Commonwealth theme song & a scapegoat

I had vowed not to write on anything else until I finish the 14 part Himalayan saga. But seeing the cacophony surrounding A.R.Rahman's commonwealth theme song, I couldn't help but deviate from the travalogue. Some days back, before the release of the theme song 'O yaaro', media was running mad with reports of large scale corruption in the organising of the games. We listened in total shock as details of how the men behind the show made money out of procuring items ranging from toilet papers to treadmills. Everybody was baying for Kalmadi's blood. And rightfully so. Then came the release of this song. Not Rahman's masterpiece, but certainly a real good song. But suddenly someone from the organising committee raises a complaint about the song, someone whose only connection with music is the action song he sang for the school day during his LKG.

That was just the start. Then the media catches on to it. They conduct polls as usual and rig the results to their advantage, to match their view points. CNN IBN went as far as to write an article titled 'Rahman's top 10 duds' and listed 'Vinnaithaandi varuvaaya', 'kaathal desam', 'yodha', 'jeans' and 'raavan' as some of those. A badly researched article which will get top rating in the competition for 'worst journalism awards'. The poll question is titled 'Why does the CWG anthem not work for you?' with choices 'slow-paced', 'lacks punch' and 'rahman is missing'. So what about those people for whom this song works? What is the point of conducting such an one sided poll which was created under the assumption that not a single person in India likes this song? Some say it doesn't feel like 'waka waka'. If you want to feel like 'waka waka', go and listen to that song. And if you wanted a song like that, you would've done yourself a favour by hiring someone like Anu Malik. People throwing mud at Rahman should first list out memorable sporting anthems that were churned out from our country in the past. The same people who sang praises for him after the oscar are slinging mud with vengeance. When will we learn to be balanced! Its the same thing that happens with Sachin. A man gives his all for 20 years, win match after match and still people attack him if he under performs in one match. Those who criticise such talented men should first look at themselves and think why they still haven't achieved anything to speak about.

This whole controversy is nothing but a ploy by Kalmadi and co. to deviate the attention from their own wrong doings. Suddenly, everyone seems to think that the only thing that the games is lacking is a good theme song. There's no more news on the murky dealings that went behind the games. They are now planning to get a new theme song. And then, everything will be fine and we can match Beijing olympics. What about the unfinished infrastructure, the incomplete games village and approach roads and the half made stadiums? What about 1000s of crores that disappeared into thin air? Changing the theme song(a good song at it) is not going to bring about a change in all this. And its time the media and public realised that they are dealing with conmen in the garb of politicians and that they dont mind making one of our best musicians a scapegoat to keep their slates clean. They should also know that all Rahman did is to compose a song. You may like it or not. But he certainly doesn't deserve this criticism. We should learn to respect our artists, especially truely gifted ones like him

And its not right to stop this post without sharing this great song by the great band 'Thermal and a quarter'(TAAQ). The song titled 'Kickbackistan' is being promoted as the official anthem of the Uncommon wealth games. Hope you got an idea...

your crusader Praveen