Is iLaiyaraja cool?
I never had thought about it before. Until this psycho fone conversation yesterday.
Hmmm.. well, essentially how many of iLayaraja's numbers would the guy sittin on his bike wearing coolers, on besant nagar beach like? Will a guy like that ever say, "Dude, that guy's cool, man..."? about ilayaraja? even 20 years ago, would guys have called ilayaraja a dude or called him 'cool'?
And i don't mean guys like me, who also go paranoid about songs like "poongaathu thirumbuma" and "vetti veru vaasam". Ilayaraja is the masses' delight, no doubt, and has this HUGE list of "singaari sarakku' kind of songs that set the blood boiling.. not quite wat we are talkin about though..
Simply put, how many songs of iLaiyaraja fall in the same bracket as, say, a Fanaa?
(For those who don't know me, I HAVE to say at this point of time, that i am one of the die hardest ilayaraja fans. Just that this question seems valid... disturbingly so.)
ilamai idho idho seems like close to wat am lookin for. But one example is not good enuff in as long and illustrious a career as his.. Songs like sikkaadha sittondru will fall into the koothu genre, and iravu nilavu rasithadhu and raja, rajathi rajan indha raja are not again the kind of songs you would actually play on the dance floor.
So there we go, dance floor songs for the pseud listener. Can you think of any?
I was alarmed i could not think of too many.
If i get to make a film someday, I would want to have iLayaraja score the music, and have 2 numbers of the totally rocking "idhu kaadhalaa" kind, just to set the record straight...
I had my own theories though, as to why this has happened the way it has. But shall wait for you guys to voice your views..
As the chant goes,
I'm just a man... imperfect... lowly...
Hmmm.. well, essentially how many of iLayaraja's numbers would the guy sittin on his bike wearing coolers, on besant nagar beach like? Will a guy like that ever say, "Dude, that guy's cool, man..."? about ilayaraja? even 20 years ago, would guys have called ilayaraja a dude or called him 'cool'?
And i don't mean guys like me, who also go paranoid about songs like "poongaathu thirumbuma" and "vetti veru vaasam". Ilayaraja is the masses' delight, no doubt, and has this HUGE list of "singaari sarakku' kind of songs that set the blood boiling.. not quite wat we are talkin about though..
Simply put, how many songs of iLaiyaraja fall in the same bracket as, say, a Fanaa?
(For those who don't know me, I HAVE to say at this point of time, that i am one of the die hardest ilayaraja fans. Just that this question seems valid... disturbingly so.)
ilamai idho idho seems like close to wat am lookin for. But one example is not good enuff in as long and illustrious a career as his.. Songs like sikkaadha sittondru will fall into the koothu genre, and iravu nilavu rasithadhu and raja, rajathi rajan indha raja are not again the kind of songs you would actually play on the dance floor.
So there we go, dance floor songs for the pseud listener. Can you think of any?
I was alarmed i could not think of too many.
If i get to make a film someday, I would want to have iLayaraja score the music, and have 2 numbers of the totally rocking "idhu kaadhalaa" kind, just to set the record straight...
I had my own theories though, as to why this has happened the way it has. But shall wait for you guys to voice your views..
As the chant goes,
I'm just a man... imperfect... lowly...
posted by Girish at 6:11 AM
30 Comments:
First of all - the 80s were not exactly the age of the discos and there were never the audience for that. Now, with all the economic improvements blah blah blah liberalization blah blah...there is a need for music to pander or cater as the ppl like it to the MASSMAN in the classy urban youth...
and there were songs like girish mentioned that were for the urban dude...
the age was different..but ilayaraja and his use of the guitar, the electric variant of the same, the drum beats and all that, were all slisha ahead of that time - u just have to compare it with the junk churned out in Hindi during that time...
Raaja rocks...for that era he was god..and really COOL
i dont think i quite agree.
i understand him being ahead of his time with respect to use of western instrumentation. agreed. the "dude' wont give a damn for any of that. he wants to dance his mind off, period.
Point is whether he ever made songs for the dance floor. If no, why not?
If given a chance now, can he make a song like fanaa.
In his age, hindi music had "junk" alright, but they had songs like "jaane ja", "piya tu", "jai jai shiva shankar" and stuff, which ANY northie wud dance to, anyday.
