Raaja and I

Apparently Mahesh has tagged me to share my thoughts about the legendary Ilayaraja. If you are from south India there is very little chance you will not know him. If you are from North India you might remember the mysterious musician behind the melodious numbers in Cheeni kum, Shiva, Sadma, Hey Ram (and the like). I am supposed to answer five things that is part of this blog :) so here we go..

The moment I got introduced to Raaja..

This would be very tough to say because I grew up with Raaja. As a kid I always woke up to hear "Ceylon Radio" (It was early 80s so we did not have Satellite TVs, iPODs or any other gizmos) and in the 80s and 90s Ilayaraja ruled the roost in Tamil cinema. So it would be more like asking "How I got introduced to my sister/brother" etc :). However I knew that the man who makes this music is called Raja when I was 4 years old. I liked the song "Vikram.. Vikram" from the movie "Vikram" sung by Kamal Hassan himself, in a really gruff voice. I was mesmerized as a kid by that song and my parents finally had to buy an audio cassette and our first tape recorder for me. Because I was only 4 years old, I could not fully memorize the lyrics so I made my own lyrics and sang the song more number of times than I blinked :)

Name one occassion where Raaja’s music directly/ indirectly influenced your life

I really do not know how to answer this. But I think music has always been a healer during my troubled times and a stimulant when I am brimming with joy. Music into my life has been more like an organic deep-rooted passion rather than a one day enlightenment. 

Lets take Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi into account. Assuming that one of this is either your mother tongue or native language, name a favorite song in each of the other 4 languages that immediately comes to your mind.

Tamil - Sundari Kannal Oru Sedhi  from Dhalapathi

Malayalam - Haven't heard many

Telugu - Anything from Salangai Oli and Sippikul Muthu

Hindi - Cheeni Kum hai song from Cheeni Kum, it was even better than the original tamil version (Mandram vandha...)

One song of Ilaiyaraaja that you consider rare and think a song that many people should have known but don’t.

There is a song from a movie titled "Bharathan" with many good songs that went so unnoticed. My pick will be the song that starts as "Alage amudhe poonthenral thalatum...". It is an amazing song and this gives me a feeling similar to what a painting of Monalisa would give to a connoisseur of art. I am told that the painting of Monalisa looks happy when you are in a happy mood and looks sad when you are depressed. Similarly try as hard as I can, I really cannot identify whether the mood of this song is cheer or pathos. It is simply the most loveliest song I have ever heard.

Lets keep the last one simple…Raaja’s number that you are hearing right now/ most recently heard..?

Paravaye Engu Irukirai from Tamil MA and Machan Machan  from Silambattam. I consider Yuvan Shankar Raja as "junior Raja" and these songs were sung by IR himself. But if I were to pick a Raaja composed number it would be "Siruponmani asayum adhil therikkum pudhu" from kallukul eeram.

To conclude, although wikipedia (my favourite website after Google) terms Music as "an art form whose medium is sound organized in time", I would say it is more than just art/entertainment. It could mean everything for some people. To me music comes right after basic necessities in life :)