Aadujeevitham (Goat Life), the Malayalam film for which actor Prithviraj has been undergoing a tough physical transformation, has suddenly captured the imagination of the Kerala South audience at large, thanks to A R Rahman’s nod to compose music for the film.
It’s no secret that Malayalees worldwide take immense pride about Rahman’s Kerala connection. Rahman’s father R K Shekhar used to be a music composer in Malayalam films till his death at the young age of 43. Apart from independently composing music for films, Shekhar, as a master orchestrator, was the backbone of the compositions of his contemporary legends in Malayalam cinema, M B Sreenivas, M K Arjunan and Dakshinamoorthy. Shekhar’s touch can’t be missed in the evergreen songs of these music directors.
Rahman had said in his interviews that most of his scattered memories of his late father are as an ailing man on hospital bed. His journey in life after his father’s demise has been extraordinary of sorts. It’s a story that has much more substance than a Gully Boy, which richly deserves an intense biopic. Rahman used to earn money to sustain the family by renting his father’s music instruments and used to play in the orchestras of composers in his teens. His passion for music and technology gradually earned him a place among other talented musicians and shaped his career. At one point, Rahman too followed his father’s footsteps when he assisted the leading music directors of the south to earn for his family and build a career for himself.
Rahman was born as A S Dileep Kumar. His first Malayalam film, the 1992 Mohanlal-starrer Yoddha, was released the same year as his debut movie, the Mani Ratnam film Roja, but the music director credit appeared as “Dileep”. A fact-check on the Internet would reveal that Rahman had converted to Sufism at least 3 years before that and had changed his name to Alla Rakha Rahman. This had long fueled a contention that Yoddha was the first film that Rahman had committed and composed for, as opposed to Roja, which was officially credited to be his debut. Part of the reason for this could be that Yoddha, though technically brilliant and popular among generations of Malayalees, was no landmark film. The comedy thriller was not even declared a hit, thanks to the timing of its release after a controversy related to its earlier title Buddha. The film’s release had clashed with Fazil’s Mammootty-starrer family drama Pappayude Swantham Appoos, which went on to become a blockbuster.
Yoddha boasts of an ensemble cast, including some international actors, good storyline and humour, technical finesse and music. The film’s music has gone viral over the years and became a sensation. The whirlwind tongue-twister song Padakali Chandi, in which Rahman gave a hilarious and novel twist to the idea of a typical temple singing competition, became a chartbuster and an internet sensation years later, so did the signature BGM bits that Rahman had thoughtfully composed for the specific characters (comedian Jagathy’s hilarious supporting role as Arasummoottil Appukuttan is the most popular among them) and situations in the film. With the other hits Maampoove and Kunu Kune and a fusion theme music, it’s indeed a soundtrack that could make any composer proud.
Yoddha’s director Sangeeth Sivan had offered quite another explanation for the Rahman-Dileep confusion in the credits: that he had worked with Rahman on a number of jingles when he was widely known as Dileep in the ad industry. A couple of years later, Sangeeth’s brother Santhosh Sivan who was the cinematographer of Roja, recommended him for Yoddha, after hearing the tunes that he had composed for Mani Ratnam. In the course of making Yoddha’s music, they knew very well that they were working with a contrarian who could become the next music sensation in the industry.
Rahman’s music journey then on has been nothing short of a dream. Many chartbuster albums, international compositions, and a long list of accolades that includes two Oscars, two Grammies, one BAFTA, six national awards and many more national and international honours. The son of Malayalam cinema’s beloved composer Shekhar is on top of the world.
Aadujeevitham, the novel by Benyamin, was a runaway hit in Malayalam. Written in witty, lucid prose, the story unfolds the pains of Najeeb who, after flying to Saudi to realise his dream of securing a better life for his family, ended up spending a torturous three-and-a-half years on gunpoint as a slave tasked with rearing goats, devoid of any contact with the outside world and basic human rights. Goat Life became the novel’s title because Najeeb’s only companions in these years were goats with whom he ate, slept, laughed, cried and worried about life. Blessy has been toying with the idea of adapting the popular novel into a film for years together and the project has finally started rolling with a release date in sight. Prithviraj, the hero of the film, has been training to shed weight to play the part of Najeeb during his struggles in the desert. With Rahman on board, the project has been pushed to a different league altogether.
Did Najeeb’s struggles touch a chord when the film’s director Blessy (whose filmography includes super hits such as Kaazhcha, Thanmathra, Palunku, Bhramaram and Pranayam) narrated the story to him? I think it wouldn’t be too much to assume that he got an urge or a strange call to lend his evocative soul-searching music to the journey of the fighter. We have not seen Rahman signing up for totally meaningless projects, at least not since he had carved out a place for himself in the industry. And we have often seen him taking up projects that gives him space for self-expression beyond the asks of a commercial film.
Take one of his most recent outings Sarvam Thaala Mayam for example: the modest biographic film that depicts the tough journey of a Dalit Mridangam maker towards his dream of earning the right to play the very instrument, which he carefully crafts for upper caste musicians, at a concert, had a pulsating mix of traditional percussive sounds drawn from different parts of the country. Director Rajeev Menon scripted the film based on the true story of a Mridangam maker and percussionist whom he had met in person, but before the movie was made, Carnatic singer and Magsasay laureate T MKrishna had documented this inequality and social strife in his book, Sebastian & Sons: A Brief History of Mridangam Makers. Given the presence of fusion music ranging from Carnatic to folk and the social commentary in the film, I doubt whether director Rajeev Menon had thought of anyone else other than Rahman for the compositions in the film.
Rahman ‘meditates’ music when the world around him goes to sleep. He composes his tunes at night and in the wee hours, when there is nobody to disturb him, either in person or on phone. The real Rahman magic is not about easy numbers that instantly get the audience into the groove. It’s about songs that grow in the minds of music lovers over multiple rounds of listening and become difficult to let go of. Remember, the audience response to many of his soundtracks, including those of superhits Lagaan and Taal, was muted in the first couple of weeks after they were released. Over a period of time, they went on to become part of all-time favourites of many.
That Blessy had waited for Rahman to compose for Aadujeevitham may have a strong enough reason behind it, one that is closely related to his storytelling in the film. That gives us hope that there is something big on the cards, when the legend returns to Malayalam cinema after a long gap of 28 years. I am excited about waiting for another soul-stirring ARR album. It is, after all, the legend’s ‘homecoming’ of sorts, to compose songs in a language that his father used to express his music.
(Dress Circle is a weekly column on films. The author is a communication professional and film enthusiast. Read his past works here.)
