Ilaiyaraaja
Encyclopedia
Ilaiyaraaja (born Gnanadesikan on 2 June 1943) is an Indian film composer, singer, and lyricist
mainly in the Tamil film Industry
. He is regarded as one of the finest music composers in India. Ilaiyaraaja is also an instrumentalist, conductor
, and a songwriter
. To date, he has composed over 4500 songs and provided film scores for more than 950 Indian films in various languages in a career spanning more than 30 years, particularly being acclaimed for his background scoring for Indian films. His songs and background score played a very crucial role in the success of many films. He remains one of the most popular composers ever in the South Indian film industry, and also in the list of world's top selling music artists.
Ilaiyaraaja has been a prominent composer of film music
in South India
n cinema since the late 1970s. His works are mainly in Tamil
, but has also scored music for Telugu
, Malayalam
, Kannada, Marathi
and Hindi
film industries. He integrated folk lyricism (in Tamil) and introduced broader Western musical sensibilities into the South Indian musical mainstream. A gold medalist in classical guitar
from Trinity College of Music, London
, in 1993 he became the first Asian to compose a full symphony
performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
in London's Walthamstow
Town Hall. In 2003, according to a BBC
international poll, people from 155 countries voted his composition "Rakkamma Kaiya Thattu" from the 1991 film Thalapathi
fourth in the world's top 10 most popular songs of all time. He was also nominated in the Best Indian album Music Awards category at US based Just Plain Folks Music Organization
, which is the largest grassroots music organization in the world, and stood third for his "Music Journey: Live in Italy".
In the 2000s, he composed a variety of non-film music, including religious
and devotional song
s, an oratorio
, and world music
, while shifting his focus to Malayalam films. He is usually referred to by the title Isaignani , or as The Maestro. He has won four Indian National Film Awards
; three for Best Music Direction
and one for Best Background Score and is a recipient of the prestigious Padma Bhushan
Award from the Government of India
. He is married to Jeeva, and the couple's two sons (Karthik Raja
and Yuvan Shankar Raja
) and daughter (Bhavatharini
) are film composers and singers.
, Theni
district, Tamil Nadu
, India, but when he was joined in the school his father changed his name as "Raajayya" but his village people used to call him as "Raasayya". Ilaiyaraaja joined Dhanraj Master as a student to learn musical instruments and the master renamed and called him as just "Raaja". In his first movie Annakkili Tamil
film producer Panchu Arunachalam added "Ilaiya" (Ilaiya means younger in Tamil
language) as prefix in his name Raaja and he named as "Ilaiyaraaja" because in 1970's there was one more music director A. M. Raja
who was a popular one.
written by the Tamil poet laureate Kannadasan
for Jawaharlal Nehru
, India's first prime minister.
In 1968, Ilaiyaraaja began a music course with Professor Dhanraj in Madras (now Chennai), which included an overview of Western classical music
, compositional training in techniques such as counterpoint
, and study in instrumental performance. Ilaiyaraaja specialized in classical guitar
and had taken a course in it at the Trinity College of Music, London
.
, keyboardist
, and organist
for film music composers and directors such as Salil Chowdhury
from West Bengal
. After being hired as the musical assistant to Kannada film composer G. K. Venkatesh, he worked on 200 film projects, mostly in the Kannada language. As G. K. Venkatesh's assistant, Ilaiyaraaja would orchestrate
the melodic outlines developed by Venkatesh. During this period, Ilaiyaraaja also began writing his own scores. To hear his compositions, he would persuade Venkatesh's session musician
s to play excerpts from his scores during their break times. Ilaiyaraaja would hire instruments from composer R. K. Shekhar
, father of composer A. R. Rahman
, who later joined Ilaiyaraaja's orchestra as a keyboardist.
for a Tamil-language
film called Annakkili ('The Parrot'). For the soundtrack, Ilaiyaraaja applied the techniques of modern popular film music orchestration to Tamil folk poetry and folk song melodies, which created a fusion of Western and Tamil idioms. Ilaiyaraaja's use of Tamil music in his film scores injected new influence into the Indian film score milieu. By the mid-1980s Ilaiyaraaja was gaining increasing stature as a film composer and music director in the South Indian film industry. He has worked with Indian poets and lyricists such as Gulzar
, Kannadasan
, Veturi Sundararama Murthy, Sirivennela Sitaramasastri
, Vairamuthu
and T. S. Rangarajan (Vaali
), and film directors such as Bharathiraja
, K. Balachander
, K. Vishwanath, Singeetam Srinivasa Rao, Vamsy
, Balu Mahendra
, R. Balki
and Mani Ratnam
.
According to musicologist P. Greene, Ilaiyaraaja's "deep understanding of so many different styles of music allowed him to create syncretic pieces of music combining very different musical idioms in unified, coherent musical statements". Ilaiyaraaja has composed Indian film songs that amalgamated elements of genre
s such as
Afro-tribal, bossa nova
, dance music
(e.g., disco
),
doo-wop
, flamenco
, acoustic guitar
-propelled Western folk, funk
, Indian classical
, Indian folk/traditional
, jazz
, march, pathos
, pop
, psychedelia
, and rock and roll
.
By virtue of this variety and his interfusion of Western, Indian folk and Carnatic
elements, Ilaiyaraaja's compositions appeal to the Indian rural dweller for its rhythm
ic folk qualities, the Indian classical music enthusiast for the employment of Carnatic ragams, and the urbanite for its modern, Western-music sound. Ilaiyaraaja's sense of visualization for composing music is always to match up with the storyline of the running movie and possibly by doing so, he creates the best experience for the audience to feel the emotions flavored through his musical score. He mastered this art of blending music to the narration, which very few others managed to adapt themselves over a longer time.
Although Ilaiyaraaja uses a range of complex compositional techniques, he often sketches out the basic melodic ideas for films in a very spontaneous fashion. The Indian filmmaker Mani Ratnam
illustrates:
, drum machines, rhythm boxes and MIDI with large orchestras that feature traditional instruments such as the veena
, venu
, nadaswaram
, dholak
, mridangam and tabla
as well as Western lead instruments such as saxophones and flutes.
He uses catchy melodies fleshed out with a variety of chord progression
s, beats and timbre
s. Ilaiyaraaja's songs typically have a musical form where vocal stanza
s and choruses
are interspersed with orchestral preludes
and interludes
. They often contain polyphonic melodies, where the lead vocals are interwoven with supporting melody lines sung by another voice or played by instruments.
