THE YEAR - 1996:
Rahman's popularity touched such heights, that other composers began to cash in, rather innovatively, on his name rather than his music. Many albums like 'Fantasy' and 'Beauty Palace' which actually had music composed by someone else but was falsely credited to Rahman were released in the market. Usually such albums had Rahman's photograph splashed across the album cover to draw the attention of buyers. And most people bought such albums without question if they saw the name A. R. Rahman on it. So much so, that the music company Magnasound re-released one of Rahman's first albums 'Set Me Free' under the title 'Shubhaa' without the consent of Rahman, which led to the souring of relations between the two. In its earlier avatar as 'Set Me Free' the focus was on singer Malgudi Shuba and Rahman was a mere footnote as Dileep. But this time around, the spotlight was on Rahman and Shubha was relegated to the background. Magnasound publicised the release as 'Rahman's first international English album'. Hoardings publicising the album sprung up overnight in major cities. Rahman was livid. "I'm not ashamed of my old album. Neither am I trying to hide my past," explained the music director. But he wanted the public to know that 'Set Me Free' was a six-year-old album which was done as an experimental venture with singer Shubhaa. Magnasound, he said, was wrong in trying to pass it off as a brand-new album. Magnasound sold 2 lakh copies in no time, an increase of over 10000% in sales since the previous time. But Magnasound's Managing Director Madhav Das was unapologetic about it, "See, we had the rights to the album. And today A.R.Rahman's name is an instant guarantee to success. So, what is wrong in exploiting that?". That summed up the brand equity of the name 'A. R. Rahman'.
Relatively, 1996 proved to be a listless year for Rahman, career wise. He had only four major releases, 'Indian', 'Lovebirds', 'Mr. Romeo', and 'Kadhal Desam' along with Bharathiraaja's extremely low-profile 'Anthimantharai'. Though the music of both the films , Indian and Kadhal Desam did very well they did not take him to any newer heights on counts of both creativity and success. From 'Indian', starring Kamalhassan, 'Akada', 'Maya Machindra' and 'Telephone Mani' became huge hits. In 'Kadhal Desam', his second film with Kadhir, he went the whole hog and sang 3 of the 6 songs with 'Musthafa Musthafa' becoming extremely popular. With 'Musthafa Musthafa', Rahman arrived as a singer. 'Mr. Romeo' and 'Lovebirds', both starring Prabhudeva. bombed. His background score for Deepa Mehta's 'Fire', where some enchanting new compositions were embellished with snatches from his score for 'Bombay', was internationally appreciated. But the soundtrack of 'Fire' was not released in India and was available only through mail order from a German company. This denied the score not just public acclaim but also prevented the masses from listening to one of Rahman's best soundtracks.
That year, he was offered a very prestigious multilingual project, 'Kaalapani' by director Priyadarshan with whom he was already working on 'Kabhi Na Kabhi'. But, reportedly on the request of lyricist-writer Javed Akhtar who had scripted 'Kabhi Na Kabhi' that he concentrate on any one of Priyadarshan's films he opted out of 'Kaalapani'. Following the failure of his 'Trimurti', Subhash Ghai decided to put 'Shikhar' on hold and make a relatively low-budget film called 'Pardes' and he asked Rahman to handle the score. But Rahman's response as he recounted later was "At that time I was extremely busy with 7-8 films. I told him that if I had to work with him I had to give him priority and I if I gave him priority I wouldn't be able to do these films. So I said let me finish these and then we will work together. He said alright and demanded full priority on the next film". And he later went on to do Ghai's 'Taal - The Beat of passion'.
He also went on his first ever concert tour, to Malaysia, in October 1996 where he was greeted by hysterical crowds. For this concert he specially composed a song 'Bosnia Oh Bosnia' since the concert was in aid of Bosnian War victims. This song was rendered by a chorus of 40 children accompanied by Rahman on the piano. The lyrics were in the local Bahasa-Malay language. The concert was a humongous success. It featured all the top singers from India including Hariharan, S. P. Balasubramnaniam and others. For the first time Rahman sang in public when he rendered 'Musthafa Musthafa' at this concert. As always, he won numerous awards that year, the notable ones being two Filmfare Awards for 'Bombay' and 'Rangeela'.
In end-1996, Rahman went on a signing spree in Tamil films. He signed Kadhir's next film 'Kadhalar Dhinam'. He then signed his friends R. M. Sait and Anwar Ali's "Love Letter'. There was lot of speculation that Rahman was producing this film along with his friends. But this turned out to be false. 'Love Letter' was later retitled 'En Swasa Katre'. He also signed 'Engineer' starring Arvind Swamy and Madhuri Dixit to be directed by Shankar's assistant Gandhi Krishna. Unfortunately the film has remained unmade till date owing to a cash crunch. One other film that has remained unmade was "Mudhal Mudhalaaga' starring Arvind Swamy and Karisma Kapoor directed by Mani Ratnam's assistant Perumal.
