MEMORIES ▶️▶️ 🎼 AR RAHMAN 🎼

[MysteRy]

BROTHER ❤️

Despite the fact that He was the breadwinner of the family , AR never once said he was the boss or said " look at all that I'm doing for you all " even once.'. I never heard him utter those words on even a single occasion. And that's why I respect him more. Because he never expects it. He did what he did for us naturally, like breathing air. He never said " I did this for you ". We were never really very affectionate with each other, but he was always there for me when I need him.

-AR RAIHANAH

[MysteRy]

•SELECTED FEW•

ARR has a philosophic stance on fatherhood. “I love what Khalil Gibran says, ‘Children come through you, not from you.’ So they all have their distinct personalities. When I went to my father’s studio after he passed away, I heard only good things about him. I wish, as a father, I could be even a small percentage of that to my kids.” His mother introduced him to spirituality and down the years, he’s turned composing music into a spiritual experience. “My music has to work for me first. I should like it because I’m living with it longer than any other person. If it recurrently gives me a good feeling, then I know it will be good for others too.” He says he feels he’s in sync with his Creator while composing. “The Sufi tracks wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t feel a connection.” He admits his connection with divinity is stronger on days he’s working on spiritual themes. “Most of the Sufi songs or the songs, which celebrate the Almighty, like Khwaja mere Khwaja or Oh palan haare orKun faya kun happened because there was a strong sense of surrendering to His will. That state of mind doesn’t come very often,” he confides. “Once the song is made, it’s not yours anymore. You hear many qawwals (singers) performing the Sufi tracks at remote places; it’s so beautiful to see that.” He adds with a childlike smile, “I compose a lot of Sufi songs, which are only for my friends and me. What get released are the selected few.”


🎼🎶 ARR 🎶🎼

[MysteRy]

In early 1991, a gentleman named Raviprakash was working with Rajiv Menon and an ad agency called HTA(JWT today) on a commercial. In the early 90's he was the CEO of TV company called solidiare. The aforementioned was for one of the company's portable TVs. And the jungle for it was composed by young AR.

" when we were recording the jingle, says Raviprakash,'the first few times I heard it, I felt like something was missing. But Rahman would just keep smiling and winking at me and adding layers of music until it sounded perfect. He was just god gifted".

In any case after the jingle was recorded, and the executives from HTA had left the studio, AR went to Raviprakash and said softly, " hey there is something i want you to listen to".

'sure, Ravi said. AR then played him a track.

' I was just bowled over when I heard it,' Raviprakash recalls. He asked AR if it was a jingle for somebody else.

AR didn't offer any explanation and just said ," Now listen to this ....

' he played me another track and that was fantastic as well,'says Ravi. I told him " wow man you've gone into another league," and asked him what this music was.'

Only then AR did tell him , ' They are songs for a film I'm doing. Manirathnam directing it, and he asked me to do the music.🌹

[MysteRy]

🎼 ORE KANA 🎼

The process of creating and refining each piece of music can get drawn out over a long period of time. Considering the story of " ore kana ( jaage Hain) ", the song that would become the backbone of Mani Ratnam's guru. Rahman spent a whole night working on just the first two notes of the chorus. He sat at his keyboard and played them again and again untill he was happy with it. Untill he believed it was perfect.

[MysteRy]

We had a very non-traditional tune which Rajeev wanted to be developed. The song was ``O lalala, Manamadura Mamarakuile.'' The tune was a bit different. It changes into Tamil folk from half of the song. Vairamuthu found it very alien to Tamil films and rejected it first. He said people will also reject it. We also decided not to use it. After a week when we listened to it again, Rajeev said it sounded good and suggested that we ask Vairamuthu to write a lyric for it. The poet was recuperating after a fever. So we went to his house, made him write for the tune. The song won the national award for Chitra and all of us....

.🎹🎼 A R R 🎼🎹

[MysteRy]

❤ TRUE TO UR HEART ❤

There’s something about my harmonies that makes people think they recognise me in my songs. But I want to surprise, and I want to keep evolving.” AR is always curious to know what people think of his music, good or bad, he says. “You’re in a team, and you are surrounded by opinions, but I always ask, did you play it for someone else outside of us? Did they like it?”

And what if they didn’t? Does he take criticism well or does ego come into play? He can’t be all soft-spoken niceness, after all. “I do listen to the bad, honestly. I think you need to separate your personal ego from your creative arrogance. Creative arrogance is a good thing, it makes you want to create something amazing. Otherwise my art would be as boring as my personality.”

Sometimes though, he admits, people just don’t get it. It takes time and many listens for them to come around to his music, which is something we have all felt at some point about a Rahman song, isn’t it? And when you get it, it’s like a window opens. “Music, you know, it can change people. You can be messed-up in the head, and then listen to a beautiful song, and it brings happiness, hope. It’s very positive,” he says. And hard. “When you first start out, you criticise everybody. Oh, this sounds like that, he sounds like this person, but it’s only when you start writing music that you really understand how difficult it is. For me it’s about taking out all the technicalities and focusing on the truth of the tune, and to connect to that. Sometimes the simplest thing can take a long time to get around, but you have to be true to your heart.”

🎶 🎶 A R R🎶 🎶

[MysteRy]

A small but revealing example of his natural humility was when I appeared backstage in the Green Room after his concert at the Gwinnett Arena to do this interview for Khabar. Thronged by close friends and family of the promoters, as well as other ardent fans who managed to make it backstage, the room was a cacophony of squeals and clamor of Rahman worshipers. Even when we sat down at one corner to conduct the interview, the decibels of the guests had far from subsided. When it became evident that the interview would not be possible under those circumstances, any other "star" would have naturally asked the promoters to have the room vacated; instead, Rahman stood up and volunteered to move to another room instead of appearing rude to his fans.

- Viren Mayani( Reporter)

[MysteRy]

🤱 A mom feels happy only when the son eats properly ♥️

Even before he’d got film music opportunities, Rahman always used to be busy composing some tune or the other! Right from his childhood, Rahman had no interests other than music. He never had fun like chatting with friends or going for movies. He always used to stay inside the locked room and compose music! I used to ask him why he was straining so much. He used to reply ‘We should keep working hard! That is the effort from our side. Some day, we will get rewards (opportunities) for all our efforts!'”

Rahman’s mom has just one worry – he is so busy with work that he doesn’t eat properly! The motherly love!!

“My son doesn’t even have time to eat properly. Even if it gets delayed till 3 am, I wait for him, serve the food and then only go to bed. Otherwise, I can’t sleep properly! How many ever awards a son may get – a mom feels happy only when the son eats properly!”

[MysteRy]

• LAGAAN - AR RAHMAN - H SRIDHAR •

We were mixing it on DTS, which is a six-channel surround sound medium. But this film was an 1893 period film. The first decision both Nakul and I had to take was to do the film in mono.

Mono on DTS? Why?

Because it was happening in a village in 1893 when there was not even electricity there. Yes, it is contradictory as we were using state-of-the-art equipment to try and do something old!

First Aamir said, people would expect sound moving over their shoulder, over the head, etc, from a DTS film. We wanted to transport the audience to a location that was barren, where there were no trees or birds. The film had a strong narrative and we felt the surrounding sound would distract the audience.