The seamless way in which the show was organized, co-ordinated and executed was a treat to watch on the television. Danny Boyle said to the organizers on winning the Best Director’s award, “…I wanted to thank you for that and also for an extraordinary, what a beautiful show you’ve done. I don’t know what it looks like on television, everybody, but in the room, it’s bloody wonderful, really. So, well done, everyone…” It looked beautiful on television too Danny. It was just stunningly well-coordinated. The opening sequence by the charming Australian Hugh Jackman was probably one of the best live performances I have seen. I admit I haven’t seen many (live performances) but if you have seen it you will agree like the audience in the Kodak theatre did. They gave him a standing ovation. He deserved it. Among his witty ways of introducing the key people, I really liked the part about himself the best – “An Australian, who played an Australian in a movie called Australia” and the next one was about Brangelina – “I don’t have joke on them. But I am contractually obligated to take their names atleast five times on this show”.

The first category to be awarded was the “Best supporting actress” one and I was absolutely amazed by the way they announced the nominations. Oscar awards are meant to signify excellence and the nominations are supposed to be the litmus test through which you actually qualify to be the best among the best. And the entire event lent itself to excellence right from the way the stage floor was done, the display screens coming together and splitting away, the curtain made of a chain of Swarovski crystals added a touch of grandeur, the lighting heightened the excitement and I was personally floored with the sensitivity of their mic and sound systems – I could hear Anne Hathaway breathe when she performed with Jackman. Coming back to the award, it was when Penelope Cruz gave her acceptance speech is when I realized how big a deal it was to win the Oscars:

“I grew up in a place called Alcobendas, where this was not a very realistic dream. And I, always on the night of the Academy Awards, I stay up to watch the show and I always felt that this was, this ceremony was a moment of unity for the world because art, in any form, is and has been and will always be our universal language and we should do everything we can, everything we can, to protect its survival”.

I will not lie. I had tears in my eyes when she said those words. It was just so damn touching. I didn’t quite know who exactly she was till now, from now on I will ensure I watch her movies with the same intensity as she has chosen to act. She sees this stage as a moment of unity and here back home we have people saying “Oscars mean nothing”. Penelope spoke words that defied her age. She has my undivided attention henceforth!

Then came the first Indian moment. In fact when the Sound Editing award went to ‘The Dark Knight’ I thought it was only obvious that the Sound Mixing one also went the same way. But no, it was meant to be a ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ sweep which started with this. Resul Pookutty made a moving speech about how it was not just an award but history being handed over to him. So true I thought. My mind was racing ahead – I was already thinking about Rahman.

Then came many awards. Each of them making moving acceptance speeches. Everyone of the award presentations blended so beautifully with each other. I would say it was flawless. While I was sitting amazed at the way it was organized, the original score nominations were being played out. An orchestra played out the themes of each of the nominations – I could only identify ‘Latika’s theme’ from ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. Rahman was backstage because he was due to come on next for his performance for the nominations of the best song. As it was being said, “And the Oscar goes to….”, and the envelope being opened, I guess my heart rate increased to equal Rahman’s and every other true Rahman fan. Simultaneously the maid servant of my house made an entry and the presenter announced “A R Ruhhman for Slumdog Millionaire” and that was it. My maid servant must have thought that I had a heart attack or something because I shouted so loudly that it would have blown anyone away. Irrespective of me, she just walked across the TV calmly and went on with her work. Here I was almost dying of happiness and she walked as if nothing had happened. Quite ironically, Rahman also walked as if he had won just another Filmfare or some such award. It was just such a simple thing for him – it was another award. For me, his true fans, Americans and the rest of the world the Oscars are like the pinnacle of excellence and Rahman did it like he always knew how to do it. In fact that’s true – he was always at the pinnacle of excellence in every film that he gave music to. Each one is a masterpiece. I sat numb through his acceptance speech.

In fact I think I was numb through his performance also or I don’t know if I didn’t like it. That guy who came in towards the end just made the whole thing sound so out of tune. I had to see the video repeatedly to confirm my feelings. Rahman himself was a little out of tune I guess for “O… Saya…” but I don’t blame him. I wouldn’t have been able to get a sound out of my throat! And then came the “Jai Ho” award. It was written I guess. And this acceptance speech literally swept me off my feet. Wow!

