Originally posted by: N Sinha
If there is a person who definetly should have been mentor in SRGM, he is Illaiya Raja, no one can guide better when it comes to technique & instruments. It is a pity we didn't get to listen a lot of him in Hindi music. Recently he turned 60. Here is an article on him.
Some of the rare facts about the Maestro:
1.He is the First Asian to compose Symphony (Symphony No. 1) with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London
2. He passed successfully the classical guitar (Higher Local) examination conducted by the Trinity College of Music, London , with honours and gold medal.
3. Awarderd with the Best Film Music Composer Award, an annual award, by the Government of India in the years 1984, 1986 and 1988. (later two films are for the telugu films)
4. Awarded with with 'Kalaimamani Award', by the Government of the State of Tamil Nadu, India.
5. Awarded from Governement of the State of Andhra Pradesh, India, for excellence in music. 6.Conferred the title 'Isaignani' (wisest in the field of music) in the year 1988, at Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu, India.
7. Conferred the Degree of Doctor of Letter (Honoris causa) in March, 1994, by the Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu, India.
8. Conferred the Cultural Doctorate in Philosophy of Music, in April, 1994, by the World University Round Table, Arizona, U.S.A.
9. Award of Appreciation presented in the year 1994, by the Foundation and Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America.
10. Bestowed with the honorary citizenship and presented with the key to the Teanech Township, by Mr. John Abraham, Mayor of Township of Teanech, New Jersey, U.S.A., in June, 1994.
11. Presented with the Award of Governement of the State of Kerala, India, in the year 1995, for excellence in music.
12. Conferred the Degree of Doctor of Letter, in the year 1996, by the Madurai Kamarajar University, Tamil Nadu, India.
13. Presented with the Lata Mangeshkar Award For Excellence in Music, constituted by the Government of Madhya Pradesh, India, for the year 1998.
Some of Maestro's rare composition:
1. Composed musical score for the television docu-feature film 'India 24 hours', which was a tremendous success, and was appreciated by Director Mr. Micheal Tobiaz and the viewers around the world.
2. Composed musical score for the 'Miss World 1996 Pageantry', which was a great success, and acclaimed by the music experts and critics as a class of its own.
3. Composed the music for 'Ilayaraajavin Geethanjali', a devotional album in Tamil, an Indian language.
4.Composed music for 'Meenakshi sthothram' in the famous Indian language, sanskrit, written by Shri Adi Shankara, the great monk philosopher of South India (788 AD to 820 AD)
5. Composed music for 'Moogaambigai', a devotional album in Kannada, an Indian language.
6. Composed carnatic 'keerthanas', and 'varnams' (South Indian classical form of music) titled 'Raja Lahari'.
7. Composed the music and wrote the lyrics for the devotional album 'Raajavin Ramana Malai' conceived to commend the theology of South Indian sage and philosopher Shri Ramana Maharishi of Tiruvannamalai, a sanctified hillock in Tamil Nadu, India. The philosophical lyrics of the above album has been well received and appreciated.
Some of the popular comments made by celebrities
Venkatesh
: Ilaiyaraja is forever !!! According to me he is the personification of evergreen music.
Suhasini
: Show me a composition matching legendary compositions like 'shenbagame shenbagame' 'panivizhum malar vanam' by ilaiyaraja. Only then can you talk of someone overtaking him."
A.R.Rehman
: He is a genius by himself and is completely self-contained
Sadhana Sargam
: Its purely a learning experience to work with this legendary composer. Talking with him, you can learn so much. While i work with him, i just have to merely follow his instructions, and everything else is taken care of..
Mani Sharma
: He is my idol & my personal guru. It ishis music that created the urge in me to take up music as my career. I especially was enchanted by songs like "Ennadi Meenakshi" when i was young
K.J.Yesudas
: "There are infinite music forms hidden in his heart. All that should flow-out for the good of mankind."
Vamsy
: While picturizing a song, iIaiyaraja's tunes inspire me more than the characters of the film themselves.
Bharathiraaja
: I shoot scenes with a particular impact in mind. And even before i discuss about what i have in mind, he is already ready with mind boggling BGM bits.
Maniratnam
: Ilaiyaraja is absolutely prolific. He is an amazing talent who believes that the music written down by him should be stuck to totally. And then it is recorded which is just a matter of execution. I wish I could be like Ilaiyaraja and work out everything on paper.
Music maestro illayaraja is perhaps the first south indian composer whose music traversed beyond the boundaries of India. Illaiyaraja's advent and oeuvre has changed the face of Indian cinema in it's content and form.
atapulted himself into a music icon with his hard work and gifted musical insight. He was born in Pannaipuram in Madurai district on June 2, 1943 to the couple Sri D.Ramaswamy and Smt. Chinnathayammal small. He spent most of his childhood in poverty. His mother is his first music guru. His elder brother Sri Pavalar Varadarajan is a communist and a great musician. He used to actively participate in communist activities. He used to modify folklore songs according to the communist views and sing them in every village. Illayaraja used to accompany him to all the villages with his harmonium. His other brother Bhaskar used to play tabala and younger brother Gangai Amaran used to play mrudangham (later he also became a music director,lyricist and a film director). Along with his brother, Illayaraja gave almost 20,000 music concerts all over Tamilnadu, Kerala and Bombay between 1961 and 1968. Later he learned guitar under the guidance of Sri Dinaraj. Illayaraja came to Madras with his brothers. He stayed with Bhatairaja, his childhood friend. He used to practice music on Marina beach in the evenings along with his brothers. He used to mix eastern and western music and come out with different kind of music. He wanted to learn his craft from some one who is already doing it and joined as an assistant to Sri G.K.Venkatesh, a renown Telugu Music Director (he was more popular in Kannada though). At the same time, he learnt carnatic music from Sri T.V.Gopala krishna. He got a break when he was signed as a music director for a film called 'DIpaM'. But unfortunately this film was shelved.
