The article which appears below, was originally published on Strait Times in March 2009. ©The rights to this material are reserved to the owner. If you have any concerns or comments, please send an email to info@rahmaniac.com.
He’s already a legend in India, but with his double victory at the Oscars, A.R. Rahman is set to take on the world. He has sold more than 100 million albums, but until the Oscars this week, Singaporeans could have been forgiven for never having heard of him.
Now they and the world know him as the Indian composer whose catchy songs for award-sweeping Slumdog Millionaire have got them dancing in the aisles. Rahman, 43, won two Oscars for his contributions to Slumdog Millionaire’s Indian-infused techno soundtrack, which includes what has overnight become an instant classic, Jai Ho (meaning “victory” in Hindi).
One Oscar was for Best Original Score. The other – which he shared with Indian lyricist Gulzar – was for Jai Ho as Best Original Song.
Multi-talented Rahman was also nominated for a second song, O… Saya, a collaboration with Sri Lankan-British rapper M.I.A. His success was celebrated across the nation. Among the exuberant newspaper headlines, The Indian Express said it all in one word with huge letters: “Slumdog!”
While Rahman is a household name in India, his success in Slumdog Millionaire is set to score in another way by making him a truly international composer, as he draws inspiration from all over the globe.
In fact, the new film generation fans of his three children will be interested to know that he studied Chinese and Japanese music to score the Chinese martial arts-meets-American western film Warriors Of Heaven And Earth in 2003.
His cosmopolitan touch reflects the new global connection India offers.
Take Slumdog’s fluid soundtrack: Like Rahman himself, it has a vast range, jumping from a punk song by the Clash to a Hindi anthem to an aching sitar solo.
“This is one of those soundtracks where the music is all world cultures, all celebrating,” he told The Washington Post recently. “Making Slumdog with every kind of music possible, from Chinese to hip-hop to M.I.A… was really fresh ground for me.”
Rahman is known across India as “the Mozart of Madras” – after his home city, Madras, or Chennai, as it is now called – and is a household name for his love ballads, Bollywood hits and patriotic pop tunes.
His work has been in more than 100 films since 1992. His sophisticated approach quickly revolutionized Indian film music, said David Novak, an ethnomusicologist at the Hayward Center for the Humanities at Columbia University.
“He’s sort of the Peter Gabriel of the Indian film industry,” Mr Novak said, referring to the progressive British rocker. “He shifted things from a simple East-to-West style to something global, but more India-led and its regional musics are part of a palette of sound from around the world.”
Rahman’s crossover to Western audiences has not come without bumps. Bombay Dreams was a success in the West End, but on Broadway it closed in eight months in 2004, failing to recoup its US$14-million investment.
“I’ve long been impressed by his talent and I’m upset and disappointed Broadway didn’t get it when he and I did Bombay Dreams there,” composer Andrew Lloyd Webber told The Washington Post last week. “The Oscar is definitely the biggest moment in his life. I know he has won many awards, but this is a special because he is remembered.”
The film’s most popular song, Jai Ho, has been played at fashion shows in Paris and has become a hit in clubs across Europe and the United States.
Rahman and Gulzar were asked by Michael Jackson – for a series of concerts in Germany 10 years ago. Rahman said he always knew he would make his life about music. His father, R.K. Sekhar, had been a film composer for Malayalam-language movies for India’s South Indian cinema.
Born A.S. Dileep Kumar, he changed his name to Allah Rakha Rahman when he converted to Islam in his 20s.
He began studying the piano at age four. He grew up with a record collection that included Indian music and rock; two favourites were American country singer Jim Reeves and Indian actor-filmmaker Dev Anand’s electronic album Switched-On Bach.
Shortly after his father died when Rahman was nine, his mother turned to her father’s music teacher Zakir Hussain and violinist and film composer L. Shankar. They helped him get a scholarship to Trinity College, Oxford, where he studied Western classical music. Following graduation, he became a jingle writer, a popular job in a country where some selling products often became radio hits. But in 1991, he was hired to write and direct music for his first film, Roja.
