The Spirit of Music - ARR's Biography

[NOV]

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[A.ANAND]

http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/broadband/video/Parties-and-Events/xxFZ9u54/3/Launch-Of-A-R-Rahman-s-The-Spirit-Of-Music.html

[A.ANAND]

Mani Ratnam is like my brother- AR Rahman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TmTgFH-fvQ

[A.ANAND]

"... The original name was MACCHAR KHAAN only.".... confirmed ARR

Here is a writeup on behalf of the fan group…………………

"The Spirit of Music", a biography in the form of Conversation written by Nasreen Munni Kabeer was launched in a simple yet elegant function in Mumbai's Novotel hotel yesterday evening, 6'th April 2011.

The event was attended by a good number of fans from Yahoo group ( Amith, Anand Swamy, Swapnil, Anmol Bhave, Vikram, and many others ).
As we reached the venue by 630pm, there was not much of activity around the hotel so we "assumed" that the host / guest are all coming late.

Someone got the brainwave that we should go up and wait in the airconditioned environment. On reaching the hall, we could not believe seeing AR Rahman himself sitting quietly in a large balcony looking really dashing and cool. We found that he was being interviewed by Rajeev Masand for a TV channel. Also spotted Anupama Chopra who later interviewed ARR for NDTV. There were many others waiting with cameras and mikes outside.

Meanwhile We bought the book at the counter, and ensured that it had the CD of Connections inside it. For that alertness, we had to shell out the MRP Rs. 495 for the book instead of discount offers on the website ( available at I think 50 Rupees less than MRP ). :-(

The hall was filling up fast so we all trouped inside and secured our places. Aditya Modi ( Sound ) was looking for a place to sit and we accommodated him in our group. Noticed Ashutosh Gowarikar, Subhash Ghai, Ramgopal Varma, Sanjeevani Bhelande, Neeti Muhan, Shweta Pandit, Jawed Ali, Sivamani, Govind Nihalani, KJ Singh, Imtiaz Ali, Jawed Akthar and many others who have worked with ARR before.

By 730 or so AR Rahman entered with his wife. Also entered the chief guest Mani Ratnam and the sponsors of the event. The camerapersons went wild clicking the pair and a lot of cajoling by the organizers brought some order to the popping of flashbulbs.

After a brief announcement, ARR, Nasreen Munni Kabeer and Mani Ratnam went on to the stage and occupied their seats, ARR ofcourse in the centre of the stage !

After a brief welcome speech by the sponsors and the book publishers, First one to speak was Mani Ratnam. He briefly narrated how he spotted a young ARR in an event function in Chennai almost 20 years ago and how the young lad invited him to his studio and how he went there after a couple of months. Tongue-n-cheek, Mani Ratnam recalled the "swing" outside the studio room where he remembers spending lot of time "WAITING" for ARR ! Brought a chuckle from even ARR himself at this recollection…. 

Then the maestro ARR was invited to speak about his experience of recounting his life story so far through a series of interviews given to Nasreen Munni Kabeer. I must say that I find ARR's extempore speeches these days are a delight to hear.

ARR briefly spoke how he had problems in filling up the studio with equipment when he had no money. Like his famous statement " Trusting in God….." He made a similar noteworthy statement during his brief speech which was roughly like this " In life's journey one comes across a situation when one reaches a wall, a dead end and feels that this is it, but if you have faith in yourself, you can move the wall and the wall indeed moves as you go along".

Amith has recorded his entire speech and I will try to give a ad-verbatim transcript soon.

As ARR was on with his thoughts, we found his mother and sister making entry as they were delayed in traffic.

After this the actual book launch ceremony was performed by Mani Ratnam and for the second time in the evening, the camerapersons went crazy clicking the trio of Nasreen, ARR and Mani Ratnam on the stage, even at times requesting them to give a left profile, centre profile and right profile. 

Then the author Nasreen Munni Kabeer narrated her experience of recording the series of interviews personally, by mails, by online chatting and spread across continents and the number of years. She jokingly remembered her disagreement over the time taken to complete the assignment, she felt it took her 8 years and ARR claimed it was only 5 ! And the best part was that the manuscript of the entire book was given by Nasreen to ARR to read and approve beforehand, and thats why it is "authorized" biography.

Then ARR again got to the microphone and after remembering his spiritual teacher from Kadappa, he briefly informed the reason behind releasing the CONNECTIONS album alongwith the book. He mentioned his discussions with Nasreen and since the book was about him and his music, they both felt that there should be something coming from ARR. Even ARR was planning to make a singles album ( one song ) specially for the album ( how nice that would have been ) but since his most satisfying creation CONNECTIONS was not released in CD form till then, they decided to offer the CD free with the book.

After this speech by ARR, then the organizers invited the gathering to ask questions to the distinguished guest regarding book, here are some of the Q& A what I remember. The gist is not exact…. More as general in nature.

