Crossing the Boundaries down South - 2
As I had promised in my earlier post, we will now talk about a music director of whom it can be said that he crossed all boundaries with utmost ease. Rasayya, aka as Raja, later rechristened as Illayaraja, is a music director who is held in high esteem in all the South Indian languages. Breaking through in Tamil with the refreshing music of 'Annakili', Illayaraja spread his tentacles all over the South and is still giving some amazing melodies in all these languages.
In terms of quantity, his output in Kannada was the lowest amongst the four languages. Still, his songs hold a pride of place in the hearts of Kannadigas. A song, 'Nagu Endidhe' by Janaki, was playing one one of the FM Channels as I was driving. I had no clue on the details of this song like the movie, music director etc but I didn't have an iota of doubt about the music director. This wonderful and complex melody had the stamp of Raja written all over it. I went searching for this song without knowing which movie to look for !! One day I saw the audio tape of 'Pallavi Anupallavi' and bought it. Imagine my surprise when I found this song in it !! 'Pallavi Anupallavi', Maniratnam's first movie and his only movie in Kannda, has some amazing gems. This movie has a great duet by SPB and Janaki, 'Naguva Nayana'. Superb song. A lovely solo of S.P.Shailaja caps this effort.
Illayaraja's songs from films like 'Geetha' and 'Maata Tappada Maga' were major hits.Illayaraja collaborated with Rajkumar in the movie "Nee Nanna Gellalaare". Two songs from this movie are amazing and are loved by everyone. 'Jeeva Hoovagide' bowled me over the first time I heard it and 'Anuraga Enayuthu' in Rajkumar's pathos laden voice is another memorable song from the same movie. In the 90s he came up with an excellent 'Namoora Mandara Hoove'. I heard the song "Paadu Kogile" on FM and without anyone telling me I knew it was Illayaraja. What a song !! (This movie was later made in Tamil. Unfortunately the movie sank immediately on release and the same songs didn't make an impact there). As recently as last year Illayaraja gave excellent background music and a couple of melodious numbers for the movie, 'Aa Dinagalu'. "Shihi Gali" from this movie has become quite popular. Ofcourse the perennial favorite of all Kannadigas "Jothayali" was tuned by Illayaraja for the film 'Geetha'.
In Telugu, Illayaraja came in with the much needed freshness and dominated the Telugu scene with his versatility. Late 70s saw the mediocre music of Chakravarthi dominating the Telugu film scene. Mahadevan's output was mixed. Some excellent films and some not-so-great ones. First Rajan Nagendra came in with their melodies from Kannada films. Then came Illayaraja with fresh melodies. Illayaraja became a sough after music director for Telugu movies and he didn't let the film makers down. His first Telugu film was probably 'Yugandhar', the remake of 'Don'. (It was pretty funny watching NTR do this role.) The songs weren't too great but the later movies started showing his class. Chiranjeevi's early movies like 'Abhilasha', 'Challenge' and 'Rakshasudu' benefited a lot from his music. "Banti Chamanti", "Sandepoddulakada", "Induvadhana Kundaradhana", "Sayankalam", "Accha Accha", "Malli Malli" were great hits. He went on to give music for a lot more Chiranjeevi movies, the most popular one being 'Jagadeka Veerudu Athiloka Sundari'. (I personally feel that the Illayaraja's music in later Chiranjeevi's films was a mixed bag. A couple of good melodies and a few mediocre disco styled songs)
Illayaraja had excellent association with directors like K.Vishwanath and Vamsi. I personally feel that Illayaraja achieved his pinnacle in Telugu films in the movies of Vishwanath. The earlier combination of K.Vishwanath - K V Mahadevan was a formidable one, with films like 'Undama Bottu Pedata', 'Siri Siri Muvva', 'Saptapadi', 'Subhodayam' and the wildly popular 'Sankarabharam' under their belt. Illayaraja had to match up to this gold standard. And, Oh boy, did he deliver. 'Sagara Sangaman' was nothing short of a Tyson knockout. What a score it turned out to be, whether it was the songs or the background music. Illayaraja showed his respect for K.Vishwanath and in the process gave songs like "Om Nama Shivaya", "Vedham Anuvanuvuna Nadham", "Ve Vela Gopammala", "Mounamelanoyi", "Vagardhdiba", "Takita Tadimi" which time will find hard to erase from our collective consciousness. He followed this with two more gems for K Vishwanath, 'Swarna Kamalam' and 'Swathi Muthyam'. Even if Illayaraja had scored for just these three movies in Telugu, his fame would have been everlasting.
