Feb 11, 2012

Composition


"What's the central thought, what did he tell you?" asked Irshad.

"The character wants to follow his dreams but the situations are always complex; emotionally. When he decides to listen to his heart, life ahead looks more difficult. He wants to be free now. Free like a bird. Fly. Like a bird," replied Dileep.

"Hmm .. the journey has to have some uncarved and abrupt elements then, it can not be beautiful or swift," said Irshad.

"I don't know, let's figure that out," said Dileep.

It was a breezy cold morning. Irshad and Dileep were composing a song. Holding a cup of hot coffee in his hand, Dileep opened up the window-

The Sun was yet to rise. The view from the window had a depth of many kilometers. The city life was slowly making itself visible in bits and pieces. The snapshot from the window told you a story - a story of how the city geared up for the day. The noise, the tranquility. The concrete, the people. The tar, the greens.

And the birds.

"Sparrow is definitely 'the common man', isn't it? Flaps its wings all the time, keeps working and is programmed not to relax or reflect," asked Dileep.

"Yeah. It is important although. Everybody is important," said Irshad.

"I know that. Just wanted your opinion. Look at that Vulture. It's very different from the other birds, isn't it?" asked Dileep.

"Yes. Too dispassionate to pull off a Rockstar although," said Irshad.

"Hmm .. Pigeon looks like a mix. Looks unsettled like sparrows but flaps less like Vultures. Did you ever notice that it turns its neck in quantums. May be it looks at the world differently than the other birds," said Dileep.

"Good quality for a Rockstar, you think?" asked Irshad.

"Pigeon .. hmm .. can't be .. just looking at the world differently is not enough. It's life looks fair and simple enough. Situations must force the Rockstar to fly. Fly far. Again and again and again," said Dileep.

Just then, an Albatross flew from double the height the Vulture was flying at. Irshad turned towards Dileep as the latter kept staring at it till it vanished from the field of view.

"You got your Rockstar, didn't you?" asked Irshad Kamil.

"We did!" said Dileep Kumar (popularly known as A.R.Rahman). "Also, we were wrong. The journey need not be abrupt, it can be beautiful and swift," he said.

"But why did you have to find a bird?" asked Irshad Kamil.

"There isn't any true Rockstar in India, and there can not possibly be one. Who do I go to and get a feel of the journey from?" said Rahman.


"Let's start the song with the soul taking off and starting to soar. We'll bring in the protagonist centric lyrics later to put the song in context of the movie", said Rahman.


-x-

4 Comments:

VKS said...

I wonder why a bird should inspire musicians and artists and even common men so much? I am compelled to think of one of my favourite songs from Rocket Singh: "pankhon ko hawa zara si lagne do...". Is it because humans can't fly?

When ARR opens the window he sees so much but he gets fixated at the birds that he sees. So is it the aspects, that we lack in, that inspires us most? This is despite the fact (at least at present) that we cannot fly on our own and know that other humans also cannot fly.

So is it that humans seem to be continually attached, attracted to and motivated by those aspects of the environment which, consciously we are aware we cannot get or become?

How come then the concept of social comparison has been given so much emphasis and is one of the major reasons of our actions?

Vinay Sharma said...

You are clearly preparing for IAS :)

I did not try to highlight "Motivation from aspects of environment" in the blog.

If there was a true Rockstar in India, the lyrics would be less generic and more situational.

If it's less situational, one needs to find the situations somewhere. I chose birds. Not sure if Rahman actually did so. I exaggerated.

"Sadda haq" is the closest the album gets to an "Indian Rockstar"

Sourabh said...

Can we replace these two people with you and me.

Vinay Sharma said...

:)

NO :D