I could go and get ready to get to office finally. I got a message from a colleague “Dude, don’t come to office without sweets”. So I went with the auspicious Tirupathi laddoos that my wife had got from there a few days ago. No, she didn’t go there to pray for Rahman. I am the only guy who is so much in love with this man! The world now has opened up a possibility of letting Rahman berserk on a global scale. Now more people will fall in love with him. Till now, it was just me and my Tamil friends and then it was Hindi friends and now it is going to be everyone. Just about everyone. Rahman’s world was written already; looks like the time has come now when people like me will have to let go of him so that billions of others actually have the option of making the maximum out of him. Rahman’s music is available to those who are willing.

Those were Rahman’s words on winning his second Oscar (for Best Original Song – “Jai Ho” alongwith Gulzar) of the day. This is his full acceptance speech [Link]:

I just want to thank again the whole crew of Slumdog Millionaire, especially Danny Boyle for giving such a great opportunity. And the whole, all the people from Mumbai. The essence of the film which is about optimism and the power of hope in the lives, and all my life I had a choice of hate and love. I chose love and I’m here. God bless.

When he one the first one too he was quite at ease with the whole situation. This is what he said when he won his first one [Link]:

Before coming, I was excited and terrified. The last time I felt like that was during my marriage. There’s a dialogue from a Hindi film called “Mere paas ma hai,” which means “I have nothing but I have a mother,” so mother’s here, her blessings are there with me. I am grateful for her to have come all the way. And I want to thank the Academy for being so kind, all the jury members. I want to thank Sam Schwartz, I/D PR, all the crew of Slumdog, Mr. Gulzar, Raqueeb Alam, Blaaze, my musicians in Chennai and Mumbai. And I want to tell something in Tamil, which says, which I normally say after every award which is… “God is great.” Thank you.

If you didn’t know he won two Oscars today, then you have been living on the Moon or something! What a day! Thanks to all those who passed on their congratulatory wishes on the win! Really value each and every of those calls, sms’es and mails! Thanks guys! Thanks!

PS: This is my 300th post. Somehow I waited and waited and waited till I posted this and didn’t know what I was waiting for. Now we know, right?!

Source: http://www.goldenglobes.org/nominations/index.html

And this:

It was just a matter of time. If you followed the American press you would have predicted this easily. But for me, I was still doubtful because I thought ‘Water‘ was good enough for an Oscar nomination atleast. Anyway, here we are today. While the press is glossing over the first Indian to be presenting an award at the Golden Globe awards ceremony, here we have a fellow Indian citizen winning one. You know who means business!

And I hope the comparisons of ARR with the other Indian music directors stop now atleast. I am in this mood to take these infinite potshots today! Let me let that instinct be for now…

Photo courtesy: Arijit, fellow ARR fan.

This is my moment. This is every Indian’s moment. Let’s celebrate!

It was the shooting of the final episode of the TV program “Ooh… la.. la.. la..“. My brother-in-law Girinandh [Link to one of the news articles on the formation of their band] leads a band called ‘Oxygen’ which has entered the finals. A R Rahman was the judge for the final round. After Oxygen’s performance, Girinandh and his band members went to Rahman to get a group photo done. Apparently, Girinandh had asked my wife to call me [while he finished with his group photo] so that he could introduce me to Rahman. [Can you imagine being introduced to A R Rahman?! As compared to meeting him as yet another guy on the road!] My wife ran up two flights of stairs to call me and I will be eternally grateful to her for the physical strain she undertook at 3AM in the morning.

As soon as I came to know what was happening I dashed downstairs and was standing next to the stage in a jiffy. Girinandh was still involved with the group photo. A R Rahman presented them [all the band members of all the finalists] with an autographed “Pray For Me Brother” DVD. And the band members dispersed after thanking Rahman. On his way back from the stage Girinandh spotted me and waved asking me to come onto the stage. I ran.

I was standing next to ARR. Girinandh introduced me to him, “He is a great fan of yours and blogs about you regularly”

ARR needn’t have reacted at all. But he did. He turned to me and asked (with a smile), “Nice. Which blog?”
I said, “Mysorean”. I was out of my wits and couldn’t even complete my one word answer of ‘mysorean dot com’.

