It is Hollywood dreams now

Feroze Ahmed

Photo: K. Pichumani

IT WAS an event the media could not afford to miss. The `Asian Mozart from Madras' — as The Daily Mail calls him — was being re-exported to Chennai, fresh after a dose of `Bombay Dreams'.

The `video presentation and peek' into A.R. Rahman's Western invasion and the cassette release of `Bombay Dreams' — ``the heady exotica that has taken London by storm'' — was really a get-together with the usually reserved composer.

It started with a salute to Andrew Lloyd Webber, then Rahman. A handout claims the composer has sold more records than Madonna and Britney Spears together, and that Michael Jackson was spotted wearing a T-shirt with Rahman's picture with the legend `Salute to You'. Not like they had to sell Rahman to us, but tag a bit of U.S. and U.K. and it always gets better.

There was more Rahman in the video presentation. Catch Webber saying he expected a musical revolution but did not expect it to come from India. ``Rahman can carry the torch of musical theatre to a new level.''

Rahman had returned to his studio in Chennai for some of the compositions, which have come across quite nicely, despite the repeats of `Shakalaka Baby' and `Chaiyya Chaiyya'.

The making of `Bombay Dreams' wasn't without its share of apprehensions. ``In Bollywood, you have 20, 30, 60 people doing the same dance steps over and over again. In England, people would lose interest in 15 seconds.'' But the musical, despite Bollywood's rain and group dances, seems good.

The queer part of the programme at Monday's unveiling of the music was the Q&A session. The organisers framed and asked Rahman all the cliched questions themselves, perhaps to spare him, and those gathered, from the ritual of the must-ask questions. But here is a gist of the answers:

Shekhar Kapur gave Webber some Indian songs, on request from the British legend and Webber immediately wanted that composer from Madras; Rahman did not know how big musicals in London were; they did not look for Indian actors because no one can sing here; there indeed might be something coming up in Hollywood for Rahman; and the play will soon be going to New York.

It was cruel to ask him if the scores worked because Indian songs are already borrowed from the West. Rahman was quick: ``They wouldn't like to hear the same sounds again. They liked these because they were different. The common element helps them accept it better.''

But will we ever get to watch `Bombay Dreams' here? No. ``We wouldn't want to watch our own films again,'' says Rahman. Well, we are hearing our own songs again. Maybe somebody's got to do a rethink.