The lush and deeply romantic approach that A.R. Rahman took to Indian soundtrack work in the early ‘90s didn’t seem revolutionary at the time. After all, melodrama and richly melodic dynamics had always been a hallmark of the genre since the 1950s. However, the way that Rahman combined thickly textured orchestrations with deeply modernistic instrumentation that fused pop-minded electronics and rock-rooted forcefulness turned out to be a monumental game changer. Although Rahman’s work explicitly nodded to American and European pop forms, he also fully subsumed those forms into an entirely new way of making contemporary Indian music. Rather than clumsily dropping in a pyrotechnic guitar solo, a goofy rap, or some other “Western pop” signifier, Rahman’s music has always implied a contemporary globalism that fused everything but was centered on Indian melodies and arrangements. It’s been an approach that has made him enormously successful, both in India and around the world. With nearly 150 films bearing his credit, a handful of diverse solo works, and even a one-off supergroup with Mick Jagger, Dave Stewart, and Joss Stone, Rahman has also been one of the most prodigious musicians on the planet over the past 30 years. While that means there have been a few dips in quality control and the occasional bit of questionable creative judgment, it also means that he’s produced an astonishingly large body of innovative, adventurous, and highly enjoyable work. In this Panorama, we’ll look at some of the highlights of each decade of Rahman’s career.
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