just t let u all know i scoured the net, His first soundtrack is
featured in time mag's best 100 soundtracks.
http://www.time.com/time/2005/100movies/0,23220,soundtracks,00.html
Roja:Though he is renowned as the preeminent composer of modern
Bollywood, A.R. Rahman was born and still works in Madras, 1,000
miles south of Bombay. His Tamil compatriot, the writer-director
Mani Ratnam, yanked him out of jingle-writing to compose his first
full score for Roja (The Rose) the tale of a woman whose lover is
kidnapped by terrorists. Through this grim political parable,
Rahman laced some spectacular melodies that not only serve the
drama, they create their own[EM]as in the duet ballads "Yeh Haseen
Vadiyan" and "Roja Jaaneman," which first are grounded in
recitative, then suddenly ascend into celestial melody. This
astonishing debut work parades Rahman's gift for alchemizing
outside influences until they are totally Tamil, totally Rahman. He
plays with reggae and jungle rhythms, fiddles with Broadway-style
orchestrations, runs cool variations on Morricone's scores for
Italian westerns.