Slumdog Soundtrack Scores
By Deepika Shetty
Rahman-mania is catching on in Singapore. Sales of Indian composer A.R. Rahman’s music for Slumdog Millionaire have kept after its success at the Oscars.
A thousand copies of the Slumdog Millionaire album brought in by distributor Universal Music have been snapped out or are selling fast at local music stores.
Demand for the album – priced between $17.95 and $22, depending on the music store – has been so strong, especially since the Oscar success on Sunday (Monday, Singapore time), that Universal has ordered more, says assistant product manager Alan Tang, 29.
The 10,000 figure may seem modest compared to mainstream audio hits that sell in the thousands. But as Mr Mohamed Shafeek, 34, section manager of the jazz and classical section at retail store HMV, puts it: “You have to understand that mainstream stores here usually didn’t have a mass release, with lyrics in Hindi, but using Bollywood inspired – and yet it is appealing to many people.”
At That CD Shop, which has nine stores nationwide, has ordered 300 copies of the album and it has sold out. At HMV stores, merchandising executive Ger Vin says: “It is definitely one of the CDs hottest-selling CDs at the moment. After the Oscars, more people have heard about it and are enjoying the music.”
At the HMV store in Heeren, more than 80 copies have been sold since the CD went on sale on Jan 15. The album is also selling fast at HMV’s CityLink store.
At the small shops, the demand is there. Centrespace outlet Gramophone at The Central and Music Book Room at Bras Basah sold all its five CDs. Over at ever-bustling Mustafa Centre at Syed Alwi Road, which imported the CD directly from India and sells it at $9.90, it was the first soundtrack to sell out.
Before Rahman scooped two Oscars for his soundtrack fees main titles, it had sold just over 100 copies; afterwards, another 100 copies had flown off the shelves.
Within this time, many tourists are compliments about the notes of the track’s catchy Oscar-winning song Jai Ho blared in the background.
Sales manager Muruganandam Chandrakasi, 29, told Life! last Wednesday afternoon: “We had first time walk-in customers asking for Rahman’s music. This hasn’t happened before.”
Mustafa Centre, which stocks Rahman’s music since his debut soundtrack – composer Mani Ratham’s film Roja (1992), expects the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack to win some of its other competitions.
The bestseller so far is his music album Vande Mataram (1997). Rahman’s New Age version of the Indian national anthem had hit every young person, and to date, the Centre brings in a container-load of it. Another hot Rahman music album is his track for Hollywood film Taal (1998), starring Indian screen siren Aishwarya Rai, which has sold more than 500 copies so far. And the soundtrack for his latest Bollywood film Delhi 6 has sold 100 copies.
At Gramophone, Ms Tina Lyn, 42, says: “Even though I can’t understand what is going on as the lyrics are in Hindi, I love the music. It sounds like world music, it has good beats and great melody. I feel good music should cross all language barriers and this album most certainly does.”
HMV’s Mr Shafeek says: “I have been in this industry for the past 11 years and I haven’t seen such interest in Indian music. Even when Rahman visited here last month, there wasn’t such demand for Rahman’s music in the past, like Bombay Dreams or his other albums.”
All this does not surprise HMV music buff Aun Mishaal, 22, who has been listening to Rahman’s music since he moved from Sri Lanka to Singapore five years ago. “He composed the first song I listened from director Mani Ratham’s film Roja (1992),” he says.
She says: “The music was so haunting, I had to keep listening to it. But that is the magic that is Rahman’s music. The more you listen to it, the more you want to listen to it.”
Rahman has performed in Singapore – in September 2005 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. Known for speaking in monosyllables, he was free to form during his gig that night. In a rare burst of confidence on stage, only to urge the audience to give the other performers the same opportunity to perform as he had been given.
At the media interview taken of the show, he was painting a little about his life and work, but lit up when he found out about the places he could visit in Singapore.
Whatever the case, as Mr Lim Teck Kheng, 31, director of Universal Music, notes: “This is just the start. The success of Slumdog Millionaire and its music tells us that music is truly global. We are in a whole new global level and we are seeing it happen right here in Singapore.”
