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Why was 78-82 songs of IR considered his best?

Topic started by Prabhu (@ 203.90.94.162) on Fri Oct 4 08:37:47 EDT 2002.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

A curious question. It is commonly perceived that THE BEST of IR's hit songs came in the 78-82 period. Why is it so?
It does appear that IR songs of this period had lengthy pallavis with heavy orchestration(consider 'Ore naal unai naan, Kanmaniye kaathal enbathu, Poonthaliraada, songs from Alaigal oivathillai, Nizhalgal,etc). The post-85 songs had pallavis that were more or less toned down and gradually culminated with greater emphasis on melody in the charanams.
Your comments?

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Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: Awe (@ 65.69.45.160) on: Tue Oct 8 01:06:13 EDT 2002
  
  http://www.tamil.sify.com/movies/content/interview.asp?interview_id=323
  
  Sudha Ragunathan is "nuch" about IR in this article.
  
  
• From: cosmician (@ 194.170.127.161) on: Tue Oct 8 02:31:54 EDT 2002
  
  >>Actually his standard of music was always good. Standard of fans are less<<
  
  As Udhaya pointed out, to cope with the overload of projects, IR had standardised his creations through a factory assembly line like procedure.
  
  Once upon a time, I prided myself with the ability to make out an IR composition by the orchestral structures, the violins and flute pitch and melody, the bass guitar riffs and the standard drum kits used....this was in the period 1987 - 1992. But I was entirely fooled by Deva's "Enakannu pirandhava...". Deva had managed to imitate IR and improvise too !
  
  So Awe, dont blame the fans...true music fans will always appreciate good music no matter the source...IR's TFM quality had indeed gone down after "Thalapathy" - the music of which should have been a trend-setter...which IMO IR himself abandoned.
  
  The bane of film music is that it is like opium to the masses (especially TFM audience)...after getting a shot...your next shot has to be double to get even more higher as you are not satisfied with the "high" you have got with your first shot.
  
  So our MDs have to be innovative always and sound fresh each time which is quite a tall order as most of our commercial films have standard situations. IR had done quite well in this scenario and we salute him.
  
  
• From: Venkatesh (@ 212.72.11.66) on: Tue Oct 8 03:14:37 EDT 2002
  
  I dont understanding one thing. People are arguing that they missed the Brass/String sections and that some instrument players left IR, etc. Does it mean that they were the main reason behind IR's compositions? Has IR not scored those interludes?
  
  As per my understanding, IR writes the full score, to the last obbligato. In that case, it should be construed that IR changed his style after that period. Somebody please clarify.
  
  
• From: OISG (@ 193.188.97.152) on: Tue Oct 8 03:21:02 EDT 2002
  
  Moondram pirai s music
  
  It is certainly one of the highlights of tfm.The quality of music was brilliant.It was IR s clear message to other MDs either improvise or i am taking over.Factually no MD got the message and just faded out.
  
  But did IR reproduce the same magic for Balu Mahendra post 1982?Veedu used his albums as BGM.
  Vanna Vanna pookal sank without a trace.Neengal kettavai.. apart from Kanavu Kanum(to an extent Oh!Vasantha Raja) the other songs were just manufactured items.
  
  For a man of IR s talents there were few movies & lyricists post 1982-83 which/who really tested his immense potential.
  Maudhal Mariyathai
  Nayagan
  Salangai oli..may be another 20-30
  
  the list isnt big considering the fact that it was his prime time 1985-92 with numbers.
  
  Prob when your co worker is not a professional you lose motivation over a period of time despite your bottomless energy and talents.
  
  Pre-82 was his base years.you just care a damn and go all out to establish.Whether it is Sakkalathi or Moondram pirai i am here to prove...and thats all.
  
  
• From: vijay (@ 68.51.203.216) on: Tue Oct 8 03:57:25 EDT 2002
  
  OISG, in fact Kanavu kaanum was the song that was remade from the hindi original and hence should not be mentioned. Oh Vasantha raja set in Srothaswini was a brilliant number in a movie as crappy as Neengal Kettavai. Post 1982, you forgot RettaiVaal kuruvi of Balumahendra that had two gems. Maharajanodu from Sathi Leelavathi was good and Maarugo from the same film was also popular at that time. and Balumahendra didnt make that many films either. Just one movie every 2 or 3 years.
  
  the great IR-Manirathnam combo hadnt even begun by 1982!! This is like forgetting the MSV-Bhim Singh combo. And so did the IR-KB combo which yielded perhaps some of the best IR songs ever between 85 and 89.
  Post-82 had lots of good numers for Mohan, Kamal movies, KB/Mani rathnam movies, Ramarajan movies and so on..
  One cannot just discount this period.
  
  Number-wise, IRs songs, good ones that is, were probably a little fewer between 85 and 89 as compared to the 78-84 period, but nevertheless in comparison with other MDs past and present, the rate of good songs/year coming out was still very significant. He was also making a lot of decent albums in Telugu during this period for Vamsi and others. Its a little difficult for anyone to match their production in the formative years with that from their later years.
  
  Nevertheless, A glance at IRs discography should reveal 1978-84 and 89-92 as his best periods. Thats almost a decade of good music at an average of around 30-40 albums/year.
  
  And this is not including his BGM, re-recording and so on which has been pretty consistent until now.
  