One very interesting incident that occurred that year, was at the annual Screen-Videocon Awards for cinematic excellence in Mumbai. Following the super success of 'Rangeela', everyone took it for granted that Rahman would win the award for Best Music. Even the organisers forced him to come all the way from Madras to Mumbai, saying that he had got the award and he had to receive it personally. On the night of the Awards ceremony, everyone at the event and those watching the show live on T.V. were shocked into stunned silence when the award for Best Music Score was given away to Rajesh Roshan for a fairly popular though largely copied score in 'Karan-Arjun'. Even the compere of the show Javed Jaffrey was taken aback and immediately rushed to Rahman in the audience and asked him for his reaction. All that Rahman said was 'God is Great!' which immediately won the hearts of everybody. Such is the humbleness of this man.
THE MAN BEHIND THE MUSIC:
Gradually, criticism also began to pour in. He was said to be very slow and was accused of taking his own time in composing, something that reportedly forced Mani Ratnam to drop a song from 'Bombay' to release the already delayed film on time. Rumours were rife that Mani Ratnam had dropped him from his next project for this reason but they were proved to be unfounded. But Rahman made no bones about it and said that he was no machine that could churn out scores on an assembly line endlessly and admitted that he did take his time over his scores. He added that it was essential that he take his time in order to do a quality job and made clear the same to his directors before taking up the assignment. "What is the use of quick delivery if you don't get good stuff? I'm not lazy. I need time to get involved so that something undefined comes naturally to help the movie. I can't do it in a week - all I had for Karuthamma.''
The above problem threw up another quirk in Rahman's scores. Due to the lack of time in completing scores Rahman began to serve up his lesser known earlier compositions in new avatars. This happened for the first time when he used the 'Raakozhi Rendu' song from 'Uzhavan' as 'Aa Siggueggulenta Varaku' in the Telugu film 'Super Police'. He followed this up by using the song 'Baboo Love Cheyyara' from 'Gangmaster' as 'Yaaron Sun Lo Zara' in 'Rangeela' . Then 'Anjali Anjali' from 'Duet' reappeared as 'Milgaye Woh Manzilen' in 'Kabhi Na Kabhi' . This dubious practice earned Rahman a lot of criticism but he didn't seem to care. This feature would become a hallmark in many of his future scores. He would reuse 'Porale Ponnuthayi' from 'Karuthamma' as 'Gurus of Peace' in 'Vandemataram', 'Ottagathai Kattiko' from 'Gentleman' as 'Musafir' in 'Vandemataram', 'Maanpoove' from 'Yodha' as 'Chevaanam' in 'Pavithra', and 'Jumbalakka' from 'En Swasa Katre' as 'Jumbalika' in 'Thakshak'. But he would top himself when he would go on to reuse not one but two songs for 'Pukar'. 'Oh Bosnia' would reappear as 'Ek Tu Hi Bharosa' and 'Nayagara' from 'En Swasa Katre' as 'Kay Sera Sera'.
Another charge against him was that his music was getting repetitive. Initially Rahman countered it saying that it was his individualistic brand of music and therefore might sound that way but later he brushed away the oft-repeated allegation saying "hellip; the accusation is getting repetitive. You call it predictable, I term it as my style. They are ways of looking at it. If you call my style predictable, that means you have understood Rahman has been dealing with a particular brand of music alone. Once you hear the music, you know it is has been composed by Rahman. That is what I am all about. That is my identity; that is the identity of my music. ". " If I stick to my what you call my trademark sound, I am accused of sounding the same, and if I try to do something different , people complain that it doesn't sound like Rahman's music. Its a no-win situation for me. Left to myself I would like to be adventurous and try out styles I haven't tried before."
Rahman takes both acclaim and criticism in his stride. When told that that many are of the opinion that he has given a new dimension to music he responds by saying that many also feel that he is lousy. He adds further that ' I accept I am lousy at times. It depends on the inspiration I get. One can't be on the same creative plane always'.
Many of his colleagues in Madras and Bombay, unable to compete with him took the route of slander and took digs at him calling him 'only a jingle composer' and saying that he would fizzle out in a couple of films. The same 'composers' who copied him left, right and centre made grandiloquent statements like "Let us see if he is around after two years, Rahman's type of music is just a temporary passing fad which will wear out once the crowd gets used to his music, he will not be able to sustain himself". Always one to shy away from controversies, Rahman refused to be drawn in to a war of words and responded characteristically with a very curt "Music speaks, statements don't.". And as expected he replied with his music which blew all the other composers out of the scene.
