{"id":299543,"date":"2026-01-23T13:58:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T13:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/299543\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T13:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T13:58:10","slug":"ar-rahmans-music-is-not-pro-poetry-or-pro-lyrics-says-rabbi-shergill-after-he-came-lyrics-became-secondary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/299543\/","title":{"rendered":"AR Rahman’s music is ‘not pro poetry or pro lyrics’, says Rabbi Shergill: ‘After he came, lyrics became secondary’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Singer Rabbi Shergill<\/a> has said that the arrival of AR Rahman<\/a> in the film music scene changed the dynamics of Hindi cinema\u2019s soundtracks, and not always for the better. The singer said that after Rahman, \u2018lyrics became secondary\u2019, which led to a reduction in the focus on expression.<\/p>\n

\"ArticleRabbi Shergill on AR Rahman<\/p>\n

Speaking on Divas Gupta\u2019s podcast<\/a>, the singer praised Rahman as a genius, but added how his arrival in Bollywood in the 90s shifted the focus in film music from lyrics and poetry to beats and rhythm. \u201cI admire Rahman for his creative genius. He is a genius. There is no doubt about it. But Rahman phase is not pro poetry or pro lyrics phase in Hindi film industry. I feel after Rahman came, the lyrics in the Hindi film industry became secondary, and if lyrics become secondary, that means expression becomes secondary, it means that somewhere your humanity and existence become secondary, this is my issue with Rahman,\u201d Rabbi said.<\/p>\n

Rabbi, who sang for Rahman in the film Raanjhana, said this was largely because Rahman did not know or understand Hindi. But he laid the blame for this on who people who approach him to compose and not the composer himself. \u201cIt is not his fault because it is not his language. He doesn\u2019t understand it\u2026If somebody doesn\u2019t understand your language, I think it was your call,\u201d Rabbi added.<\/p>\n

AR Rahman’s career<\/p>\n

AR Rahman worked in Ilaiyaraaja\u2019s orchestra in the 80s and early 90s, before getting his big break with Mani Ratnam\u2019s Roja. He found fame in Bollywood with hit soundtracks like Rangeela, Dil Se, and Taal in the 90s. In 2009, he won an Oscar for his song Jai Ho in Danny Boyle\u2019s Slumdog Millionaire. During a three-decade career, he has established himself as one of the most sought-after composers in the world. His upcoming work includes the score for Nitesh Tiwari\u2019s Ramayana<\/a>, for which he is collaborating with Hans Zimmer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Singer Rabbi Shergill has said that the arrival of AR Rahman in the film music scene changed the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[268],"tags":[12523,434,18,117,148199,9295,19,17,148201,148200],"class_list":["post-299543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ar-rahman","tag-celebrities","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-film-music","tag-hindi-cinema","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-lyrics-and-poetry","tag-rabbi-shergill"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115944771354593920","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}