Tuesday, January 22, 2008

While buying Jodha Akbar OST - an experience

On Monday evening I went to buy the OST of Jodhaa Akbar. No wonder, I was very excited as the long wait was going to finally end. As I entered the audio section of the Planet M, I saw two NRI ladies standing there holding the cd of Jodhaa Akbar and the Planet M guy was explaining something saying '.....the songs are classical. The movie is a period drama.....' I just picked my cd and said to the ladies 'This is by A R Rahman. You can always have it, I'm sure you will never regret later'. Then one of the ladies said 'Oh! This is by A R Rahman? Yes, I know, he is a great musician!'

Then I proceeded to see other collection in the store. While coming out, I met them again in the elevator. I asked whether they got it. And the lady said 'Yes of course. Thank you for saing that it's by A R Rahman'.

At that time I noticed the cover of the cd for the first time. For me or any other regular Indian cd buyer, locating the name of music director is not difficult. Our eyes are trained. But it may be difficult for a person who is not acquainted with the type of cover design used here. For example, those two ladies had very little idea about Indian movies. They were actually exploring Indian movies as I heard them asking for the OST of Pakeezah, Shree 420, Guide, Satyam Shivam Sundaram, etc. It's but obvious for them to skip the name of 'A R Rahman' written in the third row at font size 10. Once they came to know that it's by ARR, they did not hesiatate to grab it at once.

I'm sure many such people, who otherwise would like to buy any composition of A R Rahman without a second thought, will fail to even know that the cd they are holding is by none other than A R Rahman. It's pity! More than the actors, director or theme of a movie, shouldn't the OST of a movie be credited to its music director? Shouldn't his name come in a more visble way? And if the music director is such a big personality like ARR, doesn't his name need some extra weight?

3 comments:

Parthi said...

i do understand this concern! like copyright and rights issues I think rahman should stress these issues from producers and directors as well! well its a audio cd so all the credit should go to rahman and i think it should be more prominent in the cd as well!

Unknown said...

Hi...

your concern is pretty genuine and valid... but, in a country like ours... I guess piracy is more of a concern than what your concern is... people know Rahman... but, nobody buys CDs... they just download the rips from the Internet... does that give the music director any credit for what he has done? NOPE!!! apart from just knowing who the music director is, I guess its having the intellect to go and buy a CD or a cassette... I have been trying to buy a CD of Jodha Akbar online... I havent found a proper online store where I could just go and get the CD instantly... but, I found a million sites that offered the rips... pity...

Doell said...

Parthi

Exactly!

Vamsee

u r right. I agree that music piracy needs a bigger concern...but I was focussing on the fact that MDS are the people who deserve all the credit for an audio cd sale......