The bassline
s in his songs tend to be melodically dynamic, rising and falling in a dramatic fashion. Polyrhythm
s are also apparent, particularly in songs with Indian folk or Carnatic influences. The melodic structure of his songs demand considerable vocal virtuosity, and have found expressive platform amongst some of India's respected vocalists and playback singer
s, such as S. P. Balasubramaniam, K. J. Yesudas
, S. Janaki
, K. S. Chitra, Swarnalatha
, S. P. Sailaja
, T. M. Soundararajan, P. Susheela
, Sujatha
, Malaysia Vasudevan
, Asha Bhonsle, Lata Mangeshkar
, Sadhana Sargam
and the latest sensation Shreya Ghoshal. Ilaiyaraaja has sung over 400 of his own compositions for films, and is recognisable by his stark, nasal voice. He has penned the lyrics for some of his songs in Tamil and other languages. Ilaiyaraaja's film scores are known both for the dramatic and evocative melodies, and for the more subtle background music that he uses to provide texture or mood for scenes in films such as Johnny
(1980), Mouna Raagam
(1986), Geethanjali
(1989) and Guna
(1991).
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 Tyāgarāja
and to J. S. Bach. It features a fusion of the Carnatic form and ragas with Bach partita
s, fugue
s and Baroque
musical textures. The second, Nothing But Wind (1988), was performed by flutist 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.).
He has composed a set of Carnatic kriti
s that was recorded by electric mandolinist U. Srinivas
for the album Ilayaraaja's Classicals on the Mandolin (1994). 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, and his Thiruvasakam: A crossover (2005) is an oratorio
of ancient Tamil poems transcribed partially in English by American lyricist Stephen Schwartz
and performed by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra. Ilaiyaraaja's most recent release is a world music-oriented album called The Music Messiah (2006). Its musical concept is based against a mythological narrative. His recent release in November 2008, is Manikantan Geet Mala released by India Tales with 9 songs praising Lord Ayyappa in almost all south Indian languages.
and Swarnalatha
in the movie Thalapathi
(1991), was among the songs listed in a BBC
World Top Ten music poll. He composed the music for Nayagan
(1987), an Indian film ranked by TIME Magazine
as one of the all-time 100 best movies, a number of India's official entries to the Oscars, such as Anjali
(1990) and Hey Ram
(2000), and for Indian art film
s such as Adoor Gopalakrishnan
's FIPRESCI
Prize-winning Nizhalkkuthu ('The Dance of Shadows') (2002). Ilaiyaraaja has composed music for events such as the 1996 Miss World
beauty pageant that was held in Bangalore
, India, and for a documentary called India 24 Hours (1996). The pop/hip-hop band The Black Eyed Peas
sampled an Ilaiyaraaja composition called "Unakkum Ennakum", from the film Sri Raghavendra (1985), for their tune "The Elephunk Theme" from their breakout album, Elephunk
(2003). The alternative artist M.I.A.
sampled his composition "Kaatukuyilu" from the film Thalapathi (1991) for her song "Bamboo Banga" on the album Kala
(2007). His music compositions for the Hindi movie "Paa
" (3 December 2009) has won critical acclaim in several media reviews.
in Chennai, India on 16 October 2005. The show was widely televised both in India and abroad, in which he played a song with just three notes (sa re ga). Less well-known was his live 2004 performance in Italy at the Teatro Comunale di Modena, an event-concert presented for the 14th edition of Angelica, Festival Internazionale Di Musica, co-produced with the L'Altro Suono Festival. He had done a few small-scale shows early in his career in Sri Lanka and Malaysia and was involved in a charity concert to raise funds for the construction of a Hindu temple in India.
A television retrospective titled Ithu Ilaiyaraja ('This is Ilaiyaraja') was produced, chronicling his career.
Ilaiyaraaja has won the National Film Award for Best Music Direction
for the Tamil film Sindhu Bhairavi
(1986) and the Telugu films Rudraveena
(1989) and Saagara Sangamam
(1984). He also won the National Film Award for Best Background Score
for Malayalam film Pazhassi Raja (2010). He won the Gold Remi Award for Best Music Score jointly with film composer M. S. Viswanathan
at the WorldFest-Houston Film Festival
for the film Vishwa Thulasi
(2005).
He was conferred the title Isaignani (English: Savant of Music) in 1988 by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi
in a grand public function held in Karaikudi and received the Kalaimamani
Award, an annual award for excellence in the field of arts from the Government of the State of Tamil Nadu, India. He also received State Government Awards from the governments of Kerala
(1994, 1995, 1998), Andhra Pradesh
and Madhya Pradesh
(The Lata Mangeshkar Award) (1998) for excellence in music. In 2010, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan
, India's third highest civilian honour. Alongside he also won the Akshaya Samman of the year (2010), a prestigious musical award from Orissa
for his outstanding contribution in the field of music.
He was awarded honorary doctorates by Annamalai University
, Tamil Nadu
, India
(Degree of Doctor of Letter (Honoris causa)) (March 1994), the World University Round Table, Arizona
, U.S.A. (Cultural Doctorate in Philosophy of Music) (April 1994), and Madurai Kamaraj University
, Tamil Nadu (Degree of Doctor of Letters) (1996).
He received an Award of Appreciation from the Foundation and Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America
(1994), and later that year was presented with an honorary citizenship and key to the Teaneck township by Mr. John Abraham, Mayor of Teaneck, New Jersey, U.S.A. In a poll conducted by the BBC, his track "Rakkamma Kaiya Thattu" from the 1991 movie Thalapathi
rated Number 4 in the World's Top Ten list.
Lyricist
A lyricist is a songwriter who specializes in lyrics. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist. This differentiates from a singer-composer, who composes the song's melody.-Collaboration:...
mainly in the Tamil film Industry
Tamil cinema
Tamil cinema is the film industry based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, dedicated to the production of films in the Tamil language. It is based in Chennai's Kodambakkam district, where several South Indian film production companies are headquartered...
. He is regarded as one of the finest music composers in India. Ilaiyaraaja is also an instrumentalist, conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
, and a songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
. To date, he has composed over 4500 songs and provided film scores for more than 950 Indian films in various languages in a career spanning more than 30 years, particularly being acclaimed for his background scoring for Indian films. His songs and background score played a very crucial role in the success of many films. He remains one of the most popular composers ever in the South Indian film industry, and also in the list of world's top selling music artists.
Ilaiyaraaja has been a prominent composer of film music
Filmi
Filmi is Indian popular music as written and performed for Indian cinema. Music directors make up the main body of composers; the songs are performed by playback singers and it makes up 72% of the music sales in India....
in South India
South India
South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...
n cinema since the late 1970s. His works are mainly in Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
, but has also scored music for Telugu
Telugu language
Telugu is a Central Dravidian language primarily spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, where it is an official language. It is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamil Nadu...
, Malayalam
Malayalam language
Malayalam , is one of the four major Dravidian languages of southern India. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India with official language status in the state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry. It is spoken by 35.9 million people...
