Soulful tunes by a simple man: A R Rahman

As the world celebrated the 50th birthday of our Mozart of music on January 6 I couldn’t help but wonder how some things about his persona and his music were set as a standard 24 years ago, when he made his sensational debut in Bombay (1992). His smile — the all embracing, glowing with universal love smile, which reminds you of a Sufi saint if you have ever seen one! His mild and always evenly toned, “Hi, so what are we talking about? Ah… always less noise, more music, yes”… and all words that would flow in-between, undulated without any need for a higher or lower pitch.

His voice and his deftly tuned-in singing makes him one of my favourite music director-singers — be it the peppy Humma Humma (Roja, 1992) or Mental Manadhil (OK Kanmani, 2015) or the soulful New York Nagaram (Sillunu Oru Kaadhal, 2006) there are some songs which are meant to be sung only by Rahman. There is a constant ‘flowing with life’, of being in sync with each moment, of being ‘present’ — irrespective of which part of the globe he is in. This in-sync with life nature reflects in his music, his demeanour and interactions with the world, which these days he does on Facebook Live, Twitter and Periscope Live. Talk of being updated and international, he is the musical face of it!

Meeting him for interviews is a well managed experience because his time is precious and he would understandably like to spend it only creating music — but his paraphernalia doesn’t intimidate you. Instead an egoless, quiet self-confidence greets you first and I would imagine he was this way even in his first interview after winning the National award for Roja! Rahman literally changed the ‘sound of music’ of Indian cinema.

For all the whimpering that happens each time he releases an album (key one: you need to listen to a Rahman song more than once to ‘get it’) his songs top the charts, sometimes catching you unawares too! Apart from Mani Ratnam and Shankar, Rahman has given some noteworthy songs even to newcomer directors or for directors who don’t necessarily come from any camp! And this variety he has achieved in Hindi films as well. It is indeed a rare feat to be accepted on a pan-Indian and global arena where his work speaks in one language — music!

Rahman is the first music director who performed on stage like a rockstar sans the shenanigans (go watch those shows on YouTube now!) I love the way he directs his singers and I’ve heard his voice recording is an art to experience in itself! Tune into Thazhuvudhu Nazhuvudhu by SP Balasubrahmaniam from A..Ah (2005) to know what I mean.

Matching a singer to a hero is one filter, but, matching a singer to a song is a stroke of magic — like how Shankar Mahadevan fits into Varaha Nadhikara Oaram (Sangamam, 1999) or Sid Sriram was ‘tailormade for’ Adiye (Kadal, 2013), Thallipogathey (AYM, 2016) or Hariharan and Chitra in Uyire (Bombay, 1995).

Source: The New Indian Express