Ilayaraja had his dappaankoothu songs, world class as they were. but not pseud fast songs.
in the last 10 years, WITH all technological advancements et al, he HAS had chances to make dance numbers. Never happened. Fingers crossed, eagerly egging Mottai on..
just dont want his versatility to come under the hammer.. hence the clarification sought on this forum..
has he got opportunities to score for these situations like what was with a 'Fanaa...', even in the last decade? he has scored for movies of ppl like Bala and Balu Mahendra and Kamal - who havnt shot in these genres...
Well firstly comparing is not right. There are numerous songs of Raaja that are so unique to him and non of these people who compose numbers as you mentioned come close to also.To look at it in another way they dint have such an opportunity. Your point can be well taken if you can give a instance where you say Raaja could have composed a "faana" type of song. I am strongly against such posts.-Mohan
mohan, you miss the point.
i am a HUGE raja fan.
Not many people wud have the raja collection that i hav on my computer.
I am NOT talkin about the thousands of songs where raja composed stuff which no one else could have. we are not contending the fact that he is sheer genius.
I think my post is pretty clear.
The films have not changed, the same old college stories, love stories and wat not. Where rahman has done SO many songs like kalloori saalai, fanaa, endrendrum punnagai, is Raja capable of making that music? in these times OR in his good old times? that is all i ask.
oor orama aathupakkam thennanthoppu used to be my fav my feet used to itch for this one and dare u call me a pseud dancer!
prob for the pseud dancers(ur term not mine) the following might hold good
the original aasai nooru vagai?
vanithamani ah vanamogini :-)
varuthu varuthu vilagu vilagu
ennadi meenatchi sonnadhu ennachu
i dont know exactly how to classify this:
muthaadudhe muthaadudhe- nallavanukku nallavan
-with the typical fast disco beat of dinchiku dinchiku dinchiku
ofcourse these are not as slick with words and are more in your face. no yakkai thiri here.
i think "kasu mela kasu vandhu" was supposed to be the first tamil song to be played in chennai discs-heresay and have seen it at a private party where the "hep" junta were there.
i guess its more like the condescending admiration one has for govinda or laloo. You love it/them but do it patronisingly to protect ur "dude" image.
Aside: i remember "cool baaais" who used to blast english music in their cars started playing tam music loud when Roja album came - esp the number Rukmani Rukmani.
on btw the pattern is obvious most of those fast numbers were for kamal. maybe audience or director or the actor himself demanded one atleast for every movie
-same anon from last post
now that i hv come out of the closet its hard to put myself back in it
forgot to add
atlast i found a soul who has similar feelings on mudhal mariyadhai. Mundhanai mudichu too - but i guess its like Rahman doing Rajini movies.
If you are the kind who thinks to mention IR and ARR in the same line is blasphemy cant help it.
how can u even compare oor oramaa aathuppakkam thennanthOppu with Fanaa?
I dont know if that would have been THE ideal dance number for that generation.
aasai nooru vagai is a powerful dance number, but still is more wild and vulgar than cool and pseud.
a song in the film friends, the opening song in Hey Ram, for eg. were situations where he could have had proper dance numbers. again, these are just examples. there must OF COURSE be more examples ever since Rahman came in, of chances where ilayaraja failed to capitalise on opportunities to make amazing dance numbers. what better opportunity than the film kalaignan? and the song that he used was a song called kokkarakko kozhi.. totally not for the modern audience. Yet another example of a missed opportunity, that.
General request:
PLEASE do not hijack this dicsussion into a Rahman-Raja comparison. that is totally not called for.
Girish,
I completely agree with ur views on IR not being cool/hip. Atleast, till date, only very few cool songs from him. One song I can think of other than the agni nakshtram songs is "kalakalamaga vaazhum" from punnagai mannan. But've heard from people that it was KR's tune... not sure though.. I won't agree with the argument that he was not offered with situations to create cool songs. That is bs. We can attribute that to his humble beginnings also to bad lyricists.
p.s: kalaignan example was spot on! man... kokkarako kozhi...is not cool/hip by any standards... atleast not for me.
i guess i can safely assume this new anon is not mohan? u havent said anything controversial, AND you have supported me, so why the anonymity? :)
anon because of the lack of time to create a blogger id. Btw, I don't know u before this.
Giri, naanume ida unkitta ketta maari nyaabagam. but donno...mebbe not seriously enuff. but ennodadum ade complain daan...enda raja kutthu paatu eduthaalum adu naatupuram and heavy local stuff-a daan irukkum.