Vamsi was another director for whom Illayaraja reserved something special. Whether it be the raunchy 'Ladies Tailor', the supposed thriller 'Anveshana' or any of his other movies like 'Aalapana', 'Maharishi', 'Chettukinda Pleader', Illayaraja was free to experiment and he came up with some great tunes. Who can forget "Keeravani"? (Unlike K.Vishwanath's films which always had original tunes, in Vamsi's films Illayaraja reused some of his Tamil tunes to good effect.). Last year he scored for the Vamsi movie ('Anumanaspadam') after a long gap. The songs were good but unfortunately the movie didn't do too well at the box office.
When Chiranjeevi made 'Rudraveena', he roped in K Balachander to direct it and Illayaraja to handle the music department. Two of the songs from this movie always make my mouth open in wonder. The wonderful Hamsadhwani tinged "Tarali Rada Thane Vasantham" and an unparalleled Lalita in "Laitha Priya Kamalam". The intricate charanams of the second song showcase the complex mind of the composer and his grasp of melody. This song was also helped by some superb lyrics by Sirivennela Sitarama Sastry. (The movie was remade in Tamil as 'Unnal Mudiyun Tambi'' with Kamalahasan in the lead. The Lalitha song was retained as "Vizhiyil Kadai Ezhuthum Neramidu" but the Hamsadhwani song gave way to Suddha Dhanyasi based "Nanjai Undu Punjai Undu")
As with Kannada, Maniratnam made only one Telugu movie, Geetanjali, and his natural musical collaborator of those days was Illayaraja. The mere name of the movie evokes mist laden Ooty
lovingly captured by P C Sriram and the enchanting tunes of Illayaraja. These two aspects went a long way in making this movie a super duper hit. "Jallanta Kowgintha", "O Papa Laali", "Amani Paadave" and "Om Namaha" are songs which reverberate everywhere even today.The other whiz kid director, Ramgopal Varma, opened his innings with the music of Illayaraja for his movie 'Shiva'. The songs of this movie were also very popular in those times. (Varma remade this movie in Hindi in 2006 titled 'Shiva 2006'. Music was by Illayaraja. The movie sank without a trace)
Illayaraja also given lot of melodies in movies like 'Coolie No. 1', 'Bobbili Raja', 'Chaitanya', 'Surya IPS', 'Aakari Poratam', 'Aditya 369' and many more.
While Illayaraja has done some great work in Kannada and Telugu, he seems to have given, as Julie Andrews would have said,"better than his best" for Malayalam. Traditionally, Malayalam Film music is supposed to be biased on the side of melody. Added to it Illayaraja had to match up to the glorious music of people like Baburaj, Salil Choudhary, Devarajan and his own guru, V.Dakshinamurthy. I guess nothing spurs a genius more than a challenge and Illayarja responded by creating magic in Malayalam movies. I heard the songs he had composed for Malayalam films of 80s only recently but I was immediately taken in by the melodies. It is beyond doubt that these were products of a genius at his prime. "Unarumee ganam", "Tamarkili Padunnu", "Ritubedha Kalpana", "Alli Ilam Poovo", "Poovai Virinju", "Yamuna", "Mizhiyil Meen", "Snehathin Poonjolai", the songs of Olangal. Each of this is a song to die for. There is a smooth flow in all these songs and Illayaraja builds up the melody tremendously. Raja Sir, as he his fondly called in Kerala, was at the peak of his creativity and all of us, especially Malayalis, were lucky to get such great melodies.
(Check out http://www.dhool.com. Look out for an article on S.Janaki's songs in Malayalam.
One part of this series of articles by Saravanan, talks about the songs S.Janaki sung for Illayaraja in Malayalam)
(Listen to "Thumbi Vaa" from Olangal here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1lBbkWx0Dk
Listen to "Tamarakili" here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNvk6-szeug
Listen to "Ritubedha" here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUK8KO-fW98&feature=related
You will find many more great songs in YouTube)
Those were the songs of the 80s. Two of his most ambitious projects happened in Malayalam in the 90s. 'Kalapani' and 'Guru'. 'Kalapani' was a combination of heady melody with grand orchestration and each song is a gem. 'Guru' took orchestration to a different level. I personally hold that in Indian film music there has been no film which had such a majestic and opulent orchestration as 'Guru'. (Illayaraja bettered this only in his private album, 'Tiruvasagam'.) The experimentation in each of these films is exceptional. Every time I hear "Deva Sangeetham" from 'Guru' I am amazed at the different layers that Illayaraja builds so effortlessly.
