Wah Wah Rahman!

The music of Ashutosh Gowariker's next film (after Lagaan and Swades) released a couple weeks ago. A.R. Rahman brings to us his absolute best in Jodhaa Akbar. After hearing the album, I thanked God for the fact that Rahman composes so infrequently, giving us some musical marvels to revel in. I am a self-confessed Rahman fan, but even then, I am generally fair in my assessment of which one of his is an average, good, great and simply superb album. Based on the first few rounds of my listening to Jodhaa Akbar, I think every song in the 5 (+2 instrumental) song album is a top scorer. That can be said of very few albums, which is why I think JA ranks right up there with others like Lagaan, Taal and Roja. The second rung would be the albums of Zubeida, Sapney, Rang De Basanti, Guru, Pukar, Rangeela, The Legend of Bhagat Singh, Saathiya and Swades. But again, this is only MY opinion. Try listening to the songs of JA: they will grow on you.

There are some fascinating features of Rahman's compositions in JA. He has used some relatively new voices: Bela Shende and Javed Ali; fresh and full of verve. The latter's love ballad Jashn-e-Bahaara Hai is beautifully sung, of course, with some wonderful lyrics by Javed Akthar. I hope it is picturized as well as it is composed. The instrumental versions of both songs have their own identities rather than being carbon copies (without vocals) of the full songs. Then, the ease with which Rahman has included different styles: there is a bhajan and a qawalli, appropriate instrumentation, some new sounds. I find it quite arduous to pick my favorite among the five.

Many music directors nowadays come up with great songs, hummable alright, but make it repetitive, like Himesh Reshammiya doing his nasal high-pitched twang much too often. You may argue that even Rahman repeats his tunes occasionally, but he has repeatedly shown maturity and ingenuity in composing for different kinds of cinema: historical films (Jodhaa Akbar, Bhagat Singh), period films (Lagaan, Zubeida), youthful (Yuva, Rangeela, Taal), always trying to match his music to the script. He employs the well-known playback singers even as he explores lesser known but mightily talented newcomers (Chinmayee, Madhushree, Naresh Iyer to name a few). You could have Udit Narayan and Alka Yagnik sleep-walk through their parts within minutes (saving time and/or money) and make a hit song, or else you could record with new untested voices that give that unexpected thrill and exuberance to the mindful listeners. Rahman does both these with the same elan, and comes up on top.