J ...80's layum discos irundudu... but appelaam anda swinging sixties-seventies hangover irundududa.and swinging does not come anywhr near rocking.
i guess thats wat is termed as dude and pseud music here. 'we will rock u' kinda hard beats...that litterally shake u into dacing. appadi eduvume illa...enakkum therinju...but enakku therinjade kammi! aanalaum i think i can safely say... raja has not yet done a 'fanaa' kinda number... and he's never shown the inclination to. that much can be said...
'enakkum unakkum aarambam...' somehow sprang to mind the momemt i read the blog post - specifically, it was the re-mix version that struck. any pointers?
Let's rock
andha paattu ilayaraja pannina version evvaLo localaa irukkumnu onakke theriyum. remix dhaan decent.
and same with a lot of his songs. remix panna versions are good n racy.
madai thirandhu to cite another example.. but the originals?
First of all the prime time of Raja was late 70's 80's and early 90's. There were not too many people during these times who were after the hip-hop, rock and pop kind of songs. This meant Raja was not experimenting with these sort of songs. All the modern instruments came about in late 90's. By that tiem I would have to say Raja was out of his prime. So no real enthu or urge to prove a point there. I am not denying that there are not too many number from Raja that would make its way to dance floors. It would have been nice if Rahman composed 'Fanaa ..' kind of songs in 80's, cos that would have really pushed Raja to do something. The point is we can not really say Raja cannot compose real rocky and peppy numbers.
Let me frankly make a point clear to u
Music is not something as u say which rocks u on dance floor it should be melodious and raaja is the king of melodies.I think u do not have that melodious devine mind to hear to music to make such silly foolish coments about raaja.So this COOL COOL!!!!is not rocking rather it is just devine melody!!!!!.Kindly excuse me for this coment .Treat me as an open hearted critic
Hahaha @ Anonymous.
stil dont see the need to be anonymous though, Mr. Open hearted critic :))
Lets just say you don't know me :-)
oops i think i should hv added more smileys. i reread my post and realised the tone can be misread...
If the dont hijack the thread was to me that was not the intention.
oh btw u shld not take my examples too seriously edho kelvi kettiyennu naanum edho ezhudhinen :-)
-last known as the oor orama aathupakkam anon :-)
just a status update on the search for ilayaraja's proper "cool" disco numbers:
1. iLamai idho idho
2. Megam Kottattum
3. ?
Thathom Thalangu Thathom - Vetri Vizha
Kattukuyilu - Thalabathi ...to an extent
Vidiya Vidiya Nadanam - Idhayathai
Thirudadhey
I'll check my itunes and revert..
anon2
whats ur family hierarchy?... i need it to change your yahoo ID password.. please let me know as soon as possible
who the hell is this last anonymous? a bot?
Thathom Thalangu Thathom - Vetri Vizha
Vidiya Vidiya Nadanam - Idhayathai
Thirudadhey
---pedal max songs...
BK can u send me these 2 songs?
have not heard these as much as i wud like to.
Recently "Solla Solla enna perumai" got picked up in YouTube and was a rage. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koqeSXJtvvo
Though it was because of the crazy retro disco, the music was appreciated well.
interesting topic...
I think the following may be one of the reasons.
In my opinion, an essential ingredient of a dance number is an embaresessingly simple rythm track. In several popular dance tracks the rythm is a common publicly avaialable loop. (For eg. Fanaa)
I think ilayaraja is reluctant to compose tracks with default rythm pattern. I have come to this conclusion by observing several of his modern compositions, in which it is apparent that ilayaraja has clearly "created" the rythm track instead of using one.
bingo vijayanand!
at last someone reads my mind!!
`endRendRum AnandhamE'
`vAlibamE vA vA'
`thOLin mElE, bAram illE'
...ippadi sila irukkaththAn seigindRana...need to dig out...
However, idhaiyellAm vida `adiyE, manam nillunnA nikkAdhadi' play paNNi AdinAl varum thrillE thani dhAn:-)
IR is a musician who combines folk music with classical music. Most of his songs are like that. ARR combines western with classical. Today with the low end audience, they would like fanaa..but they would like a koothu song better. It was the case with everyone in the 80's. IR has been out of his prime since 90's. As one of the posts said, he doesn't have anything left to prove. He has already proved that he's a genius and he can be versatile upto an extent.
But your point is true. There are not disco/dance numbers from IR. But I'm not disappointed.
btw.. - i don't know u
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