Javed Akhtar admits he was concerned about AR Rahman composing 1947 Earth song ‘Ishwar Allah’: ‘Hindi isn’t his first language’

One of the most notable collaborations between composer AR Rahman and lyricist/writer Javed Akhtar is the award-winning film 1947 Earth, which was directed by Deepa Mehta. In a recent conversation, Javed talked candidly about his collaboration with Rahman and his initial doubts about Rahman writing the song ‘Ishwar Allah’ because Hindi wasn't his first tongue.


In a conversation with O2india, Javed explained their standard procedure, which involved Akhtar writing the lyrics after Rahman usually provided the tune. For ‘Ishwar Allah’, on the other hand, Rahman asked Akhtar to give him the lyrics first so that he could write a song around them. Rahman's lack of experience with Hindi made Akhtar nervous at first, despite Rahman's confidence in his approach.


Javed Akhtar shared, “This is one of the few songs that I have written and AR Rahman has composed. It was the first time when he told me to write it first and then he will compose it. I was a bit apprehensive because Hindi isn’t his first language. How will he compose? I still went ahead and wrote the song and I don’t think this song can be composed in a better way. His composition was unparalleled.”


In addition, Akhtar complimented Rahman for letting the music in the song be less dominant, saying that ‘only masters’ can be confident enough to do so. He went on to say that while great masters know when enough is enough, insecure artists often overdo things out of a lack of confidence.



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