  
• From: Awe (@ 65.69.45.160) on: Tue Oct 8 10:03:41 EDT 2002
  
  Illayaraja has brought enough variety to TFM. He had his own stamp. More importantly he never sounded foreign to me. He maintained indianness in his music. We should have our own identity. IR created an identity for all 4 south indian languages movies. His knowledge is infinite largely untapped by our mediocre directors mostly tasteless producers who insist on having dappanguthu songs. Inspite of the he got good projects like Moha Mul, Salangai Oli, Nayagan, Sindhu Bhairavi. But i still say our movie industry is pretty backward. Do they make movies like A beautiful Mind, Shawsank Redemption, Lord Of The Rings? They don't have songs. Just the soundtracks. How well the albums are sold there.
  Our Directors have to think beyond things like hero helping people in ration shops, hero running after heroine from start to finish.. They have to think outside the box and come out with interesting and challenging projects. Tamil Movies are pretty ordinary these days. Bringing tons of northies who don't know tamil to Tamil field, unnecessarily going to australia, africa to dance for one song. Hollywood became famous not only because the language was english. It was using international subjects like espionage in Russia. Watch hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent. His first movie is Rebecca which won Oscar in 1940. In the same year he made Foreign Correspondent. Just watch the quality of that movie, camera shots, background score. Indian directors are so backward that they are not able to use IR fully.
  
  
• From: geeth (@ 213.121.248.170) on: Wed Oct 9 01:06:15 EDT 2002
  
  Awe,
  interesting post. but do not belong to this thread. still, points raised are good ones.
  you can't blame Indian directors in total. there are many who have hit the international market and audience. Shekar Kapoor, Mira Nair etc. are all making waves now. Unfortunately except for Adoor recently, none have worked with IR. IR is mainly related with TFM. If you are blaming tamil directors then its accepted. But we should remember that tamil producers and directors make movies towards target audiences - mainly the tamil a/b/c centres. occassionally there will be some well made movies which have to be marketed outside tamilnadu without dubbing into other languages. its very very difficult to count such movies. Kandukonden.. went to North with subtitles. Roja is another recent example. A tamil movie will have to run in other states first before moving to international market.
  
  
• From: OISG (@ 193.188.97.152) on: Wed Oct 9 02:53:59 EDT 2002
  
  Vijay
  
  That was a slip.But my contention is that when IR maintained his high standards while the directors simply could not cope.Working With men like P Vasu,R Suderrajan,Ramarajan,Rajkiran subconsciouly your ideas shrink.
  
  Another point was the previous generation MDs had 2 great genere of movies which were absent during IR s hey days ,the Bhakthi movies and Purana/Ithihasa movies...All you get in the 800 odd films list are
  1.Thai moogambikai
  2.Bala Nagamma
  3. Ragavendrar
  Can someone add..
  
  So those areas remain unexplored by IR.I dont think it s gonna be possible now.It would have hleped him to think different.
  
  *DIG*
  Interestingly Vikatan commened about the Synthesizer sounds in Balanagamma.IR went on from strength to strength!.Same way for Karuthamma Vikatan complained about ARR s "Pomeranian" music for the village movie and you know where he is now.
  
  
• From: Awe (@ 65.69.57.30) on: Wed Oct 9 03:11:09 EDT 2002
  
  Geeth.. i don't sweepingly blame the directors..
  I talk about Tamil directors. I have no respect for Hindi movies with montonous group dances where hero and heroine exchanges glance falling in love. You must have seen that in 1000 hindi movies. You are still seeing that. Only challenging subjects will bring the best out of an MD. When i listen to How To Name It, Nothing But Wind, i wonder why not even one director is able to use him effectively recently. Hope our approach to film making changes in the future.
  
  
• From: Venkatesh (@ 212.72.11.66) on: Wed Oct 9 04:52:13 EDT 2002
  
  OISG,
  
  Balanagamma is not Purana movie, its a Vittalacharya type maayajal movie.
  
  There are quite a few more Bhakthi movies, which you left out.
  
  1) Rajarishi
  2) Ezhumalaiyan Mahimai (Telugu dub)
  3) Shirdi Saibaba Mahatmiyam
  
  But as you said, the no. of such movies went down over a period. But IR has given excellent songs/BGMs for these movies. Watch out Rajarishi & Raghavendrar, the BGM is very apt.
  
  
• From: Venkatesh (@ 212.72.11.66) on: Wed Oct 9 04:52:25 EDT 2002
  
  OISG,
  
  Balanagamma is not Purana movie, its a Vittalacharya type maayajal movie.
  
  There are quite a few more Bhakthi movies, which you left out.
  
  1) Rajarishi
  2) Ezhumalaiyan Mahimai (Telugu dub)
  3) Shirdi Saibaba Mahatmiyam (Telugu)
  
  But as you said, the no. of such movies went down over a period. But IR has given excellent songs/BGMs for these movies. Watch out Rajarishi & Raghavendrar, the BGM is very apt.
  
  
• From: geeth (@ 213.121.248.170) on: Wed Oct 9 05:24:20 EDT 2002
  
  Awe,
  you will like this newitem. it says Indian movies export touched 9 bn in 2001-2002. also it mentions that Rajnikanth is a superhit star in Japan. no details about the share of TF in this export market.
  http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_81177,0002.htm
  
  

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