AR Rahman gets involved in a big controversy because of a song he used in Pippa. It is widely known that Pippa, the film starring Ishaan Khatter in the lead role, started to stream on Amazon Prime Video from November 10th. While the film received a decent response, AR Rahman’s rendition of a popular patriotic song by legendary Bengali poet Kazi Nazrul Islam has become the cause of the controversy.
Pippa, directed by Piyush Mishra and starring Ishaan Khatter and Mrunal Thakur, utilized the song. The family of the late poet has expressed their dissatisfaction with a ‘distortion’ in the rhythm and tunes of the song.
The song, “Karar oi louho kopat’ (Iron bars of a jail)”, was utilized in the war movie “Pippa” that depicted actual events that occurred during the 1971 India-Pakistan war, which led to the creation of Bangladesh.
Kazi Anirban, the grandson of Islam, was appalled at the modifications made to the song and characterized them as ‘injustice’. He asserted that his mother had given her consent for the song to be used in the movie, but she did not approve of any changes to the tunes.
“The way the song has been dished out with the change in rhythm and tunes is shocking. My mother, when she was alive, used to look after the legalities of contracts. I have to check that once, as she is not alive anymore. I will have to check what is in the contract and then speak to my family members, and take the next step,” he said.
“The song was rendered with a background of fighting the British. It inspired freedom fighters. I don’t understand why Rahman sir did this, it’s injustice. I appeal that this song is dropped. He (Rahman) didn’t understand either the lyrics or the background of the song,” he added.
Kazi Nazrul Islam, widely known as the ‘rebel poet’, was born in 1899 in the present-day Paschim Bardhaman district of West Bengal. The popularity of his songs, which are known as ‘Nazrul geeti’, in Bengal is second to that of Rabindranath Tagore.
AR Rahman is yet to respond to this controversy. We have to wait and see how he reacts to the issue.
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