'Rahman is the next Pink Floyd'

In a MiD DAY exclusive, Resul Pookutty pens down his thoughts on A R Rahman's double Grammys and life after Slumdog Millionaire
u00a0
For a filmmaker, winning an Oscar is the ultimate recognition of his craft and a Grammy holds the same importance for a musician or a song writer. A R has got both in a dream year wherein Jai Ho has been trumpeted across the world. It has become synonymous with India, just as namaste was earlier.u00a0

Recognition from your fraternity is always a big deal, just as it was for me when the Cinema Audiographers Society (CAS) gave the Best Sound award to Slumdog last year.

This is also a recognition of the genius of A R -- for the huge body of work that he has produced in nearly two decades. With Roja, India heard a new kind of sound and Rahman went to become a household name.

With Slumdog, he has done the same thing across the world. This is the second Roja in his life. And this recognition has come with so much time left ahead for him.

He will be the next huge phenomenon, the next rock star, like, say, Pink Floyd or Michael Jackson.

In Slumdog, Rahman has probably used 11 to 12 tracks whereas in an average Hindi film the numberu00a0 would be around 115 to 120. There is something wrong in the way we have used Rahman.

I think that, on an international level, a song has never been celebrated like this. No other motion picture soundtrack has been as well received as Jai Ho. The last Indian to win a Grammy was Pt Vishwamohan Bhatt and I still remember the nature of the track that he played. Jai Ho celebrates life more than any other Indian Grammy winner -- it is today's sound, today's energy and that's what the world wants.

I feel a sense of pride in having worked closely withu00a0 Rahman because he taught my entire generation how to love and respectu00a0 tradition. When I hear Rahman's music, I feel I have heard it somewhere. It has the quality of triggering nostalgia. Rahman is able to invoke people's emotions in a larger context. He has done that in India and he is now doing it internationally as well.

I am awaiting the Oscar nomination for his song from Couples Retreat. The song has Tamil words in it. It's amazing and the West is grooving to it.

Language is crossing international barriers through sound. Politicians and visionaries have been trying to cross these barriers for so long. Rahman has done that with sound at a much deeper level.

That, for me, is his biggest contribution as an artist. I can see him bringing Oscars to the country like he has collected other Indian awards over the last 18 years. He is going to make the entire country and its people proud. Once again.