Hear, Hear

A.R. Rahman is what Pandit Ravi Shankar once was — not in the kind of music he makes, but in being the blue-eyed composer of every foreign filmmaker who has an India story to tell.

It is nomination time for Indian musicians. AR Rahman is in the running for a Golden Globe, while 82-year-old Lakshmi Shankar and Debashish Bhattacharya eye the Grammy

A.R. Rahman is what Pandit Ravi Shankar once was — not in the kind of music he makes, but in being the blue-eyed composer of every foreign filmmaker who has an India story to tell. Danny Boyle too spotted Rahman — for Slumdog Millionaire, which stops at all the must-see places of India, from Dharavi to the Taj, from call centres to TV studios. And finally at Golden Globe nominations for best film (drama), best director, best screenplay and best original score. The last is where Rahman makes it.

“Danny approached Rahman as he had known him since Bombay Dreams. And since it was an Indian story with Indian actors, he was convinced that Rahman would be the best to belt out the soundtrack for the film,” says a source close to Rahman. It was reported that unsentimental Boyle asked Rahman not to put a cello in the film. Instead, Slumdog Millionaire’s is an unusual sound that is not rooted anywhere but is rooted everywhere — Rahman slips in a light-hearted flute that seems it is being gently coaxed to sing, then quickly notches up with avant-garde percussion in O saya and old-school hip-hop in Gangsta blues, and goes so very Bollywood in Jai ho with Sukhvinder Singh’s vocals. But to win the Golden Globe on January 11, Rahman, who has sung most of the songs as well, will have to beat Hans Zimmer, Clint Eastwood, James Newton Howard and Alexandre Desplat.

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Even as you wonder if Rahman will be at Kodak Theater with an Oscar nomination as well, in Los Angeles itself, an 82-year-old doyenne of Hindustani classical music is eyeing a Grammy. Lakshmi Shankar has won a nomination in the Best Traditional World Music Album category for her compilation Dancing In The Light. She is the wife of Rajendra Shankar, the elder brother of Ravi Shankar. Ravi, a three-time Grammy winner, is elated by another nomination coming to the family — if Anoushka was nominated earlier, Norah Jones has won plenty. “It is such wonderful news that Lakshmi has been nominated for the coveted Grammy award for her new recording,” says Ravi. “I cannot think of anyone more worthy than her as she has been performing all over the world for over five decades now. It is unfortunate that we in India have not honoured her for her immense talent and dedication even at this ripe age of 82. I send all my best wishes and pray that she wins this.”

For that, Lakshmi Shankar will have to beat compatriot Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya as well. A 40-something, Kolkata-based musician who invented the slide guitar and collaborated with the likes of John McLaughlin and Jerry Douglas, Bhattacharya has been nominated for his studio compilation Calcutta Chronicles: Indian Slide Guitar that features his guitars that blend the tones of the veena, violin and the sarod. “This is my first Grammy nomination and it makes me extremely proud as an Indian classical musician,” he says.

At the Staples Center, LA, on February 8, we will get to know if either Shankar or Bhattacharya could take home a Grammy.