Have you ever loved living on the earth? Have you ever felt your inner senses when you are extremely happy?Have you felt that your each & every nerve in the body is stimulated when you are in love?
Have you ever been proud for being a human being & listen to the music which gives you the feeling of heaven on the earth?
Now Music - there is so much to say about this art & sometimes ........ nothing.
Nothing in the sense when you are speechless, wordless, struggling for words, to find emotions but you are with your soul and heart & completely woven in this art. I wonder what would have happened if there was no music.....
Where does a good music lie? - A good tune? Beautiful, meaningful lyrics? A very soft voice or the instruments that make all these alive? These all are so tightly coupled with each other that there are no boundaries between them. No one can separate them.
Where does the art of a composer live? When all of these artifacts are woven like nature showing different colors on a butterfly. Indian music has its own identity in the world while western has its own. One person fused them so intelligently that it is now very difficult to show the borders between them. One person made so humming tunes & songs that they can be felt with the beauty in them. You will see paradise when you listen to them. You will be felt with the joy.
Where does his magic lie?One person is so talented that he understands the importance of a good tune. He introduces that good tune with rendering of so different instruments & voices that next time you will listen to the same song you will try to find the tune eagerly, impatiently. With another hearing to the same song, you will try to find how he has reached to that tune since the song has started. Next time you will hear the same song you will try to find what he has done after the nice tune.
One person has such a nice brain that he can make themes with absolutely no voice, no singer & no https://lyrics. He introduces to us about the impact of every hearable musical instruments & how deliberately these instruments can be unfolded & what a magic only these instruments can create. For ex. Bombay Theme, Meenaxi’s Cyclist’s rhythm, 1947-Arth’s theme music or melodious Spirit of Rangeela or Thump of Daud.
Not just the songs-One person is so dedicated to the music that the music he will create; he will pay attention to the minute details of it. Be that the background score of the Dil se or Pukar or may be it’s the Banyan theme.
He can create the magic with the flute so delicately that you will keep on listening to that song. Ex. Roshan hui raat & I can’t even create a list here.
Critics & general views on him - One person, who started his career, was said by the critics that he will last for two more films & then we would need to find him. But, the soft-spoken, always keeping low profile person answered to it by his music bagging an award for his 1st hindi movie-Rangeela & after that he just went on & on & never looked back. I even don’t think to list the awards the person has received in the country & abroad (oscar being one of them).
It was said that he doesn’t have senses, his music is loud & you can’t listen to lyrics in his movies. But his songs are like wine-“the older the better”. I was surfing on the other day on the youth’s current favorite – youtube.com only to find that there are absolutely no cursing, no chitter-chatter within the comments of any song this legend has composed. Everyone who has fallen in love with his music, they like it to let it run through their cells, nerves.
Competition to this person - Many came & gone on his path to become the legend..
“Ismail Darbar is a perfect replacement for Rahman” but alas!!! He never lasted apart from the films of his own friends. Many were successful, just as the critics used to say about this person initially, but were never able to even touch on where this person has placed the music. Others were never able to deliver the performance continuously for years & years. I can’t recollect any name in Indian music which can be compared to his music.
New talent hunt by the person – He gave so many opportunities to new talent & today we are seeing Sukhwinder just because of this legend. He let his tamil singers sing in Bollywood & we found Chitra. He made Sivamani familiar to us. Sivamani’s percussion becomes more haunting when he is with this person. He gave us Shreya Ghoshal. He gave us himself as a singer with Dil se, Yuva (fanaa-just listen to his voice at the end of the song), jage hai der tak (Guru) etc. He gave us Hema Sardesai, Vasundhar Das. Some of these may not be directly his search but he made the names familiar to us.
Experiments in the music –Start from the basics – he left no field in the music which he is not able to conquer. Be it Silent (Tu hi re) or Disco songs (Pappu can’t dance saala, Fanaa, Loose control) or sad songs (nahi saamane tu) or romantic numbers (kismet se tum humako, rut aa gayee re, Guzarish), Patriotic (Vande mataram, Yeh jo Des hai tera), Qawwali (Piya Haji Ali, Khwaja mere Khwaja), Gazal(ae hairathe aashiqui), Bhangra (Rang De Basanti, Pagadi sambhaal jatta). Every time he tried with something new.
He was asked to make the remixes of his own songs in Taal & both the versions were equally hummable & audible. Each & every song is always a fusion, experiment with either cultures or instruments or chords or by singers too.
Why is he the legend - Legends have a tendency to maintain a low profile & not to make a hype unnecessarily. Just to mention the recent incident, The guzzal ustad - Jagjit singh said that this person doesn’t deserve an oscar to which this person refused to comment & kept away from any controversies. He always maintained the low profile & always replied with his work instead of commenting or involving in any cheap publicity.
Legends also have a tendency to learn despite they are great in what they are doing. This person constantly learnt. He learnt different instruments. He learnt hindi & somewhat urdu so that he can be perfect with the pronunciations in his songs & also he can better understand the lyrics to make the perfect justice with them. He is amongst very few Indians who are looked with respect by not only Indians but by people in the other countries too.
The legends with the legend - Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Andrew Lloyd Webber almost all the music maestros from India & many more have worked with him. Be it for India’s 50 year Independence celebration or for any charity show inside or outside India. Everyone is heard praising him & saying that they have been honored to work with him.
Legend’s impact on me & my generation – I have grown up on his music. He made me love Indian music & Western as well. I started loving every genre of the music. He stepped up at the right time to take so many lives like me, to the heightest altitude & leave it there & promising that never to f