, Kannada, Marathi
Marathi language
Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are over 68 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India and is the fifteenth most...
and Hindi
Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
film industries. He integrated folk lyricism (in Tamil) and introduced broader Western musical sensibilities into the South Indian musical mainstream. A gold medalist in classical guitar
Classical guitar
The classical guitar is a 6-stringed plucked string instrument from the family of instruments called chordophones...
from Trinity College of Music, London
Trinity College of Music
Trinity College of Music is one of the London music conservatories, based in Greenwich. It is part of Trinity Laban.The conservatoire is inheritor of elegant riverside buildings of the former Greenwich Hospital, designed in part by Sir Christopher Wren...
, in 1993 he became the first Asian to compose a full symphony
Symphony
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...
performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It tours widely, and is sometimes referred to as "Britain's national orchestra"...
in London's Walthamstow
Walthamstow
Walthamstow is a district of northeast London, England, located in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It is situated north-east of Charing Cross...
Town Hall. In 2003, according to a BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
international poll, people from 155 countries voted his composition "Rakkamma Kaiya Thattu" from the 1991 film Thalapathi
Thalapathi
Thalapathi is a 1991 Indian Tamil film written and directed by Mani Ratnam, and produced by G. Venkateswaran under the banner of G. V. Films. The film stars Rajnikanth, Mammootty and Shobana in the lead roles with Arvind Swamy, Srividya, Amrish Puri, Bhanupriya, Nagesh, and Charuhasan essaying...
fourth in the world's top 10 most popular songs of all time. He was also nominated in the Best Indian album Music Awards category at US based Just Plain Folks Music Organization
Just Plain Folks Music Organization
Just Plain Folks Music Organization is a website and community founded by Brian Austin Whitney with the intent of helping anyone involved in the music industry to network, share their experiences, build relationships, and grow...
, which is the largest grassroots music organization in the world, and stood third for his "Music Journey: Live in Italy".
In the 2000s, he composed a variety of non-film music, including religious
Religious music
Religious music is music performed or composed for religious use or through religious influence.A lot of music has been composed to complement religion, and many composers have derived inspiration from their own religion. Many forms of traditional music have been adapted to fit religions'...
and devotional song
Devotional song
A devotional song is a hymn which accompanies religious observances and rituals.Each major religion has its own tradition with devotional hymns. In the West, the devotional has been a part of the liturgy in Roman Catholicism, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Russian Orthodox Church, and others, since...
s, an oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
, and world music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
, while shifting his focus to Malayalam films. He is usually referred to by the title Isaignani , or as The Maestro. He has won four Indian National Film Awards
National Film Awards
The National Film Awards is the most prominent film award ceremony in India. Established in 1954, it is administered, along with the International Film Festival of India and the Indian Panorama, by the Indian government's Directorate of Film Festivals since 1973.Every year, a national panel...
; three for Best Music Direction
National Film Award for Best Music Direction
The National Film Award for Best Music Direction are given annually. In years 1994, 1995 and 2010, an award for Best Background Score was instituted by the Jury, which was won by Johnson and by Ilaiyaraaja . Ilaiyaraaja and A. R...
and one for Best Background Score and is a recipient of the prestigious Padma Bhushan
Padma Bhushan
The Padma Bhushan is the third highest civilian award in the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan, but comes before the Padma Shri. It is awarded by the Government of India.-History:...
Award from the Government of India
Government of India
The Government of India, officially known as the Union Government, and also known as the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of the union of 28 states and seven union territories, collectively called the Republic of India...
. He is married to Jeeva, and the couple's two sons (Karthik Raja
Karthik Raja
Karthik Raja is a Tamil musician from Chennai, India. He made his debut as music composer in the Tamil film Alexander.-Personal life:Karthik Raja is the eldest son of musician Ilaiyaraaja and Jeeva. His brother Yuvan Shankar Raja and sister Bhavatharini, who are also Kollywood music directors and...
and Yuvan Shankar Raja
Yuvan Shankar Raja
Yuvan Shankar Raja is an Indian film score and soundtrack composer, singer and occasional lyricist. He has predominantly scored music for Tamil as well as several Telugu films. His musical career began in 1996, at age 16, as he composed the film score for Aravindhan...
) and daughter (Bhavatharini
Bhavatharini
Bhavatharani is an Indian Tamil singer and music director. She is the daughter of film composer Ilaiyaraaja and her brothers are the noted film composers Karthik Raja and Yuvan Shankar Raja and has mostly sung songs under her father and her brothers' direction...
) are film composers and singers.
Early life
Ilaiyaraaja was born as Gnanadesikan in PannaipuramPannaipuram
Pannaipuram is a panchayat town in Theni district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located hill foot of "Western Ghats" and has very good literacy. Bommaiyaswamy Temple is located here...
, Theni
Theni District
Theni District is a district of Tamil Nadu state in South India. The city of Theni is the district headquarters. The district is divided into two natural divisions: The hilly areas constituted by parts of the three taluks Periyakulam, Uthamapalayam and Andipatti with thick vegetation and...
district, Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...
, India, but when he was joined in the school his father changed his name as "Raajayya" but his village people used to call him as "Raasayya". Ilaiyaraaja joined Dhanraj Master as a student to learn musical instruments and the master renamed and called him as just "Raaja". In his first movie Annakkili Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
film producer Panchu Arunachalam added "Ilaiya" (Ilaiya means younger in Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
language) as prefix in his name Raaja and he named as "Ilaiyaraaja" because in 1970's there was one more music director A. M. Raja
A. M. Raja
A. M. Raja is an Indian politician and former Member of the Legislative Assembly of Tamil Nadu. He was elected to the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly as a Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam candidate from Bhavani constituency in 1967, and 1971 elections....
who was a popular one.
Early exposure to music
Ilaiyaraaja was growing up in a rural area, he was exposed to a range of Tamil folk music. At the age of 14, he joined a travelling musical troupe headed by his elder stepbrother, Pavalar Varadarajan, and spent the next decade performing throughout South India. While working with the troupe, he penned his first composition, a musical adaptation of an elegyElegy
In literature, an elegy is a mournful, melancholic or plaintive poem, especially a funeral song or a lament for the dead.-History:The Greek term elegeia originally referred to any verse written in elegiac couplets and covering a wide range of subject matter, including epitaphs for tombs...
written by the Tamil poet laureate Kannadasan
Kannadasan
Kannadasan was a Tamil poet and lyricist, heralded as one of the greatest and most important writer in the Tamil language...
for Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru , often referred to with the epithet of Panditji, was an Indian statesman who became the first Prime Minister of independent India and became noted for his “neutralist” policies in foreign affairs. He was also one of the principal leaders of India’s independence movement in the...
, India's first prime minister.
