Subhash Ghai has returned to the moment that almost kept Taal from happening. In an Instagram note this week, the filmmaker remembered how nervous he was about offering the 1999 film’s music to A R Rahman — and how one small detail from the composer changed the conversation.
The ask behind Taal
Ghai wrote that Rahman barely knew Hindi lyrics at the time and was not closely connected to Hindi films, which made the offer feel risky. The hesitation dissolved, Ghai recalled, when Rahman told him he used to play what the director called the ‘hero flute.’ From there, Ghai said, he relaxed and entered Rahman’s style of music.
He described Rahman as ‘a blessed talent from our universe,’ and the tribute builds a wider arc around that early gamble. Ghai credited Rahman with changing Mumbai’s music culture through Lagaan, Rang De Basanti and Rockstar — and pointed to the Oscar for ‘Jai Ho’ as proof of the same range. ‘And you know Taal till now,’ he added, a reminder that the score has stayed in circulation ever since.
Three films, one marker of change
- Taal (1999) — their first collaboration, starring Anil Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Akshaye Khanna, and remembered above all for its music.
- Kisna: The Warrior Poet (2005) — their second feature.
- Yuvvraaj (2008) — the third and final collaboration.
What Ghai is pointing to is less a single score than a method. Rahman, in his telling, responds to every kind of film and director, learns the sound of any land or culture, and keeps surprising music lovers. That adaptability is what connects Taal, in Ghai’s memory, to the later sweep of Lagaan and the restless energy of Rockstar.
Taal arrived when Rahman’s authority in Hindi cinema was still being built. A filmmaker of Ghai’s stature signing him for a big commercial musical was a bet on a different sound — and, in Ghai’s telling, it paid off well beyond its release.
Mukta Arts at 48
The Rahman post sat alongside a second, more personal anniversary note. Ghai watched his daughter Muskaan Ghai address about 150 senior colleagues at Mukta Arts during the company’s 48th-anniversary celebrations — her first speech before the team. Muskaan, who graduated from the University of the Arts London in Film and Screen Studies, thanked colleagues for guiding her as she begins her journey with the company.
The juxtaposition is fitting: a founder looking back at the composer who shaped one era of Mukta’s cinema while a next-generation voice begins to speak at the same house. For readers who care about Hindi cinema’s memory as much as its news, Ghai’s note is a small but precise record of how legacy gets passed down.
Source: Gulf Today
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