Lataji should only be given special songs - Rahman

''Lataji's voice sounds so spiritual. She should only be given special songs. It is my way of paying respects to her,'' feels renowned music director A. R. Rehman about the country's melody queen and Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar.

Justifying his logic in asking the melody queen to sing only a bhajan (devotional song) in the film 'Lagaan' directed by Ashutosh Gowarikar for producer and actor Aamir Khan, the maestro, however, says that 'any clichés can be broken. There should be no fixed rules - if it conveys the emotion.'

He may have reached a lot of success and won more awards than he bargained for, but his humility and soft demeanor strikes anyone coming into contact with the maestro, who is in the Capital along with Aamir Khan to promote the songs of the film 'Lagaan' being released later this week. The film, set in the last decade of the nineteenth century, is about the rousing of some villagers against British tyranny.

Rehman, who first gained fame as a music director with the Tamil 'Roja' and 'Bombay' by Mani Rathnam which were also released in Hindi versions, has so far composed music for about fifteen 'straight' (films that were not dubbed) Hindi films. Rehman said that the songs of 'Lagaan' were steeped in north Indian folk though he had also combined some western classical music since it is set in the British period.