Movie Details of Rockstar
Music: A.R. Rahman
Lyrics: Irshad Kamil
Label: T-Series
Director: Imtiaz Ali
During his 25+ years in the film industry, composer AR Rahman has had highly prolific partnerships with a handful of directors. Last to join that illustrious list was Imtiaz Ali – in the three movies that they worked together (of the seven movies that the man has directed in total), Rahman, with Ali's favourite lyricist Irshad Kamil, produced some fabulous songs. The most music-intensive, and as a result the best, of the three was this 2011 film that had Ranbir Kapoor portray the life and times of a rock musician. Contrary to what the movie's title implied, its soundtrack was not all about rock music. However, AR Rahman and Kamil's songs did go perfectly with Imtiaz Ali's narrative. While the movie itself generated extremely divided opinions, two things that won universal acclaim were the music and Kapoor's acting.
Best Song of Rockstar: One of the many standout aspects of Rockstar's music was the makers bringing back the now rare practice of the lead actor being tied to the same musical voice throughout the movie. The beneficiary of this arrangement was of course Mohit Chauhan, who got to sing 9 of the 14 tracks, and did a fine job of it. My favourite from the album however, has Chauhan playing second (or third?) fiddle to the composer and Javed Ali. Sufi is a genre in which AR Rahman has consistently delivered brilliant songs – in Kun Faya Kun too, with Irshad Kamil's profoundly devotional lines built around the title phrase from Quran, the composer created a blissful qawwali piece. Rahman reportedly dedicated the piece to Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya at whose dargah in Delhi it was shot, and the song video featured real life qawwals Nizami Bandhu singing along to the lines.
The Rockstar Playlist:
Listen to the songs from Rockstar here:
(With contributions by Praveen VR, co-founder of musicaloud.com)