthe foundation because I had to do a song for the United Nations’poverty eradication campaign. The song’s title was Pray For Me Brother.After composing the song and shooting the video, I thought that thefoundation would be a good way to help the needy by using the moneyearned through the video. That’s how it all began.” Even when it comes to music piracy, a menace that hits the revenues of the music industry, Rahman doesn’t take the militant stand adopted by his contemporaries. He leaves it to the music lovers to decide if they want to see their favourite artistes continue with their work or destroy their livelihood. “Conscientious music lovers will always shun piracy. Many people think they can get away with illegally downloading music and there is no way to stop them. I can’t force people to buy music or stop picking pirated music. But those who respect music and artistes will respect the hard work they put in. If they want good music to continue being made, they will pay for the effort,” he says. According to one estimate, Rahman has sold more than 200 million cassettes and over 100 million records of his scores and soundtracks. But the man is not into number crunching — he would rather sit and compose a tune. Settling a score, as far as Rahman is concerned, is all about putting music to words.
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