Behind the Music

Dawn is breaking over a crowded neighborhood in Madras, and the murmur of early-morning prayers is dispersing the stillness of the night. A solitary light shines from the ground floor of a three-story house. Inside, a lone, curly-haired figure sits at a vast mixing desk, fingers skating across the controls. A.R. Rahman's work is almost finished. For as long as he can remember, Asia's most successful composer has slept through the noise of the day and composed in the silence of the night. And the past eight hours have been especially productive: Rahman has completed six songs, four remixes, and the...