Another ‘first’ for Rahman

Muhammad Shahal has done for A.R. Rahman what no one else had ever done for the music maestro. Shahal did an oil painting of Rahman and presented it to him in Kochi, when the Oscar winner was there to announce his live show in Kozhikode to collect funds for AIDS-affected children.

 “When I presented the painting, he looked at it for a while and smiled his sweet silent smile. And then he looked up and told me it was the first time that someone had painted him, as if he couldn’t believe this,’’ Shahal said.

 The painting was presented at the end of a news conference held at Le Meridien in Kochi. “He said he would like to talk about the painting later,’’ Shahal said.

 Shahal is the creative director of Limax Advertising in the city. It was Limax that had won the pitch to do the creatives for the A.R.  Rahman Live organised by the Global Kerala Initiative - Keraleeyam.

 “While we were planning the creatives, I thought of making an oil painting. There was a recent picture of Rahman I liked. In the picture, he sits in a park-like place with a yellow background, playing a guitar. I liked the peaceful look on his face. Except for that dreamy sublime look, I changed everything else,’’ Shahal said.

 The painter took off the guitar Rahman had in his hands and made him sit with his hands on his chin. “I thought it gave him a regal bearing,’’ he said.

 The colour tone was changed to turquoise. And then Shahal tampered with the close-cropped school-boyish hairstyle that Rahman now sports.

 It was about the hair that Rahman asked when Shahal met him later in  his suite. “At which age have you placed me, he asked. I said your face had always been the same. He smiled. I told him I decided on his older hairstyle because it kind of resembled mine. I hope he enjoyed the joke,’’ Shahal said.

 The painter could not spend much time with the maestro. There were at least 200 people waiting to see him and he had to give way.


Courtesy: expressbuzz.com