1997: Vande Mataram

In 1997, as India marked fifty years of independence, A. R. Rahman released Vande Mataram—an album unlike anything before or since. Fresh, fearless, and unforgettable, it was a cultural moment as much as a musical one. The sound was new, the concept bold, the music nothing short of phenomenal. It wasn’t just an album; it was an event that captured the imagination of a generation.

In this episode, we revisit Vande Mataram. We break down the songs the way we always do—listening closely to Rahman’s craft, the layers of sound, the unexpected turns, the sheer emotional power. We explore the anthemic title track that has endured as a modern classic, his haunting reinterpretations of the original Vande Mataram through ragas, and the hidden gems that sit alongside them: the playfulness of Tauba Tauba, the yearning of Only You, and more.

But we also zoom out. We ask what it meant to encounter this album in 1997, when India was reflecting on fifty years of freedom yet grappling with its fractures. We look at how Rahman, through this work, became more than a composer—how he came to embody a syncretic, pan-Indian, and pan-global sensibility. In Vande Mataram, we hear not just great music, but an India imagined at its most plural, open, and diverse. An India still worth striving for, still worth fighting for.

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Swaroop: @tnagartornado on X and Instagram.
Sharan: @sharanidli on X; M R Sharan on LinkedIn.