Golden  Globe Nominations, RRR Inches Towards Oscar

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.