Ilaiyaraaja Biography

Indian film composer, singer (born 1943)

Musical artist

Ilaiyaraaja (born R. Gnanathesikan, 3 June 1943) is an Indian musician, composer, arranger, conductor, orchestrator, multi-instrumentalist, lyricist and singer, popular for his works in Indian cinema, prominently in Tamil films. Reputed to be one of the most prolific composers in a career spanning over forty-seven years, he has composed over 7,000 songs and provided film scores for over 1,000 films, apart from performing in over 20,000 concerts. He is nicknamed "Isaignani" (the musical sage) and often referred to as "Maestro", the *le conferred by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London.

Ilaiyaraaja was also one of the earliest Indian film composers to use Western cl*ical music harmonies and string arrangements in Indian film music, and the first South Asian to compose a full symphony. In 1986, he became the first Indian composer to record a soundtrack with computer for the film Vikram. He also composed Thiruvasagam in Symphony (2006), the first Indian oratorio.

In 2013, when CNN-IBN conducted a poll commemorating 100 years of Indian cinema, he secured 49% of the vote and was adjudged as the country's greatest music composer. In 2014, the American world cinema portal, "Taste of Cinema", placed him at 9th position in its list of 25 greatest film composers in the history of cinema. He is the only Indian in the list, appearing alongside Ennio Morricone, John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith.

Ilaiyaraaja received several awards for his works throughout his career. In 2012, for his creative and experimental works in the field of music, he received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, the highest Indian recognition given to people in the field of performing arts. In 2010, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian honour in India; and was conferred the Padma Vibhushan in 2018, the second-highest civilian award by the government of India. He is a nominated Member of Parliament in the Indian upper house, Rajya Sabha, since July 2022.His biographical drama *led "Ilaiyaraaja" with Dh*h as the lead, directed by Arun Matheswaran was announced on 20 March 2024. The film is set to release in five languages. Most of his compositions were sung by S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, S. Janaki and K. S. Chithra.

Early life

Ilaiyaraaja was born as Gnanathesigan in a Tamil family belonging to Pannaipuram, in present-day Theni district, Tamil Nadu, India, on 3 June 1943. As the birth dates of both Ilaiyaraaja and the politician M. Karunanidhi fall on the same date (3 June), Ilaiyaraaja decided to celebrate his on 2 June instead, so that people of Tamil Nadu can celebrate only that of Karunanidhi on 3 June. This was done to honour Karunanidhi who gave Ilaiyaraaja the *le "Isaignani”.

At the time of joining school, his father changed his name from Gnanathesigan to "Rajaiya", and the people in his village called him "Raasayya". When he joined Dhanraj Master as a student to learn musical instruments, the master changed his name to "Raaja". While working for his first film Annakili (1976), Tamil film producer Panchu Arunachalam added the prefix "Ilaiya" (Ilaiya meaning younger in Tamil language) to the name Raaja, and renamed him as "Ilaiyaraaja", as in the 1970s there was another popular music director with the same suffix, namely A. M. Rajah.

Initial exposure to music

Ilaiyaraaja grew up in a rural area and was exposed to a range of Tamil folk music in his formative years. At the age of 14, he joined a travelling musical troupe named as "Pavalar Brothers", headed by his elder brother Pavalar Varadharajan, and spent the next decade performing across South India. While working with the troupe, he penned his first composition, a musical adaptation of an elegy written by the Tamil poet laureate, Kannadasan for India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.

In 1968, he began a music course with Professor Dhanraj in Madras (now Chennai), the course included an overview of Western cl*ical music, compositional training in techniques such as counterpoint, and study in instrumental performance. Ilaiyaraaja was a gold medalist in cl*ical guitar after completing the course through distance learning channel from Trinity College of Music, London. He learnt Carnatic music from T. V. Gopalakrishnan.

Career

Session musician and orchestrator

During the 1970s in Chennai, Ilaiyaraaja played guitar in a band-for-hire, and worked as a session guitarist, keyboardist, and organist for film music composers and directors such as Salil Chowdhury from West Bengal. Chowdhury once said that Ilaiyaraaja is going to become the best composer in India. After being hired as the musical *istant to Kannada film composer G. K. Venkatesh, he worked on 200 film projects, mostly in Kannada cinema. As Venkatesh's *istant, Ilaiyaraaja would orchestrate the melodic outlines developed by Venkatesh, learning about composing under Venkatesh's guidance. During this period, Ilaiyaraaja also began writing his own scores. To listen to his compositions, he used to persuade Venkatesh's session musicians to play excerpts from his scores during their leisure times.

Film score composer

Ilaiyaraaja at the TFPC Press Meet

At the start of his career, the music sensibility of Ilaiyaraaja was very different to the film music being composed in those days, so he spent a lot of his time in learning, but "wasn't able to grasp how music was being made for films." However in 1975, film producer Panchu Arunachalam, impressed by a song casually sung by Ilaiyaraaja, commissioned him to compose the songs and film score for a Tamil film *led Annakili (1976). For the soundtrack, Ilaiyaraaja applied the techniques of modern popular film music orchestration—to Tamil folk poetry and folk song melodies, which resulted in creation of a fusion of Western and Tamil idioms. Initially he was little apprehensive about how his work would be received, and thought that musicians in the industry may write him off. Eventually, when Annakili released in 1976, the music became a huge hit. For his next following 12 films, Ilaiyaraaja based his compositions on the contemporary film music of the time, later when a new wave of films started to come, they opened the space for the kind of music he wanted to explore.

One of the earliest admirers of Ilaiyaraaja, Bengali composer Salil Choudhury, under whose tutelage Ilaiyaraaja initially worked as a lead guitarist, once remarked, "Our main guitarist in Madras is the best composer in India".

Ilaiyaraaja's use of Tamil folk music in his film scores injected new life in the Indian film score milieu. By the mid-1980s, he started gaining increasing stature as a composer and music director in the South Indian film industries. He worked with Indian poets and lyricists such as Kannadasan, Vaali, Vairamuthu, O. N. V. Kurup, Sree*aran Thampi, Veturi, Acharya Aatreya, Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry, Chi. Udayashankar and Gulzar. He became well known for his *ociation with filmmakers such as Bharathiraja, S. P. Muthuraman, Mahendran, Balu Mahendra, K. Balachander, Mani Ratnam, Sathyan Anthikad, Priyadarshan, Fazil, Vamsy, K. Viswanath, Singeetam Srinivasa Rao, Bala, Shankar Nag, and R. Balki.

Director R. K. Selvamani claimed that for his film Chembaruthi (1992), Ilaiyaraaja had composed nine songs in just 45 minutes, which is a record.

Cinematographer Santosh Sivan said that Ilaiyaraaja finished composing for the entire soundtrack of the film Thalapathi in less than "half a day".

During the recording for the song "Sundari" from the movie Thalapathi in Mumbai with R.D. Burman's orchestra, when Ilaiyaraaja gave them the notes, they were so moved and taken in by the composition that all the musicians put their hands together in awe and gave a standing ovation as a mark of respect for Ilaiyaraaja.

The score and soundtrack of the 1984 Malayalam-language film My Dear Kuttichathan, the first stereoscopic 3D film made in India, was composed by him.

He composed the soundtrack for the movie Nayakan (1987), an Indian film ranked by Time magazine as one of the all-time 100 best movies

Non-cinematic output

Ilaiyaraaja and Vikram at the Nadigar Sangam Protest

Ilaiyaraaja's first two non-film albums were explorations in the fusion of Indian and Western cl*ical 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 par*as, fugues and Baroque musical textures. The second, Nothing But Wind (1988), was performed by flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia and a 50-piece orchestra and takes the conceptual approach suggested in the *le—that music is a "natural phenomenon akin to various forms of air currents".

He has composed a set of Carnatic kritis which were recorded by electric mandolinist U. Srinivas for the album Ilayaraaja's Cl*icals 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 Maharshi, 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. His most recent release is a world music-oriented album called The Music Messiah (2006).

In May 2020, he composed a song *led Bharath Bhoomi, as tribute to the people working amid COVID-19 pandemic. The song was crooned by S. P Balasubrahmanyam and the video of the song was unveiled by Ilaiyaraaja on his YouTube channel on 30 May 2020, in Tamil and Hindi.