ARR, in fact continued the conversation, “What did you write about me?” [I didn't notice if he had any tongue-in-his-cheek because I was like Oooohhh... is this really happening?]
“About the Bangalore concert” [Link]

ARR said, again, “Hmm….”. He meant it in a way that he remembered reading about it sometime.
I said, “You even commented on it”.[Link]

ARR said, “Oh yeah yeah…” vigorously nodding his head this time. He was being just so nice. He didn’t have to be.
I said, “Can I have one snap with you please?”
“Sure”

Girinandh clicked:

And Girinandh had clicked one more before, while we were conversing:

I don’t know what people mean when they say Rahman is not active in Tamil music industry. With one album per year he can shake the actual foundation of this industry with his mind-blowing music. Still people do some nitpicking with his instrumentation, orchestrisation, choice of singers, etc. I care two hoots about such comments because the final product from Rahman is so much above anyone I have heard in the past or in the present that all those comments sound like the rants of people-who-haven’t-been-able-to-move-on-with-life. Guys, get a break! Unwind! Sivaji is the right album to let your hair down, throw your inhibitions and just enjoy. Be the Boss! Let’s get on with it then.

And what better way to start a Rajni movie than a song like “Ballelakka” ! To the Shankar-ARR-Rajni combo you now add the everyoung, evergreen SPB and you get a blast of a song! The tempo of the song is so Rajni. I mean when you listen to the song you can imagine Rajni walking and doing his usual styles and stuff. Especially when the song goes into the breathless phase (for 25 seconds!)with “Sadugudu sadugudu…” you realize that the song has you engulfed into its endless energy. The tempo, the energy, the beat and the tune leave you finally wanting for more. Everytime I finish listening to the song, I feel Rahman could have added a little more of that breathless stuff there. But then my appetite for a Rahman song can never end. So, let that be as it is. A great song!

PS: Even Raihana’s voice which I hate whenever I see her in Rahman’s live concerts substituting Swapna Awasthi’s voice in “Chaiyya Chaiyya” is well modulated for this song as a village belle’s voice. A R Rahman can make me also a great singer I guess!

Then comes the “Style” song. A song that only A R Rahman could pull off; trust Shankar to give him the full leash on this one. The problem with this song is that it is sandwiched between two gems on the cd and I invariably end up pressing ‘next track’ as and when I come to this one. So, I will be honest and not simply praise it to the skies. Let me move on.

When the next song began I almost thought that it was Rajni who sang the first few lines. Hariharan has modulated his voice very well to suit the Superstar. And when Madhushree joins in with “Vaaji vaaji vaaji, en jeevan nee sivaji” the song goes onto its own. When I listen to such songs I wonder at A R Rahman’s brilliance. Nothing seems out of place. Every instrument, every sound, every voice sounds so natural and so rooted that you feel that they always belonged there. Nowadays what happens is, all of a sudden I break into loud shouts of “Poombaavaai Aambal Aambal” and then I just do oh ho ho ho for the rest of the song because I don’t understand a word of the song! But the song is so haunting that it is still playing at the back of my mind and am just sitting and frowning that I don’t get to listen to it at this instant!

Udit Narayan, criticized by the tamil purists (and there is no scarcity of them!) for his pronounciation and all that, comes up with a sterling performance in this song called “Sahaana saaral…”. To hell with his performance, the tune is just out-of-this world! Chinmayee adds such a great zing to the song that you are also lost in the alps of the Switzerland while listening to this song. Read what Chinmayi writes about Sahana here and here . Chinmayi the end portion really gives me those goosebumps whenever I listen to it. Great work! And yes like you say, “All credit to Rahman anna” Credit to him for giving you great songs like this where you sound so good! Amazing!

Next song. A R Rahman chose to sing this song. This one line is enough to say that the song would be outstanding. And damn anybody who thinks otherwise! “Athiradikkaaran – Machan! Machan! Machandi!” As soon as these lines come out I start shaking my head as if someone is hitting me from behind! Someone looking at me might think I am having those electric shocks or something! This song can shake the worst leg-shakers (or dancers if you please) to get onto the dance floor and just burst out! A great stress-buster of a song. And the heights of ecstasy that A R Rahman takes you through in this song is just so unbelievable that you only want to keep listening to this song over and over again! and again and again and again…!!!!!

