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How A R Rahman brought Bollywood
soundtracks to the Western world
CULTURE
By Anna Morcom
Reader in Ethnomusicology at Royal Holloway
WITH record sales of more than 200
million albums worldwide, A R Rahman
has composed the soundtracks
for over 100 Indian films and is credited
with more or less single-handedly revolutionising
Indian film musi c.
On August 15 Rahman will be performing
a one-off “Greatest Hits” show at The O2 arena
in London. He has brought Bollywood music
to the Western world, with a style that is both
new and familiar at the same time.
The son of a film music composer and
conductor in the Tamil and Malayalan film
music industries, Allah-Rakha Rahman got his
big break as a music director doing the songs
and background score for the Tamil film Roja.
In India, film music reigns supreme, and Rahman’s
soundtrack took the country by storm.
A R Rahman recording with fellow artist Orianthi Sreejithk.
Bollywood on tour
India has produced many giants of film
music. But the key difference with Rahman,
compared to earlier star music directors such
as Naushad, Shankar-Jaikishen, R D Burman or
Ilaiyaraaja, is the level of international acclaim
he has gained. It is Rahman’s conquering of the
Western world that makes him so remarkable.
By the 1950s, Indian cinematic music had
a dominant influence from the Malay world
to Greece, Russia, and the Middle East. In the
West, however, Hollywood held sway, and
Indian cinema, with its melodrama and song
and dance interludes, was typically seen simply
as bad.
The new sounds and style Rahman created
changed the image of Indian film music in the
West. His albums broke through into Western
charts in the late 1990s and he has since engaged
in a range of high profile collaborations
in the West.
His most famous work of late has been
his soundtrack for Danny Boyle’s 2009 film
Slumdog Millionaire, which added two Oscars,
a BAFTA, a Golden Globe Award and two
Grammy Awards to his already dizzying array
of awards back home in India. As an Indian
music star in the West, he has only been rivalled
by the likes of Ravi Shankar.
AR Rahman’s ‘Jai Ho’ from the 2009 film
Slumdog Millionaire
New fusions
Rahman’s acclaim is largely down to his
use of fusion. East-West fusion is hardly new
in Indian film music – by the 1950s, film songs
sported extraordinary mixtures of Indian classical
and folk music elements, large Western or
Hollywood style orchestras with added Indian
instruments, and global pop styles from the
West and Latin America. Yet Rahman’s fusion
marks a distinct break with earlier film music.
He is particularly known for his use of lush
string sounds, often married with computergenerated
bass.
Overall, his timbres are more mellifluous
and soft compared to the older film music,
where treble frequencies dominated.
New recording technologies have allowed
Rahman to create a layered and expansive
soundscape, contrasting with earlier film music
where the orchestras were recorded in unison
or near unison, the sound more of a block.
In older film music, Indian and western
instruments and styles were orchestrated into a
whole, a close amalgamation. T
he violins, for example, hardly sounded like
those in a Western orchestra, or the sitars like
those in actual Indian classical music.
This is part of the reason why the older film
songs were seen in negative terms by Western
critics as kitsch. But in Rahman’s music, the
characteristic style and sound of diverse instruments
and genres is distinctly heard, and often
showcased.
In the song Hai Rama from the film Rangeela
(1995), for example, he opens and ends
the song with the sound of the tambura, the
drone instrument used to accompany Indian
classical music.
The song also incorporates South Indian
and other percussion, strings, bass, and a
virtuosic flute solo that manages to be Indian
classical, beat box and slightly jazzy all at once.
In other songs Rahman uses Sufi singing,
or the harmonium (played as in North Indian
classical or light classical music), or background
chants in regional Indian languages,
and an assortment of other Indian styles and
instruments.
His music appeals to the “world music”
and “world beat” sensibility that is growing in
popularity in the West.
At the same time, Rahman incorporates a
solid basis of mainstream Western pop, rock
and jazz styles (even just through a prominent
bass groove).
He uses a range of singers and vocal
timbres, avoiding the idealised, high-pitched female
vocal sound. For these reasons, Rahman’s
music appeals to western ears more than older
film music, and also to the upper end of Indian
middle class society.
THIS ARTICLE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED AT WWW.THECONVERSATION.COM.AU
New sports bar at Maharaja’s Haveli
ATTRACTIONS
IF you thought Maharaja’s Haveli only offered
the best regional Indian Cuisine around,
you’re wrong.
Regular patrons would have recently
witnessed a new bar emerging in the Haveli
Vedah next to the famous Punjab Truck.
Maharaja’s Bar is fully stocked with all the
best liquors and beers beautifully featured in
oversized bottles.
Maharaja’s Bar has been thoughtfully
furnished providing comfort in the form
of leather lounge chairs and allowing close
mingling and laughter around high tables and
bar stools.
A striking portrait of Maharaja Ranjit
Singh adorns the wall opposite the bar and beside
it a collection
of glasses dating
back centuries. As
with the rest of the
Haveli, Maharaja’s
Bar is befitting of
a king.
Maharaja’s
Haveli is the ideal
place to join in
drinks with friends
and enjoy the excitement
of a footy
match whether
it’s AFL, league
or union, cricket,
Ashes or soccer
from around the
world or any other
big sporting event on the big screen.
Watch all the action of the Rugby World
Cup and the finals of the footy season at the
new Maharaja’s Sports Bar.
SPECIAL FOR THE MONTH OF SEP-
TEMBER: Buy one drink get another free,
available with the latest bar menu - kebabs
and snacks.
38 WESTERN SYDNEY BUSINESS ACCESS SEPTEMBER 2015