Ilayaraja

Illayaraja continues to be my favorite composer even after he decided to withdraw from his prolific career over 8 years ago. My school and college days, which for most of us are very memorable period, coincided with peak of his career. Almost each song he composed during that period (1976 to 1990) brings back a memory from my own personal life. It could be going to Alaigal Oyvathilai in Salem Government engineering college with 50 classmates, or my first job in Delhi, my first love,my first visit to Nainital, my first foreign tour where in I sat in an aircraft for the first time etc.There are emotions which you can make others understand and you would rather enjoy it yourself. My relationship with Illayaraja and his songs are one of them.

Illayaraja is still there in the field but not so frequent as he was before, but sometimes comes out with a hit. Of course the instant and fast Western style of today?s music have added some drug in our mind, but Illayaraaja?s music is far away from the reach of those drugs.Also his songs have a healing effect on all those drug addictions.Even when people prefer fast food to make life easier, they will be always hungry for homely food, because they have its taste on their tongue. Illayaraja?s songs are like the latter, more homely...

The title above alone played a major part in the success of Tamil films during the golden era of South Indian music. Illayaraja is not just a music director making popular music but also the one who worships it. That is why even in this era of westernization his songs stay ever greenish when the ?instant hits? simply died out of the listeners. His music went side by side with the lyrics, lack of which is the major deficiency of today?s songs, that makes them just instant hits.

Born and brought up in an obscure village near Kambam in Southern Tamil Nadu, Ilayaraja became the first Asian to score a symphony for the London Philharmonic Orchestra, besides scoring over 500 feature films in a period of 20 years. Raja, as he is popularly known and affectionately called, comes from a family of musicians. His mother, a huge repository of Tamil folk songs, seems to be a very strong influence in his music.
He learned to play the harmonium, the typical musical instrument used in street performances. The team of the brothers, the eldest being Pavalar Varadharajan, a poet, worked as a group of musicians traveling across the state, accompanying theater artists. Raja picked up most of his acumen for audience tastes during this period.

In 1969, Raja migrated to the city of Madras, the Southern Movie capital, when he was 29 years old, looking for a break into music making for the public. He studied under Dhanraj Master, playing the guitar and piano in the Western style. He later earned a diploma in music from Trinity College in London. Ilayaraja's break into music for films came with Annakili (1976). The film dealt with a village story, to which Ilayaraja composed great melodies. The songs offered simplicity and musicality typical of Tamil folk in an authentic way, and they offered new sounds--rich orchestration typical of Western music. The songs became an instant hit, the most popular being "Machchana Partheengala" sung by a female voice, S. Janaki.

Raja soon proved his abilities in other styles as well. classical Karnatic melodies were used in Kannan Oru Kai Kuzhandhai (1978) (Rag Mohanam), Mayile Mayile (Ragam Hamsadhwani), and Chinna Kannan Azhaikiran (Reethi Gowlai). Raja's grasp of Western classical structure became evident with his masterful use of the piano, guitar, and string ensembles. Some of the numbers that show his orchestral genius are "Pon malai Pozhudu" and "Poongadhave" from Nizhalgal (1980), Kanmaniye Kadhal from Aarilirindhu Aruvathu Varai (1979), "Ramanin Mohanam" from Netri Kann (1981), "En Iniya Pon nilave from Moodupani (1980), "Paruvame Pudhiya" from Nenjathai Killathe (1981), and "Edho Moham" from Kozhi Koovuthu (1982). These songs could literally be heard coming from every doorstep in Tamil Nadu state every day for at least a year after being released.

Raja composed film music prolifically for the next fifteen years, at a rate of as many as three new songs a day. After a few years as a film composer, he could write all the parts to a score as they came to him, and his assistants would make fair copies, which would be recorded immediately. He is very much attracted by the philosophy of Ramana Maharishi of Thiruvanna Malai, who lived in the early 20th Century. Raja once referred to Ramana as "our Zen master."

Debut Year
1970s

God Lives as Ilaiyaraja towards Music

he's a mastro tats it no mor comments