Rahman last evidence of composer being king: Music historian

Octogenarian music historian Raju Bharatan says if composer Naushad was king-emperor in the era spanning the 1940s-1970s, Grammy award-winner A R Rahman is the last evidence of the composer being king in Indian cinema.
Bharatan has documented Naushad's tone-setting career as composer from the 1940s to 2005 in his latest book: "Naushadnama: The Life and Music of Naushad".
"If Naushad was king-emperor in his time, A R Rahman is the last evidence of a composer (with no true comprehension of Urdu) being king in Hindustani cinema. What we hear today, in the name of music, is diabolically deadly murder of poetry in all its subtleties," Bharatan told PTI in an email interview.

"That Naushad lived to witness this assault on our senses was the saddest part of it all."
Bharatan has had a successful career juggling films and cricket. He started out -- end-1952 -- on the editorial desk of "The Illustrated Weekly of India" in the Times Group, serving for a full 40 years. Initially, he was assigned the then contemptuously viewed sports and film pages to do.
When Khushwant Singh materialised as editor of 'The Weekly' in June 1969, he took pride in projecting Bharatan as his specialist on cricket and films alike.
"I rose to my zenith under the Sardar whom cartoonist Mario alone could contain inside a highly charged electric bulb," said Bharatan, who at Khushwant's instance did the "Forty Years of Naushad" story in "The Weekly" in mid-70s.

Asked if music composers still compose six tunes for one song -- as was done in Naushad's times -- Bharatan said, "There is no question any longer, of preparing six tunes for one song situation, as there now is no true application of mind to creating a genuine song situation. Raj Kapoor, for instance, evolved the script strictly in musical terms. Even as the film's photoplay took shape in his mind and heart, the songs would, eminently naturally, emerge as 'idea-tunes' situationally integrating into the screenplay.