In 1968, Ilaiyaraaja began a music course with Professor Dhanraj in Madras (now Chennai), which included an overview of Western classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, compositional training in techniques such as counterpoint
Counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
, and study in instrumental performance. Ilaiyaraaja specialized in classical guitar
Classical guitar
The classical guitar is a 6-stringed plucked string instrument from the family of instruments called chordophones...
and had taken a course in it at the Trinity College of Music, London
Trinity College of Music
Trinity College of Music is one of the London music conservatories, based in Greenwich. It is part of Trinity Laban.The conservatoire is inheritor of elegant riverside buildings of the former Greenwich Hospital, designed in part by Sir Christopher Wren...
.
Session musician and film orchestrator
In the 1970s in Chennai, Ilaiyaraaja played guitar in a band-for-hire, and worked as a session guitaristSession musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
, keyboardist
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
, and organist
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
for film music composers and directors such as Salil Chowdhury
Salil Chowdhury
Salil Chowdhury was an Indian music composer. He mainly composed for Bengali, Hindi, and Malayalam films. He was also a poet and a playwright. He is affectionately called Salilda by all his admirers....
from West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
. After being hired as the musical assistant to Kannada film composer G. K. Venkatesh, he worked on 200 film projects, mostly in the Kannada language. As G. K. Venkatesh's assistant, Ilaiyaraaja would orchestrate
Orchestration
Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra or of adapting for orchestra music composed for another medium...
the melodic outlines developed by Venkatesh. During this period, Ilaiyaraaja also began writing his own scores. To hear his compositions, he would persuade Venkatesh's session musician
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
s to play excerpts from his scores during their break times. Ilaiyaraaja would hire instruments from composer R. K. Shekhar
R. K. Shekhar
Rajagopala Kulasekara Shekhar was a Tamil Indian music composer, who worked for Malayalam and Tamil movies. He composed music for 52 films, and was the music conductor for more than 100 films. He is best known as the father of music composer A. R. Rahman....
, father of composer A. R. Rahman
A. R. Rahman
Allah Rakha Rahman is an Indian composer, singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and philanthropist. Described as the world's most prominent and prolific film composer by Time, his works are notable for integrating eastern classical music with electronic music sounds, world music genres and...
, who later joined Ilaiyaraaja's orchestra as a keyboardist.
Film composer
In 1976, film producer Panchu Arunachalam commissioned him to compose the songs and film scoreFilm score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
for a Tamil-language
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
film called Annakkili ('The Parrot'). For the soundtrack, Ilaiyaraaja applied the techniques of modern popular film music orchestration to Tamil folk poetry and folk song melodies, which created a fusion of Western and Tamil idioms. Ilaiyaraaja's use of Tamil music in his film scores injected new influence into the Indian film score milieu. By the mid-1980s Ilaiyaraaja was gaining increasing stature as a film composer and music director in the South Indian film industry. He has worked with Indian poets and lyricists such as Gulzar
Gulzar (lyricist)
Sampooran Singh Kalra , known popularly by his pen name Gulzar , is an Indian poet, lyricist and director. He primarily writes in Hindi-Urdu and has also written in Punjabi and several dialects of Hindi such as Braj Bhasha, Khariboli, Haryanvi and Marwari.Gulzar was awarded the Padma Bhushan in...
, Kannadasan
Kannadasan
Kannadasan was a Tamil poet and lyricist, heralded as one of the greatest and most important writer in the Tamil language...
, Veturi Sundararama Murthy, Sirivennela Sitaramasastri
Sirivennela Sitaramasastri
Sirivennela Sitaramasastri is an Indian lyricist known for his works in Telugu Cinema.He is a multiple winner of Nandi Award for Best Lyricist and Filmfare Award for Best Lyricist – Telugu...
, Vairamuthu
Vairamuthu
Vairamuthu Ramaswamy Thevar is an award-winning Tamil poet and lyricist.Debuting in the film Nizhalgal with the lyrics for the song "Ponmalai Pozhudhu", he has now about 5800 songs to his credit as of January 2009. His partnership with the composers Ilaiyaraaja, and later A. R...
and T. S. Rangarajan (Vaali
Vaali (poet)
Vaali is a Tamil poet and lyricist who writes Tamil poetry and film song lyrics. Most recently he has extended lyrics for a couple of songs in Engeyum Kaadhal for the music of Harris Jayaraj. He has also acted in several films, most notably Hey Ram, Parthale Paravasam and Poi Kaal Kudhirai...
), and film directors such as Bharathiraja
Bharathiraja
P. Bharathiraja , is a critically acclaimed South Indian filmmaker.He displayed a story-teller's potential from an early age. Bharathiraja is known for his realistic and sensitive portrayal of village-life in his movies....
, K. Balachander
K. Balachander
K. Balachander is an Indian film director, screenwriter and producer. Balachander is known for his distinct film-making style. His films analyse unusual or complicated interpersonal relationships and social themes. He has directed nearly 80 films and has worked in 100 films either as director or...
, K. Vishwanath, Singeetam Srinivasa Rao, Vamsy
Vamsy
Vamsy or Vamsi is a critically acclaimed Telugu Indian film director, writer and Music director. He is considered one of the four cornerstones of Telugu Cinema of the 1980s and '90s; the others being K Viswanath, Bapu and Jandhyala.- Biography :Vamsy was born and bought up in a village called...
, Balu Mahendra
Balu Mahendra
Balanathan "Balu" Mahendran is an Indian filmmaker, screenwriter, and cinematographer widely regarded as part of the first in a wave of directors and screenwriters from the Chennai film industry who revitalised Tamil cinema...
, R. Balki
R. Balki
R. Balakrishnan, better known as R. Balki, is Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of the advertising agency Lowe Lintas , an ad filmmaker and Hindi film director. He is best known for Cheeni Kum and Paa .-Career:...
and Mani Ratnam
Mani Ratnam
Mani Ratnam is an Indian filmmaker, screenwriter and producer. He made his directorial debut with the Kannada film Pallavi Anu Pallavi starring Anil Kapoor in 1983...
.
Impact and musical style
Ilaiyaraaja was one of the earliest Indian film composers to use Western classical music harmonies and string arrangements in Indian film music. This allowed him to craft a rich tapestry of sounds for films, and his themes and background score gained notice and appreciation among Indian film audiences. The range of expressive possibilities in Indian film music was broadened by Ilaiyaraaja's methodical approach to arranging, recording technique, and his drawing of ideas from a diversity of musical styles.According to musicologist P. Greene, Ilaiyaraaja's "deep understanding of so many different styles of music allowed him to create syncretic pieces of music combining very different musical idioms in unified, coherent musical statements". Ilaiyaraaja has composed Indian film songs that amalgamated elements of genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
s such as
Afro-tribal, bossa nova
Bossa nova
Bossa nova is a style of Brazilian music. Bossa nova acquired a large following in the 1960s, initially consisting of young musicians and college students...
