This post was instigated when i tried to find the raga/ragam/scale of a particular Hindi track and, after scouring the internet up and down was left with nothing. this made me realize how myopic most people's vision of anything was. Anyone, anything. astigmatism, rather. You see whats in the center, what's brightest and makes most noise, but nothing that's on the periphery.. And then, there's the very important role of familiarity. The Indian mind set so far has bee going through a period of steriotypia.. where the audience accepts something, especially with regard to music, only if it conforms to a certain set criteria.. and that certain set criteria is postulated by what people feel comfortable with, which results from familiarity.. This closed mindedness results in a formulaic, hackneyed product, that predictably wins the hears of people, because, really, thats what they wanted to hear.. it's like people put themselves in a box, and desire to be fed with the exact same thing, which is not, bad, but where is the creativity, where is the experimentation, where is the curiosity?? After all, isn't that the key to intellectual growth??..
This lack of appreciation for anything new, anything different, has resulted in most serious musicians and artists, either selling out and going mainstream, or remaining on the peripheries with an uncertain destiny.
Now that i have stated the background to my argument, let me come to the crux of the issue.
Everyone who has heard of A.R.Rahman has fallen in love with his music.. Why? one may ask. And i think the answer is simpler than it seems. What is the source of his popularity and the fact that everyone likes his music? even the most hardcore Raaja or Burman fan likes Rahman's music. Carnatic stalwarts, hindustani pundits and sufi ustads all enjoy his music.. why?
It's just because he always has something to offer that satisfies each and each and every category of his listeners. not to mention his penchant for experimentation, where genres collide and cultures hit head on.. it's a jugalbandi of mass proportions in the Rahman camp, something that all othe musicians of our present time have caught onto an dare utilizing to their advantage. But the result?? I still find that most composers of Hindi music, still use this worldliness to feed to the people what they expect to hear, rather than to feed them something new, and see if they like it.. it's a risk that they are unwilling to take. That i feel is the biggest difference between the two biggest composers of the North Indian film industry, Shankar-Ehsaan-loy and A.R.Rahman. This also reflects on the directors they work with and the projects they take up.
i have since also realized that in the Hind film arena, the only Rahman tracks that have hit platinum are those which, though experimental/new/fresh and provide a new dynamic to sound, still fall into a small pool of predictability. sure the songs a great, and are on my all time favorites list, because, lets face it, no once can blend carnatic classical/hindustani classical/tamil fol/rajasthani folk/sufi/ middle eastern/rock/jazz/blues and western classical like rahman can.
So, in an effort to get my friends who have never heard the real rahman to experience some of it, here is my attempt to prepare a list of rahman tracks that you've probably never heard of, or chances are, that didn't stick in you're peripheral memory, either because of the lack of advertising or the lack of open mindedness on the hand of the masses.
To be continued...
