Earlier this month, I found myself roaming the streets of Dimapur, a nondescript, dusty city in Nagaland whose youth is fanatical about all forms of metal—white, death, thrash, speed; the heavier the riffs, the better. Posters of an upcoming White Lion concert were plastered all over town but there was no sign of Bollywood. Hell, the place didn’t even have a movie hall. I bumped into a mobile download store at every corner—you could even download tones at the local paan store. So it was surreal when I saw a kid blast the Yuvvraaj number Tu Meri Dost Hai off his mobile.
12 March: Rahman launches his KM Music Conservatory. Raj K. Raj / Hindustan Times
Every year, there’s an anthem that endorses A.R. Rahman’s talent. This year there were several, including the one our young man in Dimapur downloaded. Sixteen years into his career as a composer, 2008 turned out to be a watershed with the largest number of Bollywood releases till date for Rahman. He also launched KM Music Conservatory (KMMC) to train students in Western and Indian classical music soon after he launched his label KM Musiq. The fee is hefty but the composer has made sure there are grants and subsidized packages for deserving students. Rahman even engaged KMMC faculty in film soundtracks this year. So, Kavita Baliga, who teaches vocals, did the operatic parts in Guzarish from Ghajini and V.R. Sekar with Elidh Martin, who teach the cello, are featured in the soundtrack of Yuvvraaj. I’m sure students will show up on soundtrack credits soon.
I remember Rahman sounding like an expectant dad as 2007 wound to a close—he was happy to announce that he had a slew of releases lined up for the new year. Jaane Tu...Ya Jaane Na had been held up over for a little more than a year due to production snags; Jodhaa Akbar, which was under production, had been pushed from 2007 to 2008; a Subhash Ghai project was yet to be titled (Yuvvraaj); and there was Ghajini. Dilli 6 made it to his list as well but it is still under production and is now slated to be a 2009 release. Ada: A Way of Life and Slumdog Millionaire were the two big surprises.
WithAda, Rahman, the geek that he is, opened himself up to a tech innovation: He allowed virtually anybody to remix two numbers (Gulfisha and Gumsum) off the film’s score via Nokia’s XpressMusic website. It was another first for Rahman, another leap into the future. Gulfisha, sung by Sonu Nigam, made a lot of noise but soon made way for the bigger hits in Abbas Tyrewala’s directorial debut.