Music maestro A R Rahman
Western cinema's bigwigs let out a collective twitter of nervous laughter when A R Rahman took the stage for his Golden Globe win. It was probably because they couldn't wrap their tongue around his name, mispronouncing it no less than three times but the humble maestro, gracious as always, acknowledged his surprise and gratitude at receiving the award by thanking the Slumdog Millionaire team.
The maestro has had a predictably busy year working on Ghajini and Yuvraj's soundtracks among others and completed the masterly record in very little time. The movie, accused of packaging romanticized poverty to First World audiences that are equally guilty of lapping it up, is rich in its eclectic score. The global vibes have him collaborating with M.I.A., Gulzar, Ila Arun, Alka Yagnik, Suzzanne D'Mello, known for her western approach to singing and rap artist Blaaze. So, compelling is the story and the soundtrack that screenwriter Simon Beaufoy wants to make a musical of it.
It isn't hard to realize that two of the artiste's most appreciated soundtracks in recent times come from underdog movies Guru and Slumdog Millionaire. Young Rahman had a musically rich upbringing, but after his composer father R K Shekhar's premature death, the family had to rent out instruments to make ends meet and the maverick ventured into music making himself. "It's a very strange thing...actually going back to my childhood story. I experienced most of the disappointments in my life at that time. So whatever happens now, I suspect that hope, I always suspect that happiness. And even that moment of happiness doesn't exist because I'm waiting for how it's going to fool me and give me a kick again."
Strongly inclined towards philanthropy, the genius endowed the A R Rahman Foundation and continues to work with it to rid the world of poverty.
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