A.R.Rahman (Fan Club)-Part2 - Page 8

Wedding Qawwali

http://www.dishant.com/album/a_r_rehman_-_bombay_dreams.html

Deepika Global, Dec 2002

HYDERABAD: Never forget to dream. That was the message from the President, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam before he inaugurated the 32nd National Games at the Gachibowli Stadium here on Friday.

Fireworks set the sky afire as the lasers danced far into the distance, touching the skies. It was a proud moment for every Hyderabadi, after K Eswar Rao and Mulini Reddy jointly got the Games flame going and a crowd of nearly 60,000 spectators stood up as one and added their voices to the thunder of crackers. The Flame was lit to the strains of a special composition by music maestro A R Rahman while Sivamani belted the drums.

It was feast to the eyes as the artistes gave their performances enthralling the audiences. For the first time, the spectators did not just sit back but directly participated in the ceremonies Spectators were on their feet as pop singers Usha Uthup and Remo Fernandes performed and another singing phenomenon S P Balasubramaniam enthralled the audience. S P rendered the "Vandemataram" number to evoke a sense of national integrity through sport.

Remo, who had performed at Pune National Games about eight years ago, was back again taking traditional folk songs from different states and giving them contemporary arrangements and orchestration.

Some other singers who kept the spectators swaying were Ila Arun and Sukhwinder of "Chaiya Chaiya" fame and super percussionist Shivamani.

It was also a moment of triumph for chief minister Chandrababu Naidu as he was lauded roundly for his vision and the guts in providing world-class facilities for the largest ever National Games of the 22nd century.

"If we have to succeed in today's world we need to foster team work," he added. "One of the best ways to develop a culture of working together is to engage young people in games and sports."

"Dreams turn into thoughts and thoughts turn into realities," said Dr Kalam as he extolled the athletes to reach for higher targets for the greater glory of the land.

Tuesday, 10 December, 2002, 15:04 GMT

Subhash K Jha, Rediff, Dec 2002

70 per cent of his compositions these last two years never saw light of day!

A R Rahman will compose the score for Shekhar Kapur's Paani. The film, set in a Mumbai 20 years from now, will be scripted by Andrew Niccol who wrote Peter Weir's Jim Carrey starrer, The Truman Show.

Paani will mark Kapur's second collaboration with Rahman after Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit musical, Bombay Dreams. That show -- Kapur suggested Rahman as composer to Webber -- recently crossed the 10 million pounds mark in London and staged its 200th performance on December 11.

After Bandit Queen and Elizabeth, Kapur briefly made waves last September with The Four Feathers. The film was not a box office success.

Rahman reveals that Webber wants to work with him again. This time on an opera, "though I have no clue what he wants," he chuckles.

The affable composer is riding high with his score for debutante director Shaad Ali's Saathiya. "After Taal all my music, like Lagaan, Zubeidaa and The Legend Of Bhagat Singh was period-specific. After a long time, a soundtrack of mine has been liberated from a specific situation. That is why Saathiya has been liked."

"A lot of Saathiya's music is from its Tamil original Alai Payuthey," he continues. "That is because it is the same story. When I heard the story, it immediately conjured a specific set of ideas in my mind. When I had to do the same thing again in Hindi, I could not revise those images. There were two tunes from the original Tamil that did not work in Hindi . So I composed two new ones, Banjar hai and Naina milaike."

In a startling revelation, Rahman says 70 per cent of his compositions in the last two years never saw the light of day. "Between 2000 and 2002, nine of my projects in Hindi and a couple in Tamil never took off. So 70 per cent of my output during this period never came out. It was very frustrating. There are so many people waiting to work with me. I had to turn them down to do work that never got released. But I can't complain. I know what the film industry is going through. I am hoping something like my work in Deepa Mehta's Water gets released."

He is off to London again which, he says, has become his cultural centre, midway between India and the US. This time, he will compose his first-ever English set of songs for Toronto-based musician Karen David.