*Review: A R Rahman's unauthorised biography fails to find him * *Aparanjeetha Sambandan* | Tuesday, 08 September , 2009, 19:10
*A.R. Rahman: The Musical Storm* *By Kamini Mathai* *Price : Rs 499* *Published by: Penguin Books India* *ISBN : 9780670083718* *Edition : Hardback* *Buy Book*<http://www.indiaplaza.in/r-rahman-musical-storm-kamini-mathai/books/arrahmanmusic.htm> A R Rahman is synonymous with mystique. He’s been around since the 1990’s, given us music that constantly sounds new, yet we know so little about him. His rare interviews leave us asking for more or just as clueless as we were to start with. And this time too, his enigma has not been shattered by the unauthorised biography by Kamini Mathai. And that may be a good thing. You flip through the pages and you remain flipping through in search of A R Rahman the man. And skipping chapters won’t help because you won’t find him. What Mathai has given us is A R Rahman, the musician, as seen by those who’ve worked with him and that only seems an elaboration on what we already know. For instance, we all know that he’s a maverick at music, and with a handful of quotes and chats with musicians and friends who’ve worked with him, we find out how. The book predominantly talks about his work style and his work. All we can see is A R R the musician and that too, only how much he wants us to. We wonder if he’s inarticulate or if Mathai did not ask the right questions. For, we still don’t know what makes the man tick in spite of having a chapter dedicated to it. We still don’t know about his past and present that’s removed away from music. Surely, a musician like A R R cannot be just about the music. There are three events that this biography recycles in its chapters – his father’s death, rise to fame since *Roja*, and the Oscar. It’s the first two that we get to read over and over again mostly. Yes, we get that his father’s death was a turning point in his life but is there a need to rehash it to give a perspective in nearly every chapter? We crave for ARR’s curt sense of humour, playfulness and so on, characteristics that are explained through statements rather than events. For instance, ‘Rahman is a child’ is a phrase you’ll come across quite often and you’ll know that it will be followed by a statement on his fascination for gadgets. And when she gets into how Illayaraja, who was numero uno in the South Indian film industry then, worked, she quite makes him sound like a monster. Yes, he worked within a given time frame, was not too open to changes and that’s probably because he had several projects at hand. And it’s not justified to pit him against Rahman whose style of working is so totally different, who can afford the time on conceptualising music because he chooses to take on fewer projects. It's rather blasphemous when the author claims that A R Rahman made us forget Illayaraja. A R Rahman, in this biography, does state that he was looking for a ‘new sound’ to beat Illayaraja. That, coming from him, is something we believe is with reverence for the need for evolution in music. And as far as Tamil music is concerned, Illayaraja still scores with fans who are still at large. Mathai supposes too much. Over the chapters it is reiterated that for all the innocence and childishness that comes with his fascination for gadgets, A R Rahman is a shrewd, marketing person. Then why does it surprise her when she finds him endorsing World Space across billboards? She says, ‘Does he like that? Isn’t it out of character? He stares down at you from billboards and that’s really not the Rahman that once was. Something has changed’. The least Mathai can do is to give him enough credit to make his own decisions without judging them. When she comes to his faith, which has become an integral part of his life, she makes him sound obsessed and fanatical. She describes his secrecy in not revealing his children’s date of birth in case they are hexed, his promptness with prayers juxtaposed to the time he takes on projects. It would’ve been nice if she had focused on bringing out the spirituality in these rituals. Instead, we get a hint of them from those who work with him in the studio who swear that there is a higher presence working there. The chapter on family will also disappoint because again, you don’t get the nuggets of the man you want to know. It’s a chapter I flipped to, for reprieve from the monotony of recycled instances and quotes in the preceding chapters, and with the hope that at least this chapter would throw some light on the man. But when you get to the end of the book, you’re actually quite happy that A R Rahman was never demystified. It’s probably something we’ll have to wait for in his authorised biography. Hopefully, we will not be subject to another list of news stories that have been strung together. http://sify.com/movies/bollywood/fullstory.php?id=14909156 -- regards, Vithur
