When the director of the film *Slumdog Millionaire*, Danny Boyle, which has been nominated in 7 categories for the Golden Globe Awards, claims that it is Rahman who, according to Boyle fancies chances of wining the Golden Globe in his category than any in any other category, it sure is a monumental achievement for the musical acumen of Rahman.
If there is one music director who has whetted the appetite of the Hindi music lovers, and has provided an exposure to songs based on Western classical tunes, but arranged to create an appeal of enigma on the sensibilities of the Indian audience, Rahman is the person. From the time when he made his debut with Roja up to Yuvvraaj, Rahman has gone on to explore new frontiers of Western music through his oeuvre. His latest exposition Yuvvraaj testifies to the same, as he provided a window to the average music aficionado of India to understand the charm that is evoked when the strings of a bow play on the cello. He is also one music director who has literally cast spell on whole of the country, as his proficiency is expressed through music that he gives in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada films. As a matter of fact, the music of Roja when it was released in Hindi was the same but with the lyrics being translated into Hindi. From this perspective Rahman could be credited as providing voice over to the music, as it is happening in the case of films being translated from one language to another to reach a large audience. Rahman did the same for the cause of music. Few of us would also know that Rahman himself has started a school to teach the younger generation about the finer nuances of western music and has the desire to conduct an orchestra with his students. He has also this innate quality of introducing unconventional voices, and one of the celebrated examples of this association in between Sukhwinder and Rahman. It was Rahman who had unleashed the vocal prowess of Sukhwinder through Dil Se and it is this combination which is on an upward trend in all the music charts around the world, through the song Jai Ho, which is a song with a lot of thump. It could be owing to the quotient of thump in the song that it has caught the imagination of the western audience as well, and has catapulted this song as one of the great hits. Rahman has been scaling new frontiers in the music that he gives to films in Hollywood, and other places, owing to the fact that he gets ample latitude for experimentation. It is owing to the fact that one does not burst into a song as it happens in the Hindi films, and this provides him sufficient scope to further improvise the output. Let Jai Ho create a new frontier for the Indian music, more so that is of a popular variety, and belongs to popular genre. -- http://entertainment.oneindia.in/bollywood/features/2008/a-r-rahman-golden-globe-wards-241208.html regards, Vithur
