Jai Ho

The Indian International Film Festival will be hitting Melbourne very soon, and has a wide range of movies to pick from. India is known for its very unique music, with such wonderful, whimsical tunes that couldn’t possibly come from another part of the world. So it’s no surprise that composer A.R. Rahman’s music is renown throughout India and an exponent for Indian music in the world.

Jai Ho is a very celebratory documentary on Rahman and his career. From showing musical talent from an early age to scoring feature films, Rahman is almost universally praised. He performs concerts around the world that are extravagant and with many dance routines, they are very much “a production”.

While Rahman himself of course speaks about his career, many of Rahman’s family, friends and fellow musicians talk about their relationships with him and their love of his music. Some notable speakers include British film director Danny Boyle, whose Oscar winning film Slumdog Millionaire Rahman scored, and theatre pioneer Andrew Lloyd Webber, known for The Phantom Of The Opera. The fact so many people from different musical and creative walks of life are all praising this one man show Rahman truly is gifted and loved.

Most people in the western world would know Rahman through his work with the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack, which he won the Best Original Score Oscar for back in 2009, and also for the hit single ‘Jai Ho’ featuring the Pussycat Dolls, which really raised his profile. Though he was huge in India long before that 2008 hit movie, Rahman is now very much an international star. “Jai ho” is Indian for “let victory be yours”, and boy did Rahman live by that motto.