Mumbai, September 01: After all the hoopla around the release of the Commonwealth anthem by Oscar winner AR Rahman, all it seems to be getting from critics is brickbats.
While former sports minister Shahnawaz Hussain termed it “disappointing”, current Sports Minister M S Gill and Delhi’s Leader of Opposition V K Malhotra also lashed out against the theme song, released in Gurgaon on August 28.
What’s more, politicians from Opposition parties are not the only ones to have given it the thumbs down. Members of the public, cutting across states and cultures, have come together on social networking sites to slam the song. The theme song Swagatham has already come under sharp public criticism with allegations that it lacks energy, and the much-required ‘wow factor’.
“I found it quite useless,” Delhi-based photographer Raghu Rai said, adding, “Rahman is the brightest of the current crop of music directors, but the Commonwealth theme song is just not Indian enough. In India, where there is a different beat for every little nakhra, Rahman’s song is dominated by Western beats and, thus, lacks the Indian spirit it deserved.”
Adman Piyush Pandey also sounded extremely disappointed with the number. He said, “It, somehow, does not make me want to sit up and take notice. Shakira’s Waka Waka was one of that kind. Maybe it will grow on me later, but for now, it is extremely tepid and lukewarm.”
Rahman, who had taken almost six months to compose the song before presenting it to the GoM earlier this month, had said at a press meet that the song “calls out to a young India with all fervour”.
Though he had initially demanded Rs 15 crore for the effort, the OC had managed to bargain it down to Rs 5 crore.
Meanwhile, radio jockeys in Delhi have already begun comparing Rahman’s theme song to Palash Sen’s Delhi Anthem. Ginnie Mahajan of Radio City says, “The song is a mishmash between Yuva and Jai Ho and there is no clarity as far as the words are concerned. The song does not seem to have come from the heart.”
Mathematician Vikram Sampath was not too pleased with the song either. “It lacks punch and the energy that a Games anthem should have. It is monotonous and almost puts you to sleep,” he said.
“I hope everybody likes it,” Rahman had said while unveiling the song. Well, the nation does not seem to, and some, like Hussain, even want it recomposed.
——-Agencies