A R Rehman Vs Ilaya Raja - Page 3

Originally posted by: b4begin

That just proves your ignorance... Did you even know from where ARR started?

BTW. sinhaji, nice article as always. Raja is truely a maestro and ARR is also almost there. Love them both.

I am sorry.. ?? 😳..Just cuz we dont know a century old music director .. we are ignorant..?? How does ignorance even come in to play..??

I never heard of Raja and neither have I read up on ARR's life story.. his music is great though..😊

Originally posted by: SmarterDesiKid

😲He's Hema's Fav, MD

Hema as in Himesh or Hemachandra..😃..??

shouldnt be compared
because its like comparing jatin-lalit to kalyanji-anandji

ilaya raja and rahman both make great music
but raja ji is more experienced and senior
he can still make great music today

Originally posted by: Meena1

Hema as in Himesh or Hemachandra..😃..??

i am pretty sure that his talking about Hemachandra! 😃

n even i haven't heard about him in my 16 years!

There was a period in Tamil Film Industry where IR ruled the roost. There were movie posters only with his pictures saying picture "So and So" with music by Illayaraja. It wouldn't have Hero/Heroine's picture. Unfortunately, this is a place which no one can touch today. Even IR himself cannot get to that place.

Regarding IR and awards, he'll not be given a FilmFare award because he will not do any shows/performance at the award ceremony (these awards come with a price).

IR can do pure classical based movies like Sagara Sangamam, Sindhu Bhairavi, where ARR still has to prove himself. He can also do westernized tunes with same aplomb or the folk songs with relative ease.

IMO, IR is at a much higher pedestal than ARR.

Originally posted by: RonnieK

shouldnt be compared
because its like comparing jatin-lalit to kalyanji-anandji

ilaya raja and rahman both make great music
but raja ji is more experienced and senior
he can still make great music today

couldnt have said better myself

ARR is very good, perhaps the best we have at this moment in Bollywood, But IR is at a total different pleateau

comparision is an insult to both

Originally posted by: sareg

couldnt have said better myself

ARR is very good, perhaps the best we have at this moment in Bollywood, But IR is at a total different plateau

comparison is an insult to both

Sareg ji, very well said and also to open a thread like that is also an Insult to both.

Ilaya Raja is a Genius.It is sad that you have not heard of his name. Because he is from South you would not have had the interest to know as you would have not heard many of his songs.But you shd take some interst if you like music to read about this GREAT COMPOSER.

Ilaiyaraaja was born into a poor rural family in Tamil Nadu, India. Growing up in a farming area, Ilaiyaraaja was exposed to Tamil folk music,[7] such as the songs sung by farmers working in the fields. His formative contact with music-making and performance came at the age of 14, when he joined a travelling musical troupe of India.[8][9] He journeyed through numerous villages, towns and cities in South India with his brothers for about ten years . He first tried his hand at composing music during this period: he set to music an elegy written by the Tamil poet laureate Kannadasan for Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister.[10]

Arriving in Madras (now Chennai) in 1968, Ilaiyaraaja enrolled under the tutelage of Dhanraj, a music teacher, as it became apparent that formal knowledge in music such as musical notation was vital for a professional music career. He was introduced to Western classical music during his training, and the music and compositional styles of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and Schubert, among others, were influences that would later become a motif in much of Ilaiyaraaja's compositions (such as the use of counterpoint). Ilaiyaraaja's classical music training culminated in him completing a course with a gold medal in classical guitar (higher local) with the Trinity College of Music, London.[11]


Ilaiyaraaja's first two non-film albums were explorations in the fusion of Indian and Western classical music. The first, How To Name It? (1986), is dedicated to the Carnatic master Tyagaraja and to J. S. Bach. It features a fusion of the Carnatic form and ragas with Bach partitas and fugues and Baroque musical textures.[43] The second, Nothing But Wind (1988), was performed by flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia and a 50-piece orchestra and takes the conceptual approach suggested in the title — that music is a natural phenomenon akin to various forms of air currents (e.g., the wind, breeze, tempest etc.).[44][45] He has also composed a set of Carnatic kritis that was recorded by electric mandolinist U. Srinivas for the album Ilayaraaja's Classicals on the Mandolin (1994).[46] Ilaiyaraaja has also composed albums of religious/devotional songs. His Guru Ramana Geetam (2004) is a cycle of prayer songs inspired by the Hindu mystic Ramana Maharishi,[47] and his Thiruvasagam in Symphony (2005) is an oratorio of ancient Tamil poems transcribed partially in English by American lyricist Stephen Schwartz and performed by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra.[48][49] Ilaiyaraaja's most recent release is a world music-oriented album called The Music Messiah (2006

Originally posted by: sareg

couldnt have said better myself

ARR is very good, perhaps the best we have at this moment in Bollywood, But IR is at a total different pleateau

comparision is an insult to both

thanks😛
yea rahman is also good composer in not only bollywood but all woods😆 like kollywood and and i lil hollywood

so many replies on this thread, I'm very indebted to every one for talking abou the living legend Ilaya Raja saab, trust me, if many of us didn;t get to listen to IR's masterpiece, it is Bollywood's greatest loss.
I can't say in words how my much I like this composer.
I don't come from South India (rathe rKolkata), but I've listened to scores of his numbers without understanding the language.
Be it Classical based or western number he is a wizard of orchestration & melody..
bhagwan unhe hamesha salamat rakhe.