When asked about the influences in his music he says "Nobody can be completely original ... because the notes are already there... from the notes we form a raag and from the raag a tune... it is a process. As far as possible, to my conscience, I try to be original. The rest is up to Allah." Explaining his approach to composing he says, "Once I complete a composition, a week later, I listen to it and after two weeks, I take it up again. In the process my music grows. Sometimes even after a shoot, I listen to the music find its allwrong and get down to re-working. Sometimes it gets all done just before themusic is mixed. For most, once the shooting is done, its all over but I don'twork like that." Music is like a medicine that cures. Just like a medicine, it tastes sour at the beginning but as time passes it starts to work. If you take sweets for example, they taste great at the beginning but they vanish without a trace immediately. Songs are also like that. You like some songs immediately on hearing but you forget them in the same speed. And there are songs that you hated the first time you heard it, but as time goes on you get a real satisfied feeling hearing it. So, as far as music is concerned you can't decide anything immediately. "
Other filmmakers, whose offers he turned down spread rumours about him. When asked why he turns down so many offers even when he is offered stacks of tempting money, Rahman, as philosophicaly as always, says, "I would say that I'm fighting as hard as I can to be exclusive. I don't have the capacity to handle more than 4-5 films at a time. And once I accept a project it is my responsibility to give my fullest to it. When I refuse offers, I do feel terrible. Some could feel disappointed by my refusal. I say no mainly because I know I won't be able to do adequate justice to their projects. At times, they look as if I've broken their hearts. Sad... its just that I can't please everyone. And as far as the money goes, Money can't buy you happiness. The biggest offers I get are for 'live' shows. The amount I'm offered for one concert is much more than what I would earn after slogging on 10 films! But I'm afraid you can't buy creativity... Everyone comes with the same offer- 'state your price, we'll give you what you want...'. Rather than huge fees, I'd appreciate interaction on a film's score. In reality, the best music emerges from any composer when there's an exchange of ideas... when there are stories that inspire you. Then the project keeps moving... when you're not into the spirit of things, you can get stuck. And then delays in delivering the score become unavoidable. So I'd rather not get into projects which don't excite me from the very outset. I don't want anyone to feel that I've let them down later .. honestly that's how I've been brought up. Don't get into something you'll regret later."
One other criticism levelled at him was that his hip-hop tunes had no scope for good lyrics. This allegation was also disproved when lyricist Vairamuthu won National Awards repeatedly for songs set to tune by Rahman, namely for 'Roja', 'Pavithra', 'Kadhalan' and 'Minsara Kanavu'. Rahman himself insists on good poetry for his songs, "Lyrics lend immortality to a melody. The eternal, evergreen hit songs are always the ones with profound lyrics ndash; lyrics that remain true and meaningful even after years."
To the criticism about the use of technology in his music he says " We are heading towards the millenium. We have to keep abreast of times. Do they expect me to continue living in the 19th century? What is wrong in resorting to modern technology? You have to keep pace with the world around. A computer I bought six months ago had three minutes' waiting time to get started, but today's computers take just three seconds to start. I can now record my music on a hard disk and carry it around, and synthesise it with any kind of ethnic music anywhere in the world. If we are to compete globally, we have to be in step with the times. But you have to hold yourself back from going overboard. Technology is like a monster which has to be tamed. You must know how to handle it. I spent three years to bring the music software I use entirely under my control."
Rahman is probably the foremost user of technology in music in India today. He can probably be described as the man who pioneered the use of technology in Indian music. India's leading Information Technology journal , Express Computer, profiled the use of technology by Rahman. He avoids making music on tape, and prefers to carry his music on his portable computer. Also, he composes most of his music in-flight and his favorite platform is the Macintosh. Rahman, the progenitor of tunes the nation dances to, is a power user of technology. A proud owner of 12 PowerMacs and two PowerBook portables (now 15, with the addition of the first iBook in India), he swears by technology. "I cannot live without my computers today. Most of my music is made on them - so much so that I carry my music on my portable even when I am travelling," he says.
"I prefer my computers to traditional tape, as I can rerecord on the machine, which is not possible on tape. Also, it gives me the additional flexibility of editing a song up to one lakh times, which I can do only once on tape. Also, minor flaws within a musical sequence can be rectified on the computer, which is otherwise not possible," he says. But why the Apple Macintosh? "It is perhaps the easiest and best platform to use, especially in the areas of music and creative arts. I have experimented with other technologies too, but the Mac is something that is very close to me now. It is a machine with an attitude," he says. Moreover, a majority of music professionals across the world work on the Macintosh for their music.
Rahman is currently running his set-up on Apple's G3 processors, but plans to upgrade to G4 very soon. "I use PowerMacs to formulate various types of music and musical patterns. The computers in my studio are not networked, so each performs a different function. Everything is integrated into the final score at the end, which is further refined a number of times before you finally get to hear the end result. More than just the basic composition, the post-production work is made much easier by the Macintosh," says Rahman.
Another strange criticism levelled at Rahman was that he made excessive use of singers without the knowledge of the nuances of a particular language, like he made Udit Narayan sing in Tamil and also the use of untrained singers. To the first allegation Rahman replied that it was quite true and said that he had reduced the use of Hindi singers in Tamil. To the second, Rahman's reaction was " Why should any actor or actress sound like S. P. Balasubramaniam, P. Susheela or Chitra? Why can't a new singer sing in his own raw voice? It's the done thing in jingles and non-film music. Only in films, they insist on an established voice. I ventured to break the convention and the public has accepted it."
