A.R.Rahman - The Global Indian !

A.S. DhilipKumar! Nobody would recognise this name on hearing it for any number of times. But even ppl in the remote areas of India will know the name Allah Rakha Rahman (shortly A.R.Rahman). A man who has proved that music has the capacity to bridge the gap between the continents. Now he has made us proud by winning the prestigious golden globe award for the film "SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE". To add to his achievements, now he has been given three nominations in Two categories for the Academy Awards (Well Known as Oscars). The nominations are for: The Best Original Music Score -"SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE" and two nominations in the Best Original Song - "Jai Ho" and "Oh Saaya" from "SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE". The best thing in him is even after these achievements, he is still down to earth with his feet firmly on the ground which is a very rare trait.

Born to a Tamilian Hindu family on Jan 6,1966. His father R.K.Shekar was a musician by himself. Rahman lost his father in a tender age of 9 after which their family earned their living by renting out the musical instruments they had. Rahman started to work as a keyboard player to "Isai Gnani" Ilayaraja who was also one of the persons who gets Rahman's instruments for rent. His early days with Ilayaraja provided him a platform to flourish. He also got a degree in Western Classical Music from the Trinity College of Music, London.

In 1991, he got an offer from director Mani Ratnam to do musical score for the movie "Roja". Being a debutant in film industry, he caught the audience dumbstruck with his awesome songs of which "Chinna Chinna Asai" has been listed one of among the "Top 10 movie tracks of all time" by the Time magazine in 2005. He was the first ever debutant to win the National Award in Best Music director category.

After Roja, the progress chart of Rahman was always up with his great numbers in films like Kadhalan, Kizhakku Cheemaiyile, Kadhal Desam, Bombay, Muthu, Minsara Kanavu, Iruvar, Sillunu oru kadhal, Sivaji and the list is endless. Especially the song "Mustafa Mustafa" from Kadhal Desam was patroned as a national anthem for friendship those times. He has the ability to give the best in whatever category of music he chooses. He entered the world of Bollywood with "Rangeela" which turned out to be a blockbuster. After that Rahman become an important asset to the Hindi film industry. His works in Hindi includes films like Lagaan, Guru,Rang De Basanthi, Yuva, Ghajini, etc. He is an ardent believer in Sufism. So he converted to Islam. He loves the Qawwali type of music of Sufi saints. The song "Khwaja" from Jodhaa Akbar was fully composed of that style which will fill ur heart with divine spirit on hearing. He worships Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan as his guru and promptly he dedicated the song "Tere Bina" from "Guru" to his Guru.

One of the other big traits of Rahman is that he brings up a lot of aspiring young talents in the field of playback singing especially in Tamil, singers like Karthick, Benny Dayal, Chinmayee, Naresh Iyer, etc. are all finds of A.R.Rahman. He also proved that language is not a barrier for music by introducing singers like Udit Narayan, Sukhwinder Singh, Sadhana Sargam, Shreya Goshal and more to Tamil Film music. His achievements are endless including 3 national awards in Tamil for "Roja", "Minsara Kanavu", "Kannathil Muthamittal" and 1 national award in Hindi for "Lagaan" (totally 4 which is the highest ever by any music composer), six-time Tamilnadu state award, eleven time each in Filmfare award and Filmfare award south, IIFA award, Mauritius national award, Malaysian award and also recieved a honorary award from Stanford University for his contribution to world music. The most recent one being the "Golden Globe" for the music in "Slumdog Millionaire" and three nominations for the prestigious and most coveted Oscar awards.

Apart from film music, his albums have also been chartbusters like "Vande Matharam", "Jana Gana Mana",etc. His song "Pray For Me Brother " was chosen as the UNO's song for eradication of poverty in world. He also scored a theatre musical "Bombay Dreams" produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber. He also charted the music for the theatre production of "Lord Of The Rings". These achievements got him the title "Mozart Of Madras" from TIME Magazine.

Rahman still remains the same god fearing, humble and pious person what he was when entered his career. Mother India is really proud for her son who has taken India to the Globe with the magic of Music which needs no language. As Indians, we salute this great brother for bringing laurels to the nation with his golden globe award and wish him best for winning the Academy awards.