Rockstar Rahman

Did you know that A R Rahman is making three movies? He has co-written and is producing Vishwesh Krishnamoorthy’s 99 Songs, an elaborate Hindi musical. Le Musk is a virtual reality English film that he has written and directed. And One Heart, a live concert film, is already on Netflix. Did you know that he is also setting up a 50,000 square km film studio several miles north of Chennai? Or, that in 2008 he set up the KM College of Music and Technology in Chennai?

The sheer number of things that Allahrakka Rahman does is the first mindboggling discovery from this book. But the details on his films, his music school or the studio are not the only reason this authorised biography by Krishna Trilok ought to be read. It is a well-written, wellresearched book on a man whose talent for creating music has given Indians so much joy. Among the scores of awards he’s won are two Oscars, several national awards and Grammys. He has composed for some of the biggest musicals, films and shows across the world. What he did to popular music, our understanding and enjoyment of it is impossible to describe unless you have heard at least some of it during his rise in the early nineties. Roja, Bombay, Dil Se, Rangeela or his music for Tamil and Telugu films and Rockstar, Highway and Tamasha more recently.

The book takes you through the journey of a child battling the reality of his father’s death to the man who shuttles between Los Angeles, Mumbai and Chennai in great detail. Mr Trilok starts badly, though, with too much detailing of Mr Rahman’s difficult childhood. While it is relevant to an understanding of the man, it pulls you down too early. But have patience and by page 30 or so the book becomes a page-turner (I read it in three or four days).

Mr Rahman’s father was a composer, arranger and conductor, largely in Malayalam films. He died of a mysterious stomach ailment when Rahman was nine, an event that shaped his life emotionally and materially. His mum, Kareema Begum (Amma), tried various things to make ends meet — renting out her husband’s musical instruments was one. Mr Rahman who knew how to set them up, used to deliver, maintain and bring them back. By 11, he was playing the keyboard for various composers, arranging and programming for films, ad jingles and what not. And because he was such a tinkerer he was helping many of the musicians repair their instruments.

Soon, getting work was not a problem but balancing it with school was. One day he told Amma that he could either work or go to school. Mr Trilok says Amma did not hesitate; She told him to drop out of school and focus on music. Some instinct probably pushed her. Mr Rahman, incidentally, is a mama’s boy — he believes she is that wall that keeps negativity at bay.

It is a word that crops up often in the book. Mr Rahman comes across as a positive person who refuses to dwell on bad or negative things. Across the film industries in Hollywood, India and the UK he is seen as a polite, soft-spoken man with an inner calm. He believes that his music comes from some higher power that is channelled through him. Mr Trilok’s parents worked with Mr Rahman when he was unknown. They are now among his closest friends and colleagues. So the writer had unusual access to the man and his world. Much of this works very well for the book.

The book takes you through every phase in the life of this prolific, restless creative genius. Mr Rahman grew tired of doing ad jingles and playing the keyboard. He loved to compose and had a huge pile of music he’d created when Mani Ratnam approached him for Roja. The 1992 Tamil film that went on to become a pan-Indian hit made Mr Rahman. Roja introduced a sound that Indian audiences had never heard. And Mr Rahman continued to deliver unheard of sounds in film after film also doing independent albums like on the way. He loves technology, fooling around with new instruments, mixing global sounds from jazz and pop and other avante garde genres into classical Indian ones.

In 1999, his penchant for fusion attracted the attention of Andrew Lloyd Webber. The composer of some of the most successful musicals ( The Phantom of the Opera, Cats) was looking for a different sound when a lunch meeting with Shekhar Kapur brought Mr Rahman onto his radar. He heard a large part of Mr Rahman’s music and asked him to write for a stage musical. Bombay Dreams, the hugely successful result of this collaboration, played for two years in the West End. Mr Rahman went on to do (and still does) many international projects; the 2006 stage adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, pieces in the sequel to Kapur’s Elizabeth among others.

But the big bang came with Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire (2008) which won Mr Rahman the Oscar for Best Original Score and a joint one with Gulzar for Best Original Song ( Jai Ho). Mr Rahman’s speech captures the essence of the man his biographer sets out to paint through this book: “All my life I had a choice of hate and love. I chose love. And I am here. God Bless.”

Do read this book to know more about a superb musician and an unusual man.

The book takes you through the journey of a child battling the reality of his father’s death to the man who shuttles between Los Angeles, Mumbai and Chennai in great detail

NOTES OF A DREAM

The authorized biography of A R Rahman

Krishna Trilok

Penguin Viking

344 pages; ~599