How AR Rahman’s first music ‘Chinna Asai’ was recorded

The note pad pages of artist Minmini’s transcribed verses in Malayalam show the date of the recording of the principal tune of AR Rahman.

On January 24, 1992, in two pages of a lined journal, artist Minmini recorded the expressions of a Tamil melody that would be cherished by ages. In clear round letters of Malayalam, the vocalist from Kerala brought down the Tamil expressions of ‘Chinna Aasai’, the first tune in Quite a while Rathnam’s famous honor winning film Roja. It was the first occasion when that AR Rahman was forming music for a film. The story, Minmini’s journal pages and the transcribed verses was as of late shared on the Facebook page ‘Malayalam Movie and Music Database’ by Shijo Manuel, a music authority.

In the yellowing pages of Minmini’s journal, a portion of the verses are crossed out and revamped. The creator of the post hypothesizes that there probably been an extremely late change in verses.

On top of the page, Minmini has composed the names of Mani Rathnam and Dilip Seghar — as Rahman was known as then, at that point.

Roja was delivered eight months after that melody was recorded — on August 15, 1992. AR Rahman got quickly perceived for the virtuoso he is. Minmini, as well, got seen for being the voice of this musical melody. She sang the Telugu and Hindi variants of the tune too.

Shijo adds that it was on another January 24, 1991, precisely a year prior ‘Chinna Aasai’, that Minmini sang a melody for music maestro Ilaiyaraaja – ‘Love nna love’ for the film Meera — making her presentation in Tamil.

Minmini, who is from Kerala, had made her Malayalam singing presentation for the film Swagatham in 1988. During the 1990s, she sang many well known melodies like ‘Souparnikamritha’ (Kizhakkunarum Pakshi), ‘Paathiravayi neram’ (Vietnam Colony), semi-traditional tunes in Kudumbasametham, etc. In 1993, Minmini disapproved of her voice following which she enjoyed a reprieve from singing. She made a rebound in 2015 through the film Mili. Presently she runs a music school in Kochi.