(Listen to this amazing number from Kalapani : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciM3UwjoyAc
Listen to the Guru song here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vv23U5Rbjiw)
The 21st century saw Illayaraja forming a very durable and melodious association with Sathyan Anthikad. Illayaraja has always been respected by the Malayalam film directors and has great associations with directors like Fazil and Priyadarshan. Sathyan Antikad came to Illayaraja after a long innings with music director Johnson. This pairing of Sathyan and Illayaraja had not disappointed with the music of all their films has being great hits."Enthu Paranjalum", Illayaraja's reworking of "Pacha Mala Poovu", from 'Achuvinte Amma' is almost like an anthem for mother-daughter relationship. 'Kochu Kochu Santoshangal', 'Achuvinte Amma', 'Rasatanthram', 'Manasinakkare' and 'Vinodayatra' all had memorable songs.
During the late 1990s Illayaraja also gave some great music for the movie 'Friends'. (Not sure if this was made as 'Friends' in Tamil. The songs of the Tamil movie 'Friends' are very mediocre compared to the beauty that was Malayalam 'Friends'). Very recently Illayaraja gave an excellent Sriranjani based "Vasantha Nila" for the Malayalam movie 'Surya'. Infact Illayaraja keeps demonstrating his genius in songs like "Kaiyeta" (Vinodayatra) and "Vasantha Nila" (Surya) so much so that all Illayaraja fans now look forward more to his movies in Malayalam than in Tamil !!
(Listen to "Endhu Paranjalum" : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UD5qwzsCB9c
Listen to "Koda Mannjin" : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgjJCKPVDW8
Listen to "Aatinkayorathu" : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfNxhjHUO6w&feature=related
Listen to "Madarapoo" : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9kDwBsuePk&feature=related )
It can be said without any semblance of doubt that Illayaraja is one music director who broke all barriers down south and created magic in each of these languages. No wonder Illayaraja is loved, respected and has hard core fans in all these languages.
In terms of quantity, his output in Kannada was the lowest amongst the four languages. Still, his songs hold a pride of place in the hearts of Kannadigas. A song, 'Nagu Endidhe' by Janaki, was playing one one of the FM Channels as I was driving. I had no clue on the details of this song like the movie, music director etc but I didn't have an iota of doubt about the music director. This wonderful and complex melody had the stamp of Raja written all over it. I went searching for this song without knowing which movie to look for !! One day I saw the audio tape of 'Pallavi Anupallavi' and bought it. Imagine my surprise when I found this song in it !! 'Pallavi Anupallavi', Maniratnam's first movie and his only movie in Kannda, has some amazing gems. This movie has a great duet by SPB and Janaki, 'Naguva Nayana'. Superb song. A lovely solo of S.P.Shailaja caps this effort.
Illayaraja's songs from films like 'Geetha' and 'Maata Tappada Maga' were major hits.Illayaraja collaborated with Rajkumar in the movie "Nee Nanna Gellalaare". Two songs from this movie are amazing and are loved by everyone. 'Jeeva Hoovagide' bowled me over the first time I heard it and 'Anuraga Enayuthu' in Rajkumar's pathos laden voice is another memorable song from the same movie. In the 90s he came up with an excellent 'Namoora Mandara Hoove'. I heard the song "Paadu Kogile" on FM and without anyone telling me I knew it was Illayaraja. What a song !! (This movie was later made in Tamil. Unfortunately the movie sank immediately on release and the same songs didn't make an impact there). As recently as last year Illayaraja gave excellent background music and a couple of melodious numbers for the movie, 'Aa Dinagalu'. "Shihi Gali" from this movie has become quite popular. Ofcourse the perennial favorite of all Kannadigas "Jothayali" was tuned by Illayaraja for the film 'Geetha'.
