The year 2015 has dawned with wedded bliss for well known Tamil film music composer Yuvan Shankar Rajah who has changed his name to Abdul Haliq after he converted from Hinduism to Islam last year.

Yuvan who is the youngest son of Music maestro Illayarajah has followed in the footsteps of his illustrious father and made a name for himself in the Tamil film music sphere by composing the music score for more than 100 films

Yuvan Shankar Raja with his bride and sister Bhavatharini

Thirty –five year old Yuvan Abdul Haliq who will turn 36 this August got married to Twenty five year old Zafroon Nizaar hailing from the village Senkalneerodai in the area of Keezhakkarai in Tamil Nadu state’s Ramanathapuram district.

Zafroon is an apparel designer by profession working for textile businesses in Dubai and Malaysia.

The wedding very much a private affair and was conducted on a low key with the number of guests being severely restricted.Only close relatives of the bride and close friends of the groom were invited for the Nikkah ceremony held in the Bride’s ancestral village of Senkalneerodai.

Earlier the couple got engaged in a private function at Nungambakkam in Chennai held in October last year.

Yuvan had converted to Islam two months before that in August 2014.

The couple had met at the wedding of mutual friends and got to like each other after interacting.Yuvan however has firmly denied that his conversion to Islam was linked to the romance Zafroon.He emphasises that both were separate developments.

Yuvan’s father Illayarajah is reportedly opposed to both his son’s conversion to Islam and marriage to a Muslim girl. His elder brother Karthick Rajah though unhappy has accepted the younger sibling’s decision. Yuvan’s sister Bhavatharini however has backed her brother fully in his personal decisions.

The marriage with Zafroon is Yuvan Shankar Rajah’s third. He was earlier married to Sujanya a resident of Britain and again to Shilpa living in Australia. Both marriages ended in separation and divorce within years.

Yuvan was found to be drawn towards music at a nascent age itself. He observed the melody, rhythm and ragas his father has created very intensively. Slowly and steadily he started his own creations in music world. Surprisingly he has developed knowledge of western style music too. Whether western based or ‘gramiya’ isai or folk songs, he has produced wonderful tunes making his father very proud.

Like every youth in their teens, Yuvan too was drawn to ‘love’. His father was happy that his son was interested in married life, and gave his consent to marry the girl of his choice Sujanya without any hesitation. Alas, the marriage did not last long, for reasons unknown. But Yuvan was not perturbed and continue to haunt the music world with his lilting tunes.

Yuvan fell in love for the second time with Shilpa.His parents were very happy. This time, they made his second marriage a family affair. Sadly ,this time too, it did not go the way Yuvan expected it to be. Sources close to him say that his wife had left him making Yuvan depressed. As usual it was said that his horoscope was not conducive for marriage, and so on and so forth. Despite this, Yuvan continued his journey in music world like a conqueror with a vengeance.

Yuvan was further troubled by the death of hs mother to whom he was deeply attached.The Mother was his soul and comfort during his troubled days. But God has taken her too from him. Loss of his mother had hit Yuvan very badly. His schedules went hay wire and topsy-turvy. He spent his time at his music studio and avoided coming home. He did not get any solace from his relatives and friends too, it is said.

In an interview with the “Times of India” Yuvan was asked –“Who do you love the most in the world?Yuvan answered thus-

“My mom. She died of a heart attack all of a sudden in 2011. She was a housewife and used to run the entire show. We have a large, extended family, but she held all of us together and was the singular pillar. It took me a long time to come to terms with the fact that she was no longer there. I would cry a lot till 2013. I had a lot of work, but after her, could not concentrate. People started trashing my work. It was the worst time of my life. She was my force as it was she who always pushed and motivated me.

After her, there is a vacuum in my life and I now need to push myself. She was most attached to me and prayed the most for me. She liked me for being a rebel, who was emotional and affectionate. She knew that I am a giver, who, given an opportunity, would do any thing for my family. I had composed a song titled Aarariraro from the film Raam that was her favourite. It is a generic lullaby for kids. In the song, the son sings the lullaby for his mother to sleep as his mother is about to die. He tells her, ‘Come, lie in my lap. I will sing for you. In my next birth, I want you to be my daughter.’

Four days prior to her passing away, I came back home around midnight. I was hungry and was cooking Maggi in the kitchen, when she came in. She opened the door and I asked her, ‘Aren’t you sleeping?’
On TV that same song was playing and she said to me, ‘Yuvan, whenever I listen to this song, I cry. How much you have sacrificed to come to this level.’ That stuck with me. Being the son of a legendary composer is not an easy job. Bollywood is a bigger platform and to see me compose my debut film, she would have been very happy”.

Dejected and depressed in life, Yuvan was seeking peace of mind and solace which he earlier received from his mother. He suffered thinking about his life and loss of his beloved mother.

Yuvan explained his conversion to Islam in this way in the “Times of India”interview where he was asked – “What made you convert to Islam?

Yuvan’s answer was “My father is a staunch Hindu and is so superstitious that even if a glass breaks, he will call a pandit. Both my parents were ritualistic, but right from childhood, I used to always have a thought that beyond all this there is a supernatural power who is running the whole world. How can God be in any form? That search was always there in me. What triggered my conversion was my mom’s sudde