Ideal world of Ilaiyaraja

One of the important reasons our movies succeed is because they create an ideal world for the viewers. And in creating this ideal world, music plays a very major role. There have been many songs which talk about an ideal world, a world where everything is in place, good things happen to you and you look forward to living a life filled with happiness. I can probably call this as a separate genre of songs and we have had many such songs in Indian Film Music. "puthiya vaanam puthiya bhoomi", "putham pudhu bhoomi vendum", "suhana safar aur ye mausam hasin", "muthyamantha pasupu", the song I featured earlier, "moodala manaya" and many many more. No wonder these songs become very dear to us because of their message that life is good.

If one music director has been called repeatedly to create such an utopian landscape through his music, it has been Ilaiyaraja. There are countless creations of his which do this magic. We will examine some of them in this post. I will also try and analyze the techniques he uses to create this magic. I want the more knowledgeable readers to contribute their comments so that we can try and deconstruct the master's technique. It is not an easy job I assure you.

Let us start by paying tribute to the memory of the singer Swarnalatha, who unfortunately passed away at a very young age of 37. Raja uses her voice as the vehicle for creating this utopian land. And she perfectly complements his vision by her singing. You cannot separate her out from this song. An universal favourite, which evokes the utopia and makes you want to be in such an ideal place. Good photography and a lovely Bhanupriya add to the charm. From the movie 'Chatriyan', "maalayil yaaro"

What can give us more hope than a lovely dawn? With the sun filtering through the trees, a bit of mist hanging on, crisp air and the light chill. When such is the scenery, the music must match it. And matching mother nature is no easy task. Added it to this is the fact that is the brief to create this world for young lovers. Raja meets this challenge in his own innovative way. With an incessant beat of the running shoes, he opens softly and slowly builds up the melody. The harmonium playing the interlude introduces an old world charm further enhancing the utopia. From the movie "Nejathai Killadhe" an outstandingly innovative "paruvame pudhiya paadal paadu". The world cannot better than this for the young lovers.

The gentle strum of the guitar starts this song. With the chorus joining in the pallavi, you know this is a shared dream. An excellent world is created for the young students. Definitely one of Malaysia Vasudevan's finest songs. 'kodai kaala katre' from 'Panner Pushpangal'.

If you take the three songs above I personally see some similarity in the way it is constructed. That the singers sing softly is clear but the tune itself is 'soft'. The ragam selected, the way the song moves, everything is done keeping this softness in mind. There is no harsh note anywhere. Another thing to observe is that in many of his songs the charanam takes many interesting twists and turns before joining the pallavi. Raja eschews that technique and the merging of the charanam with pallavi is very smooth and gentle. The orchestration again is done keeping the mood is mind. Watch out how the chorus is so effectively used in 'kodai kala katre' ensuring that the students are participating in appreciating the beauty of nature.

If you were to drive in a ghat sections which twists and turns often, which song would you select? There are tea estates around you and a blue lake far away, clear sky with a few white clouds. Which song would you sing then? To many of us, this would be no-brainer. Sharath Kumar Babu was lucky to have Shoba in his jeep and great nature all around when he sang, "sendhazham poovil" from the movie "Mullum Malarum" 

Here too observe how Jesudas starts the humming. As if he is afraid of the delicate notes. Then that flute, which was ever present in Raja songs of those days, joins in. Again a song which does not have a single harsh note, orchestration which accentuates the beauty of nature. Hear how he introduces a brief shenai when the song 'valaindhu nelindu'. It is as if the through the shenai he is trying to capture the twists and turns of the road. This has long since become a part of the vast canon of Jesudas. And then we have the words of Kannadasan which go straight into your mind and embed themselves on their own.

Edit: This is an addition after I got the comment from my friend Dilip. I knew I had missed some song and Dilip reminded me what I had missed. Here is that lovely 'Aamani Paadave' from 'Geetanjali'. SPB's singing, misty Ooty, the cinematography of PC Sreemam and the tune of Raja. What a combination.

While the song is helped by the visuals, I would say the song succeeds only if it is able to create the ideal world without the help of visuals. I would say all the songs above have this feature. You can listen to them without the visuals and you need even know what the visuals are. But it is very much possible that what you imagined while listening to the song is what has come up on the screen!!! I now give one such song without the visuals. The song from the Telugu movie 'Gayam-2', the idea is to create an 'Andala Lokam', a wonderful world. While Raja created the earlier worlds using his tools of the 80s, he now creates this world using the tools of the current generation, the synthesizer, the synth pad and the computers. Yet the purity of the created world remains the same.

Here too he establishes the softness with the very first note and ensures that the singer starts off delicately and as the pallavi progresses the orchestration joins in to enhance this softness. The delicate touch is maintained in the interlude as well. As we saw in other songs, here too Raja gently merges the charanam into the pallavi without taking torturous turns. The way the charanam finishes makes an imaginary world bloom so well. For those who thing Raja's best was only in 80s, all I can say is that this song matches up to any of the songs I had posted earlier. His brain is still ticking and ticking well.

While the world we opened up was gentle one, there is another type of an ideal. A world full of discovery. It is like looking through the eyes of a child. Everything appears new, everything excites you and you are in a constant state of excitement and happiness. Obviously such a situation different tunes and different orchestration. Lets see a couple of such songs and how Raja handles them.

Well, can any ideal world for the guys of my generation be complete with Sreedevi appearing in it?!! So the first song in this category features Sreedevi. This Suddha Saveri based melody is from the movie 'Kalyanaraman' and sung by Shailaja.

Here is another heroine being mesmerised by the beauty of nature. As in the hoary tradition of Indian films, the hero is mesmerised by her. From the movie 'Namoora Mandhara Hoove", this lovely Mohanam based melody sung flawlessly by the ever dependent Chitra.

If you observe, in both these songs, the song doesn't move in the smooth mode as in the earlier song. In tune with the excitement of discovery, the tunes too move sprightly. There is a 'thullal' in the songs. The rhythm patterns keep changing, the flute keeps playing short bursts of melodious patterns, the pallavi itself has complicated twists and turns. 

An ideal world is foreign to many. What I mean is that for many people, the ideal world exists outside of India, in a foreign country. Many of our movies portray this as well. No wonder Raja had to create songs which talk about these foreign lands and build a great dream world which beckons you. Lets see a couple of them here.

First one, from the movie 'Priya' sung by Jesudas, extolling the virtues of Singapore. 

Hearing this song will want you to relocate to Singapore. This feeling may even come to those who have already experience the sultry Singapore weather. Such is the power of this song.

The next song from the movie 'Ullasa Paravaigal'. This time it is Europe which is the object of affection.

In both these songs the tuning is done keeping the discovery aspect in mind. Something new is being discovered in these lands. The sound has to be new. The 'mama mia' refrain in 'azhagu aayiram', the use of synthesier, the way the tune moves, everything is pretty new and when released, did give a sense of discovery.

While nature and foreign lands kindle our desires, the most ideal world probably lies in being happy with your loved ones. In this song, one more of Malaysia Vasudevan's classic, Raja recreates a world gone by. As a song on nostalgia this is almost unbeatable. As in the first few songs, Raja keeps the whole song soft and it is always a surprise that the rough voice of Malaysia Vasudevan suits these type of soft songs so well.

Director Sathyan Anthikad says this on a tape. The song situation was that the hero and the heroine were friends and were probably falling in love. It was a time where emotions were somewhere in between those of friendship and love. I am sure for many people who fell in love with their best friends, this was probably the best time of their lives. A world where only two of them exist. Now, how can you get such an abstract emotion in your music? How do you get that sense of joy as well the sense of uncertainty of those times into the song? But then we are not dealing with any ordinary composer. The king raises to the challenge and gives Sathyan exactly what he wants. 'swasathin thalam' is an outstanding song, wonderfully sung by Jesudas and Manjari, for the movie 'Achuvinthe Amma'. For some unknown reason, this song always moves me. It takes Raja to create such an out worldly song using the synthesizer.

Is it any wonder that so many people dedicate themselves to Raja's music? After all his music makes life more pleasant and lets us escape into a fantasy world. All said and done, life is a big dream and we can always take Raja's help to create a dream within this dream. While God creates the bigger dream, in many people Raja creates the other dream. No wonder you often see this hashtag in twitter #WhyRajaIsGod.