Ilayaraja - The King Of Music

Inner self of Ilayaraja reflects in his music 🎹🎼🎻🎸🎺🎷🎼🎼🥁🎼🎸🎺🎷    Many in the industry, including Rajinikanth, call Ilayaraja ‘Saami’, while the maestro’s sobriquets include ‘Isaignani’ and ‘Raaga Devan’. And these are not without reason. Ilayaraja’s spiritual side is as in-depth as his music and one can feel this in his devotional songs – both in films and in albums. If the mesmerising Janani, Janani… made the layman understand Carnatic music without much effort, the mass Mariyamma, Mariyamma… grabbed the attention of the ‘elite’ with ease. Thus, Ilayaraja acted as a great leveller in society with his music. A follower of Ramana Maharishi, Ilayaraja is a regular visitor to Tiruvannamalai. His Ramanamalai is one classic gift from a sishya to his guru. His Thiruvasagam is a cultural crossover in which he blended Carnatic with Western classical effortlessly. It would be no exaggeration to say that Ilayaraja is perhaps the only musician who can comb...

ILAYARAJA IS “THE RAAJA OF RAAGA”! Music Genius Ilayaraja.!  A name synonymous with the Indian Music Industry. An incomparable genius who totally transformed the perception of people towards film music. Ilayaraja’s acumen and knowledge of the aesthetics of music and cinema is what sets him apart from the rest.  1. Because it is not about who did it. What matters is ‘who did it first’. He was the first Asian to write a symphony for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, at London in 1993. What is even more remarkable is the fact that he did it in an amazing one-month span. Pandit Ravi Shankar was the only other Indian to do it, besides him. 2. Because he scored for over 1000 feature films in a trivial period of 38 years. Now, how remarkable is that!  3. He earned a diploma in music from the renowned Trinity College, London. I guess he has a history with the place, afterall. 😉 4. He is a gold medalist in Classical Guitar from the ‘Trinity College of Mus...

There needs no introduction for Raja Sir’s music. One cannot compose music for 1000 films or compose 6000+ songs unless his name is Ilayaraja. But, we need to accept that composing for films music has got lot of limitations and you cannot do lot of experimentation while composing for films and there were many classical,heavenly tunes from Raja sir which were not not used in films and still lying in the studios. Here, I am not going to speak film music composed by Raja sir but a Private album Composed by Ilayaraja. It’s an album which was composed in the year 1986 and it has 10 tracks. The Name of the Album is  "How to name it" . Instrumental Album. Carnatic -Western fusion album. We are not living in Baroque music period to hear the Western classics of Johann Sebastian Bach or We did not live in 18th Century South India to listen the Carnatic music Compositions Tyagabrahmam Tyagarajar. But we are living in the Era of Raja sir to listen both Johann Sebastian Bach and...

All three of them are great but if I have to rank I would rank them in the following order. 1) Isaignani Illayaraja 2) ARR 3) RD Burman Illayaraja was and is still a genius. To compose 1000 movie above and make the entire Bharat(Hindustan / India) dance to his tunes is by no means an easy achievement. There was a time in south India where producers would be literally queuing outside his home and the movie starts with the song sung by him. He was the hero of every film. I have seen people cry when the BGM starts. It brings out the emotion in the scene. He can still churn out the songs that he used to in the 80s and 90s. But he is a like a saint now. Like all great artists, he doesn’t do the same things over and over. He experiments and does what satisfies him the most. It is also a pity that he didn’t go pan-India. Probably because he was content and probably because he didn’t have to considering how busy he was during those days (sometimes 10 films a month and a recording every...

" Rahman's music is like a wife Sensuous &  Raja's is comparable to a Mother Divine." People write loads about Rahman being the best and sleep off listening to "Kanne kalaimane". People talk about Rahman's peppy numbers and still find no song comparable to  "Raja Raajadhi Rajan Indha Raja". People are Rahman's fans but Raja's addicts.  Rahman has built a fan base but Raja has built a kingdom. Ilayaraja's music is synonymous to C programming.You cannot survive without it. Rahman's music is mesmerising but Raja's is more meaningful. "Rahman's music is like a wife Sensuous.  Raja's is comparable to a Mother Divine." Here is my list of 10 favourite Raja songs.     1.Thenpandi Seemayile-Nayagan     2.Kanne Kalaimane-Moondram Pirai      3.Mannil Indha-Keladi Kanmani     4.Idhu Oru Pon Maalai-Nizhalgal     5.En Iniya Pon Nilave-Moodupani     6.Raja Raajadhi Rajan-Agni Natchathiram ...

Ilayaraja - The King Of Music  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 1000 feature films in a period of 43 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 ...