Tuesday, May 1, 2012

ILAYARAJA !

yes, this is a small, humble tribute to the musical genius, isaigiani Ilayaraja. I know it's not something new. this man has die hard fans all over the world and has mesmerized millions of people all around the world. There are many sites and blogs that praise his work in music.

before going into the post, I'd like to say this. - I have not learnt any form of music or instrument. my view on music is only by the way, the music or song makes me feel at that moment. I have written this post based on such observations only. if you do not agree with any of my comments , please pardon me.

So I am going to present this post in form of different emotions i felt while listening to Raja sir's music and how i could relate to each one of them. most of the music, I've chosen are either BGM's or instrumentals, just to make a small point that when music is so powerful, lyrics is not even needed.

so here it is.

1. Happiness - The Background score from the Movie 'Johnny' starring Rajnikanth is the best to illustrate this emotion. the music is highly mesmerizing that it brings a smile on your face, irrespective of what your mood was at that time. it's a brilliant use of the classical western violin and piano. the tempo of the score increases and decreases in such smooth pattern that your mind also sways to it without control.

Listen to it below.



2. Celebration - The music i chose was the theme music from movie 'Punnagai Mannan', the music is performed with a feel of 80s Techno, but it brings out the mood perfectly. Especially, the last piece of the score, where the Violin takes over, it's magnificent. Some would say, this piece personifies love, yes, it does, but it's a celebration of love. I'd say, play this music when ever you feel like celebrating. it's worth it.
Listen to it



3. Passion - if you have to choose a song to play in the background while making love to someone, this would probably be on the very top. the music even comes in such a situation in the movie, 'Hey Ram'. the song is a beautiful soothing song, just listening to the piano music makes your mind relax and gives a pleasant feeling. the instrumental version of the song can be used as a meditation music or a piece of music to listen before sleep, it will give you a relaxed mind before a good sleep. such is the power of this masterpiece.




tit-bit : the movie's music was already composed by another music director,scenes were shot, later due to fall out between the director and music director, the songs had to be recomposed, Ilayaraja stepped in and composed a new set of songs without the need of the songs being re shot. he made a masterpiece to match the movie scenes that were shot already.. only Raja can do it.


4. Lust - I would not actually call it lust, but it's a bit between sensuality and Lust. you decide which way it falls. the song from the lesser known Rajni movie "Valli" has a very beautiful instrumental beginning, the music starts with a beautiful guitar solo, which drags you into the song and then binds you with the music to go along with swarnalatha's voice, you stay within the song's bounds as it lingers in your mind for a long time after. Ilayaraja is the only person in Indian cinema who knows to use the violin to it's best. listen to the violin piece in this song, it's smooth and used with accurate precision at various points of the song.




5.Sadness - there's a general notion that 'sadness' is the easiest to touch of human emotions, almost every human can relate themselves to some kind of sadness, but if done wrong, it will end up being a comedy. Ilayaraja has created one such masterpiece, which can affect people deeply with sadness. anyone who listens to this piece of music will have some sort of sad memory creep into their mind. the music affects our senses so sharply, that shedding tears for this music isn't a quality of faint hearts.
this music masterpiece is also a very good example of Ilayaraja's mastery with Violin. none of the Indian music greats have used violin as perfectly as this maestro.

 

6. Euphoria - This piece of music is another master piece with excellent use of the Violin, but in a completely different situation. the music here is full of excitement, ecstatic jumping bundle of joy. the pace of the violin in this situation gives a heart pumping tune, you can't just listen to this music without getting a little bit of adrenaline rush. Compare both violin music, see the diversity of music by the same instrument.
P.S. this piece was used by yuvan shankar raja in one of his movies and became Ring tone in a lot of phones.


7. Love - Imagine a situation where two people who are romantically attracted to each other but haven't told each other about their feelings, Meet. during that time, Play this song by the time, the song's intro music hits a brief pause before the lyrics start, either one of them will confess their feelings to the other. this song has such impact with it's music, in fact, it's used as BGM in lot of movies these days for love references. the entire song has good flow of music, combined with good singing, it's a delight to listen, every single time.




There are a lot of songs and music, i have left out many of them, as a lot of music by ilayaraja falls under good emotional music, In fact, i could illustrate 2-3 songs per emotion listed her. it's a vast variety from the Raja of music.! some of the honorable mentions - 'kanmani anbodu' - guna, 'thenpandi cheemayile' - nayagan, ' thalapathy title theme' , 'mouna ragam title theme', 'Potu vacha oru vatta nila' - Idhayam, 'en iniya pon nilave' - moodu pani.















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