A.R.REHMAN A PATRIOTIC MUSIC MAKER

It was 1996. Rahman was looking to come out of the monotony that had set in after working on films, 4 years continuously without a break. When he had started out as a composer in 1992, he hadn’t thought of limiting himself to India alone but he also wanted to find a foothold in the international market.While working on movies, he had to do things according to the producers’ wishes. This limited the creativity of the composer, and it was even harmful for the composer’s independence growth.
Rahman has always liked doing film music, but at the same time he felt composing for films would be very restrictive, and that he should get out of the rut of film music. For long he had thought films were enough but now he was waiting for the right occasion to do a non-film private album.

In the same year, Rahman was in Mumbai attending the Screen awards ceremony. In Mumbai, when he was in his hotel room, he called up his childhood friend G Bharat alias Bharat Bala. Bala was Rahman’s school friend, and had produced more than 100 jingles for which Rahman had composed music five years earlier. Bala met him and discussed music. Suddenly an idea struck and they decided to come up with an album with the theme of commemorating 50 years of the Indian Independence in 1997.

Ever since composing music for the patriotic movie called ‘Roja’, Rahman had had been thinking of working on music that would evoke patriotic instincts in Indian minds. The idea eventually took off.

At the same time, in 1996, the International music giant Sony Music wanted to enter in the Indian market in a big way. The first person to be signed up by Sony Music from the Indian sub-continent was Rahman. Vijay Singh, the managing director of Sony – India , approached Rahman who in turn suggested this idea. The plan was immediately accepted and the project got started.Rahman composed, arranged and sang all the songs on the album. Musically speaking, it was hard job for the composer, because it had to be done in such a way that it should appeal to the young generation.
Eventually, it started off as three songs on the three colours of the Indian flag. ‘Maa Tujhe Salaam’ was for Saffron, ‘Revival – Vande Mataram’ was for White, and ‘Gurus of Peace’ for Green. Later it ended up with some more songs. Interestingly enough, Rahman got the chance to work with the legendary Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, on the song ‘Gurus Of Peace’. Bala had asked Rahman to approach Nusrat saab. They got kids from London , and the Peace song was recorded overnight in Lahore .

With ‘Vande Mataram’, Rahman became the first Indian artiste of popular music to go international when it was released simultaneously in 28 countries across the world under the prestigious Columbia Label of Sony Music on August 15th, 1997 . The album was a mega success and sold over 1.5 million copies in India alone, and did extremely well internationally too, becoming the largest selling Indian non-film album internationally.

With ‘Vande Mataram’ Rahman left all his contemporaries far behind and moved into a new dimension. The song has become a cult with the whole nation. Also, the World got to see the other side of Rahman — the actor posing in front of the camera. The album came out with a video-audio version. This was first time Rahman himself appeared in front of camera. It was a surprise to see him in a music video with a new hairdo, singing and acting. Earlier, he had preferred to keep a low profile. It was a different experience for Rahman too.Initially, he was nervous and refused to go before the camera. Bala told him that it would be like writing a letter and not signing it if Rahman won’t do that. Rahman had to go ahead. The songs of the album were in Hindi, Sanskrit, Urdu, English and Tamil.
From being the No.1 music director, Rahman also became a top pop star, though he didn’t appreciate ‘Vande Mataram’ being branded as a pop album.

In five years of his film career, by doing a non-filmy song like ‘Vande Mataram’, Rahman reached out to the Indian heart, irrespective of religious differences. The team worked very hard on the music and concept, and their efforts paid off. They got a great response, and phenomenal success. Rahman was happy because he got to do something that was different.

All this success has not been without its fallouts for Rahman. Some spread canards in early 1998 that Rahman was funding Muslim fundamentalists in Tamil Nadu. Later in the year he began receiving threatening calls from the fundamentalist groups for singing ‘Vande Mataram’ and was accorded armed protection by the Government. He received threats from the Hindus and from the Muslim fundamentalists too, from the Hindus for ‘defiling a Hindu song’ and from the Muslims for ’singing an anti-Islamic song’. Many absurd stories were heard about Pakistani terrorists threatening Rahman for appearing on the ‘Vande Mataram’ music video and dissuading him from doing a follow up.

But, Rahman -a true patriot – dismissed all these controversies saying that his religion with patriotism is very important to him.He said, “Being religious without being patriotic takes you nowhere. Patriotism for country should
no way be inferior.” This was the first time ever that Rahman displayed his patriotism in front of the people. He expressed his views regarding all issues saying, “God, religion and patriotism are very personal things. Now it has become politics. I think it all should be left to an individual. ‘Vande Mataram’ is about a mother and the message is peace be upon you. Mother is the country and when you say peace be upon you, it should go beyond politics. When one makes something, there is always the good and the bad. You have to choose what to take. With ‘Vande Mataram’, we wanted to give something to the youth. We felt there was nothing, no song that this MTV generation could relate to, something they could identify with.”

“No Hindu, Muslim or Christian can impose the ‘Vande Mataram’, it should be a natural thing. It should neither be imposed nor rejected. It should be left to the individual.”

He added: “We get our basic recognition from this country and it is a part of you, whether you are Hindu or Muslim or anything else.” He said, “‘Vande Mataram’ only means ‘Mother, I salute you’. Perhaps because the words are in Sanskrit, people don’t understand this. We have taken the essence of the song, and it doesn’t disturb any religion. After all, the Koran says, ‘at the feet of the mother lies the Jannat’. And the Prophet says, “Whichever country you are in, you have to respect the laws of the land, because it is the land above all, which gives you life.”

Incidentally, a devout Muslim called Mehboob composed the lyrics of the popular version. Despite all these controversies, the song was on top of the charts for almost a year, and bagged many awards. Three years after the successful ‘Vande Mataram’ Bharat Bala and Rahman worked together in another historic album called ‘Jana Gana Mana’. This was a project in which several top artistes of the nation came together to sing or play the National Anthem ‘Jana Gana Mana’.The project had started as ‘Desh Ka Salaam’ which was telecast in Indian TV channels and on the web on August 15, 1999 , in which several greats of Indian music, from the classical to the contemporary, came together to give a soulful and modern rendition of the National Anthem.
The ‘Jana Gana Mana’ was released on January 26th 2000 to mark the 50 th -year of the Indian Republic . Rahman – a genuine patriotic- later took many films that had hardcore patriotism or feel of patriotism. Like ‘The Legend Of Bhagat Singh’, ‘1947 Earth’, ‘Lagaan’, ‘Swades’, ‘Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose – The Forgotten Hero’, ‘Mudhalvan’, ‘Nayak the real hero’ etc…