Then comes the song of all so-called stylish songs genre. Stylish songs as in those which have great instrumentation and vocals but zero lyrcial value. You can imagine if I can understand the lyrics of this one then the words must be purely conversational. And so they are. The lyrics are as if written by the comedian ‘Vivek’. For example: “Sachin adichcha sixer thaan da, Sivaji adichcha puncher thaan da!” (You get it don’t you? Sachin:sixer::Sivaji:puncher, simple!) The bass guitar that is used prominently is the highlight in this song. Sometimes Rahman stops amazing you because your ability to get anymore amazed is exhausted. You are just in total control of this one man! I can already imagine this playing the background when Rajni is bashing up those bad men left, right and centre! Ooohh.. I can get that hair-raising feeling on imagination itself. God knows what will happen when I listen to it with Rajni on screen performing those antics for which we have come to love him most! The combination is deadly and they have taken the entire standard of tamil music to new levels! Any of those chota fellows like YSR, HJ, etc, cannot imagine coming up to this standard as yet! In fact they don’t even deserve a mention in this review hence their names will be cutoff! (Yes, I am being very mean, and I love this feeling! Muhahahaha!)

Vijay Yesduas debuts under A R Rahman with a slow version of the “Sahaana saaral” and excels. The song shows the range that A R Rahman can create on his own. Gomathi comes up with an equally powerful rendition partnering Yesudas Jr. here. A fitting end to one of the all-time best albums of stylish music I have ever heard.

The album succeeds at many levels. And the reason it’s such a great success is because it is able to satisfy each and everyone who listens to it (Otherwise they are plain lying!). Rajni fans, ARR fans, Shankar fans, SPB fans, tamil music fans, general film music lovers, critics and general tamil public. To satisfy such a diverse range of people (maybe there are common people among all this like me) is in itself a victory. And further what the music does is instills a sense of must-watch-the-movie to see what it is all about kind of a feeling without letting out anything about the storyline which has been protected like the kohinoor diamond on the queen’s crown! Only A R Rahman could pull it off like this! An album that you ought not to miss for anything. And please don’t deliver your verdicts as soon as you listen to it. These songs have the usual trademark of Rahman to grow on you. A R Rahman proves he is the boss! Yet again!

On Tuesday, January 16, the Academy will screen clips featuring each song, in random order, for voting members of the Music Branch in both Beverly Hills and New York City. Following the screenings, members will vote to determine which three, four or five songs become nominees in the category.

Want to know why I am writing this here?

A R Rahman has three of his songs out of the 56 on the list.

“Chan Chan” from Water

“Khalbali” from Rang De Basanti

“Lukka chuppi” again from Rang De Basanti

It’s only fair that I get excited about this! I hope he atleast gets a nomination. Because I well and truly believe that his music is the best that the world would ever get to hear. 
But I have a doubt regarding how much these Americans will understand Indian music and the interpretation of the words and connect it with the spirit of the movie. In my opinion, “Lukka Chuppi” is an all-time classic. Whenever I hear the part, “Kya bataun maa tujhe kahaan hun main” in A R Rahman’s high pitched voice – I can feel the pain. It sincerely deserves the award. Of course, I haven’t heard any of the other 53 songs, so its obvious my sampling is wrong! But let’s cheer atleast!  

I got up much before my usual time the next day and was ready to remind my father. But he had it on his mind and said, “It will be done today, don’t worry”.

Evening set in. My father returned. I opened his briefcase and he shouted, “What is it that you want there?” 

“Appa, Roja”

“It is done, but my colleague said that he will get it tomorrow”

“Appa, you said you will get it today and annu is asking for his cassette too”

“Tell him that I have taken it to office and the cassette will be returned to him tomorrow”

Needless to say, I didn’t have dinner that day. And sat with a long face throughout. If anyone would have seen me that day, they would have thought I was bereaved!

Next evening. Same story. I was in tears. But I had dinner. Very hungry you see! ;)

Day 3 evening, my father came back home and I didn’t even bother to return home from my cricket. I went home as usual and tried hard not to make a sound while opening the briefcase in the verandah. But still it made a sound that my father would have surely heard who was sitting in the drawing room reading some book. But he didn’t react. So, I thought he was planning a surprise and wanted me to discover for myself. But alas, no Roja in there.

No tears this time round. Nothing. Emotions die down with time they say. Very true. To have cried two days for something is in itself was a big achievement for me!