On why he uses so many different voices in a film, irespective of whether they suit the character or not, he says " I do it for varieity. Otherwise things would get monotonous. There was a time when the album of a film would have only two voices. Today different singers sing for the same character. The times have changed. The attention span of the average listener has decreased and his geographical purview has broadened. The listeners no longer think in terms of peprfect or imperfect. They want different voices, standards be damned."
Yet another criticism that was levelled at Rahman in the initial stages of his career was that he was at home only with Western rhythms and would never be able to give typical Indian tunes. But Rahman quickly disproved that allegation and demonstrated that he was equally at ease with Indian Classical and Folk rhythms and melodies with his scores in 'Indira', 'Kizhakku Cheemayile', 'Karuthamma', 'Iruvar', 'Uzhavan', 'Taj Mahal' etc.
One other allegation was that Rahman ahd become very arrogant and treated filmmakers very badly and made them wait endlessly. Says Rahman "In Chennai, I hsve a small studio where all the music happens. I can do only thing at a time there. Even when a track is being transferred, all other work comes to a standstill, because I like to supervise everything myself. I don't believe in handing over a job to someone else and wait for the results. This leads to people waiting for me sometimes. But its not deliberate."
Initially Rahman had to encounter a great deal of opposition in Bollywood. People were waiting for him to falter. But as one Bollywood composer acknowledged "He just does not fail. He knows the pulse of the public better than any other composer in India today. He is not only in touch with the Zeitgeist, He is the Zeitgeist.(Zeitgeist - The taste and outlook that is characteristic of a period or generation)."
By the end of 1996, the relative non-success of scores like 'Mr.Romeo' and 'Lovebirds' prompted the know-alls in the industry to comment that Rahman was facing a burn out. Also the failure of dubbed Tamil scores like 'Tu Hi Mera Dil' made the critics carp that he was running out of steam and was recycling his own tunes and had exhausted his limited repertoire. They also remarked that the public was now tired of the 'Rahman sound'.
One other very notable thing that Rahman can be credited with is the fact that he has consistently introduced a whole host of new talented singers, the notable names being Suresh Peters, Shahul Hameed, Aslam Mustafa, Unnikrishnan, Sreenivas, Mahalaxmi, Harini, Minmini, Sujatha Mohan, Nithyashree etc. He even got his secretary Noell James to sing in films. Once, in 1995, Rahman was invited by Padma Seshadri Bal Bhavan, his former school, to be the judge in a singing competition. Rahman promised that he would give the winner of the contest a break in cinema. True to his word, he introduced the winner of the contest, Harini, with the song 'Nila Kaigiradhu' in 'Indira' and then gave her 'Telephone Mani' in 'Indian'. This song was a big success. She then went on to sing many more songs for Rahman. He has also given a fresh lease of life to the careers of fading and failing singers like Asha Bhonsle with 'Rangeela', Hema Sardesai with 'Sapnay' and Sukhvinder Singh with 'Dil Se..' . He also brought to the mainstream Sreenivas and let him prove his worth after being a chorus singer for a long time. Rahman says, "That is because I know the difficulty of not being given a chance to prove yourself when you are talented. When God has made me a successful music director today, then why not use it to the best by introducing new talent? I will be sinning if I don't provide an opportunity to talented people."
Also a very important reflection of Rahman's humility, fairness, honesty and sense of equality is reflected in the fact that he is the only composer who ensures that his entire team ranging from the rhythm programmers to the instrumentalists and chorus singers are credited on the inlay card of the album. If, today, Noell James, Febi, Feji, Sivamani are household names the credit goes to Rahman's sense of fair play. Sivamani has repeatedly thanked Rahman for bringing him into the limelight. An interesting characteristic of him is that he never watches the movies he has composed for. He has only watched two till date, 'Roja' and 'Rangeela'. "The songs are rarely picturised the way they were narrated to me. I don't want to feel disappointed at not having composed to the feel of the picturisation."
Rahman is also known for some strange personality quirks. Like his inclination to work during the nights and sleep during the day. When asked how he developed this unexpected and unusual habit of sitting up all night and working and making others work with the same passion, the same perseverance, the same precision to come up with nothing but the best, the best that will satisfy him and satisfy a filmmaker like the filmmaker who is madly in love with his music. He says he used to work the whole day when he worked as a jingles man, working on all kinds of ad films. He started working on the few films that came his way after 6 pm. Soon he was working from 6 am to 6 p.m. and then from 6 p.m. to 2 am and then it went on from 6 am to 6 p.m. the next day. The unusual man's unusual schedule now starts at 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. and then goes on till 6 am.
