First the New York Critics Circle which , in all its wisdom, awarded S S Rajamouli the best director award , then the Los Angeles Critics Association declaring M M Keeravani’s RRR score the Best Music, and now the Golden Globe nomination for Keeravani and Rajamouli(who incidentally, are cousins).
Are we inching towards the Oscar. Rajamouli has been stationed in Los Angeles for the last four months. He is likely to be joined by Keeravani during the last leg of lobbying in LA.
Keeravani who has scored music for nearly all of Rajamouli’s film has also had a very fruitful innings in Hindi cinema with melodious classics like Tum mile dil khile(Criminal), Gali mein aaj chand nikla(Zakham), Aa bhi jaa(Sur) and Jadoo hai nasha hai(Jism).
Unfortunately Keeravani had to deal with a family emergency just when the big Golden Globe announcement happened. However I did have a brief chat with him and he is honoured to take the sound of India abroad.
A purist at heart, Keeravani whom I have known for thirty years has always shied away from the limelight. Unlike the aggressive marketing of A R Rahman, Keeravani has never allowed himself to become a brand name.
In a conversation that we had when his enchanting songs of Amol Palekar’s Paheli hit all the right notes Keeravani Sir(known as M M Kreem in Hindi cinema) had said, “My music is my life.I can never be dishonest with my compositions. You have reached out to me because the melodic element in my songs has impressed you. I am grateful for that. Melody is indeed the foundation of my compositions.”
And originality, we might add. When Rahman’s song Jai ho in Slumdog Millionaire was submitted for the Oscars it was discovered that the song was originally composed for Subhash Ghai’s Yuvraaj. It was supposed to be filmed on Zayed Khan. But Ghai found the song not quite suitable for the situation in his film.So it was lying around unused. Gulzar Saab and Rahman asked Ghai to let them have the song for Slumdog Millionaire.
Keeravani’s Naatu in RRR is fiercely original. It stands a much better chance at the Oscars than Rahman’s Jai ho.