, dance music
Dance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...
(e.g., disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
),
doo-wop
Doo-wop
The name Doo-wop is given to a style of vocal-based rhythm and blues music that developed in African American communities in the 1940s and achieved mainstream popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s. It emerged from New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore, Newark, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and...
, flamenco
Flamenco
Flamenco is a genre of music and dance which has its foundation in Andalusian music and dance and in whose evolution Andalusian Gypsies played an important part....
, acoustic guitar
Steel-string acoustic guitar
A steel-string acoustic guitar is a modern form of guitar descended from the classical guitar, but strung with steel strings for a brighter, louder sound...
-propelled Western folk, funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
, Indian classical
Indian classical music
The origins of Indian classical music can be found in the Vedas, which are the oldest scriptures in the Hindu tradition. Indian classical music has also been significantly influenced by, or syncretised with, Indian folk music and Persian music. The Samaveda, one of the four Vedas, describes music...
, Indian folk/traditional
Indian folk music
Indian folk music is diverse because of India's vast cultural diversity. It has many forms including bhangra, lavani, dandiya and Rajasthani. The arrival of movies and pop music weakened folk music's popularity, but cheaply recordable music has made it easier to find and helped revive the traditions...
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, march, pathos
Pathos
Pathos represents an appeal to the audience's emotions. Pathos is a communication technique used most often in rhetoric , and in literature, film and other narrative art....
, pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
, psychedelia
Psychedelic music
Psychedelic music covers a range of popular music styles and genres, which are inspired by or influenced by psychedelic culture and which attempt to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues-rock bands in the...
, and rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
.
By virtue of this variety and his interfusion of Western, Indian folk and Carnatic
Carnatic music
Carnatic music is a system of music commonly associated with the southern part of the Indian subcontinent, with its area roughly confined to four modern states of India: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu...
elements, Ilaiyaraaja's compositions appeal to the Indian rural dweller for its rhythm
Rhythm
Rhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...
ic folk qualities, the Indian classical music enthusiast for the employment of Carnatic ragams, and the urbanite for its modern, Western-music sound. Ilaiyaraaja's sense of visualization for composing music is always to match up with the storyline of the running movie and possibly by doing so, he creates the best experience for the audience to feel the emotions flavored through his musical score. He mastered this art of blending music to the narration, which very few others managed to adapt themselves over a longer time.
Although Ilaiyaraaja uses a range of complex compositional techniques, he often sketches out the basic melodic ideas for films in a very spontaneous fashion. The Indian filmmaker Mani Ratnam
Mani Ratnam
Mani Ratnam is an Indian filmmaker, screenwriter and producer. He made his directorial debut with the Kannada film Pallavi Anu Pallavi starring Anil Kapoor in 1983...
illustrates:
Musical characteristics
Ilaiyaraaja's music is characterised by the use of an orchestration technique that is a synthesis of Western and Indian instruments and musical modes. He uses electronic music technology that integrates synthesisers, electric guitars and keyboardsElectronic keyboard
An electronic keyboard is an electronic or digital keyboard instrument.The major components of a typical modern electronic keyboard are:...
, drum machines, rhythm boxes and MIDI with large orchestras that feature traditional instruments such as the veena
Veena
Veena may refer to one of several Indian plucked instruments:With frets*Rudra veena, plucked string instrument used in Hindustani music*Saraswati veena, plucked string instrument used in Carnatic musicFretless...
, venu
Venu
The venu is a bamboo transverse flute used in the Carnatic music of South India. Although it is often called Carnatic flute or simply flute in English, venu is the instrument's ancient Sanskrit name...
, nadaswaram
Nadaswaram
The nadaswaram, also spelt nadhaswaram, and also called nagaswaram , is one of the most popular classical musical instruments in the South Indian culture and the world's loudest non-brass acoustic instrument...
, dholak
Dholak
The Dholak is a North Indian, Pakistani and Nepalese double-headed hand-drum Madal. The name dholki may also refer to a slightly different instrument that uses high-pitch tabla style syahi masala on its treble skin. This instrument is also known as Naal or Dholki....
, mridangam and tabla
Tabla
The tabla is a popular Indian percussion instrument used in Hindustani classical music and in popular and devotional music of the Indian subcontinent. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres...
as well as Western lead instruments such as saxophones and flutes.
He uses catchy melodies fleshed out with a variety of chord progression
Chord progression
A chord progression is a series of musical chords, or chord changes that "aims for a definite goal" of establishing a tonality founded on a key, root or tonic chord. In other words, the succession of root relationships...
s, beats and timbre
Timbre
In music, timbre is the quality of a musical note or sound or tone that distinguishes different types of sound production, such as voices and musical instruments, such as string instruments, wind instruments, and percussion instruments. The physical characteristics of sound that determine the...
s. Ilaiyaraaja's songs typically have a musical form where vocal stanza
Stanza
In poetry, a stanza is a unit within a larger poem. In modern poetry, the term is often equivalent with strophe; in popular vocal music, a stanza is typically referred to as a "verse"...
s and choruses
Refrain
A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...
are interspersed with orchestral preludes
Prelude (music)
A prelude is a short piece of music, the form of which may vary from piece to piece. The prelude can be thought of as a preface. It may stand on its own or introduce another work...
and interludes
Entr'acte
' is French for "between the acts" . It can mean a pause between two parts of a stage production, synonymous to an intermission, but it more often indicates a piece of music performed between acts of a theatrical production...
. They often contain polyphonic melodies, where the lead vocals are interwoven with supporting melody lines sung by another voice or played by instruments.
The bassline
Bassline
A bassline is the term used in many styles of popular music, such as jazz, blues, funk, dub and electronic music for the low-pitched instrumental part or line played by a rhythm section instrument such as the electric bass, double bass, tuba or keyboard...
s in his songs tend to be melodically dynamic, rising and falling in a dramatic fashion. Polyrhythm
Polyrhythm
Polyrhythm is the simultaneous sounding of two or more independent rhythms.Polyrhythm in general is a nonspecific term for the simultaneous occurrence of two or more conflicting rhythms, of which cross-rhythm is a specific and definable subset.—Novotney Polyrhythms can be distinguished from...
s are also apparent, particularly in songs with Indian folk or Carnatic influences. The melodic structure of his songs demand considerable vocal virtuosity, and have found expressive platform amongst some of India's respected vocalists and playback singer
Playback singer
A playback singer is a singer whose singing is prerecorded for use in movies. Playback singers record songs for soundtracks, and actors or actresses lip-sync the songs for cameras, while the actual singer does not appear on screen.-South Asia:...
s, such as S. P. Balasubramaniam, K. J. Yesudas
K. J. Yesudas
Kattassery Joseph Yesudas is an Indian classical musician and playback singer.Yesudas sings Indian classical, devotional, and popular music. He has recorded more than 50,000 songs in many languages including Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Bengali, Gujarati, Oriya, Marathi, Punjabi,...
