The Legend of ARRAHMAN

ARR –The Greatest Indian Musician of All-Time & a Great Patriot...
Over and above,a very very humble individual inspite of all the adulation that he is receiving...

Allah Rakkhha Rahman, 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.
He is widely regarded as one of the greatest Indian film composers ever, and his career is considered a turning point in the history of Indian film music. Many credit him with having single-handedly revolutionized the standards of film music composition in India. He is also credited with re-energizing the popularity of Indian film music the world over.
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, and sold over two hundred million cassettes 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 (English: Musical Storm).

Biography
Early life and influences
A. R. Rahman was born to R. K. Shekhar, a Hindu Vanniar who was a composer, and conductor for Malayalam-language films. His father was a famous music director in Kerala. But he did not get enough opportunities there. 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 Hinduism in the late 1970s.
During these early years, Rahman served as a keyboard player and an arranger in bands such as "Roots" and "Nemesis Avenue" with friends including Sivamani, embracing numerous music genres. He played the keyboard and piano, in addition to, among others, 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.

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. 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. 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 (Electric Dreams, Tamil) in 1997, Lagaan (Tax, Hindi) in 2002, Kannathil Muthamittal (A Kiss on the Cheek, Tamil) in 2003, the most ever by any composer.
Roja's score met with high sales and acclaim, in its original and dubbed versions, bringing about an effective transformation in film music at the time, and Rahman followed this with scores for Tamil-language films including, among others, Bombay, Kadhalan, Indira, Minsaara Kanavu, and Love Birds, which gained him notice. Muthu 's success in Japan further increased his fanbase in that country. His soundtracks gained him recognition in the Tamil film industry and across the world for his versatality in classical, Folk, jazz, reggae, soft rock and other styles in his pieces. Rangeela, directed by Ram Gopal Varma, marked Rahman's debut in Hindi-language films centered in Mumbai. Many popular and superhit scores for films including Dil Se and Taal followed. The sales of these albums prompted several film producers to take film music more seriously.

Rahman's work is also unique in the fact that his collaborations with some film directors have always resulted in successful soundtracks. In particular, he has worked with Mani Ratnam on ten films until 2006, all of which have been musical hits. Also notable is his collaboration with the director S. Shankar in the films Gentleman, Kadhalan, Indian, Jeans, Mudhalvan, Nayak, Boys and Sivaji.
His first movie album Roja was listed in TIME's "Top 10 Movie Soundtracks of All Time" in 2005.The magazine's noted film critic, Richard Corliss felt the "astonishing debut work parades Rahman's gift for alchemizing outside influences until they are totally Tamil, totally Rahman."
Rahman continued to record frequently in his studio, the Panchathan Record Inn. In 2005, a newly developed recording studio, attached to the Inn called A.M. Studios was opened. It is considered to be the most developed, equipped and high tech studio of Asia. In 2006, Rahman launched his own music label, KM Musiq. Its first release was his soundtrack to the film Sillunu Oru Kaadhal which it released worldwide, in August 2006. Rahman scored the Mandarin language picture Warriors of Heaven and Earth in 2005 and co-scored Elizabeth: The Golden Age in 2007. His compostions have been reused in scores not just within India, but in films abroad, making appearances in Inside Man, Lord of War and The Accidental Husband.
His latest work includes score and producing soudtracks for Ghajini,Yuvvraaj,Azhagiya Tamil Magan, Jodhaa Akbar, Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na* 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 immense success. He followed it up with an album called Jana gana mana, a conglomeration of performances by many leading exponents/artists of Indian classical music. In addition to writing jingles for ads, he has composed several orchestrations for athletic events and T.V. and internet media publications, documentaries and short films.
In 1999, Rahman, along with choreographers Shobhana and Prabhu Deva Sundaram and a dancing troupe from the Tamil film industry 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 famous musical theatre composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. Furthermore, Rahman, along with the Finnish folk music band Värttinä, composed the music for The Lord of the Rings theatre production. He composed the piece "Raga's Dance" for Vanessa-Mae's album Choreography (2004).
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.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
Rahman's instant success is owed to his clever usage of Western instruments to invoke Indian sounds while his peers tried to invoke Western sounds through Indian instruments. His interest in the works of Classical and Romantic period composers, Carnatic composers, early film composers and predecessors K. V. Mahadevan and Vishwanathan-Ramamoorthy of the film industry of Tamil Nadu and others continued through his late teens. He further explored and trained in Carnatic music, Western classical, Hindustani music and the Qawwali style of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, in addition to numerous other styles.
His interest and outlook in music is said to stem from his love of experimentation and syncretic background.As a result, his scores have alternated from songs and themes composed covering a variety of genres, with unconventionally-grouped instruments, and different vocal styles being used and combined together in some of his film soundtracks, to more traditional orchestral themes with leitmotif techniques composed in others. Rahman's works often feature a mix of minimalist songs and evocative, thematic pieces, building on his differing chord progressions and rhythms, and is credited with evoking new and varied melodic and percussive sounds from instruments of different music systems.

Social work
Rahman is involved in various charitable causes.In 2004, he was appointed as the Global Ambassador of the Stop TB Partnership, a project by WHO.He has shown support to charities including Save the Children, India, and worked with Cat Stevens / Yusuf Islam for his song "Indian Ocean" . The song featured a-ha keyboard player Magne Furuholmen and Travis drummer, Neil Primrose. The proceeds of the song went towards helping orphans in Banda Aceh, one of the areas worst affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. He also supports charities such as Save the Children and has also produced the single "We Can Make It Better" by Don Asian alongside Mukhtar Sahota. [9] In 2008, Rahman opened his KM Music Conservatory and Audio Media Education facility for upcoming musicians. The facility - India's first Apple Inc. authorised training centre - is located near his studio in Kodambakkam, Chennai.

















Article from wikipedia.