Hypocrisy Much? Rahman Shares Humanity-Over-Religion ‘Kerala Story’, Here’s How He Put His Religion Above Humanity

Ahead of the release of ‘The Kerala Story’, a film depicting the menace of love jihad, Oscar-winning music composer AR Rahman took to virtue-signalling sharing an old clip of a Hindu couple marrying at a mosque in Kerala.

The video which Rahman shared was three years old and is a coverage of The News Minute of a Hindu couple named Anju and Sharath marrying at the Cheruvally Muslim Jamaath mosque in Alappuzha.

This old video was shared on Twitter by the handle Comrade From Kerala (@ComradeMallu) whose bio reads as “Communist from Kerala… Sanghis, Sudappis and all religious terrorists please keep away.”

Quote-tweeting the video of Comrade From Kerala, AR Rahman said that love for humanity has to be unconditional.

But here are a few instances when Rahman put his religion above his work and humanity.

Incident 1

Piraisoodan is a famous award-winning Tamil poet who has penned lyrics for many Tamil songs. He had worked with Rahman during his initial days when the latter was scoring ad jingles. Piraisoodan has also penned lyrics for some of the songs of Rahman.

In an interview to a Tamil YouTube channel,  Piraisoodan said that once when he had gone to Rahman’s home, he was asked to remove the Vibhuti (sacred ash) and Kumkum (vermilion) by Rahman’s mother. Rahman along with family had already converted to Islam by then.

However, Piraisoodan, did not oblige and refused to remove the Hindu religious marks on his forehead saying that he has been having them since childhood.

Incident 2

It is hard for a Rahman fan to not have listened to the song ‘Kalayil Dhinamum‘ from the film New.

The song is an ode to mothers penned by the late lyricist Vaali who is known for being candid.

In an incident recorded by Vaali, he said that the inital lyrics of the song which adulated mother to the status of God had to be changed because of Rahman.

The initial lines that was penned by Vaali was:

Kalai Dhinamum Kan Vizhithaal (Every morning when I wake up)

Naan Kai Thodum Deivam Amma (The God I fold my hands to pray, is mother)

The shooting for the song had already been completed.

However, Rahman objected to these lines saying that Islam does not allow him to equate mother with his God and asked lyricist Vaali to change the lyric.

“Vaali sir, in my religion we’re not supposed to equate mother with God. Please replace the word with some other word.”, Rahman apparently told Vaali over phone.

An irritated Vaali later changed the word ‘Deivam‘ which means God in Tamil to ‘Devathai‘, the Tamil word for angel, on Rahman’s insistance.

Incident 3

Sources in the Tamil music industry also note that AR Rahman did not compose the Ayyappa Song that comes in the film Boys (2003).

Even the casette/CD cover of the music album does not mention the Ayyappa Song.

It is said that the Ayyappa song from the movie was composed by his music programmer Pravin Mani.

While it is speculated that Rahman chose to not compose the Ayyappa song as it would be in contradiction to his Islamic beliefs, what is worth mentioning is that the same Rahman had composed the enchanting ‘Anbendra Mazhayile‘ a song venerating Jesus from the film Minsara Kanavu (1997).

In all these above instances, Rahman put his religion above anything else. Where did humanity-over-religion go then?

Rahman has always been viewed as an Indian and his religion has never bothered his fans who span across faiths.

But is Rahman a man blinded by his faith?

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