In Telugu, Illayaraja came in with the much needed freshness and dominated the Telugu scene with his versatility. Late 70s saw the mediocre music of Chakravarthi dominating the Telugu film scene. Mahadevan's output was mixed. Some excellent films and some not-so-great ones. First Rajan Nagendra came in with their melodies from Kannada films. Then came Illayaraja with fresh melodies. Illayaraja became a sough after music director for Telugu movies and he didn't let the film makers down. His first Telugu film was probably 'Yugandhar', the remake of 'Don'. (It was pretty funny watching NTR do this role.) The songs weren't too great but the later movies started showing his class. Chiranjeevi's early movies like 'Abhilasha', 'Challenge' and 'Rakshasudu' benefited a lot from his music. "Banti Chamanti", "Sandepoddulakada", "Induvadhana Kundaradhana", "Sayankalam", "Accha Accha", "Malli Malli" were great hits. He went on to give music for a lot more Chiranjeevi movies, the most popular one being 'Jagadeka Veerudu Athiloka Sundari'. (I personally feel that the Illayaraja's music in later Chiranjeevi's films was a mixed bag. A couple of good melodies and a few mediocre disco styled songs)
Illayaraja had excellent association with directors like K.Vishwanath and Vamsi. I personally feel that Illayaraja achieved his pinnacle in Telugu films in the movies of Vishwanath. The earlier combination of K.Vishwanath - K V Mahadevan was a formidable one, with films like 'Undama Bottu Pedata', 'Siri Siri Muvva', 'Saptapadi', 'Subhodayam' and the wildly popular 'Sankarabharam' under their belt. Illayaraja had to match up to this gold standard. And, Oh boy, did he deliver. 'Sagara Sangaman' was nothing short of a Tyson knockout. What a score it turned out to be, whether it was the songs or the background music. Illayaraja showed his respect for K.Vishwanath and in the process gave songs like "Om Nama Shivaya", "Vedham Anuvanuvuna Nadham", "Ve Vela Gopammala", "Mounamelanoyi", "Vagardhdiba", "Takita Tadimi" which time will find hard to erase from our collective consciousness. He followed this with two more gems for K Vishwanath, 'Swarna Kamalam' and 'Swathi Muthyam'. Even if Illayaraja had scored for just these three movies in Telugu, his fame would have been everlasting.
Vamsi was another director for whom Illayaraja reserved something special. Whether it be the raunchy 'Ladies Tailor', the supposed thriller 'Anveshana' or any of his other movies like 'Aalapana', 'Maharishi', 'Chettukinda Pleader', Illayaraja was free to experiment and he came up with some great tunes. Who can forget "Keeravani"? (Unlike K.Vishwanath's films which always had original tunes, in Vamsi's films Illayaraja reused some of his Tamil tunes to good effect.). Last year he scored for the Vamsi movie ('Anumanaspadam') after a long gap. The songs were good but unfortunately the movie didn't do too well at the box office.
When Chiranjeevi made 'Rudraveena', he roped in K Balachander to direct it and Illayaraja to handle the music department. Two of the songs from this movie always make my mouth open in wonder. The wonderful Hamsadhwani tinged "Tarali Rada Thane Vasantham" and an unparalleled Lalita in "Laitha Priya Kamalam". The intricate charanams of the second song showcase the complex mind of the composer and his grasp of melody. This song was also helped by some superb lyrics by Sirivennela Sitarama Sastry. (The movie was remade in Tamil as 'Unnal Mudiyun Tambi'' with Kamalahasan in the lead. The Lalitha song was retained as "Vizhiyil Kadai Ezhuthum Neramidu" but the Hamsadhwani song gave way to Suddha Dhanyasi based "Nanjai Undu Punjai Undu")
As with Kannada, Maniratnam made only one Telugu movie, Geetanjali, and his natural musical collaborator of those days was Illayaraja. The mere name of the movie evokes mist laden Ooty
lovingly captured by P C Sriram and the enchanting tunes of Illayaraja. These two aspects went a long way in making this movie a super duper hit. "Jallanta Kowgintha", "O Papa Laali", "Amani Paadave" and "Om Namaha" are songs which reverberate everywhere even today.The other whiz kid director, Ramgopal Varma, opened his innings with the music of Illayaraja for his movie 'Shiva'. The songs of this movie were also very popular in those times. (Varma remade this movie in Hindi in 2006 titled 'Shiva 2006'. Music was by Illayaraja. The movie sank without a trace)
Illayaraja also given lot of melodies in movies like 'Coolie No. 1', 'Bobbili Raja', 'Chaitanya', 'Surya IPS', 'Aakari Poratam', 'Aditya 369' and many more.
While Illayaraja has done some great work in Kannada and Telugu, he seems to have given, as Julie Andrews would have said,"better than his best" for Malayalam. Traditionally, Malayalam Film music is supposed to be biased on the side of melody. Added to it Illayaraja had to match up to the glorious music of people like Baburaj, Salil Choudhary, Devarajan and his own guru, V.Dakshinamurthy. I guess nothing spurs a genius more than a challenge and Illayarja responded by creating magic in Malayalam movies. I heard the songs he had composed for Malayalam films of 80s only recently but I was immediately taken in by the melodies. It is beyond doubt that these were products of a genius at his prime. "Unarumee ganam", "Tamarkili Padunnu", "Ritubedha Kalpana", "Alli Ilam Poovo", "Poovai Virinju", "Yamuna", "Mizhiyil Meen", "Snehathin Poonjolai", the songs of Olangal. Each of this is a song to die for. There is a smooth flow in all these songs and Illayaraja builds up the melody tremendously. Raja Sir, as he his fondly called in Kerala, was at the peak of his creativity and all of us, especially Malayalis, were lucky to get such great melodies.
