AR.Rahman

A friend of mine working with me recalled the story of a couple of youths in Purasaiwalkam (in Chennai) where he was living in. This guy 'R' used to come often to meet his friend 'S' whose dad was running a ready-made clothes shop. These two together would keep talking about drums & keyboard, and nothing about studies or business! As with any Indian parent, this had infuriated S's dad, as he saw R disrupting and distracting his son S's attention on business. He ordered that R should never be seen in his shop. He severely warned S that if only he saw him together with R somewhere in the vicinity, he will have tough time. Their 'clandestine' meetings, however, were continuing.

But then, history has its humble beginnings! In few years 'R' emerged as AR.Rahman, and 'S' as Sahul Hameed (who had sung in ARR's earlier films but later died in a traffic accident). From the noisy streets of Purasaiwalkam where he was warned against seeing his friend, AR Rahman has taken giant leaps into becoming the first Indian ever nominated individually for an Oscar! (Satyajit Ray was awarded Oscar for his lifetime services, but not through nomination & winning. And "Gandhi"s Costume Designer from India did win an Oscar but she had had to pair with a British national).

When AR.Rahman fetched the Golden Globes Award for his score in "Slumdog Millionaire" weeks ago, only few were delighted, as Golden Globes was quite unheard of (at least back in India). Soon came the news of Oscar nomination of the same movie, in which AR.Rahman has got 3 nominations. What a mega achievement of a musician from India!

Let's wait for Feb-22, when the Oscar winners are announced. (I find his "chinnamma.... sollu,sollu,sollu" in a recent Tamil film more appealing than his 'Jai ho' in "Slumdog Millionaire", though :-)