Read “A.R.RAHMAN – The Spirit of Music” today. It is a compendium of conversations that the author Nasreen Munni Kabir had with Rahman over a period of four years, all of it presented in one go (not divided into chapters/ sections per se).
Positives:
- Though a lot of the information in the book is already available in the public domain, it does carry that “authenticity” as coming straight from Rahman himself
- There are ample details around Rahman’s thoughts on composing music, on spirituality and on life in general
- There is a complete discography at the end of the book covering all of Rahman’s work till 2010
Some lines from the book that I really liked:
- If you think in terms of success and failure, you can end up becoming too careful and lose the joy of creating music
- I think people who stop thinking we’re all ordinary people, lose it all. It’s very important to stay grounded
- Working within your own limitations can bring good results
- As life unfolds itself to a man, the first lesson it teaches is humility; the first thing that comes to man’s vision is his own limitedness
Let downs: This book is touted as an official biography, but the way it is, I am not really sure if it can be called one. The Q&A format is fine, but it doesn’t give the book a flow. There is really not much additional information on Rahman apart from what his fans already know about him from the public domain or from his fans email group.
ramsabode.com 
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