'Rahman's music doesn't seduce immediately':

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'Rahman's music doesn't seduce immediately':

A R Rahman appeals to a wide variety of people for different reasons. Not everyone likes to work with him, though. Some filmmakers whisper that he takes too much time to get a song ready but there are also many who say that he can compose and record a song within half a day.

For every critic who swears that Rahman is a two-note composer who is more interested in the sound (he's a mere sound engineer, said one detractor), there are many who hail him as an innovator.

Aishwarya Rai , who got to sing some of Rahman's compositions on the screen very early in her career in the Tamil film Iruvar and then recently in Guru, says that the best thing about Rahman's compositions is that they don't seduce you immediately.

Composer and producer of such record smashing musicals as The Phantom of the Opera, Andrew Lloyd Webber who gave Rahman a break in his Bombay Dreams over five years ago, remains a great admirer.

Those who have known him from his childhood still remember the early signs of his musical gift.

Filmnews' Anandan, a well-known publicist, remembered in an interview some years ago how Rahman was initiated into the world of films while he was still a toddler and was called Dilip Kumar. The family embraced Islam after Sekhar's death and his widow's marriage to a Muslim businessman.

Anandan remembered Rahman going to the film studios with his father Sekhar who was an assistant music director in Malayalam films.

'Once a music director overheard the four-year-old trying out a tune on a harmonium,' Anandan said. 'He quickly spread a cloth over the keys. Undaunted, the child repeated the tune, this time running his fingers confidently over the cloth. Who would have thought then that the boy would scale such heights?'

Rahman says he has a simple explanation for his success. "I believe that every individual, even an atom, can move only with the will of God," he offers. "I don't take credit for doing all this. If I did, then I would fall flat."