He has announced on his birthday that his 'Isai OTT' application will be launched soon and promised the app will contain much more than just his songs, like behind-the-scenes trivia about how each of his songs were conceived, produced, delivered and collaborations with other musicians.

Ilaiyaraaja's song 'Naanthaan Ungappanda' from the 1981 film Ram Lakshman was part of the playlist for the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics.

His compositions Paayum Puli *le Music and Ilamai Itho were part of the soundtrack of Ashim Ahluwalia's 2012 Cannes Film Festival entry, Miss Lovely. The Lovebirds (2020) incorporated a section of Ilaiyaraaja's "Oru kili" soundtrack composed for the movie Aanandha *mi (1983) as background music in its official trailer.

The Black Eyed Peas sampled the Ilaiyaraaja composition "Unak* Enna*" from Sri Raghavendra (1985), for the song "The Elephunk Theme" in Elephunk (2003).

Ilaiyaraaja's song "Mella Mella Ennaithottu" from Vaazhkai was sampled by Rabbit Mac in the song Sempoi. Popular American rapper Meek Mill sampled one of Ilaiyaraaja's hit songs for Indian Bounce.

The alternative artist M.I.A. sampled "Kaatukuyilu" from the film Thalapathi (1991) for her song "Bamboo Banga" on the album Kala (2007).

Alphant sampled Ilaiyaraaja's music for his song An Indian Dream. Gonjasufi sampled Ilaiyaraaja's "Yeh Hawa Yeh Fiza" from the movie Sadma.

Live performances

Ilaiyaraaja at the inauguration of 91st Music Academy Concerts & Conferences

Ilaiyaraaja rarely performs his music live. His first major live performance since his debut was a four-hour concert held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai, India on 16 October 2005. He performed in 2004 in Italy at the Teatro Comunale di Modena, an event-concert presented for the 14th edition of Angelica, Festival InterNational Socialist German Workers' Partyonale Di Musica, co-produced with the L'Altro Suono Festival.

A television retrospective *led Ithu Ilaiyaraja ("This is Ilaiyaraja") was produced, chronicling his career. He last performed live at the audio release function of the film Dhoni and before that, he performed a programme that was conducted and telecasted by Jaya TV *led Enrendrum Raja ("Everlasting Raja") on 28 December 2011, at Jahawarlal Nehru Indoor Stadium, Chennai.

On 5 September 2012, Ilayaraja performed in a live concert in Chennai with the Hungarian National Philharmonic orchestra; during this event the music launch of his films Neethane En Ponvasantham and Yeto Vellipoyindhi Manasu took place. On 23 September 2012, he performed live in Bangalore at National High School Grounds.

On 16 February 2013, Ilayaraja made his first appearance in North America performing at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Canada. The Toronto concert was promoted by Trinity Events for Vijay TV in India and produced by Sandy Audio Visual SAV Productions with PA+. Following his show at Toronto, Ilaiyaraaja also performed at the Prudential Center Newark, New Jersey on 23 February 2013, and at the HP Pavilion at San Jose on 1:March 2013. After his North America tour he made a live performance at The O2 Arena in London on 24 August 2013, along with Kamal Haasan and his sons Yuvan Shankar Raja and Karthik Raja.

Musical style and sensibility

"Only the film director will be with me when the situation and the story are narrated. Then, it's just me and my harmonium. I just think about the situation and touch my harmonium and music flows. If people consider it as an alternate world, so be it. To me, it is something that I can't explain."

— Ilaiyaraaja on his creative process

Ilaiyaraaja, once reflecting over his works ahead of turning seventy-five, said his "life experiences and learning" have been the fount from which his musical output poured, but sometimes felt that some of his compositions transcended them as if they were, "the reflection of the efforts of past lives — mine, or those of other musical exponents." When enquired if it was anyway similar to the case of mathematical genius, Srinivasa Ramanujan, who insisted he received math formula in dreams from a goddess, Ilaiyaraaja said that unlike Ramanujan who felt a supernatural being guiding him, he always felt a moment of clarity when a composition came to his mind, "It is as if I am the subject and the object of art at the same time when that happens," he said.