I strolled into my room, grabbed a towel and went in for a wash. After street cricket you are quite dirty, if you didn’t know that. Came back, changed and went to my two-in-one to play ”Saajan” – the musical hit that I was listening to then.

And I didn’t believe what I saw lying next to ”Saajan”. It was “Roja” - Annu’s cassette. And below it was the TDK 90 cassette. I took it out of the cover and carefully put it into the two-in-one and pressed “Play”. It didn’t occur to me to go and thank my father.  

The flute sound that played to signal the beginning of “chinna chinna aasai” brought tears into my eyes. And oh man, “Roja” is an all-time favourite for me and for many of those who love good music.

Everytime I hear “Chinna chinna aasai”, this entire sequence unrolls itself in front of me and I am transported back into the Mysore era, the high-school era and my school friends group!

Various Rahman albums transport me back in time as well as into those ecstatic musical moods! Every Rahman album is a milestone with which I can relate every part of my life to. I intend to write about what each album means to me and where it takes me back into in my future posts. So, stay tuned! :)

Though I am constantly listening to this one in the background, I don’t want to blog a review on it. Because then I would be hurrying to pass a verdict on this one. Let me wait and let it grow on me. Rather I would say, like every other album let me be engulfed into it slowly and when I write a review in that state of mind, it will be the truth. Also, I do believe that when you write a review about something you need to totally understand what you are reviewing. And for a person of my IQ, I need time to understand & review A R Rahman’s music! (But for now, let me leave it with this: Shreya Ghosal’s voice is sexy!)

The official release date of Guru is 18th ie. tomorrow. But as it always happens (with any good supply chain and Sony-BMG has a good distribution policy) the CDs and cassettes arrived today at 9PM so that tomorrow first thing in the morning they are available. And what do I do? Like a dutiful A R Rahman fan, I rush to the nearest Music World (Pondy Bazaar, for the chennaites) and grab my copy and also one for my brother-in-law (who incidentally is a music composer and a big fan of ARR again!). When I was in the Music World (it was raining outside and I had to wait for 10 minutes to get back home), the guy was playing “Guru” on his system. Someone went upto him and asked him to change the cd. I immediately ran to him and requested him not to play something else. I didn’t want to waste my time by not listening to “Guru”!

If you thought I was mad, I should tell you about my fascination for A R Rahman. it extends to the time I was in my 8th standard. ‘Roja’ was just out. Everyone was talking about him. I was in Bangalore on some vacation. Since I was in Mysore then, we used to travel down to Bangalore very frequently. And during one such trip, my doDappa (Father’s elder brother) introduced me to A R Rahman. He had bought a new Philips Powerhouse just then and during those days a powerhouse was BIG for me. He played “rukumani rukumani” on the system and said, “Listen to this, nobody has ever used drums so confidently in Indian music so far!”. From then on, I have been hooked on to his music like a baby-in-the-womb is to the heartbeat of its mother!

My pocket money those days were Re.1 per day paid once a month. And that cassette of ‘Roja’ costed Rs. 28/- if I remember right. I don’t need to tell you what my budget included for the next month. But my boss (father), like a good finance man, didn’t approve my budget saying ”unfair allocation” (almost 95% of my monthly income was allocated to one item). According to him that would mean that would mean a hefty downfall in my yearly savings to buy a headphone (so that I would not disturb everyone in my house [my father claimed that everyone in the neighbourhood complained to him and that's why he didn't go out of the house once he was back from office] with my music). And he gave me an idea. My neighbour friend actually had a cassette of Roja. I still remember the cover of that cassette. A top angle shot of Madhubala lying on Arvindswamy’s lap against a perfectly white background with Mani Ratnam’s ROJA in tamil prominently displayed at the front and A R Rahman’s name in tamil at the bottom. There as an insert of A R Rahman’s photograph at the left-top corner too. Coming back, my father asked me to get that cassette from my friend for a day and he would get it copied onto a blank cassette through his friend’s tape recorder so that we would get it in good quality. Though we had a two-in-one tape recorder I refused the suggestion that we could record it ourselves saying I want it in the same quality as the original. So he had to say he would get it done from outside. (read outside as a place where maybe the same recording was done but I wouldn’t know na! Appa, you have really taken me for a ride so many times when I was innocent and small na?! Poor me!)  

