In my opinion..

Swaminathan Sivaramakrishnan from the A R Rahman Fan Group says:

"If Mangal Pandey flops, it would be Rahman's 9th consecutive flop in Hindi...
Coming in the line of Bose, Kisna, Swades, Dil Ne Jise Apna Kaha, Yuva, Meenaxi,
Lakeer and Tehzeeb. In the same time Baba, Udhaya, Parasuram, Kangalal Kaidhu
Sei, E20U18 and Aayitha Ezhuthu have flopped in Tamil. Only Boys, in between,
was a mild success and New, a moderate success.

Mere coincidence or.... ?"

If you ask me I would say; a large part of Arr's "decline" can be attributed to him not having the same enthusiasm over his recent Indian projects as he is into making it big outside! A part of it, though, is that he seems to be using the same things over and over again, some call it as the A R Rahman touch; conventions like that are cool when they're original, but when you reuse them over and over again, they stop being original, even if you're the only one using them.. And as far as the Tamil film word is concerned he is not producing the "Nan Tamilan" feel with his music ( not talking about lyrics) It does not have the necessary Tamil/ South Indian flavor. Basically I think Arr has talent but he needs to be given more time/control and he needs to replace some of his old conventions with new, creative ones. To add more, I think Arr has to just keep coming back to his ears, his heart and his desire. In other words like my earlier post he, ARR has to compose himself.

Thoughts: