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Tuesday, February 24, 2009

R. Rahman: The Genius

This is a great achievement for all of us that the music of India has been recognized by the Oscar academy and A.R. Rahman was awarded an Oscar for his composition "Jai Ho". However, what I wish to insist upon that the song which been adjudged the best by the Oscar Academy, was not the best of the Musician. A. R. Rahman has composed several beautiful songs which are better than the present one for which he has been awarded the Oscar. Some of the songs which fall in this category are:

'Dil hai chota sa' from the movie 'Roja', all the songs from the movie 'lagaan', 'tu hi re' from 'bombay' etc. but the international community did not notice him earlier. The movie 'lagan' was nominated for the Oscars but could not get the appreciation of the Jury there.

I would like to draw the attention of the reader to the fact that these awards generally do not reflect the best masterpieces of the era. A well thought of market strategy has to be involve in to all this. Therefore, the saying that all that glitters is not gold, fits correctly here. I am not against Rahman or the Oscar Academy. But my contention is that an artist should not be judged by the the awards showered upon him but by the masterpieces he has created. The awards are the recognitions or the appreciation of the artist but not the testimonies of excellence. I am happy that Rahman has been recognized by the Oscar Academy but it is also true that his originality and uniqueness has been well known to all of us even before this award.

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