Lyricist and writer Javed Akhtar and music composer AR Rahman have collaborated on many projects, with filmmaker Deepa Mehta’s award-winning film 1947 Earth being one of their most memorable. In a recent interaction, Javed opened up about working with Rahman and his initial doubts about Rahman composing the song “Ishwar Allah” since Hindi wasn’t Rahman’s first language.
During an interaction with O2india, Akhtar explained their usual process: Rahman would typically give him the tune first, and Akhtar would then write the lyrics. However, for “Ishwar Allah,” Rahman requested Akhtar to provide the lyrics first, and he would create a tune based on them. Although Rahman was confident in this approach, Akhtar was initially apprehensive due to Rahman’s unfamiliarity with Hindi.
Javed Akhtar shared, “This is one of the few songs that I have written and AR Rahman has composed. It was the first time when he told me to write it first and then he will compose it. I was a bit apprehensive because Hindi isn’t his first language. How will he compose? I still went ahead and wrote the song and I don’t think this song can be composed in a better way. His composition was unparalleled.”
Akhtar also praised Rahman for keeping the music less overpowering in the song, noting that ‘only masters’ can be confident enough to do so. He added that insecure artistes tend to overdo things due to a lack of confidence, whereas true masters know when it is enough.
Directed by Deepa Mehta, 1947 Earth is based on Bapsi Sidhwa’s novel, Cracking India, set during the 1947 partition. 1947 Earth is the second installment of Mehta’s Elements trilogy, preceded by Fire (1996) and followed by Water (2005). The film was also India’s entry for the 1999 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
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