"For a creative job, there are no working hours. When something doesn't work out, I usually continue working. Initially I used to work in the day, but My work used to get extended into the night and slept at 2''O clock and then it got later and later and I used to miss my morning prayers. So I thought why not work in the nights and sleep in the day." "It started when I was working on films and jingles simultaneously. It used to be nine to nine in a studio, ten to five on jingles, three hours of sleep, and back to the studio. Then I realised that I actually liked working in the night - it was quiet and serene. There was another reason too. When I used to work till three or later and hen fall asleep, I missed out on my prayers, so I decided to stay awake for a few more hours and complete praying. By then it would be six. So, now I sleep from nine to three." Speaking about how he relaxes, he says."After I finish a film, I mostly take my family to the Dargah where we pay our respects to the Aulia. Otherwise I meditate and sometimes Internet. I like to see what people talk about me and what they are bitching (sic) about me."
Commenting on his responsibilities towards his listeners he says, "Once music listeners trust you, you've got to live up to their faith. You can't tell people there wasn't enough time to do justice to the music or that the director gave me the wrong brief. All listeners care about is the quality of the work. So I better do my best. Since buyers spend their hard earned money on music I think its our responsibility not to betray their trust. If you lose their trust you've had it."
THE YEAR - 1997:
Early 1997 saw the release of his fourth film with Mani Ratnam, 'Iruvar' and the legendary Madras movie house, AVM's 50th anniversary film 'Minsara Kanavu'. 'Iruvar' was an offbeat film and had a topical score with a couple of brilliant jazz and classical numbers in addition to two nostalgic numbers from the MGR era, among others. Though the music was appreciated by the critics, it did not win much favour with the public at large, probably because the music sounded dated keeping in sync with the period the movie was set in. In the case of 'Minsara Kanavu', when AVM wanted to make a movie to commemorate its 50th anniversary, it was not sure of what kind of movie it would be or who would make it. All it was sure of was that it wanted A. R. Rahman to score the music. First thing, Rahman was signed up by the studio and he was asked who he wanted the director to be. Rahman suggested the name of cinematographer and friend from college, Rajeev Menon. Rahman had composed jingles for many ad films directed by Rajeev Menon and also worked with him in 'Bombay' which was cinematographed by Menon. The music of 'Minsara Kanavu' was a major success and also fetched him his second National Award. The songs 'Ooh La La La' and 'Poo Pookum Osai' (Awara bhanwre in Hindi) became major hits. His second original Hindi film 'Daud' for Ramgopal Varma was released in the same year. Though it was in typical Rahman style, it did not live up to his high standards. One highly unusual composition 'Zahareela Zahareela pyar' caught the fancy of many but was too unconventional to became a huge success.
Five years of working in the same kind of movies made Rahman yearn for something different and get out of the rut. In 1996, when Rahman had gone to Bombay to attend the Screen Awards ceremony, he met his childhood friend G. Bharat. During this meeting both had discussed a proposal for an album to commemorate 50 years of Indian Independence in 1997. In 1997, the International music giant, Sony Music, whose portfolio included the likes of Michael Jackson and Celine Dion, entered the Indian market in a big way. They were looking to promote Indian artistes internationally. And the first person to be signed up by Sony Music from the Indian sub-continent was, who else but, A.R.Rahman, on a 3-album contract. The financial details of the contract were not disclosed but Industry experts believe it to be the largest of its kind in India. Rahman suggested the idea that he had discussed with Bharat to Sony Music India and was immediately accepted.
Called 'Vandemataram', it was a tribute to the motherland and featured songs to mark the 3 colours of the Indian Flag . Sony asked him to choose from any of its international stars to work with and supposedly even suggested the name of Celine Dion. But Rahman settled, very appropriately, for the Pakistani Sufi music star Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Dominic Miller. Rahman had decided that he would definitely work with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan after he attended his performance in Delhi. Explaining his choice, "I don't want to collaborate with just a name. I must feel something for the person and relate with his work. I've seen several famous names collaborating on songs and albums , but they remain just two names. There's no chemistry. It's like oil and water. They can' t come together." Rahman worked overtime on it to come up with a memorable album. He devoted so much time to this prestigious project that his film assignments went behind schedule. He went all the way to Pakistan to record the 'Gurus of Peace' number with Khan Saheb. Rahman composed, arranged and sang all the songs on the album.
Recounting the time when he hit upon the tune for 'Maa Tujhe Salaam' - "In late January, on the 27th day of Ramzan, an auspicious time when legend has it that angels open the gates of heaven and all prayers are answered, I descended on my studio. It was 2 a.m. and my sound engineer had disappeared. And so I called Bala and when he arrived I told him you're the sound engineer. And then I sang for the first time, a few verses for just the two of us. "It was magical," says Bala. "He laughed, then he cried," says Rahman.