Ilaiyaraaja uses his same old harmonium, whether in a studio, or in a concert. He has scored with it throughout his career, curiously in his younger days, he was never allowed to touch it by his brother who thought he would spoil it. However Ilaiyaraaja would play with it whenever he was not there, "that's how I learnt how to play," he says "the harmonium knows that it was made for me. It tells me that there is more music to be made." The harmonium was reportedly brought for eighty-five rupees.

Ilaiyaraaja's musical style is characterised by an orchestration which is a synthesis of Indian folk music and Western cl*ical music, with traditional Indian instruments and modes. He uses electronic music technology that integrates synthesizers, electric guitars and keyboards, 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.

Ilayaraja speaking after receiving the centenary award at the 46th International Film Festival of India (IFFI-2015), in Panaji, Goa

The b*lines in his songs tend to be melodically dynamic, rising and falling in a dramatic fashion. Polyrhythms 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 singers, such as T. M. Soundararajan, S. Janaki, P. Susheela, K. J. Yesudas, K. S. Chithra, S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, M. G. Sree*ar, Raj*ar, Asha Bhosle, Lata Mangeshkar, Jayachandran, Uma Ramanan, S. P. Sailaja, Jency, Swarnalatha, Minmini, Sujatha, Malaysia Vasudevan, Kavita Krishnamurti, Hariharan, Suresh Wadkar, Udit Narayan, Sadhana Sargam and Shreya Ghoshal. Ilaiyaraaja has sung more than 400 of his own compositions for films, and is recognisable by his stark, deep voice. He has penned the lyrics for some of his songs in Tamil. It is widely believed that he is the only composer in the world to have composed a song only in the ascending notes. He considers M. S. Viswanathan as an overwhelming influence on his music.

Ilaiyaraaja is nicknamed "Isaignani" (the musical genius), a *le conferred by Kalaignar Karunanidhi. He is often referred to as "maestro", the *le conferred by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London. He was one of the earliest Indian film composers to use Western cl*ical 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 his methodical approach to arranging, recording technique, and his drawing of ideas from a diversity of musical styles.

He is reputed to be the world's most prolific composer having composed more than 7,000 songs, provided film scores for more than 1,000 movies and performed in more than 20,000 concerts. In 1993, he became the first Indian to compose a full symphony, performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London and is also known to have written the entire symphony in less than a month. Composed by Ilaiyaraaja, the critically acclaimed Thiruvasakam in Symphony (2006) is the first Indian oratorio.

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 genres such as Afro-tribal, bossa nova, dance music (e.g., disco), doo-wop, flamenco, acoustic guitar-propelled Western folk, funk, Indian cl*ical, Indian folk/traditional, jazz, march, pathos, pop, psychedelia and rock and roll.

By virtue of this variety and his intermingling of Western, Indian folk and Carnatic elements, Ilaiyaraaja's compositions appeal to the Indian rural dweller for its rhythmic folk qualities, the Indian cl*ical music enthusiast for the employment of Carnatic ragas, and the urbanite for its modern, Western-music sound. His sense of visualisation for composing music is always to match up with the story line of the running movie and possibly by doing so, he creates the best experience for the audience to feel the emotions flavoured 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.

Actor Rajnikanth noted that Ilaiyaraaja used to complete the re-recording of three films in a single day, without any sleep; while present generation composers take 30 days for a single film.

Honours and legacy

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Ilaiyaraaja

Prime Minister Narendra Modi conferred an honorary doctorate to music maestro Ilaiyaraaja during the 36th Convocation Ceremony of Gandhigram Rural Ins*ute, Deemed to be University, in Tamil Nadu's Dindigul.

Ilaiyaraaja receiving the Padma Vibhushan from President Ram Nath Kovind

Ilaiyaraaja has been awarded five National Film Awards—three for Best Music Direction and two for Best Background Score. In 2010, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian honour in India and the Padma Vibhushan in 2018, the second-highest civilian award by the government of India. In 2012, he received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, the highest Indian recognition given to practising artists, for his creative and experimental works in the music field. He is a gold medalist in cl*ical guitar from Trinity College of Music, London, Distance Learning Channel.

