Padma Lakshmi profiles A R Rahman on Time
*New York, May 2: By now the news is out. Music maestro A R Rahman
featured in the Time 100 list of the World's Most Influential
People<http://www.newkerala.com/nkfullnews-1-31491.html#>.
Sri Lankan co-performer MIA of the hit O Saya
song<http://www.newkerala.com/nkfullnews-1-31491.html#>and Infosys
co-founder Nandan Nilekani have made it to the list as well.
*
Guess who profiles Rahman for Time? It is the sizzling Padma Lakshmi,
wife of Salman Rushdie. The actress, author and the host of Bravo's Top Chef
writes on Rahman: “Rahman is a shy and quiet man, but his
music<http://www.newkerala.com/nkfullnews-1-31491.html#>has emotional
force. Renowned for his immense range, he'll do a traditional
score for a conventional film, then blend exotic vocals with Japanese music
and Western classical arrangements in his next project.’
Lakshmi describes Rahman as a veritable Pied Piper, he has no competition,
yet he makes it a priority to discover new talent and promote it.
‘He has shaped modern India's music for more than a decade. Now the "Mozart
of Madras" has the world's foot tapping along with him,” she writes.
“In India, a country of a billion inhabitants, where film and pop music are
one, A.R. Rahman, 43, dominates the music industry so totally that he has
supplied the sound track for a whole generation. He enjoys the godlike
devotion of India's youth, but everyone from the street child who sweeps
train platforms to the middle-aged
doctor<http://www.newkerala.com/nkfullnews-1-31491.html#>in Mumbai's
posh Malabar Hill hums his tunes,” writes Lakshmi.
“Born in Chennai (formerly Madras) and raised on Tamil movies and music,
Rahman converted to Sufism — a mystical form of Islam — in the late 1980s.
It is easy to hear these influences in his work, but his genius lies in
tying many forms of music together to make a sound that is at once familiar
and new,” she writes.
--- IBNS
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regards,
Vithur