, S. Janaki
S. Janaki
S. Janaki is an Indian female playback singer. Renowned for her voice modulation abilities, she has sung in many Indian languages, most frequently in Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi. Throughout a career spanning more than five decades, she has won four National Film Awards and 35...
, K. S. Chitra, Swarnalatha
Swarnalatha
Swarnalatha was a Indian playback singer. From 1987 onward, she rendered nearly 7000 songs in many languages including Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam, Urdu, Bengali, Oriya, Punjabi and Badaga....
, S. P. Sailaja
S. P. Sailaja
Sripathi Panditaradhyula Sailaja , is a versatile Indian singer. She lent her voice to Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada films. She has sung about 5000 songs to date.-Early life:She was born in Konetammapeta in the Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh...
, T. M. Soundararajan, P. Susheela
P. Susheela
Pulapaka Susheela is an Indian playback singer. In a career spanning more than four decades, she has recorded songs in many Indian languages including Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi, Bengali, Oriya, Sanskrit, Tulu, Badaga and Sinhalese.-Personal life:She is the daughter of Pulapaka...
, Sujatha
Sujatha Mohan
Sujatha Mohan , usually credited as Sujatha, is an award-winning Indian playback singer who is popular for singing in Malayalam and Tamil movies. She has also sung for Telugu, Kannada and Hindi movies. She is widely popular for her evergreen melodies and her sweet voice is considered to be her...
, Malaysia Vasudevan
Malaysia Vasudevan
Vasudevan Nair , known as Malaysia Vasudevan was a Tamil playback singer and actor in the Tamil film industry. He was known for singing songs for Indian actor Rajnikanth and many more.- Early life :...
, Asha Bhonsle, Lata Mangeshkar
Lata Mangeshkar
Lata Mangeshkar is a singer from India. She is one of the best-known and most respected playback singers in India. Mangeshkar's career started in 1942 and has spanned over six and a half decades. She has recorded songs for over a thousand Hindi films and has sung songs in over thirty-six regional...
, Sadhana Sargam
Sadhana Sargam
Sadhana Sargam is an acclaimed Indian playback singer. She is a recipient of the prestigious National Film Award and Filmfare Awards.Sargam has sung in many Indian languages for films, television serials and music albums. She is well known for her 90s Hindi songs and recent South Indian songs. She...
and the latest sensation Shreya Ghoshal. Ilaiyaraaja has sung over 400 of his own compositions for films, and is recognisable by his stark, nasal voice. He has penned the lyrics for some of his songs in Tamil and other languages. Ilaiyaraaja's film scores are known both for the dramatic and evocative melodies, and for the more subtle background music that he uses to provide texture or mood for scenes in films such as Johnny
Johnny (1980 film)
Johnny is a Tamil film directed by Mahendran.Johnny is one of the finest movies of Mahendran. It had Rajinikant, Sridevi and Deepa in the main roles with Rajinikanth in dual role. Ilayaraja's music is a major highlight of the film...
(1980), Mouna Raagam
Mouna Raagam
Mouna Raagam is a 1986 Tamil film directed by filmmaker Mani Ratnam. The score and soundtrack are composed by Ilayaraja, and the film's cinematography is by P. C. Sriram. This movie turned out to be an important milestone in Tamil cinema and yielded Mani Ratnam the much needed breakthrough. The...
(1986), Geethanjali
Geethanjali
Geethanjali is a National Award-winning 1989 Telugu film directed by Mani Ratnam. The film's score and soundtrack are composed by Ilaiyaraaja. Upon release, the film met with both commercial success and critical acclaim. Later it was dubbed in Malayalam and Tamil languages...
(1989) and Guna
Guna
' means 'string' or 'a single thread or strand of a cord or twine'. In more abstract uses, it may mean 'a subdivision, species, kind, quality', or an operational principle or tendency....
(1991).
Non-cinematic output
How To Name It?
How to Name It? is an instrumental Indian-Western fusion album by Ilaiyaraaja. This was Ilayaraaja's first fusion music album. The album has musical movements that are dedicated to Tyagaraja, a religious musician and composer of South India and the Western Classical music composer, J. S...
(1986), is dedicated to the Carnatic master Tyāgarāja
Tyagaraja
Kakarla Tyagabrahmam , colloquially known as Tyāgarājar and Tyagayya was one of the greatest composers of Carnatic music or classical South Indian music. He, along with his contemporaries Muthuswami Dikshitar and Shyama Shastry, forms the Trinity of Carnatic music...
and to J. S. Bach. It features a fusion of the Carnatic form and ragas with Bach partita
Partita
Partita was originally the name for a single instrumental piece of music , but Johann Kuhnau and later German composers used it for collections of musical pieces, as a synonym for suite.Johann Sebastian Bach wrote two sets of Partitas for different instruments...
s, fugue
Fugue
In music, a fugue is a compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation and recurs frequently in the course of the composition....
s and Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
musical textures. The second, Nothing But Wind (1988), was performed by flutist Hariprasad Chaurasia
Hariprasad Chaurasia
Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia is an Indian classical instrumentalist. He is a player of the bansuri, the North Indian bamboo flute. Chaurasia is a classicist who has made a conscious effort to reach out and expand the audience for classical music.-Early life:Hariprasad Chaurasia was born in...
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.).
He has composed a set of Carnatic kriti
Kriti
-Structure:Kritis typically contain three parts#Pallavi. This is the equivalent of a refrain in Western music.#Anupallavi. The second verse, which is sometimes optional....
s that was recorded by electric mandolinist U. Srinivas
U. Srinivas
Uppalapu Shrinivas , is an Indian mandolin player of the Carnatic musical tradition of Southern India. Shrinivas plays an electric mandolin and has collaborated with John McLaughlin, Michael Nyman, and Michael Brook...
for the album Ilayaraaja's Classicals on the Mandolin (1994). Ilaiyaraaja has also composed albums of religious/devotional
Bhakti
In Hinduism Bhakti is religious devotion in the form of active involvement of a devotee in worship of the divine.Within monotheistic Hinduism, it is the love felt by the worshipper towards the personal God, a concept expressed in Hindu theology as Svayam Bhagavan.Bhakti can be used of either...
songs. His Guru Ramana Geetam (2004) is a cycle of prayer songs inspired by the Hindu mystic Ramana Maharishi, and his Thiruvasakam: A crossover (2005) is an oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
of ancient Tamil poems transcribed partially in English by American lyricist Stephen Schwartz
Stephen Schwartz (composer)
Stephen Lawrence Schwartz is an American musical theatre lyricist and composer. In a career spanning over four decades, Schwartz has written such hit musicals as Godspell , Pippin and Wicked...
and performed by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra. Ilaiyaraaja's most recent release is a world music-oriented album called The Music Messiah (2006). Its musical concept is based against a mythological narrative. His recent release in November 2008, is Manikantan Geet Mala released by India Tales with 9 songs praising Lord Ayyappa in almost all south Indian languages.