Sri Panju Arunachalam arranged a music concert of Illayaraja in a marriage hall when the latter approached the former for a chance. Pleased with Illayaraja's performance, Sri Panju Arunachalam gave him a good break with the film 'AnnaikiLLi' directed by Devraj-mohan. (The film was remade in telugu as 'Ramachiluka' with Vanishree, Ranganath. Though the telugu film had the same tunes used in Tamil, credit was given to Late Sri chakravarthy who stepped in when Illayaraja refused to work for the film. Illayaraja was bent on giving new tunes to the film, but the producers insisted on repeating the tunes). The film was a huge success and it catapulted him to the league of established music directors. He started giving music to telugu films with the film Badhrakali (*ing jayaprada). However, the film Yugandhar (1979)(Starring NTR, jayasudha) released first. After a lot of pressure Illayaraja agreed to use only two tunes from the original film Don (however he gave different interludes for those songs too)).
Illayaraja composed for musical scores for more the 750 indian films. He gave break to most of the film directors with his music. No one can deny that. Some films were hits just because of his music (Ex: Abhianandana(1988)). With director Bharati Raja he gave many hit films like Sitakokachiluka(1981), Aradhana(1987), Eetaram Illalu (Revathy, Rajasekhar), Man Vaasanai (tamil), Alaigal ovathillai (Tamil), Kadalora Kavithaigal (tamil), Padunaru Vayanudile(tamil) (Padaharella vayasu(1978) in telugu. The song sirimalle povve fetched a national award to S Janaki in tamil. Music of the telugu version is credited to Sri Chankravarthy) and many more. Ilayaraja-Vamsy association is the best thing to have happened to telugu films after the black-n-white era. With Vamsy, he gave hits like sitara(1984), alapana(1984), anveshana(1985),preminchu pelladu(1985), ladies tailor(1986), april 1 vidudala(1991), etc., Vamsy openly agrees that Raja is his mentor. With K.Vishwanath he gave hits like Sagarasamgamam(1983) (this movie fetched him his first National award), swathi mutyam(1986), swarnakamalam(1988),chinnabbai(1997)etc. Not only the classes but masses also liked his songs in the combination of K.Raghavendra Rao (Akhari poratam(1988), JagadekavIrudu Atiloka sundari(1990), Coolie No.1(1991)). Kodanda ramireddy, Chiranjeevi and Ilayaraja created box office hits like abhilasha(1983), challenge(1984), kiratakudu(1986),raskhasudu(1986), maranamurdamgam(1988), kodaveeti donga(1990), etc. With K Balachander, he gave many evergreen hits like Sindhubhairavi (this film fetched his second National award), Rudra Veena (third national award), Punnagai Mannan (tamil), Manathil Urithi Vendum (Tamil) etc. Kamal Hassan shares a close association with Ilayaraja. Their combination had atleast a couple of dozen hit films. Manirantnam's association with Ilayaraja created many stupendous successes and catapulted Maniratnam to the top league. For many directors like Fazil, Priyadarsan, Balu Mahendra, Mahendran etc he is the first choice.
Illayaraja introduced many new talents to the music field like Chitra, Mano, Malasia vasudevan, Dipan chakravarthy, Jency, SP Sailaja(though she was introduced by Sri chakravarthy it is Illayaraja's songs which brought her more recognisation), Sujatha etc. Illayaraja brought the best out of S Janaki and showcased her talent in a multi-dimentional way. Same holds good with Sadhana Sargam. She won National award last year for the song 'Pattu cholli' in Azagi (tamil) (Nandita das, Devayani, Parthipan).
Illayaraja composed and conceived the experimental albums like How to Name It?, Nothing but Wind, India 24 hours. He also wrote lyrics for some songs. He wrote the books like 'Sangeeha kanuval' (My feelings and impressions during the concert tour to the Europe.), 'Vetta veLythanil koyi kidakkuthu' (my spiritual experiances) and 'vazhihthunai'. His interest in photography won him critical applause from many professional photographers around the world, who noticed that they carry philosophical and spiritual touch. His sons Yuvan shankar raja, Kartik raja and daughter Bhavatarini are also music directors and showing thier multi talentes in that field.
Meastro Ilayaraja is currently working on a prestigious 'Thiruvasakam in Symphony ' . The symphony involves more than 200 artists from India and Hungary with a budget of 50 million rupees. It is simultaneously produced in Hindi, English, German and Tamil.
He is also composing music for the forthcoming films like 'Sambhu' (Telugu), Sandiyar (tamil)/Dommi(telugu) etc.
source: http://www.telugucinema.com/c/stars/Illayaraja.shtml
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