Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- A. R. Rahman has sold more than 100 million records. Yet he remains unknown to many music fans across the world. That may change after this weekend’s Academy Awards.

Rahman, 42, composed the music for “Slumdog Millionaire,” which is nominated for 10 Oscars including best picture and director. It’s also up for best original score, while two of its tracks are nominated as top song. The music has won a Golden Globe and a British Academy Film Award, or Bafta. The “Slumdog” creative team -- from News Corp.’s Fox Searchlight unit -- would have to be really unlucky to go home empty-handed on Feb. 22.

The “Mozart of Madras,” as the British Broadcasting Corp. refers to him, is celebrated in India: Rahman has composed the soundtracks for more than 50 Bollywood films. His fame has started to spread outside his homeland, thanks to the scores for Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s musical “Bombay Dreams” and a theater version of “The Lord of the Rings.”

Rahman didn’t waste time composing for U.K. film director Danny Boyle’s feel-good story about a man’s escape from poverty. He planned the score over a few months and banged it out in two weeks. The speed of recording doesn’t show: Its propulsive beat sounds good on dance floors in Miami as well as in Mumbai.

Urban Thunder

A driving bass thunders as the sound of urban India goes global. It’s a wake-up for those in the West who only know Indian pop through “Within You Without You” by the Beatles from 1967.

“We wanted it edgy, upfront,” Rahman said in an e-mailed press release. “Danny wanted it loud.”

In the end, it’s both. Rahman throws in just about every element in his studio -- the soundtrack is saturated with tabla sounds and chanting -- yet he narrowly avoids cultural cliche.

While connoisseurs of traditional Indian music won’t be impressed by the Western rock influences, they might not be surprised. Some of the best moments are from singer-songwriter M.I.A., 31, a Briton of Sri Lankan descent. She had recorded most of her second album “Kala” in Rahman’s studio, although the two had never worked together until collaborating on the film’s “O... Saya,” one of the Oscar-nominated numbers.

The “Slumdog” soundtrack is the first release on M.I.A.’s N.E.E.T label. The abbreviation stands for “Not in Education, Employment or Training,” she said.

M.I.A. is in best form on her own “Paper Planes,” which pops up on the soundtrack twice, once in a remixed version. The other Oscar nomination is the track “Jai Ho,” which combines Rahman’s music with lyrics by Gulzar.

Jazzy Rivalry

The film’s rivals in the music-score Oscar category are “Defiance,” “Milk,” “Wall-E” and especially “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” This last has considerable merit. The double-CD soundtrack features the atmospheric music of France’s Alexandre Desplat as well as jazz by Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet laced with fragments of dialogue.

“Slumdog” isn’t full of memorable tunes in the manner of the greatest soundtracks, notably musicals such as “West Side Story,” “Oklahoma” and “South Pacific.” It resembles more recent compilations like “Pulp Fiction” or “The Harder They Come.” Still, it may do for Indian music what “Saturday Night Fever” did for disco. So, who’s India’s John Travolta?

The “Slumdog Millionaire” soundtrack is on N.E.E.T./ Interscope Records, priced at $13.98. Download fees vary across services. Rating: ***.

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(Mark Beech writes for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer on the story: Mark Beech in London at mbeech@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: February 19, 2009 19:00 EST