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Wonderful moments provided by ARR
   
It was a cold winter night sometime in 1992, when I was doing my 10th standard. My dormitory supervisor had this practice of playing a cassette for a while before we went to bed. The cassette he played that night was a new film. It started out with the amazing gentle piece of music that came in like a fresh breeze with some unique instruments and a wonderful yae'le'looo humming in the middle. Song after song (Rukumani, Kadhal Rojavae...flip side B... Pudhu Vellai Mazhai, Thamizha) the curiosity was too much to contain. After some whispering around, I got the news that it was Mani Ratnam's next film with a new music director A.R.Rahman. It was clear that a genius has arrived - an arrival similar to Sachin Tendulkar when he hit those four consecutive sixes off Abdul Qadir in his first (exhibition) match.

Some true magic unfolded in the years that followed. Some of my best college memories centered around Rahman music. It was a golden era when the ARR-Mani and ARR-Shankar combo had us captivated. Every ARR audio release was highly anticipated and the songs would be heard on the corridors of the hostel for months. He made a startling entry into Hindi by giving the (bachelor's) anthem in Rangeela. Songs like Mustafa became the farewell anthem. He worked with everyone including Rajini and Bharathiraja proving that he can adapt to other people's style while maintaining his own. His music pulled us to watch films repeatedly over and over. Apart from the songs, there were those BGMs as well...NiSaRiSa in Jeans, the GaMaPa humming in the early love stages in Bombay..to name a few. Every now and then someone in the elevator would scream the Kadhalan Raghuvaran BGM. At one point, I was thrilled to find that he scored the music for Garden (Lisa Ray) sarees and Titan watches!!
 
A.R.Rahman
Over the last few years, every now and then when you wonder if he is still scoring for films (especially Tamil), he comes up with gems ...like Sillunu Oru Kadhal... to prove that he is very much alive and kicking. While a selfish part of me always wants more of him in Tamil, there is the other part that is extremely delighted to see him get national and now global recognition.

I watched Slumdog that same weekend right after I watched Hindi Ghajini. While I was a bit disappointed by the Ghajini songs and BGM (probably because I liked the Tamil one very much), I was totally blown away by the wonderful composition for Slumdog. I probably enjoyed the music more than the movie itself. When his name was announced as the winner at the globes... as we walked to the Jai Hooooooooooo humming..... It was one of those goose pimple moments filled with pride. Earlier, an American colleague at work heard the Airtel ringtone on my phone and was very inquisitive about it. Today I was able to tell him with immense pride that the musician who won the award for Slumdog scored this one!!

In many ways Sachin and Rahman are similar - true Indian icons beyond regional and religious barriers, with an amazing fan base, a humble and shy nature and ones who let their work do the talking. Amidst all the scandals and terror we live in, I'm thankful to God for providing relief through wonderful entertainers/humans like these who do the country proud.

Regards,
Vijay Ilavarasan,
vijay.ilavarasan@gmail.com

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