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Javed Akhtar admits he was initially apprehensive about AR Rahman composing iconic ‘Ishwar Allah’ song; here’s why
Javed Akhtar has revealed that he was initially skeptical about AR Rahman taking on the composition of the ‘Ishwar Allah’ song from the movie 1947 Earth and how his notions changed post-production.
Lyricist Javed Akhtar and composer AR Rahman have given Indian cinema some of the masterpiece albums of all time and 1947 Earth was one of them. Directed by Deepa Mehta, this period romance drama was one of the parts of her Elements trilogy and was also India's official entry for the 1999 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Spilling an interesting trivia from the time 1947 Earth’s album was being crafted, Javed Akhtar spoke to O2india and revealed that he was initially skeptical about Rahman composing the hit song Ishwar Allah from the film.
Why was Javed Akhtar apprehensive of AR Rahman’s musical?
The veteran lyricist revealed that usually, AR Rahman would compose a tune and then he used to write lyrics around it but for the Ishwar Allah song, the musician flipped his workflow for the first time and told Javed to write it first. “I was a bit apprehensive because Hindi isn’t his first language. How will he compose? I still went ahead and wrote the song and I don’t think this song can be composed in a better way. His composition was unparalleled,” Javed said.
For the unversed, 1947 Earth was set during India’s partition and was based on Bapsi Sidhwa’s novel, Cracking India. It was preceded by 1996's Fire and followed by 2005's Water.
When one of AR Rahman’s statements got etched in Javed Akhtar’s heart
In the same interview, the five-time National-award-winning lyricist revealed that though Rahman is much younger than him, one of his ‘wise’ advice he learned by heart. Javed revealed that the duo was working on a project together when a producer according to the lyricist was making useless suggestions that left him miffed.
When Javed lost out by saying ‘How can he talk such nonsense? That too with so much confidence?’, Rahman calmly replied, “No worries. We must listen to them. We should not compromise with our work, but at the same time when we listen to different opinions and try to satisfy them without losing our standards, we will do different kinds of work. If we do only what we like, then there will be a similarity in the work. Our work will become monotonous.”
Javed Akhtar found this advice one of the wisest things to hear.
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