Two months hence, in March 1997, amidst Sony Music executives in Mumbai, came a sort of penultimate test. Shridar Subramaniam, director, marketing, Sony Music India tells the story best. "Everybody was really nervous. It's an exhausting song and Martin (Davis, head of Sony Music Asia) doesn't speak a word of Hindi, but in 40 seconds we knew. It was fresh, new." It got better. In May, at a Sony conference in Manila, where the bigger the name you can drop means the more attention you get, they got 20 minutes. When the songs from the album was played, pre-release, at the Sony Music conference in Manila, Sony Music executives representing various Sony Music sub-labels reportedly went berserk and clamoured for the international rights of the album. They played the song; pandemonium reigned. The head of Columbia records ( a Sony label) said, "It's unbelievable, I want it." The head of Epic records (another Sony label) said, "I don't care, I want it." Says Subramaniam: "It was the hit of the conference."
Rahman became the first Indian artiste of popular music to go international when 'Vandemataram' was released simultaneously in 28 countries across the world under the prestigious Columbia Label of Sony Music on August 15th, 1997. Rahman himself performed live at Vijay Chowk in New Delhi on the eve of the Golden Jubilee of Indian Independence to a packed audience that comprised the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Inder Kumar Gujral. The album was a mega success and sold over 1.5 million copies in India(a remarkable figure for non-film music in India) and did extemely well internationally too becoming the largest selling Indian non-film album internationally. The song 'Maa Tujhe Salaam' got repeated airplay in the world music category on radio and television channels across the world. With 'Vandemataram' Rahman left all his contemporaries far far behind and moved into a new dimension altogether. His full-throated rendition of the title song "Maa Tujhe Salaam", loaded with raw emotion touched the hearts of many a music lover.
Interestingly the Indian release had only 7 songs while the International release had two additional songs 'Masoom' and "Musafir'. Later 'Masoom' was released in India in the album 'Gurus of Peace' and 'Musafir' in the album 'MTV Total Mix'.
The album was lapped up eagerly by both the masses and the classes and was described variously as 'brilliant', 'the ultimate expression of freedom', 'a mantra that instills a sense of pride and belonging', 'a classic' and 'evocative'. India's leading news magazine 'India Today' in its year end issue picked Rahman as one of the faces that made a difference in the year 1997 "hellip;because Vandemataram is the national song once again" and wrote " Forget Roja, forget Bombay, forget everything. Even if he had never composed a successful piece of film music in his life, he would have gone down in history for one unforgettable night: August 14th 1997. That was the night A. R. Rahman gave his country its most rapturous 50th birthday present - Vandemataram - Maa Tujhe Salaam. It was as if the very soul of India had found its voice once more hellip;".
One of the many glowing reviews for the album went "Good music has personality. It is a lot like a short story that has embedded messages which the reader must uncover. Unlike a short story, however, good music has many more suggestive qualities. On the one hand it must quickly grab the listeners attention and on the other hand it must be so richly woven that the listener keeps wanting to come back for more. Vande Mataram is an example of music with personality. What separates this collection from the others is the provocative music and lyrics. What makes this collection enchanting is the raw unbridled emotion that AR Rehman projects through his musical score. What makes the collection timeless is that a thousand years of musical influence, from Khusro to contemporary, is cleverly woven into the composition."
Speaking about the intent behind the album, Rahman said, "The primary objective of the album is to inspire a feeling for the country. And the sentiments so aroused go beyond caste, creed and colour. The feelings which inspired the album come from the heart, and can solve a lot of problems. If people look beyond religion and caste barriers, and think only of the country, that's enough. I personally think Vande Mataram is an ongoing movement, and people will feel good about it for the next 50 years."
Rahman himself underwent a physical transformation in order to feature in the music videos of the album and grew long hair, much to his dislike initially. In his dedication in the album he says, " All perfect praises belong to the Almighty alone. I dedicate this album to the future generations of India. I wish that this album inspires them to grow up with the wealth of Human values and ethics that this country is made of. I wish that the youth of today would wipe out phrases like 'Chaltha Hai' from their vocabularies and find themselves motivated Human beings". 'Vandemataram' touched the heights of fame, appreciation and recognition when it made it to the final rounds of the prestigious Cannes Film Festival and was in line for an award but lost out ultimately since the event co-incided with the Indian nuclear blasts. He was asked by people at the festival "Here he was singing his heart out about peace and his country and his country was terrorising the world with its nuclear blasts! Which was the true India?". Vande Mataram was one of the video film clips that was in the competition for the top prize. But as luck would have it, the film was shown the week that India conducted its nuclear blasts. ''On the one hand, we were singing in praise of our mother earth and on the other, we were blasting it away. People kept asking us, what the hell do you think you all are doing," says Bharatbala. But even so, their song made it to the finals. From being the No.1 music director, Rahman also became a top pop star, though he didn't appreciate 'Vandemataram' being branded as a pop album.
