Platinum Jubilee for the Maestro

Isaignani’ Ilayaraaja entered his 75th year on June 2, even as the southern film industry grabs eyeballs all over as many of its icons reach landmarks this year

Call it sheer coincidence or a logical culmination of the years of tireless work by a set of talented professionals, 2017 seems a year to watch out for southern cinema.

In an interesting series of highlights, this year marks a sequence - the 25th year of the Mozart of Madras, A R Rahman making his bow into cinema industry, 50th year of one of its ageless divas Sridevi’s stay under the arclights across various language films since her debut in 1967, ‘Isaignani’ Ilaiyarajaa turning 75 (with a whopping record of scoring music for 1,000 films already) and above all the centenary year of the biggest of them all- M G Ramachandran, who was born in 1917 and became the CM of Tamil Nadu, same month, forty years ago in the then Madras.

There can be no better time to talk about these icons, with southern film industry, the flavour of the season with the unprecedented success of ‘Baahubali 2’ and also the bestowing of Dada Saheb Phalke Award to K Viswanath. Of course, the whopping success of Ilaiyarajaa, who has been the forerunner, albeit in a limited manner, for introducing the southern form of music into upcountry audiences in the ‘80s can itself be a stand-alone event.

Back then in Chennai, with the winds of change blowing over, a whole new lot of directors, actors, actresses and other craftsmen started making their mark, four decades ago. The film watching public had had enough of the antics of the ageing thespians, Sivaji Ganesan and MGR, who were clearly past their expiry date as far as their freshness and novelty aspects went. This was also the time when it was felt that a new generation of youngsters were avidly switching to Hindi music and films, which were unwelcome, courtesy the political climate in the State.

Ilaiyarajaa credited with bringing in Tamil folk music into the drawing rooms of the urban homes in the Dravidian homeground, also blended modern instrumental notes and quickly emerged as the darling of a whole lot of post-independence born music lovers.

At the same time, Telugu cinema too was undergoing its own metamorphosis. The NTR-ANR duo had by then begun their second innings, with the former reprising many Hindi film hits, notably of the then legend Amitabh Bachchan. This was apart from the socio-fantasies and mythological that the local directors had lined up for him. ANR, the eternal family social type was spinning his stories of unrequited romance and melodrama, with mixed impact.

Synchronising with the rise of the next gen, led by Chiranjeevi in the ‘80s, after a period of flux a decade earlier, Ilaiyarajaa found resonance across the border too. Beginning with C V Sridhar’s ‘Vayasu Pilichindi’, (the first bi-lingual for the young guns Kamal Hassan and Rajinikanth back then in 1978) Rajaa was noticed virtually immediately. Old timers can still remind themselves of the fast-paced “Mabbe Masakesindhi Le” from that film which coalesced beautifully with the other melodious duets featuring SPB, Vani Jairam and S Janaki.

While dubbed songs of the Tamil originals kept flooding the local market, he was quickly sought after for the different tuning and orchestration he brought to his numbers. With a solid grounding in both Western and Indian forms of music, not to speak of an agile mind which embraced technology (his studio was the first, fully computerised one in Indian film industry) the Tamil titan delivered value.

While recycling his Tamil hits was unavoidable as the directors seemed to take a fancy to it, a record number of original compositions make his songs a strong favourite across media platforms- right from the digital ones like YouTube to the Telugu FM radio channels which have the RJs swooning over even today. Fans would be hard put to list out the top 100 or 50 songs of his, even as his quality speaks more than his quantity, which was much lesser compared to his Tamil films.

Statistically, the career of Ilaiyaraaja spawns around 100-odd films in which he scored music for all the leading stars, from Chandramohan at one end to Chiranjeevi at the other, packing in the trio of Balakrishna, Venkatesh and Nagarjuna also in its wake. The legendary NTR too jived to his music, for whom he composed for just one film- ‘Yugandhar’- a remake of Bachchan blockbuster ‘Don’.

Quite early in his career, he won the Nandi Award for his 1981 film ‘Seethakoka Chiluka’. Directors from Bapu, Singeetam Srinivasa Rao to K Viswanath have involved him in their creative ventures continuously to which he added eternal value.

Commercial directors of that era like Kodandarami Reddy, K Raghavendra Rao, Vamsi, Ravi Raja Pinisetty, etc, have managed to get evergreen hits for their flicks most of the time from the musical genius. Mani Ratnam cannot forget the whopping success his 1989 release ‘Gitanjali’ enjoyed, more because of the unforgettable tunes composed by Ilaiyaraaja.

Ditto for the maverick Ram Gopal Varma whose Nagarjuna blockbuster ‘Siva’ had hummable songs to go along with it, courtesy the Chennai craftsman, the same year.

A decade ago, the box-office dud ‘Anumanaspadam’ of director Vamsy still had a thunderous reception to its audio part because of Raaja alone. If one scans media updates about the latest on the maestro, it is not totally surprising that he is still sought after.

In 2017, he has enough going all across the film industries from Chennai to Bengaluru, including the forthcoming Nara Rohit starrer ‘Kathalo Rajakumari’. Truly, the colossus is yet conjuring up magic for his legion of fans the world over.