September 29, 2011 1:19:53 am
While little else remains for him to achieve,one of A R Rahmans unfulfilled dreams is to be able to immortalise the music of legendary musicians. It is as part of this dream that the Academy Award-winning musician has collaborated with documentary filmmaker Nasreen Munni Kabeer to launch her 50-minute documentary on the renowned shehnai player Late Ustad Bismillah Khan.
During one of the interview sessions in London for Nasreens biography of Rahman,they got talking about Ustad Bismillah Khan. Rahman was very moved, says Vijay Mohan Iyer,a member of Rahmans team. The famous classical musician who was also awarded the Bharat Ratna,died in penury in 2006.
The DVD version of the documentary,titled Bismillah of Benares,is a collaboration between Kabeers Hyphen Films and Rahmans label,K M Musiq,and will be released on September 29 by the duo. Rahman hopes that his name brings the DVD a bigger audience, adds Iyer. The DVD will be available at stores from the day after.
Rahman is also using this opportunity to commercially release his instrumental album,Connections. Completed close to three years ago,the 10 tracks are each representative of individual themes,such as mountains,seasons and others. Both the DVD and the album will be marketed by Sony Music.
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He originally wanted to develop each of these themes into separate albums but then the Academy Awards happened and threw his plans off the track, says Iyer. Rahman eventually planned a release of these 10 tracks as one album,which was first given out with his biography by Kabeer.
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