Rahman unveils Games theme song
Rumu Banerjee | TNN
New Delhi: Within two hours of the song being released on Saturday, the AR
Rahman composition for the Commonwealth Games 2010 had been downloaded more
than 7,000 times. A hit? Definitely, as far as Suresh Kalmadi and the rest of
the organising committee members are concerned.
When Rahman released the theme song — written, composed and sung by him —
on Saturday evening, Kalmadi and the VIPs who attended the function must have
heaved a sigh of relief — finally, something was going right. While the song
may have a slow pace — as pointed out by some of the CWG fans on a social
networking site where the song has been uploaded — the emotion in it is
spot-on. As Rahman croons “Khelo, jeeyo, hey-o, let’s go”, the rousing chorus
takes the song forward, managing to convey what the OC and the Delhi government
haven’t been able to till date — a sense of ownership of the games.
Predictably, Rahman refused to talk much about the song, except for saying
that he had been working on it for the past six months and was tweaking it even
last night. He preferred the song to speak for itself — as was evident from the
string of comments that started hitting the Facebook page of the Commonwealth
Games 2010. Mostly in Hindi, the song is an exhortation to Indians to come
forward for the games, starting with the salutation: “Yaaro, India bula liya.’’
And while the music video is yet to be unveiled, Saturday’s song release, with
its accompanying visuals and dramatic symbolization on stage was certainly
exciting.
Senior OC officials claimed the song, which will be put up on the
Commonwealth Games 2010 website, will be available for sale in CD format.
However, free downloads are not officially available.
SOUND OF MUSIC: A R Rahman presents the theme song for CWG in Gurgaon on
Saturday
