Allah Rakkha Rahman (Tamil: ?.???.???????), born on January 6, 1966 as A. S. Dileep Kumar in Chennai, India, is a composer, record producer and musician. His work has garnered considerable acclaim and a large global fanbase since his career began in the early 1990s.

Working in several of India's various state/language film industries, international cinema and theatre, Rahman, in a career spanning over a decade, has sold more than one hundred million records of his film scores and soundtracks world-wide,^[1] and sold over two hundred million cassettes^[2] making him one of the world's top 25 all-time top selling recording artists.

His acclaimed music compositions have led TIME to declare him the Mozart of Madras and several Tamil commentators have given him the title Isai Puyal (Tamil: ??? ?????; English: Musical Storm).

Biography

Early life and influences

A. R. Rahman was born to R. K. Shekhar, of Tamilian descent, who was a composer and conductor for Malayalam-language films in Kerala cinema.^[3] 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.^[4] Rahman is the founder of the Madras based rock group, "Nemesis Avenue".^[5] 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".^[6] He began early training in music under Master Dhanraj. At the age of 11, he joined, as a keyboardist, the troupe of Ilaiyaraaja,^[6] 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.^[7]

Summary of career

Film scoring and soundtracks

In 1991, Rahman began his own music recording and mixing studio, attached to backyard of his house, called the Panchathan Record Inn, which was developed into India's most advanced recording studio.^[3] He initially composed music jingles for advertisements, Indian Television channels and music scores in documentaries, among other projects. In 1992, he was approached by film director Mani Ratnam to compose the score and soundtrack for Ratnam's Tamil film Roja.^[3] 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 (for his scores for Minsaara Kanavu (Lightening Dreams, Tamil) in 1997, Lagaan (Tax, Hindi) in 2002, Kannathil Muthamittal (A Peck on the Cheek, Tamil) in 2003, the most ever by any composer.^[8]

Rojas score met with high sales and acclaim, in its original and dubbed versions, bringing about a marked change in film music at the time, and Rahman followed this with successful scores for Chennai-based Tamil–language films including Ratnam's political Bombay, the urbanite Kadhalan, Bharathiraaja's Karuththamma, Indira, and the romantic comedies Minsaara Kanavu and Love Birds, which gained him considerable notice.^[9] His fanbase in Japan increased with Muthu 's success there.^[10] His soundtracks gained him recognition in the Tamil Nadu film industry and across the world for his stylistic versatality in his pieces including in classical, Traditional/folk, jazz, reggae and soft rock music.^[11][12][13] The Bombay Theme — from Ratnam's Bombay, — would later reappear in Deepa Mehta's Fire and various compilations and media. Rangeela, directed by Ram Gopal Varma, marked Rahman's debut for Hindi –language films, made in the Mumbai film industry. Many successful scores for films including Dil Se and the percussive Taal followed.^[14] Sufi mysticism would form the base of Chaiyya Chaiyya from the former and the composition "Zikr" from his score of the film Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero for which he created large orchestral and choral arrangements.^[4] In the 2000s Rahman created hit scores for Rajiv Menon's Kandukondain Kandukondain, Alaipayuthey, Ashutosh Gowariker's Swades and Rang de Basanti. He composed songs for the soundtrack of Water (2005). Rahman has worked with Indian poets and lyricists such as Gulzar, Mehboob, Vairamuthu and T.S. Rangarajan (Vaali). His collaborations with some film directors have always resulted in successful soundtracks, particularly with the director Mani Ratnam who he has worked with on all his films since Roja, all of which have been hits, and the director S. Shankar in the films Gentleman, Kadhalan, Indian, Jeans, Mudhalvan, Nayak, Boys and Sivaji.^[15] Rahman attached and opened a developed extension studio to his Panchathan Record Inn in 2005, called A. M. Studios in Kodambakkam, Chennai — considered to be the most developed, equipped and high tech studio in Asia.^[16][17] In 2006, Rahman launched his own music label, KM Music. Its first release was his score to the film Sillunu Oru Kaadhal, featuring the song "New York Nagaram" which Rahman has cited as one of his favourites. Rahman scored the Mandarin language picture Warriors of Heaven and Earth in 2003 after researching and utilizing Chinese and Japanese classical music, and co-scored the Shekhar Kapoor helmed Elizabeth: The Golden Age in 2007. His compostions have been reused in scores both within India^[18] and in films abroad, making appearances in Inside Man, Lord of War and The Accidental Husband. His latest work includes score and producing soundtracks for Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, Yuvvraaj, Sakkarakatti, ADA: A Way of Life and Slumdog Millionaire. He is a recipient of the Padma Shri award from the Government of India.

Other works

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.^[19][20] 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, composed the piece "Raga's Dance" for Vanessa-Mae's album Choreography.

In the last six years, he has performed in three successful world tours of his concerts to audiences in Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, Dubai, UK, Canada, the US (Hollywood Bowl and 3d tour) and India.^[8] He has been collaborating with Karen David for her upcoming studio album. A two-disc soundtrack, Introducing A. R. Rahman, (2006) featuring 25 pieces he composed from his Tamil film scores was released in May 2006.

Music style and impact

Skilled in Carnatic music,^[21] Western classical, Hindustani music and the Qawwali style of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Rahman has been noted to write film songs that amalgamate elements of these music systems and other genres, layering instruments from differing music idioms in an improvisatory manner.^[4] Symphonic orchestral themes have accompanied his scores, where he has employed leitmotif. In the 1980s, Rahman recorded and played arrangements on mono, synonymous with the era of predecessors such as K. V. Mahadevan and Vishwanathan Ramamoorthy, but later his methodology changed. He worked and experimented on fusing traditional instruments with new electronic sounds and technology.^[4]

His interest and outlook in music stems from his love of experimentation.^[7] Rahman's compositions, in the vein of past and contemporary Chennai composers, bring out auteristic uses of counterpoint, orchestration and the human voice, evolving Indian pop music with unique timbres, forms and instrumentation, "passed the relatively static makeup of Western ensembles such as jazz bands and symphony orchestras and the rigid formula of American pop songs."^[22] By virtue of these qualities, broad ranging lyrics and his syncretic style, his themes appeal to several sections of Indian society.^[22]

His first soundtrack Roja was listed in TIME's "Top 10 Movie Soundtracks of All Time" in 2005.^[23] Film critic Richard Corliss felt the "astonishing debut work parades Rahman's gift for alchemizing outside influences until they are totally Tamil, totally Rahman."^[24] Rahman's initial global reach is attributed to the South Asian diaspora. Described as one of the most innovative composers to ever work in the industry, his unique style and immense success transformed film music in the 1990s prompting several film producers to take film music more seriously.^[25] The director Baz Luhrmann notes

"I had come to the music of A. R. Rahman through the

emotional and haunting score of Bombay and the wit and celebration of Lagaan. But the more of AR's music I encountered the more I was to be amazed at the sheer diversity of styles: from swinging brass bands to triumphant anthems; from joyous pop to West-End musicals. Whatever the style, A. R. Rahman's music always possesses a profound sense of humanity and spirit, qualities that inspire me the most.^[26]

Social service

A R Rahman with Kofi Annan, the then General Secretary of United Nations

Filmography

as Music Director / Composer