Lord of melody hits a high note with Tolkien saga

A.R. Rehman would tell you he loves to relish music in all its forms. “I never make any distinction while enjoying good music. I love to listen to music of all kinds – from classical to semi-classical to ghazals to film music old and new,” he says diplomatically when you quiz him on his kind of melody. But then, the maestro of contemporary film music also reasons why: “If you have to create tunes for such a diverse medium as films, your musical outlook has to be varied and wide.”

Rehman’s current obsession – and that’s what his calling becomes to India’s best known composer of popular music – is recreating the magnificence of Tolkien’s The Lord Of The Rings for the stage. “When we worked together in Bombay Dreams, Andrew (Lord Webber) told me it was a serious act we were putting up together. I didn’t know our rendezvous would get so serious that we would work again, this time recreating the sweeping splendour of Tolkien. The challenge before us right now is putting all the three films together in one musical for the stage. And that itself makes the whole exercise exciting,” points out Rehman, in town to receive the National Award for his score in Mani Rathnam’s Kannathil Muthammil.

Of course, concentrating on The Lord Of The Rings means Rehman – who’s as it is known for being ultra-choosy about the films he works in – will further cut down on Bollywood assignments. The composer, who is known to create music only by night (he insists the quietitude of the hour brings out the best in him), will therefore have his nights full with Tolkien dreams for now.

Rehman says composing for a musical is not that if you have honed your skills in films. “If you look at it, several old Hollywood hits were adaptation of plays. A film like The Sound Of Music proved long before our time that what was musically viable for the stage was musically viable for the screen too. I guess with The Lord Of The Rings we are going the other way round.”

If there’s one film that he looks forward to in 2004, it is Subhash Ghai’s period epic, Kisna, starring Vivek Oberoi. Interestingly, Rehman will be sharing credits for composition in the film with Ismail Darbar. “When Subhashji requested me to compose for his new film I couldn’t refuse – we shared a great rapport during the making of Taal. But because I had already committed dates for The Lord Of The Rings, I won’t get time to sit down and focus on the entire score for Kisna. I will simply be composing the theme song – may be one more song at the most – while Ismail takes care of the rest,” he explains.

So, what new sounds does the man, who revolutionised contemporary film music, hope to introduce in the near future? “I can never plan things when it comes to work,” he smiles shyly. “I just love to take in various kinds of sounds and then let it all flow out with my imagination, giving it a concrete definition by way of music.”

Beyond work, Rehman is a homely guy. “I spend some time doing spiritual incantation when I want peace of mind. And I love spending time with my two daughters and son. My daughters are eight and six years old, and my son turns one in a few weeks,” he says, blushing when you tell him he hardly looks like the father of three.

But then, playing the perfect papa is some kind of inspiration for his music too.