Happy Birthday A.R Rahman

Unparalleled and much admired, A.R Rahman, through his magical music has impressed the world and touched many a heart. His music mesmerizes and baffles the listener and uplifts his soul. A.R Rahman is indeed God's gift to world music - a song bird whose melodies turn prose to poetry. And today we celebrate him and his music!

A.R Rahman's entry into the Indian cine scene began as a keyboardist in Maestro Illayaraja's troupe.With an innate talent and interest, he played several instruments in M.S.Viswanathan's and Ramesh Naidu's orchestra too. He accompanied many musicians such as Kunnakkudi Vaidyanathan, L.Shankar and Jakir Hussain on their concerts.

His debut as music director was with Maniratnam's Roja, an album that changed the face of tamil cinema music forever. His rhythms and beats revolutionised filmi music giving it a more global feel with some rather unique compositions. Roja won him his first National Award, and many more laurels have followed since. Maniratnam-Rahman colloboration happened for ten more films after Roja, all films becoming musical hits. Roja was also listed in TIME's "Top 10 Movie Soundtracks of All Time".

Also famous is his colloboration with director Shankar. He has produced some extraordinary numbers Gentleman, Kaadhalan, Indian, Jeans, Mudhalvan, Boys and Sivaji.

His latest work includes Rang De Basanti, Sillunu Oru Kaadhal, Guru, Varalaru, Sivaji and Azhagiya Tamil Magan.

His versatality is brilliant. He has touched upon every genre of music from Indian Classical, to jazz and regae and what not! He caught the attention of the whole nation and eventually the world. Ram Gopal Varma's Rangeela marked ARR's debut in Bollywood and since then he has been shuttling back and forth. His most recent works in Hindi include Rang De Bsanti, Chamki Chameli and Jodhaa Akbar along with Hindi remake of Tamil blockbuster Ghajini.

But his talents could not be contained in India. He has composed and co-composed the music for quite a noteable number of International flicks starting with Bombay Dreams in 2002 and including the most recent Elizabeth: The Golden Age. Furthermore, Rahman, along with the Finnish folk music band V�rttin�, 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).

Though Rahman is frequently away from Tamil films on world tours, one can hear him enough through his other works. In addition to film music, Rahman has composed musical scores for athletic events and T.V. and Internet media publications, documentaries and short films. Vande Mataram is his musical album celebrating India's 50th year of Independence. His Jana Gana Mana is a compilation of performances by eminent artistes in classical music.

ARR's music continues to fascinate us all, and our thirst for his compositions can never be quenched. As we wish him a very Happy Birthday, we also shoot up a prayer that he will continue to melt our hearts with his divine compositions!

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