Ilaiyaraaja was in many ways a trendsetter. In the song ‘Pattale Puthi Sonnar’ (through songs he expressed morality) in Karagattakaran in 1989, the lines ‘Ezhaikalum Yeval Adimaigalaai Iruppadhai Pada Sonnargal’ (they asked me to sing how the poor were toiling and living as slaves) exemplify that. Ilaiyaraaja provided music that satisfied the expectations of large sections of society – which includes the working classes and the rural masses – and brought attention to their way of life and gave meaning to their emotions, desires, sorrows, anxieties and struggles.
I look at Ilaiyaraaja’s music as a social phenomenon and the experience of listening to it or the act of consuming it in terms of a social fact. This article discusses the music maestro’s contributions while trying to understand it in a sociological context. He has scored music for films in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi and Marathi films. Ilaiyaraaja now stands as a colossus in terms of being a cultural ambassador for Tamil culture. He worked with famous music directors like MS Viswanathan, Salil Choudhury, GK Venkatesh and such, while simultaneously trying to compose his own music. Hailing from a humble background and rural hinterlands, he took elements of everyday life and brought them to cassettes and the screen and wove magic in the world of music.īorn in Pannaipuram village in Theni district, Ilaiyaraaja had a meteoric rise as a music composer. Music legend Ilaiyaraaja stands out with his phenomenal achievements bringing in structural changes within the Tamil film world. Beyond the individual impact, his work, given the broader social context it has served, provides social meaning in terms of identity for communities and groups. It’s clear to see how well his work is received – on social media, many have written about how his music has given meaning to many emotions, from happiness to sorrow, trauma, excitement, dullness, tenderness, anger, and peace. They provide linguistic and regional pride as well as aesthetic pleasure. Given the strong aural culture in the Tamil context, his songs and music often convey political messages and are an integral part of social events and ceremonies. For the average south Indian, particularly Tamilians, it’s hard to escape Ilaiyaraaja – it doesn’t matter if you live in India or belong to the global Tamil diaspora.Ī composer for more than a thousand films with a whopping 8,000 and more songs recorded, and more hits than anyone else in a career spanning four decades, Ilaiyaraaja is nothing short of a legend. It would be fitting to call Ilaiyaraaja the musical genius of the millennium from India.
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