In 2003, according to an international poll conducted by BBC of more than half-a million people from 165 countries, his composition "Rakkamma Kaiya Thattu" from the 1991 film Thalapathi was voted fourth in the top 10 most popular songs of all time.

In 2013, when the Indian news channel CNN-IBN conducted a poll commemorating 100 years of Indian cinema, he secured 49% of the people's vote and was adjudged as the country's greatest music composer; A. R. Rahman stood second with 29% of the vote.

In 1986, he became the first Indian composer to record a soundtrack with computer for the film Vikram. He was also one of the earliest Indian film composers to use Western cl*ical music harmonies and string arrangements in Tamil film music, and the first South Asian to compose a full symphony. He also composed Thiruvasagam in Symphony (2006), the first Indian oratorio.

Achille Forler, board member of the Indian Performing Right Society, said, "the kind of stellar body of work that Ilaiyaraaja has created in the last 40 years should have placed him among the world's top 10 richest composers, somewhere between Andrew Lloyd Webber ($1.2:billion) and Mick Jagger (over $300:million)."

British Musician Andy Votel, described Ilaiyaraaja in an essay thus, "Whatever "genre" of music you choose to like/ love/ promote/ protect/ politicise/ over-intellectualize/ despise/ defend or pretend to enjoy, Ilaiyaraaja has done it."

Carnatic vocalist T. M. Krishna considers no other film composer has displayed the broad range of understanding music like Ilaiyaraaja, and the way he adapts and creates music is unfathomable making him the absolute master.

The soundtrack of Thalapathi was included in The Guardian's 100 Albums to Hear Before You Die. In 2003, according to an international poll conducted by BBC, more than half-a million people from 165 countries voted his composition Rakkamma Kaiya Thattu from the 1991 film Thalapathi as fourth in the world's top 10 most popular songs of all time.

On 6 July 2022, he has been nominated to the Rajya Sabha as Member of parliament by the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind.

Personal life

Ilaiyaraaja was married to Jeeva and the couple has three children—Karthik Raja, Bhavatharini and Yuvan Shankar Raja—all of them are film composers and singers. His wife Jeeva died on 31 October 2011. His brother, Gangai Amaran, is also a music director and lyricist in the Tamil film industry, and both were not in talking terms for 13 years until they met in February 2022.His daughter Bhavatharini died of liver cancer on 25 January 2024.

Legal issues and controversies

Ilaiyaraaja (center) with Kamal Haasan (left) and Rajinikanth (right) at the Nadigar Sangam Protest in 2018

In 2017, claiming copyright violations, Ilaiyaraaja sent legal notices to singers, S. P Balasubrahmanyam, his son S. P. Charan and Chithra, prohibiting them from singing his compositions without his consent, and warned they would have to pay huge royalties and face legal action if they do so. Ilaiyaraaja's brother Gangai Amaran criticized him, saying legal notice to SPB is 'foolishness'.

In 2018, during a talk show in the US, Ilaiyaraaja expressed his doubts regarding the credibility of the Christian belief in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and claimed that resurrection happened only in the case of the Hindu saint Ramana Maharshi. In protest, a Christian group lodged a complaint with the Police Commissioner of Trichy, demanding an apology or police action against Ilaiyaraaja for raising doubt about the "ultimate belief of Christians".

In early 2022, talking about the state of music composers in industry, Ilaiyaraaja said, "There are no composers in the film industry today; there are only programmers."

In April 2022, Ilaiyaraaja triggered a controversy by writing a foreword in the book *led, "Ambedkar & Modi—Reformer's Ideas", in which he praised the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and compared him to B.R. Ambedkar.When he received some criticism, leaders from BJP came to his support.

Discography

Main article: Ilaiyaraaja discography

References

Bibliography

Ramachandran, Naman (2014) . Rajinikanth: The Definitive Biography. New Delhi: Penguin Books. ISBN:978-0-14-342111-5.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ilaiyaraaja.

Official website
Ilaiyaraaja at IMDb

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