RAHMAN TURNS FORTY-THREE

The most successful Indian musician to go global, A. R. Rahman turns 43 today. Apart from his millions of Indian fans who shower accolades on him by the hour, Rahman’s incredible talent had attracted the attention of the famed TIME Magazine which referred to him as the ‘Mozart of Madras’.

Born as A. S. Dileep Kumar in the year 1966 in Chennai. His father R. K. Shekhar Mudhaliar,was a composer and conductor for Malayalam-language films in Keralite cinema. His father died when Rahman was nine years old, and his family rented out musical equipment as a source of income. His family converted to Islam from Shaivite Hinduism in the late 1970s. Rahman was also a student at PSBB for a short while before changing schools. During these early years, Rahman served as a keyboard player and an arranger in bands such as “Roots” with childhood friend and percussionist Sivamani, John Anthony and Raja.

Rahman is the founder of the Chennai based rock group, “Nemesis Avenue”. He played the keyboard and piano, the synthesizer, the harmonium and the guitar. His curiosity in the synthesizer in particular increased because, he says, it was the “ideal combination of music and technology”. He began early training in music under Master Dhanraj. At the age of 11, he joined, as a keyboardist, the troupe of Ilaiyaraaja, one of many composers to whom musical instruments belonging to Rahman’s father were rented to. Rahman later played in the orchestra of M. S. Viswanathan and Ramesh Naidu, accompanied Zakir Hussain, Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan and L. Shankar on world tours and obtained a scholarship to Trinity College of Music in London, where he graduated with a degree in Western classical music.

In 1992, he was approached by film director Mani Ratnam to compose the score and soundtrack for Ratnam’s Tamil film Roja.The debut led Rahman to receive the Rajat Kamal award for Best Music Director at the National Film Awards, the first time ever by a first-time film composer. Rahman has since then gone on to win the award three more times . His soundtracks gained him recognition in the Tamil Nadu film industry and across the world for his stylistic versatality in his pieces including in Western classical, Carnatic, Traditional/folk, jazz, reggae and rock music. Rangeela, directed by Ram Gopal Varma, marked Rahman’s debut for Hindi–language films, made in the Mumbai film industry.

Rahman has been involved in several projects aside from film. He made an album Vande Mataram (1997) on India’s 50th anniversary of independence to commercial success. He followed it up with an album for the Bharat Bala–directed video Jana Gana Mana, a conglomeration of performances by many leading exponents/artists of Indian classical music. Rahman has written jingles for ads and composed several orchestrations for athletic events, T.V. and internet media publications, documentaries and short films.

In 1999, Rahman, along with choreographers Shobhana and Prabhu Deva Sundaram and a Tamil cinema dancing troupe performed with Michael Jackson in Munich, Germany, for his “Michael Jackson and Friends Concert.” In 2002, he composed his maiden stage production Bombay Dreams (2002) following a commission from musical theatre composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, a success in London’s West End. With Finnish folk music band Värttinä, he wrote the music for The Lord of the Rings theatre production and in 2004, Rahman composed the piece “Raga’s Dance” for Vanessa-Mae’s album Choreography.

In the last six years, Rahman has performed three successful world tours of his concerts to audiences in Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, Dubai, UK, Canada, the US and India .

Awards.

Rahman is the 1995 recipient of the Mauritius National Award and the Malaysian Award for contributions to music. He was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for his first West-End production. A four time National Award winner and conferred the Padma Shri from the Government of India, Rahman has received six awards for Best Music at the Tamil Nadu State Film Awards and eleven awards for his scores at the Filmfare and Filmfare Awards South each. In 2006, he received an honorary award from Stanford University for contributions to global music. Rahman is also nominated for a Golden Globe for Slumdog Millionaire in the category of Best Original Score.