There was a young four-year-old boy who would carry lunch to his father at his workplace – a music studio. His father, a music composer, would play instruments and the boy would be around listening to his father and his friends play the instruments. Naturally, at an early age, the boy too picked up the knack to play the instrument. At the age of around 9 when he accidentally played something on the piano which his father then used into a musical piece that finally appeared as a track titled, "Vellithen Kinnam Pol" in a Malayalam film in the '70s. This young boy, today known as A R Rahman has changed the way music is listened to in India and around the world.
Soon after this composition though, the young boy's father tragically passed away. To feed the family, his mother would rent the musical instruments, and young Rahman would carry them to and from the studio. He used to meet many musicians. At 11 he decided to quit his school and join a music troop to make ends meet at home. He started playing for Ilayaraja. Soon he was heard while playing one of his own compositions by the director Mani Ratnam. A few years later Roja was released and its music created a storm. The rest is history. Even today this storm is prevalent, and if at all, it has only grown. Whenever in India a film that has Rahman's music is released, and when his name appears on the big screen, the public goes wild! Even the lead actors of the film do not receive this kind of whistling and hooting.
What was different in Rahman's exposure that made him this legend? It is the experience that he gathered along the way would have mended him so. But then there were many other musicians, perhaps more learned and also most certainly professionally qualified in comparison to this young teen. It must be this young boy's fresh eye and no bias or opinions that allowed him to explore the music in a certain manner. Even today, one can recognise Rahman's music through his distinct style and yet one cannot compose in his style.
It must be this young boy's fresh eye and no bias or opinions that allowed him to explore the music in a certain manner. Even today, one can recognise Rahman's music through his distinct style and yet one cannot compose in his style.
If we look through many artists- Picasso, Van Gogh, Beethoven or about anyone who has become a great success in their field - we can see that their experience was never clouded by their biases or opinions. That fresh eye in the experience created a tremendous possibility, and that created a storm of a lifetime.
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