Foot tapping music, noisy
grannies, kids bellowing, the sound of a lark at song, a saxophone used as
a nadaswaram – hey what’s going on? India’s music whiz kid is
composing his music, that’s what’s going on! And he has the whole of
India dancing to his tunes, and if his project Bombay
Dreams with Sir Andrew Llyod Webber is anything like his
experience back home, will have the world at its feet too.
Just look at the
statistics, over two-dozen hit
film albums in three languages in just over 7 years. A top selling
non- film music album. A very successful foreign concert in the Gulf and
plenty more in the offing….
It’s not really hard to guess that this guy is a music genius.
The music is serious
business for him though. He apparently spends unbelievable hours getting
his composition right. And he experiments not only with his music but with
his singers as well – feeling that “a slight defect in the singing
adds a human touch”. The
human touch does seem to be working for him at the moment with all his
current albums – Zubeidaa
, Tenali and
Rhythm
doing very well.
Success has not been easy
for this young man though. Dropping out of school at a young age to
support his family, young Rahman developed a passion for music very early
in his career. The interest is perhaps hereditary – his father
R.K.Sekhar was an arranger and conductor in Malayalam movies and had
worked under the likes of Salil Chowdhary and Devarajan.
A.R.Rahman (then Dileep) started playing the piano when he was just
four years of age.
He started composing
jingles, several of which were popular (Parry's, Leo Coffee, Boost
featuring Sachin Tendulkar and Kapil Dev, Titan, Premier Pressure Cooker,
Hero Puch and Asian Paints to name a few) while serving as a keyboard
player on music maestro Illayaraja’s orchestration.
In 1989, he started his own studio - Panchathan Record Inn -
which is today one of India's most well equipped and advanced
recording studios.
His first big break came
from Mani Ratnam, one of the most renowned South Indian directors.
Rahman’s composition for Mani Ratnam’s Roja
took the world by storm earning him a national award and making him a star
overnight. His next composition was for the soundtrack of Shankar’s
debut movie Gentleman. This too achieved platinum success,
placing Rahman firmly on the music directors’ hall of fame. In 1999, he
composed his first non-music album, Vande
Mataram for Bharat Bala’s independence series. The album was also
Sony Music’s first venture into the Indian Market. “Ma Tujhe salam”
and a duet on world peace with the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan became
overnight bestsellers, catapulting Rahman to super star status. His music
has also won him two filmfare
awards in less than seven years - a record that is testimony to his genius
and dedication to quality music. A lot of details on A.R.Rahman and his
music is available at rahmanonline.com.
Well, he’s climbed many
heights. But the man remains the same. His passion for music remains
unabated as he continues to put music into millions of people’s lives
everyday.