23 Feb 2009

"I chose love and I'm here"

Jai Ho!

I may have used the title of this Oscar winning song as the sub-title of my post but frankly speaking, I do not believe that it actually deserved any award. In our Mumbai film industry this song would have lost in oblivion. However, the man behind it definitely deserves a lot. Even he might agree that this is not even close to his best work but then who cares. He has won the Oscar for it and the fact to rejoice is that our very own Rahman, humming to whose tunes we have grown up is now a world acclaimed composer.


I happened to switch on the television in the morning, just in time to see A.R. Rahman receive his first Academy award. On receiving his second Oscar, Allah Rakha Rahman made a beautiful statement to end his acceptance speech. He, in his ever-soft spoken tone remarked, "..[A]ll my life I had a choice of hate and love. I chose love and I'm here."
What was his context, only he knows the best. However, I could not help but see this statement in a much larger context. Rahman, a Muslim by faith(though not by birth) and Tamil by ethnicity has seen his brethren choosing the other path, that of hatred.
So, while the world bleeds to Islamic terror, Sri Lanka has been bleeding to Tamil terror. I must note here that by making this statement, I do not intend to stereotype any community and question their genuine grievances.
However, the message given out by Rahman could not have been more apt for the occasion. We all, irrespective of our ethnicity or religious faith can learn a lot out of this simple statement.
Kudos is due him for his achievement against all odds. Jai ho!

Image Courtesy
http://www.oscar.com (original)

2 comments:

Samir Maggo said...

Yes,I agree with you...Slumdog might not have deserved it..and mayb Jai ho did not too..but AR Rehman got the recognition which he should have got earlier.And as they say..one would always get what one deserves at last in life!!!

Pooja Mahimkar said...

dude, are you really sure you feel jai ho didnt deserve the oscar???.
well maybe you feel that, and its your choice completely. but as for me, i totally love the song and movie both. its so hard to shoot a movie at VT station and that too in peak hours, and not to forget the slums. thats a really masterpiece. they have really wandered through the real mumbai. and as of the song. its also really a master piece no doubt rahman got his own best songs, but this surely was one of it. obviusly in india no one would have liked it, but surely the oscars realised that song showed the real essence of india.