Mani Ratnam's upcoming bilingual venture Raavan hardly needs an introduction. Nor does the composer of the album, A R Rahman. The name conjures expectations in the highest amount possible. Not to mention, every time the cinematic genius and the music maestro join hands for a venture nothing short of 'amazing' is the end product, be it Dil Se, Yuva or Bombay. So, does Raavan's soundtrack live up to its enormous expectations? Read on to find out.

Being A R Rahman can’t be easy. It’s one thing to be competing with the best in the business, but when the toughest competitor around is yourself, that’s when things get worse. The maestro is back with one of the most awaited albums of the year, Raavan, where he collaborates with director Mani Ratnam and lyricist Gulzar (the three of them can safely be said to constitute the Holy Trinity of Bollywood music).

It couldn't have got any bigger than this. Let's say this in Mani Ratnam style then - It couldn't have got any "real" than this. Yes, the Saturday evening saw the best ever music launch for an Indian film to take place on the Indian soil - Raavan.

He dived from a 90-ft cliff into water, stood under a waterfall for two hours, braved snakes and leeches in Kerala's forests - Abhishek Bachchan says shooting for "Raavan" was emotionally and physically challenging for him.

At the recent music release of Raavan, everybody was taken in by a soulful rendition of a song, Jaa re udd jaa re, by AR Rahman.

Penned by fellow Oscar winner Gulzar, most of the audience present for the music release of Raavan assumed it was part of the CD given out that evening - but it wasn’t. Even Mani Ratnam wasn’t aware that Rahman would be singing the song.

Keep it real, that was the direction given by Mani Ratnam. And for the launch of the music launch, the cast and crew followed it to the script, and that kept the very special invitees spell bound as Mani weaved his magic with his superb team of Rahman and Abhishek Bachchan.