(Check out http://www.dhool.com. Look out for an article on S.Janaki's songs in Malayalam.
One part of this series of articles by Saravanan, talks about the songs S.Janaki sung for Illayaraja in Malayalam)
(Listen to "Thumbi Vaa" from Olangal here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1lBbkWx0Dk
Listen to "Tamarakili" here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNvk6-szeug
Listen to "Ritubedha" here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUK8KO-fW98&feature=related
You will find many more great songs in YouTube)
Those were the songs of the 80s. Two of his most ambitious projects happened in Malayalam in the 90s. 'Kalapani' and 'Guru'. 'Kalapani' was a combination of heady melody with grand orchestration and each song is a gem. 'Guru' took orchestration to a different level. I personally hold that in Indian film music there has been no film which had such a majestic and opulent orchestration as 'Guru'. (Illayaraja bettered this only in his private album, 'Tiruvasagam'.) The experimentation in each of these films is exceptional. Every time I hear "Deva Sangeetham" from 'Guru' I am amazed at the different layers that Illayaraja builds so effortlessly.
(Listen to this amazing number from Kalapani : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciM3UwjoyAc
Listen to the Guru song here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vv23U5Rbjiw)
The 21st century saw Illayaraja forming a very durable and melodious association with Sathyan Anthikad. Illayaraja has always been respected by the Malayalam film directors and has great associations with directors like Fazil and Priyadarshan. Sathyan Antikad came to Illayaraja after a long innings with music director Johnson. This pairing of Sathyan and Illayaraja had not disappointed with the music of all their films has being great hits."Enthu Paranjalum", Illayaraja's reworking of "Pacha Mala Poovu", from 'Achuvinte Amma' is almost like an anthem for mother-daughter relationship. 'Kochu Kochu Santoshangal', 'Achuvinte Amma', 'Rasatanthram', 'Manasinakkare' and 'Vinodayatra' all had memorable songs.
During the late 1990s Illayaraja also gave some great music for the movie 'Friends'. (Not sure if this was made as 'Friends' in Tamil. The songs of the Tamil movie 'Friends' are very mediocre compared to the beauty that was Malayalam 'Friends'). Very recently Illayaraja gave an excellent Sriranjani based "Vasantha Nila" for the Malayalam movie 'Surya'. Infact Illayaraja keeps demonstrating his genius in songs like "Kaiyeta" (Vinodayatra) and "Vasantha Nila" (Surya) so much so that all Illayaraja fans now look forward more to his movies in Malayalam than in Tamil !!
(Listen to "Endhu Paranjalum" : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UD5qwzsCB9c
Listen to "Koda Mannjin" : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgjJCKPVDW8
Listen to "Aatinkayorathu" : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfNxhjHUO6w&feature=related
Listen to "Madarapoo" : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9kDwBsuePk&feature=related )
It can be said without any semblance of doubt that Illayaraja is one music director who broke all barriers down south and created magic in each of these languages. No wonder Illayaraja is loved, respected and has hard core fans in all these languages.
Comments
BTW, I think the "Rudraveena" remake in Tamil is "Unnal mudiyum thambi" and not "Thoongadhe thambi thoongadhe" (going by the songs you mentioned).
- Ramki.
With Luv,
Arun
Good work. A very good summary of Raja's work in all the four South Indian languages. It is unfortunate that his orchestration genius did not find many takers in the Hindi cinema world. Apart from an occasional praise, he does not go very far.
If you observe closely, Raja had two major voices that helped bring out his musical ideas - SPB and Yesudas. One helped him expand to Telugu and another into Malayalam. Coming to the Kannada story, Raja did most of his 100 odd films as assistant to GKV in Kannada. It was on his suggestion that GKV tried Rajkumar's voice and the rest is history.
I agree with you that Raja does his best work outside Tamil - in Malayalam. The experimentation scope is limited in Tamil and to a degree in Telugu as these are not necessarily true melody formats (today) when it comes to music. I am completely blown away by Raja's Malayalam compositions that I am tempted to get hold of everything that he has done in Malayalam.
Do get all his Malayalam numbers. You will not be disappointed. Try www.punchapaadam.com They have lot of Raja's music there.
S.Suresh