1997 brought him further personal joy and happiness when he became a father. He named his daughter Kathija. Other movies that were released in 1997 were 'Rakshakan' and 'Vishwa Vidhaata' in Hindi which had the same music as 'Pudhiya Mugam'. Rahman was very upset with the producer of 'Pudhiya Mugam', Suresh Menon for having sold the dubbing rights of the music to the makers of 'Vishwa Vidhaata' without his consent. Both the movies did not do well, though the music of 'Rakshakan' did fairly well. He bagged the Filmfare Award yet again, for 'Kadhal Desam'. He signed Mansoor Khan's 'Josh' but again opted out owing to time constraints. Aamir Khan, impressed by the music that Rahman gave for his 'Rangeela' pursued him doggedly to do his next film 'Mela' for director Dharmesh Darshan, but once again time constraints prevented Rahman from accepting the offer. Noted painter M. F. Hussain offered him his much talked about film with Madhuri Dixit - 'Gaj Gamini' which also Rahman was forced to turned down due to paucity of time. He was also asked to compose a song for the revised version of India's first 3-D movie 'Chota Chetan'. Again Rahman was forced to decline the offer. He took up one interesting offer from Director Suresh Krishna and Producer 'Pyramid' Natarajan. The film, 'Sangamam', was a low-budget venture with a musical subject and would feature out and out classical and folk songs. He also signed Director Vasanth's new film for the same producer. The title for the film, 'Rhythm' was suggested by Rahman himself.
Post-Vandemataram, some changes in Rahman's personality could also be seen. The earlier elusive and evasive Rahman became more accessible and gave more interviews and appeared to have become media-savvy. No longer reticent and shy he opened up a bit. He explains the change thus "Earlier things worked on a level of mysticism. I was this mystic from the down South who made music. But you can't hide from people all the time. I need to relate to people. I have also realised that if I stayed away from people, they would get frustrated and start misunderstanding me. But, there are times when I go back into my shell, it helps me make better music. Because, then , I'm involved in nearly every part of music."
THE YEAR - 1998:
1998 began on a good note when the music of 'Jeans', his fourth film with Shankar did very well. In fact, initially the movie took a bad opening and later picked up and became a big hit on the strength of Rahman's music. One of the first Hindi movies that he signed, 'Kabhi Na Kabhi' was also finally released. One song 'Mera dil ka woh shehzaada' became very popular but the rest of the score did not catch on. He signed his fourth film for Producer 'Pyramid' Natarajan - 'Udaya' to be directed by Maniratnam's former assistant Azhagan Perumal. But 1998 would musically belong to one film. The Rahman-Ratnam combination touched greater heights with the release of their fifth film together, 'Dil Se..', which became a rip-roaring success and also an all-time crowd favourite. The song 'Chaiyya Chaiyya ' became a humongous success. The entire score came in for wide spread appreciation and was hailed as 'Rahman's most versatile score till date'. For the first time, the 'Nightingale of India' Lata Mangeshkar sang a song for Rahman, the song being 'Jiya Jale' which also hit the top spot. Rahman later revealed why he doesn't work with Lata mangeshkar very often, "Most of my songs are so freaky that I feel embarassed to approach her. I feel they won't do justice to her reputation."
In the same year, Bharatbala approached him to do a sequel to the super successful 'Vandemataram', titled 'Vandemataram 2'. But Rahman did not take up the project for reasons he would later describe as 'This whole idea of doing the first album came up so suddenly and was so interesting that I had mercilessly pushed all my producers behind schedule. There were too many projects hanging fire. I'd promised to complete the pending films as soon as I was through with the album. I was supposed to do a couple of songs for the second album but after a song like Vandemataram I knew I would have to do something really exceptional to match the previous effort. So, I just decided to take a break and then start work on it again". He won numerous awards for the music of 'Minsara Kanavu', including the prestigious National Award, Filmfare Tamil Award for the sixth time in a row and the Screen Award for 'Vandemataram'. In October, he performed at the 70th Birthday celebrations of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi. In November he won the Viewer's Choice Channel [V] Award for Vandemataram, after being chosen by over 4.4 million fans. 'Dil Se..' swept the film music awards categories at the Channel [V] awards winning awards for Best Score, Best Song and Best Male and Female singers. Later he won the Channel [V]-IMI Award for Best Producer for 'Vandemataram' along with Bala and Kanika.
His second film with Priyadarshan 'Doli Sajake Rakhna' was also released in November and the music was a fair success but paled in comparison to Dil Se.. . He signed an English-Hindi bilingual for director Ketan Mehta titled 'The Rising' which was to be based on the 1857 First War of Indian Independence. His second film for Deepa Mehta, 'Earth', where he came up with a totally new score was released at the Toronto Film Festival in September and the music came in for all round appreciation. He also signed his second film for Rajnikanth, reportedly rather reluctantly, titled 'Padayappa', to be directed by K. S. Ravikumar. He reportedly took up the film after the superstar himself made a personal reuqest to Rahman to score music for the film.
