A R Rahman Online Website Beta

The 44-year-old singer-composer had won his first Golden Globe in 2009 in the same category for Slumdog Millionaire, the Mumbai based potboiler which was again directed by British filmmaker Boyle.

Rahman’s music in the film, starring James Franco as real-life mountain climber Aron Ralston, who cut off his arm to escape from beneath a boulder after being trapped for more than five days, had received good reviews for it’s “haunting tracks” and “wonderful crescendos.”

The soundtrack includes If I Rise, a collaboration between Rahman and American popstar Dido.

The nominations to the coveted award were announced today and Rahman’s competition includes Alexandre Desplat who was nominated for The King’s Speech, Danny Elfman who was nominated for Alice in Wonderland, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross who were jointly nominated for The Social Network and Hans Zimmer who won a nod for his score in Inception.

The musician, known as the ‘Mozart of Madras’ had won two Oscars for his score in Slumdog Millionaire at the 2009 Oscars, taking the film’s total haul to eight.

His song Na Na from his Hollywood debut venture ‘Couple’s Retreat’, was longlisted in the ‘Best Original Song’ category at the 2010 Oscars but failed to win a nomination.

Academy Award winning Actor Denzel Washington will host the event, which will be broadcast around the world following the Nobel Peace Prize Awards. The performance comes at a time of international critical acclaim for A.R. Rahman’s score for the recently released Danny Boyle film 127 HOURS. 127 HOURS marks the second collaboration for A.R. Rahman and Danny Boyle.

In a 180-degree turn, they have gone from capturing the sounds and propulsive rhythms of Mumbai, India in Slumdog Millionaire to shooting in a claustrophobic canyon in the middle of nowhere – barely large enough to squeeze in just one man. Boyle needed the right music to capture the film’s exploration of one man’s extraordinary triumph over incomparable circumstances. For that, he turned to A.R. Rahman to inhabit the unique world of 127 HOURS and to capture the transcendent beauty of Aron Ralston’s escape.

Rahman’s superbly eclectic score succeeds by balancing ambient sound, silence and driving rhythms that deliver an emotionally powerful and uplifting score.

As Peter Travers notes in his review of the film for Rolling Stone, “Like the A.R. Rahman score that drives the movie, the triumphant, enthralling 127 HOURS pays fitting tribute to Aron by being thrillingly alive.”