Hollywood's bigwigs let out a collective twitter of nervous laughter when A R Rahman took the stage for his Golden Globe win. It was probably because they couldn't wrap their tongue around his name, mispronouncing it no less than three times but the humble maestro, gracious as always, acknowledged his surprise and gratitude at receiving the award by thanking the Slumdog Millionaire eam and India's billion strong.
Rahman has had a predictably busy year working on Ghajini and Yuvvraaj's soundtracks among others and completed the masterly record in very little time. The movie, accused of packaging romanticised poverty to First World audiences that are equally guilty of lapping it up, is rich in its eclectic score. Glocal vibes have him collaborating with M.i.A., Gulzar Ila Arun, Alka Yagnik , Suzzanne D'Mello, known for her Western approach to singing and rap artist Blaaze. Compelling is the story and the hat screenwriter Simon Beaufoy wants to make a musical of it.
The movie about a boy from the slums who wins a fortune on India's version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? launched many faces but it brought Rahman the international recognition he so deserved. The musician's first success came with Mani Ratnam's Roja which even made Time magazine's list of 100 best movie compilations in the world. Tunes stand out for their longevity. In an industry that's sometimes stifled by the demands of playback music, Rahman's syncopations have managed to go off the beaten track and garnered both critical and popular acclaim.
It isn't hard to believe that two of the artiste's most appreciated soundtracks in recent times come from underdog movies Guru and Slumdog Millionaire. Young Rahman had a musically rich upbringing, but after his composer father R K Shekhar's premature death, the family had to rent out instruments to make ends meet and the maverick ventured into music making himself.
"It's a very strange thing... actually going back to my childhood story. I experienced most of the disappointments in my life at that time. So whatever happens now, suspect that hope, always suspect that happiness. And even that moment of happiness doesn't exist because am waiting for how it's going to fool me and give me a kick again."
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uch tags like Slumdog satisfies the ego of western media. They forget that movies are not the only source to prove a country prowess.
ReplyDeleteDo they forget that Indian children top in UK, USA, Canada, Australian universities. India is a soft state so poor here instead of minimising population produced children as a mean to earn and look after themselves in old age. Our poor and unemployed are not looters, vagabonds, killers, rapists as are in western society. the crime we see in India is done by criminals and not by somebody short of money.