Albums (instrumental, non-film)
| Year | Album | Year | Album | Year | Album |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | How to Name It | 1988 | Nothing but Wind | 2000 | Raajavin Ramanamalai, Guru Ramana Geetam |
| 2001 | Geethanjali | 2002 | Amma Paamalai | 2003 | India 24 Hours |
| 2005 | Thiruvasagam | 2007 | The Music Messiah | 2008 | Manikantan Geet Mala |
| 2009 | Namratha Ke Sagar | 2010 | Ramana Saranam Saranam, Baba Pugazh Maalai | 2011 | Amma - Short film |
Notable works
Ilaiyaraaja's composition "Rakkama Kaiya Thattu", sung by SPBS. P. Balasubrahmanyam
Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam is a multilingual Indian playback singer, actor, music director, voice actor and a film producer. He is referred to as S. P. B. or Balu by the media. He has won the National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer six times closely following K. J. Yesudas...
and Swarnalatha
Swarnalatha
Swarnalatha was a Indian playback singer. From 1987 onward, she rendered nearly 7000 songs in many languages including Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam, Urdu, Bengali, Oriya, Punjabi and Badaga....
in the movie Thalapathi
Thalapathi
Thalapathi is a 1991 Indian Tamil film written and directed by Mani Ratnam, and produced by G. Venkateswaran under the banner of G. V. Films. The film stars Rajnikanth, Mammootty and Shobana in the lead roles with Arvind Swamy, Srividya, Amrish Puri, Bhanupriya, Nagesh, and Charuhasan essaying...
(1991), was among the songs listed in a BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
World Top Ten music poll. He composed the music for Nayagan
Nayagan
Nayagan is a Indian film, written, directed, and co-produced by Mani Ratnam which released on 21 October 1987 coinciding with Diwali. Upon release, the film got rave reviews across India. Kamal Hassan's performance as Velu Naiker earned him a National Film Award for Best Actor. The film also...
(1987), an Indian film ranked by TIME Magazine
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
as one of the all-time 100 best movies, a number of India's official entries to the Oscars, such as Anjali
Anjali (film)
Anjali is a 1990 Tamil-language Indian feature film directed by Mani Ratnam, starring Raghuvaran, Revathi, Prabhu, Tarun, Shruthi and Shamili. The musical film's score and soundtrack is composed by Ilaiyaraaja, being his 500th movie. Anjali is about a dying mentally disabled child, and the...
(1990) and Hey Ram
Hey Ram
Hey Ram is a controversial Indian film released both in Tamil and Hindi in 2000 and written, directed, produced by and starring Kamal Haasan...
(2000), and for Indian art film
Art film
An art film is the result of filmmaking which is typically a serious, independent film aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience...
s such as Adoor Gopalakrishnan
Adoor Gopalakrishnan
Moutatthu "Adoor" Gopalakrishnan Unnithan is an Indian film director, script writer, and producer. Adoor Gopalakrishnan had a major role in revolutionizing Malayalam cinema and is regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of India.. Adoor's first film Swayamvaram pioneered the new wave cinema...
's FIPRESCI
FIPRESCI
The International Federation of Film Critics is an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the world for "the promotion and development of film culture and for the safeguarding of professional interests." It was founded in June 1930 in...
Prize-winning Nizhalkkuthu ('The Dance of Shadows') (2002). Ilaiyaraaja has composed music for events such as the 1996 Miss World
Miss World
The Miss World pageant is the oldest surviving major international beauty pageant. It was created in the United Kingdom by Eric Morley in 1951...
beauty pageant that was held in Bangalore
Bangalore
Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
, India, and for a documentary called India 24 Hours (1996). The pop/hip-hop band The Black Eyed Peas
The Black Eyed Peas
The Black Eyed Peas are an American pop group , formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1995. The group includes rappers will.i.am, apl.de.ap, and Taboo, and singer Fergie. Since the release of their third album Elephunk in 2003, the group has sold an estimated 56 million records worldwide...
sampled an Ilaiyaraaja composition called "Unakkum Ennakum", from the film Sri Raghavendra (1985), for their tune "The Elephunk Theme" from their breakout album, Elephunk
Elephunk
-Commercial response:In the United States, Elephunk reached number 14 on the Billboard Top 200 and is their first album to chart in the top 15. It gained even more commercial success in the UK Album Charts where it reached number 3. It has sold over 1.6 million copies in the UK and...
(2003). The alternative artist M.I.A.
M.I.A. (artist)
Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam , better known by her stage name M.I.A. , is an English singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer, painter and director of Sri Lankan Tamil descent. Her compositions combine elements of hip hop, electronica, dance, alternative and world music. M.I.A...
sampled his composition "Kaatukuyilu" from the film Thalapathi (1991) for her song "Bamboo Banga" on the album Kala
Kala (album)
Kala is the second studio album by British musician M.I.A., released in August 2007. The album features musical styles ranging from dance music to alternative hip hop and makes extensive use of South Asian music such as that of the urumee, a drum used in gaana music native to Tamil Nadu, India. It...
(2007). His music compositions for the Hindi movie "Paa
Paa (film)
Paa is a 2009 Indian film directed by R. Balakrishnan starring Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, and Vidya Balan. The film is based on a rare genetic condition known as progeria and places emphasis on a father-son relationship...
" (3 December 2009) has won critical acclaim in several media reviews.
Live performances
Ilaiyaraaja rarely performs his music live, which may be due to the time he devotes to his composing activities. His last major live performance, the first in 25 years, was a four-hour concert held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor StadiumJawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Chennai
The Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium is a Chennai stadium and seats 40,000. It hosts football , and athletic competitions. The complex also houses a multi purpose indoor stadium with a seating capacity of 8000 which hosts volleyball, basket ball, table tennis etc. The stadium is named after Jawaharlal...
in Chennai, India on 16 October 2005. The show was widely televised both in India and abroad, in which he played a song with just three notes (sa re ga). Less well-known was his live 2004 performance in Italy at the Teatro Comunale di Modena, an event-concert presented for the 14th edition of Angelica, Festival Internazionale Di Musica, co-produced with the L'Altro Suono Festival. He had done a few small-scale shows early in his career in Sri Lanka and Malaysia and was involved in a charity concert to raise funds for the construction of a Hindu temple in India.
A television retrospective titled Ithu Ilaiyaraja ('This is Ilaiyaraja') was produced, chronicling his career.
