Rahman Effect

A.R.Rahman needs no introduction. He is arguably the most internationally recognized Indian music director ever. He is the only Indian music director to have won the Oscar, though many people believe his Oscar winning composition 'Jai Ho' was nowhere near his best. To his millions of fans, he is the best composer in the world.

But I think there is one quality that is seriously missing in his music. No doubt he delivered and continues to deliver so many hit numbers. But how many of those hit numbers listeners can hum along? Not even a handful. Fans may disagree. But there are very few Rahman songs that we can hum along. It is very difficult to even clearly understand the lyrics of his songs. That's probably why his super duper hit numbers just vanish from the memory and from the tongues of people very quickly, within two months after they released. Super hit songs of earlier music directors and very few current music directors are remembered for a long time, but not Rahman's songs.

Having said that, there is no denying that Rahman is the trendsetter, the path breaker, especially in the south Indian cinema. Almost all the new music directors try to ape Rahman. Their songs may not be as good as those of Rahman, but certainly lack the same 'hummbale' quality. This 'short living' quality, which is a result of what I call 'the Rahman effect', has slowly but certainly crept into the music of Tamil and Telugu cinema. Hindi cinema is yet to be influenced; it still produces some hummable numbers.

Why not have a day for losers?

We have a day to honor motherhood, that is International Mothers' day. A day for fathers. A day for women, a day for men. A day for human rights, a day for peace. We also have a no smoking day. There is a day for almost everyone and everything. But there is no day to express solidarity with all the losers.

Losers are everywhere, though no one admits to it in public. For every winner, there is at least one loser. of course, one defeat does not make anyone a loser. Unfortunately for many people, defeat is the only outcome they ever experienced. There could be a million reasons for every failure. But a failure is a failure. The 'be positive' literature might give a million tips for success. Most of it is just an attempt to sell more books.

Losers live with low self-esteem. They lose the courage to try out new things. They can't celebrate anything. When the whole world celebrates (there is a celebration for almost everything), losers stay aloof. As a society, our lives are too busy to be sensitive towards losers. Losers want to run away from the mainstream, in search of solitude and empathy.

One question every loser has for the God is "why me?".  I think the best possible way to answer that question is to show a loser that he or she is not the only one, that there are so many others.

Let us declare one Sunday in any month of the year as International Losers' Day and popularize it. It will be a day to sensitize the society towards losers. It will be a day to recognize that defeat is not incompetence. It will be a day which losers can truly celebrate. I wouldn't be surprised if it finds million of takers before its first anniversary.