'Khwaja Mere Khwaja is very spiritual to me' - A R Rahman

One of the most haunting numbers A R Rahman has composed in recent years, the fabulous Khwaja Mere Khwaja, was not originally meant for the film, Jodhaa Akbar. In fact, it was not meant for any film at all.

"I've been going to the Khwaja Moinuddin Chishty shrine for almost 15 years," Rahman says as he gets discussing the five songs he has composed for Ashutosh Gowariker's historical and the passion he poured in the background score of the film. "I wanted to do a song on Khwajasahib for a movie for a long time. But it was not possible."

'I composed it just for me to listen to'

And then one fine day, in 2005, he decided to compose the song. "I composed it just for me to listen to," Rahman continues. "When Ashutosh told me the story of Jodhaa Akbar and about the influences of Sufis and Khwaja sahib, I told him of the song I had composed. He asked me to play it to him and he remarked immediately, 'I love it, I want to use it in my film.'

"So I told him only if you can give him (Khwaja Chishty) the respect he deserves, he can use it in the film," Rahman adds.

"He did not change anything of what I composed for the film," he continues. "We had to use interludes and extra sounds for the new version but the song has been put to great use in the film. The song was originally titled Kashif, for the person who wrote it. He was a very spiritual person as well. Therefore, the song is very spiritual to me."

In the film, much of the song is pictured on Haidar Ali, who wrote the film's story and collaborated with Gowariker on the script.

"Ashutosh told me he would use the song in a sequence showing Akbar triumphant," Rahman continued. "He is married to a Rajput princess and he had made an important political alliance. But he also sees a spiritual light as he watches the singers and dancers. It is accompanied with a Rumistic, Sufi kind of dance."

The first song in the film is the semi classical Man Mohana. A short version of the song is used at a crucial part. The longer version is played later when Akbar (Hrithik Roshan) holds court that includes Muslim theologians, who are not happy with his marriage to a Rajput princess (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan) who is allowed to have a temple in the palace.

"It's a lovely song," Rahman says. "But if you listen to it several times, you will also notice it is quite a complex composition. The song was created keeping Aishwarya in mind. Ashutosh believed that she could sing the song because he heard her sing part of it. But then she had scheduling problems, and the track was recorded in Bela Shende's voice. He liked it; it had a sense of purity. So he left it that way."

Bela, whose voice was heard in the Shah Rukh Khan film, Paheli, worked with Rahman for the first time in Jodhaa Akbar.

Rahman also remembered how he wanted Abhishek Bachchan to sing the song, Ek Lo Ek Muft, in Guru. It was finally sung by Bappi Lahiri because Abhishek was busy shooting for a film in London.

(Courtesy-Rediff News)