Rahman is usually very diplomatic when it comes to sharing his opinion and his cinematic sensibilities. In the recently released book The Spirit of Music by Nasreen Munni Kabir, he says it all, no-holds-barred. We learn that the kind of films that AR wishes to work in are experimental, the cinema that directors like Mani Ratnam make. In the book Rahman tells Kabir that “Mani Ratnam won’t think twice before experimenting. He always tries something new. That’s a great quality. One may fail in the process, but not fearing failure is what makes you try out new things. Shankar can’t do that because he has achieved an almost perfect success rate and can’t fool around with that. Unfortunately, I think Shankar is trapped by his own success.” This may be the boldest statement made to the public by Rahman; kudos to Kabir for getting him to talk without his usual reticent political correctness. The book gives ARR fans a deeper look into the world and, more importantly, into the mind of a musical genius. Have you read it yet?