Mumbai, Grammy-winning composer Ricky Kej says it’s a good idea to play the national anthem in cinemas as it is a piece of music with zero controversy and evokes a sense of belonging.
Kej was at the announcement of a new rendition of the national anthem, which will be available to audiences around the world on August 14.
โThe national anthem in cinemas is a good idea simply because I believe the national anthem, especially all over the world, comes with a certain degree of controversy…
“In India, the national anthem is a zero-controversy piece of music. As soon as you listen to the first few notes of it, you are immediately compelled to stand up and respect the national anthem. It also evokes a sense of pride and belonging. I believe that it’s a powerful tune, and it’s good to be reminded of that,โ Kej told reporters.
The musician said a movie theatre is the best place to play the national anthem.
“It is an audience where all of them are facing one particular screen and usually nobody is sleepy before the movie starts. You’ve got a great sound system and screen. It’s the best place to inspire people to remember that they have a country to serve,” Kej said.
The music composer said he wanted to give a new flavour to the anthem by getting the best classical musicians to perform it.
โI pursued all of these amazing classical musicians. I got in touch with Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia. He agreed. It’s amazing just to be in the same room with him. Then I got Rakesh Chourasia, who just won two Grammy awards this year.
“We’ve Rahul Sharma, a virtuoso santoor player, Jayanti Kumaresh, a veena player. Then we have Mr. and Mrs. Sheikh Mehboob, who are pretty much the flag bearers of nadaswaram. And also, Giridhar Udupa, one of the greatest ghatam players of our generation.”
Along with renowned classical musicians, the anthem also features almost 14,000 students from the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences, which helped Kej create the Guinness world record.
“”We won the Guinness World record. It was an instrumental version of the national anthem. They sang in four-part harmonies, so they sang as a choir,โ he said, adding that they converted a stadium at the institute into a recording studio with over 200 microphones.
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