A.R. Rahman: The Essential Tracks, and the Order to Hear Them In

Where do you even start with a man whose catalog spans hundreds of film soundtracks in half a dozen languages? That question stops more would-be A.R. Rahman fans than it should. The honest answer is that you don't start with an album at all, you start with a handful of songs that each open a different door into his world, then follow whichever door pulls hardest.

The six tracks below are his most-loved on Spinn Radio, and by happy accident they make a nearly perfect syllabus: a global pop anthem, two of Hindi cinema's great love songs, a Sufi devotional, a pure instrumental of menace and momentum, and the city theme that made his name. Take them in the order given, it's built as a journey, not a ranking.

1. Kun Faya Kun, the spiritual center

Begin with Kun Faya Kun, from Rockstar (2011). It is a qawwali, a form of Sufi devotional music, rebuilt for the film age: nearly eight minutes of harmonium drones, handclaps and interweaving voices, including Rahman's own. Nothing about it should work as popular music. Everything about it does. If one track explains why listeners talk about Rahman in terms usually reserved for spiritual experience rather than pop craft, it is this one. Play it loud, all the way through, no skipping.

2. Tere Bina, the love song

Next, Tere Bina from Guru (2007), one of his long-running collaborations with director Mani Ratnam. Over a hypnotic, swaying groove, Rahman sings lead himself, and his voice, warm and slightly unpolished, is part of the spell. Where most film love songs push, this one circles, its refrain looping like a thought you can't put down. It is the track to send anyone who thinks Bollywood music means only bombast.

3. Enna Sona, the modern seduction

Enna Sona, from OK Jaanu (2017), shows the later-period Rahman: sleek, minimal, closer to bedroom R&B than orchestral cinema, with Arijit Singh's velvet vocal floating over guitar and space. Put it next to Tere Bina and you hear a composer refusing to age into his own formula, same romantic instinct, completely different toolkit, a decade apart.

“Put his love songs a decade apart side by side and you hear a composer refusing to age into his own formula.”

4 & 5. Riots and Jai Ho, the Slumdog engine

Now the Slumdog Millionaire pairing. Riots is the score cue, a propulsive instrumental where distorted textures and percussion chase each other through the film's darkest sequence. It is the best two-minute demonstration of what Rahman does as a scorer rather than a songwriter: pure tension, engineered like electronic music. Then comes the release: Jai Ho, the finale anthem that swept the 2009 awards season and won Rahman his Academy Awards. The version most global listeners met first Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny), the English-language single with the Pussycat Dolls, is the one on his top tracks, and it's a fascinating artifact: an Indian film song remade as international pop, with the original's stomping euphoria fully intact.

6. Mumbai Theme Tune, where it all comes from

Finish with the oldest piece on the list. The Mumbai Theme Tune, from Mani Ratnam's Bombay (1995), is just a melody, flute, strings, and one of the most mourned and beloved themes in Indian film history. Written when Rahman was still the young studio prodigy from Chennai remaking Indian film music, it contains everything that came after: the eastern classical roots, the orchestral sweep, the refusal to choose between them. If it wrecks you a little, you're doing it right.

Where to go next

Once these six have their hooks in, the rabbit hole is generational. Rahman rewired Indian film music so completely that most of today's leading composers work in his shadow, and several of them are worth serious time on their own terms.

• Yuvan Shankar Raja Tamil cinema's moody hip-hop-inflected heir, at his best in brooding minor-key territory.
• Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy the Hindi trio behind some of Bollywood's most polished, big-hearted soundtracks of the 2000s.
• Santhosh Narayanan the most exciting experimentalist in current Tamil film music, splicing gaana, funk and noise.
• Pritam Bollywood's reigning hitmaker, a melodist with an uncanny feel for what a whole subcontinent will hum next.
• Vishal-Shekhar the duo who brought a rock-and-club energy to mainstream Hindi film pop.