I was ready to run across to my friend’s house and get the cassette at 9PM in the night. 9PM was considered unrespectable during those days! So, I had to wait till I came back from school the next day. The whole day in school I was just waiting for it to get over! I remember rushing back home on my Hero Ranger (it was a famous brand of cycles then). I changed into colour dress (you get the drift?!), had my tea and snacks and ran to my neighbour’s house. I was literally breathless when I reached there. It is the same breathlessness I experience till-date when I wait for an A R Rahman album to release. I borrowed it from them with a guarantee that I would give it back the day after tomorrow (I remember that they almost made me swear! Mainly because they couldn’t part with the music for more than days and partly because of my reputation!). I took it carefully with me in my hands, since the pocket of my stretchlon half-trousers was too small for the cassette, and deposited it at home with a specific instruction to my mom -
“Don’t misplace it!” (I still laugh aloud when I hear that! I was so careful about something for the first time in my life I guess!). My father would come back from office and take it with him the next day to get it recorded and then I would have my own copy of ‘Roja’. It was a wait which was the most anticipated…

…To be continued         

Considering that most filmmakers would give an arm and a leg to work with A R Rahman, it’s something of a shocker to know that King Khan has replaced him with
Vishal-Shekhar (Bluffmaster!, Dus) for his upcoming project. The film in question is Farah Khan’s Om Shanti Om, which is being produced by SRK’s banner, Red Chillies Entertainment.

SRK had a problem

The grapevine goes that the deal was scrapped for two reasons. Firstly, Shah Rukh didn’t like the tunes that Rahman had composed. Secondly, Rahman demanded a huge amount as his fee, which Farah refused to pay.

When contacted, Rahman says that he is indeed out of Om Shanti Om, but denies that SRK had problems with his compositions (they’ve earlier worked together in Dil Se and Swades). “The truth is that we had some problems over contractual obligations. That is why I am not doing the film,” he says.

Rahman adds that he wanted the publishing rights of the music to rest with the producer, the lyricist and the composer. But Farah and Shah Rukh flatly refused.

“Actually, Shah Rukh had a problem. He could not come to terms with what I wanted. We were trying to sort this out since the last two to three months, but it just didn’t happen. SRK is a big star and maybe he doesn’t need anybody. I wish it had materialised so that more composers can get their dues in India. Someone has to start this here and I am pressing for it.”

Aamir understood

On the other hand, Rahman has succeeded in getting a share of the publishing rights for Aamir Khan’s next film, directed by Abbas Tyrewalla. “I met Aamir and he understood what I wanted in an instant. It could be because Tyrewalla’s film is a small budget venture, unlike Farah’s, which is a biggie,” Rahman says.

And what of the 2 crore that he demanded as his fee? Rahman says, “I don’t do just the music in the songs, I also provide the background score. So I charge accordingly. But I guess it’s okay. Farah and I went our own ways this time, but we did tell each other that we’d work together some other time.”

‘We love Rahman’

For his part, Vishal Dadlani is glad to be a part of the project. “It’s true that Shekhar and I are doing Om Shanti Om now. We’ve known Farah for nearly two years and have done a lot of work together. She called us ten days back, and we were very happy to do it for her. We got so charged after listening to the story that we’re already ready with four songs,” he says.

The duo is also aware that Rahman was doing the film before them. “We knew that, but didn’t get into the details of what transpired between them. To tell you the truth, we are in this industry because of Rahman. He’s a great inspiration. If we were to make a film tomorrow, we would sign A R Rahman to compose the music.”

Interestingly, quite a few eyebrows were raised when Farah chose Rahman over Anu Malik for Om Shanti Om, considering his music played a big role in the success of Main Hoon Na. Our well-informed sources tell us that before assigning Om Shanti Om to Rahman, Farah had indeed thought of Anu but later changed her mind.

We wonder if the soundtracks of Zindaggi Rocks or Umrao Jaan might have had something to do with that?

Irrespective of this article I knew that A R Rahman is out of Om Shanti Om. I don’t know what the problem was though. Though I might not particularly like SRK, I have come to know him as a professional going about doing his job while the media creates all these images. Maybe the money that would come from the music rights was the only biggest chunk that they thought it could produce! (Sorry, couldn’t resist that one!)

On a serious note, kudos to A R Rahman for standing up and asking for his rights. This act of his stands to benefit the entire community of music directors. We are with you A R Rahman. And we love you as always!