In the first week of December he went on a concert tour to Dubai where the Al-Shabab stadium was packed with crowds in excess of 50,000. He performed with the choicest of singers like S.P.Balasubramaniam, Hariharan, Udit Narayan, Chitra, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Sadhana Sargam, Shubha, Anupama and his entire orchestra consisting of drummer Sivamani Anandan, guitarist Kabuli and flautist Naveen. At this concert Rahman demonstrated the falseness of the claim that he used only electronic instruments in his music. He introduced his entire 50-piece orchestra to the audience and told the crowd that it was the hard work of all those people that made good music and not electronic gadgets alone. The crowd was treated to renditions of more than 30 splendid songs from Rahman's ever increasing repertoire. In December, he was invited by 'Mukti' a social service organisation to perform in a concert to promote AIDS awareness. He composed a song specially for the occasion. Titled 'Zindagi Se Pyar Karo', the song was a reflection of the theme of the AIDS awareness campaign 'Love life, prevent AIDS'. He performed the song to packed crowds of over 60,000 at the concert on the 24th of December at the Andheri Sports Complex in Mumbai.
He signed his first Kannada film 'Ram' in addition to his fifth film with one of his favourite directors Shankar, titled 'Mudhalvan'. While his first film with Rajkumar Santoshi, 'Pukar' is very eagerly awaited he went ahead and signed another film 'Rashq' with the same director starring, Aishwarya Rai, Aamir Khan and Shahrukh Khan. Late in 1998 a second daughter was born to Rahman. She was named Rafia.
All this success has not been without its fallouts for Rahman. Some mischievous elements of society spread canards in early 1998 that Rahman was funding Muslim fundamentalists in Tamil Nadu, something that was totally unfounded and caused him a great deal of grief. Later in the year he began receiving threatening calls from Fundamentalist groups for singing Vandemataram and was accorded armed protection by the Government. What was amusing that he received threats from both Hindu and Muslim Fundamentalists, from the Hindu Fundamentalists for 'defiling a Hindu song' and from the Muslim fundamentalists for 'singing an anti-Islam song'. Rahman dismisses all these controversies saying that while his religion is very important to him, his patriotism for his country is in no way inferior. Rahman feels that all this security is extremely cumbersome and hampers his work but has no choice in view of the perceived threat to his life. Expressing his views on religion, "God and religion are very personal. Now it has become politics. I think religion should be left to a person. The mosque or temple should be within oneself. That is the best thing."
"I don't know what all this hullabaloo is about. I am not scared of death. My life and death are in Allah's hands. I will live only till he wants me to live. I will die only when he wants me to die. I can't understand all these policemen following me wherever I go. It hurts in so many ways. It hurts my feelings in so many different ways. It makes me lose faith in man. But what can I do? I have to follow the crazy system created by a crazy world. But I am not scare of dying anytime", Rahman says. He remarked in an interview, "It is better that I clear everything up. About the rumour that I helped fundamentalists, how can it be that I provide funds for them, when I have received death threats from the extremists and the state government has posted police personnels to guard my residence? Another rumour concerned my giving away money as charity to such organisations. Charity is done to satisfy my urge to do more for the poor. And anyway I have to tell you, I don't give charity only to Muslim charities, I donate to Hindu and Christian organisations too. The money I give as charity is limited as I have to improve my instruments. I have invested heavily in technology and there is not much left to indulge in mass charity. The amount I give is definitely not enough to help the extremists to buy arms with my money!"
His shy demeanour hides a soft and generous heart. His close associates recount his stopping at a busy Mumbai intersection to give alms to beggars lining the street. "He just thrust his hand into his pockets and gave them all the money," said one. Another time in Chennai he got out of his car to help a cyclist who lay in an epileptic seizure.
He encountered controversies on the personal front too when he was charged with throwing out his father's close associates and converting people. All the charges turned out to be totally unfounded and baseless. Rahman defended himself saying, "A rumour has been going around that a beggar I picked up at a Dargah has become an absolute tyrant and has become the reason for sending out M K Arjunan. M. K. Arjunan was a very close associate of my father and my adviser. He helped our family in the time of our need by letting me play the keyboard in his orchestra. The truth is Arjunan's son wanted to set up a recording studio in Kerala. I gave him some of my instruments. And M. K. Arjunan went back to Kerala to help his son set up his recording studio there. Therefore there was no question of an outsider making him leave,was there? And while on this point, I did not pick up any beggar on the streets. Another rumour which is spreading is that I convert people close to me. What nonsense. If I had converted people, Noel, Shivakumar, Shridhar etc. would have changed religion! When I am not perfect myself,how can I convert others? I follow my religion, let others follow their own. The whole thing was cooked up by a freelance journalist called Bismi, who married my sister and later divorced her. He met her when she was doing some stage shows and we sort of forced her into marriage with him. But unfortunately we came to know that he was only after my money. He used to be very upset with my giving to charity. Anyway as soon as my sister came to know that he was only after the money she separated. But during the time when he was around he learnt a lot of the family's inner issues and now he is spreading rumours to upset me."
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