Allah Rakha Rahman (AR Rahman) is a musical genius who put India on the world map with his music. He is a man who ushered a musical revolution in India making the old and young tap their feet to his tunes.
Even today, the anticipation and expectations for a movie soars high if it bears the name of Rahman.
But AR Rahman isn’t just another musician who has scored music for hundreds of films and has many awards to his name. AR Rahman is an icon of modern India. Right from his first film Roja, his music traversed regional boundaries and has united Indians of all languages and culture.
His rendition of ‘Vande Mataram’ will make even the staunchest ‘Dravidian Stockist’ to beam with pride about being an Indian. In that sense, AR Rahman has been elemental in uniting India as a country from the Himalayas to the Indian Ocean. It wouldn’t be far-fetched to suggest his name for Bharat Ratna as he truly is one!
AR Rahman is also respected for his humility. Despite going on to achieve the highest accolades in his field, he has remained rooted to his roots. Who can forget his speech after he won the Oscars, when he said “Ella Pugazhum Iraivanuke! (Alll praise be to God!)” taking Tamil to the world stage and making Tamil people proud.
But there is something that not many people know about AR Rahman.
Is he a man blinded by his faith?
Does he allow his faith to interfere in his work?
Anecdotal references say so.
While there is nothing wrong in being religious per se, it does become a matter of concern if a person undermines or derogates other’s faith.
As they say, your right to swing your fist ends where where my nose begins.
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.
Left: AR Rahman, Right: Lyricist Piraisoodan
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.
A screenshot from Vaali’s interview to Tamil magazine Vikatan where he records this incident. Source: www.pagadhu.blogspot.com
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.
Tweet by 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).
Why this selective boycott of one particular religion is a question that every Rahman fan needs to ponder.
Is Rahman Joining The Bandwagon?
These three incidents are testimonies to how Rahman played his identity as a Muslim and showed streaks fundamentalism by undermining the faith of his own colleagues.
It is this Rahman who is now trying to stoke regional sentiments by playing the ‘Tamil identity’ politics.
On 8 April 2022, AR Rahman shared a bizarre illustration of Tamil Goddess on his social media pages, which had ‘Thamizhinangu’ written, a word from Tamil Thai Vaazhthu (invocation to Goddess Tamil).
It also had a tag line that said “Beloved Tamil is the root of our existence.”, a line written by modern Tamil poet of the 20th century poet Bharathidasan.
This picture shared by Rahman now has netizens divided over social media with many calling it as a cryptic response to Home Minister Amit Shah’s remarks about usage of Hindi as a link language for all Indians to communicate.
Jus two days after this post, Rahman while participating at ‘Dakshin’, a South India Media and Entertainment Summit organized by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), courted controversy by saying that Tamil is the link language for India while responding to a question about Home Minister Amit Shah’s remarks.
This isn’t the first time Rahman has resorted to playing politics over language. In June 2019, when there was a debate about the three-language policy present in the Draft National Education Policy, Rahman had tweeted: “AUTONOMOUS | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary,” with web link of the word’s meaning in the dictionary.
Later when the Centre droppped Hindi and added ‘any other Indian language’ to the draft, Rahman wrote “Good decision. Hindi is not compulsory in Tamil Nadu. The draft has been corrected.”
The timing and politics behind Rahman’s latest post on ‘Goddess Tamil’ and his subsequent ‘Tamil is the link language for India’ comment is something that cannot be overlooked as it comes just a fortnight after CM Stalin and his family visited the former’s studio in Dubai.
After Suriya Sivakumar who has been peddling a narrative close to the DMK for a long time, has Rahman too allowed himself to be part of DMK’s toolkit?
As one of his ardent fans, it pains to see Rahman, whose music united Indians and remains a symbol of national integration, is now dancing to the tunes of the Dravidian demagogues!
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What many do not know about AR Rahman
Allah Rakha Rahman (AR Rahman) is a musical genius who put India on the world map with his music. He is a man who ushered a musical revolution in India making the old and young tap their feet to his tunes.
Even today, the anticipation and expectations for a movie soars high if it bears the name of Rahman.
But AR Rahman isn’t just another musician who has scored music for hundreds of films and has many awards to his name. AR Rahman is an icon of modern India. Right from his first film Roja, his music traversed regional boundaries and has united Indians of all languages and culture.
His rendition of ‘Vande Mataram’ will make even the staunchest ‘Dravidian Stockist’ to beam with pride about being an Indian. In that sense, AR Rahman has been elemental in uniting India as a country from the Himalayas to the Indian Ocean. It wouldn’t be far-fetched to suggest his name for Bharat Ratna as he truly is one!
AR Rahman is also respected for his humility. Despite going on to achieve the highest accolades in his field, he has remained rooted to his roots. Who can forget his speech after he won the Oscars, when he said “Ella Pugazhum Iraivanuke! (Alll praise be to God!)” taking Tamil to the world stage and making Tamil people proud.
But there is something that not many people know about AR Rahman.
Is he a man blinded by his faith?
Does he allow his faith to interfere in his work?
Anecdotal references say so.
While there is nothing wrong in being religious per se, it does become a matter of concern if a person undermines or derogates other’s faith.
As they say, your right to swing your fist ends where where my nose begins.
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).
Why this selective boycott of one particular religion is a question that every Rahman fan needs to ponder.
Is Rahman Joining The Bandwagon?
These three incidents are testimonies to how Rahman played his identity as a Muslim and showed streaks fundamentalism by undermining the faith of his own colleagues.
It is this Rahman who is now trying to stoke regional sentiments by playing the ‘Tamil identity’ politics.
On 8 April 2022, AR Rahman shared a bizarre illustration of Tamil Goddess on his social media pages, which had ‘Thamizhinangu’ written, a word from Tamil Thai Vaazhthu (invocation to Goddess Tamil).
It also had a tag line that said “Beloved Tamil is the root of our existence.”, a line written by modern Tamil poet of the 20th century poet Bharathidasan.
This picture shared by Rahman now has netizens divided over social media with many calling it as a cryptic response to Home Minister Amit Shah’s remarks about usage of Hindi as a link language for all Indians to communicate.
Jus two days after this post, Rahman while participating at ‘Dakshin’, a South India Media and Entertainment Summit organized by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), courted controversy by saying that Tamil is the link language for India while responding to a question about Home Minister Amit Shah’s remarks.
This isn’t the first time Rahman has resorted to playing politics over language. In June 2019, when there was a debate about the three-language policy present in the Draft National Education Policy, Rahman had tweeted: “AUTONOMOUS | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary,” with web link of the word’s meaning in the dictionary.
Later when the Centre droppped Hindi and added ‘any other Indian language’ to the draft, Rahman wrote “Good decision. Hindi is not compulsory in Tamil Nadu. The draft has been corrected.”
The timing and politics behind Rahman’s latest post on ‘Goddess Tamil’ and his subsequent ‘Tamil is the link language for India’ comment is something that cannot be overlooked as it comes just a fortnight after CM Stalin and his family visited the former’s studio in Dubai.
After Suriya Sivakumar who has been peddling a narrative close to the DMK for a long time, has Rahman too allowed himself to be part of DMK’s toolkit?
As one of his ardent fans, it pains to see Rahman, whose music united Indians and remains a symbol of national integration, is now dancing to the tunes of the Dravidian demagogues!
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