National Film Awards
| Year | Name of the film | Category | Language |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | Saagara Sangamam Saagara Sangamam Sagara Sangamam is a National Award–winning 1983 Telugu film directed by K. Viswanath and produced by Edida Nageshwara Rao, starring Kamal Haasan, Jayaprada, Geetha, Sarath Babu, S. P. Sailaja and Chakri Toleti. The movie was dubbed into Tamil as Salangai Oli... |
Best Music Direction National Film Award for Best Music Direction The National Film Award for Best Music Direction are given annually. In years 1994, 1995 and 2010, an award for Best Background Score was instituted by the Jury, which was won by Johnson and by Ilaiyaraaja . Ilaiyaraaja and A. R... |
Telugu Telugu language Telugu is a Central Dravidian language primarily spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, where it is an official language. It is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamil Nadu... |
| 1986 | Sindhu Bhairavi | Best Music Direction | Tamil Tamil language Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore... |
| 1989 | Rudra Veena | Best Music Direction | Telugu |
| 2009 | Pazhassi Raja | Best Background Score | Malayalam Malayalam language Malayalam , is one of the four major Dravidian languages of southern India. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India with official language status in the state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry. It is spoken by 35.9 million people... |
Ilaiyaraaja has won the National Film Award for Best Music Direction
National Film Award for Best Music Direction
The National Film Award for Best Music Direction are given annually. In years 1994, 1995 and 2010, an award for Best Background Score was instituted by the Jury, which was won by Johnson and by Ilaiyaraaja . Ilaiyaraaja and A. R...
for the Tamil film Sindhu Bhairavi
Sindhu Bhairavi
Sindhu Bhairavi is a 1985 Indian Tamil language drama film directed and produced by K. Balachander starring Sivakumar, Suhasini, Sulakshana, Delhi Ganesh and Janagaraj. The film's score and soundtrack are composed by Ilaiyaraaja. The songs in the film were sung by K. J. Yesudas and K. S. Chithra...
(1986) and the Telugu films Rudraveena
Rudraveena
-References:* http://www.cineherald.com/todaynews.php?id=2207* * * http://www.raaga.com/channels/telugu/movie/A0000147.html* http://www.ezeelyrics.com/2009/12/rudraveena-cheppalani-undi-nenu-saitam.html...
(1989) and Saagara Sangamam
Saagara Sangamam
Sagara Sangamam is a National Award–winning 1983 Telugu film directed by K. Viswanath and produced by Edida Nageshwara Rao, starring Kamal Haasan, Jayaprada, Geetha, Sarath Babu, S. P. Sailaja and Chakri Toleti. The movie was dubbed into Tamil as Salangai Oli...
(1984). He also won the National Film Award for Best Background Score
National Film Award for Best Music Direction
The National Film Award for Best Music Direction are given annually. In years 1994, 1995 and 2010, an award for Best Background Score was instituted by the Jury, which was won by Johnson and by Ilaiyaraaja . Ilaiyaraaja and A. R...
for Malayalam film Pazhassi Raja (2010). He won the Gold Remi Award for Best Music Score jointly with film composer M. S. Viswanathan
M. S. Viswanathan
Manayangath Subramanian Viswanathan , is a Tamil music director. He is popularly known as "Mellisai Mannar" . His major works over the past five decades have been in Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films...
at the WorldFest-Houston Film Festival
WorldFest
WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival is an annual film festival, dedicated to various types of independent films, held in Houston, Texas.-History:...
for the film Vishwa Thulasi
Vishwa Thulasi
Vishwa Thulasi is a film directed by Sumathy Ram. The film is in Tamil, with English subtitles. This film's score and soundtrack were composed by Ilayaraaja and M. S. Viswanathan. It was well received upon screening at the 2005 WorldFest Houston International Film Festival...
(2005).
He was conferred the title Isaignani (English: Savant of Music) in 1988 by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi
M. Karunanidhi
Muthuvel Karunanidhi is an Indian politician and a former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. He is the head of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam , a Dravidian political party in the state of Tamil Nadu. He has been the leader of the DMK since the death of its founder, C. N...
in a grand public function held in Karaikudi and received the Kalaimamani
Kalaimamani
The Kalaimamani is an award in Tamil Nadu state, India. These awards are given by the Tamil Nadu Iyal Isai Nataka Manram for excellence in the field of art and literature....
Award, an annual award for excellence in the field of arts from the Government of the State of Tamil Nadu, India. He also received State Government Awards from the governments of Kerala
Kerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
(1994, 1995, 1998), Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh , is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city by population is Hyderabad.The total GDP of Andhra Pradesh is $100 billion and is ranked third...
and Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and Indore is the largest city....
(The Lata Mangeshkar Award) (1998) for excellence in music. In 2010, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan
Padma Bhushan
The Padma Bhushan is the third highest civilian award in the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan, but comes before the Padma Shri. It is awarded by the Government of India.-History:...
, India's third highest civilian honour. Alongside he also won the Akshaya Samman of the year (2010), a prestigious musical award from Orissa
Orissa
Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...
for his outstanding contribution in the field of music.
He was awarded honorary doctorates by Annamalai University
Annamalai University
Annamalai University is a Public University located in Annamalai Nagar, Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, India. The university offers courses of higher education in arts, sciences and engineering.The university also provides around 380 courses under distance mode...
, Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
(Degree of Doctor of Letter (Honoris causa)) (March 1994), the World University Round Table, Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, U.S.A. (Cultural Doctorate in Philosophy of Music) (April 1994), and Madurai Kamaraj University
Madurai Kamaraj University
Madurai Kamaraj University also abbreviated MKU is a public university in India.-Overview:Madurai Kamaraj University, located in Madurai city established in 1966, has 18 schools comprising 72 departments. The Directorate of Distance Education of the University has a student strength of about 1.3...
, Tamil Nadu (Degree of Doctor of Letters) (1996).
He received an Award of Appreciation from the Foundation and Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America
Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America
The Federation of Tamil Sangams in North America is an umbrella organization of many local North American Tamil diaspora organizations...
(1994), and later that year was presented with an honorary citizenship and key to the Teaneck township by Mr. John Abraham, Mayor of Teaneck, New Jersey, U.S.A. In a poll conducted by the BBC, his track "Rakkamma Kaiya Thattu" from the 1991 movie Thalapathi
Thalapathi
Thalapathi is a 1991 Indian Tamil film written and directed by Mani Ratnam, and produced by G. Venkateswaran under the banner of G. V. Films. The film stars Rajnikanth, Mammootty and Shobana in the lead roles with Arvind Swamy, Srividya, Amrish Puri, Bhanupriya, Nagesh, and Charuhasan essaying...
rated Number 4 in the World's Top Ten list.