Question to Nasreen Munni Kabeer > "Are there 3 persons with the name Nasreen and Munni and Kabeer who have collaborated on the book ? Where are other two ?
That was toooooo much ! we collapsed from our chairs  )
Answer by NMK > No 3 authors, all these are her names. In her younger days, she was called Munni and her actual name is Nasreen and considering her film / literary background, she decided to bundle all 3 names into one.

Question to both Nasreen and ARR > "How difficult was to write a book on ARR ? Even though it was just Interview format, was there any need to do research"
Answer by NMK > "Considering the extremely busy schedule of ARR, it was a challenge to complete the assignment, the matter gathered pace recently and even though it was a series of interviews, I had to study about ARR's work and frame my questions such that it will make him give answers which will allow all of us a glimpse of the person he is. In this process, Nasreen thanked the help received from Mrs Saira, ARR's wife as Nasreen recollected how Mrs Saira used to first feed Nasreen with home food before the interview whenever Nasreen used to go for one. Considering the uncertainty as when ARR will emerge to continue the interview, Nasreen thanked this gesture of ensuring that she did not go hungry during that process of interviews."

Then I got a chance to ask questions, I stood up, recharged my courage to comfortable levels....ARR was watching me intently,

Me > " Good evening sir, I am Dinesh, representing your official fan group on Yahoo and I have to ask you about one of the track in Connections…. Macchar Khan. Why this name and why did you not keep the original one "MOSQUITO"

ARR ( long explanation, I have forgotten most of it, this is a summary ) > "Infact the original name of this track was Macchar Khan. See the mosquitos when they are around you, they really make you irritated with the constant noise around you. ( he mentioned something about mosquitos in Rajasthan…. I forgot what) so for this release, I went back to the original name."

My next question was > "Sir why was "JIYA SE JIYA" track dropped from the album ? "

ARR ( short reply ) > "You all have already heard the track and not the other tracks (  ??? ) and I wanted you to listen to other tracks so we did not include Jiya Se Jiya."

After some more questions, the programme ended. There was another SCRAMBLE, this time both from the camerapersons and the invitees to take ARR's autograph on the book, me included. Many from the Rahman fan group succeeded but I could not, as ARR was ushered out of the hall for another round of TV interviews.

I meanwhile had got the author Nasreen's autograph and from her startled look, I found that I was the first one after the launch she had signed the book ! That was great !

Vijay consoled me for not getting ARR's autograph and assured me that it will happen some day. Meanwhile the group had spread their wings and were seeking autographs from other celebrities. So I joined them and got SIVAMANI and NAVEEN's autographs.

As I was standing on the sides, I found ARR walking past me. I held my book in front of him, as he took it, looked at me.... next to him was Vijay who introduced me to ARR. " This is Dinesh, he was the one who sent you the Marathi DVD ".

ARR smiled at me with a knowing look ( I think so ! ) and signed on the page I had held out to him and went inside another room for another set of interviews.

I barely managed to control my emotions…… who would have imagined that I would be able to not just meet ARR but "interview" him twice in 2 years as a fan ( I had got similar chance of asking him questions during Pune Jai HO press conference ) and also get introduced to him before getting his autograph ?

I thank GOD for giving me a guru like ARR. I thank all those who made this day possible for me. To Vij, I can't thank him enough……

God bless you all and Jai HO !

Dinesh Vaidya
RAHMANIA-The Wandering Souls
Pune

from arryg

[NOV]

Just finished the book launch. it was a beautiful new experience and I must thank Nasreen Munni for patiently putting it together.

Sometimes she had to wait hours before i would get into the conversation zone due to my musical commitments but she never made me feel intimidated during the whole process..She also never made me feel guilty to have made her wait..:)

..........

[NOV]

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Posted by AR Rahman

In the proceess of launching the book, something historic happened..

For the past two years, I wanted to give a token of appreciation to all the people involved in the making of my music for twenty blessed years ! It never happened due to my constant travel and the rollercoaster ride of my life last year so I quickly got out the mementos that I'd gotten made and thought of simplifying the process.

The idea was to honour the directors who came up with the concept of songs and mentoring the entire music making process with me and the lyricists who wrote those lyrics that changed peoples lives (in good ways :)) and also the musicians, singers and sound engineers.

The complication was that all these artists belonged to different states of India like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra etc and Countries like England, The Czech Republic, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, America, Canada etc

So I decided to do it in phases and the first honours took place in Mumbai with some legendary directors like Mani Ratnam, Subhash Ghai, Govind Nihlani, Ram Gopal Varma, Ashutosh Gowariker and the younger lot like Imtiaz Ali, Bharatbala & Anthony. The others got stuck with their pre-commitments and I will catch up with them shortly.

Have a look at this picture from the felicitation...all of us loved each other at this moment and nothing could have stopped it:)

[baroque]

wonderful talents of Indian Cinema.
bhaiya, looking good, mmmm....lost some weight. good for him.
vinatha.

[AudazJay]

Is the book still being sold within India only? How can the others (non-residents) buy it?

[lancelot]

pre ordered it and got it on Saturday.. Its with a friend in India. Will get it to my hand soon :D