Jai Ho Rahman...

The recent Oscar to A R Rahman was a matter of pride, excitement and happiness for all of us. We know he is a great musician and we are extremely proud of him. But we also know that Jai ho was not his best creation!!! This became a matter of debate.
Before I could make my opinion, I had heard both sides of the debate one by one.
So one of my friends wrote a gtalk message, saying that why the hell do we need to give so much importance to Oscar and that there were so many Rahman songs better than Jai ho, but not produced by international production house and hence not apprecited.
I was impressed by this thought and sited his message in my gtalk. But I really started thinking about all this when Elsa responded to my gtalk message. I am going to quote what she wrote to me, "not tht jai ho is my favorite rahman song...i think he rose above just creating something for the indian audience (whose liking hes familiar with) ...and made something tht appealed to a wider range of audience at an international level..and thats commendable its not like his work was never valued in india..and suddenly hes receiving all the attention for his work only at the oscars bt its worth appreciating him for reaching out to wider audience. nd whats even amazing is its not like he used any western musical influence to create this song..its very indian..bt more appealing to firangs..who are not so mch into bollywood type songs a lot."
Well, I do agree that Oscar or for that matter any movie award function is overhyped, but it is globally very popular. And it is true that Rahman or any Indian film has never been appreciated at Oscars before (except Lagaan), but no Indian production can fall in the main category of Oscars... it will obviously be a foreign production. And there usually is a very tough competition in foreign films.
The other point is that "Art" is created and interpreted differently in every society. A best movie for Indians, can be a total lousy creation for non-Indians, becuase it is difficult for them to relate with our culture, our values that are shown in our movies. Similarly, a well appreciated H'wood movie, can be a total senseless to us.
I think slumdog put forth an Indian story, with international outlook and hence it was appreciated so much.
My opinion is that, art is boundless. A true art does not seek award or appreciation. In my opinion, true art is all about artists' happiness and satisfaction in the creation. If the artist gives 100%, the audience will appreciate the art. I see 100% in every Rahman song and people all over the world were exposed to it through slumdog. Jai Ho Rahman.. you are a genius!!!!
This is my take on this and its open to constructive criticism.

Aditi C.