RAANJHANNA A SUCCESS!11.40 cr in 2 days Pg13 - Page 2

Ahead of the music release of Aanand L Rai's Raanjhanaa, an excited AR Rahman talks about the music of the film.

Bryan Durham (BOMBAY TIMES; May 29, 2013)

Tell us about the origin of the Raanjhanaa soundtrack.
I saw Aanand's film Tanu Weds Manu and liked the music, especially liked the Indian bits' something that I had missed while travelling all over the place. He met me and told me about this next story of his (Raanjhanaa) and I found it rooted in Indianness. The film has a typical earthy Banaras feel. The music itself is kind of a storytelling effort, remove that and the film is incomplete.

You've gone for a folk-classical feel on Raanjhanaa'
I'd rather call it a hybrid, but I guess you could call it that as well. It's got a bit of folk and classical elements and most of it is really character driven. There's a rustic side (set in Banaras) and an urbane side (set in Delhi) as well. The music reflects that.

Who chose Irshad Kamil as the lyricist?
Both Aanand and I did. I had worked with Irshad in Rockstar and I believe it always works better with familiar faces and names. You know how I'm always travelling. So I speak to him, calling him up from all sorts of odd places and he sends me two-line SMSs saying 'Here's something I wrote. What do you think?'. So you're really switched on to what the other person is thinking.

Tum Tak is really catching on in a big way!
Actually, I wasn't very happy editing the song the first time around. I had done a version before. Then Aanand gave his inputs and it got nudged on to something else.

Tell us about Freedom Song, the track you're singing with Rabbi Shergill.
It's a contemporary track, about the Delhi character. And Rabbi's voice is reflective of that. And it comes at that stage where the girl (Sonam Kapoor) bridges the gap between the rustic guy (Dhanush) and the urbane one (Abhay Deol). Like Tum Tak, this was one track that evolved from one version to another.

Raanjhanaa, produced by Eros International, releases June 21.