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Gangai Amaran interview

Topic started by Manian (@ slip129-37-195-115.nc.us.ibm.net) on Tue Sep 8 22:42:50 EDT 1998.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

Hi folks:
Here is the URL for the latest interview
by Gangai Amaran conducted by Indiadirect people.
http://www.indiadirect.com/audio/index.html
It is an interesting interview, and among various
things, he reveals that he was the one who
penned the song 'Mannil Indha Kaadhal andri'
from Keladi Kanmani.

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Responses:

• From: GA Fan (@ chcgb105-21.splitrock.net) on: Wed Sep 9 01:00:07 EDT 1998
  
  Correction: http://www.indiadirect.com/audio/interview.htm
  
  
• From: srikanth (@ proxy1.dpn.deere.com) on: Fri Sep 11 11:41:50 EDT 1998
  
  hi
  G.A openly spoke various factors,
  his due respect for Raja has come down drastically
  ..Why? He use to say Annan, but in the interview he refers Raja
  just by name. I wish he was asked about the Symphony.
  I have a doubt on this too, was it really done.
  
  Point to Note: He appereciated ARR! very much
  and boldly told about Anu Malik , Sirpi etc/
  
  Raja's market went down when people
  like G.K.Venkatesh (who passed away) and
  G.A - walked out from the Raja camp
  I am sure these 2 played a vital role in Raja's
  growth.
  
  It looks like What Prakash BalaKrishnan told about G.A
  is somewhat true.
  
  Srikanth
  
  
• From: Udhaya (@ 205.218.142.217) on: Fri Sep 11 20:41:49 EDT 1998
  
  In the interview GA alluded to the fact that there was a time when Ga was signing on more movies than IR and that IR and Panju Arunaachalam pushed him into directing. He emphasizes several times that he was pushed into directing. I wonder if he feels that he sacrificed his own musical career for the sake of his older brother. It could all be just sour grapes too, but GA seems too magnanimous a guy to harbor such feelings. Interesting interview.
  
  
• From: Srinath (@ 206-152-163.ipt.aol.com) on: Sat Sep 12 03:55:52 EDT 1998
  
  Point 1 - Never knew GA was an innocent lamb who's musical career was slaughtered along with him by his elder brother IR. But....Kozhi Koovudhu was Pavalar Creation's 1st movie (says GA in the interview), the company itself being setup for the benefit of Bhaskar with IR and GA working without charging payments.
  
  Point 2 - GA's musical career was cut short - Short ? 150 movies and it took IR so long to realise the threat from the home front ? Threat ?
  
  Point 3 - Magnanimous ? Who ? GA ? According to him IR started composing tunes by himself only upon GA's prompting. Poor IR - never knew that music could be composed in the absence of lyrics until GA enlightened him!
  
  Udhaya, it's 3:15 in the morning and the interview is just concluding. I spent all this time listening to it primarily because an "apparently impartial" person like you seemed to find some credibility in it. Bulls..t ! You and Srikanth are no better than the IR fanatics here. You seem to find something obscene about IR's success - so much so that you want to take it away from him. This will teach me never to expect others to play by the same fair rules as I do. I was splitting ARR apart when, at your obvious displeasure, I stopped and rightly so, I believe - unfortunately you haven't. You people can never have enough of insulting IR. I have only seen him as an genius MD. You only see in him a devious, wily, scheming, traitorious, opportunistic, selfish, greedy person. Obviously one of us is looking at the wrong end of things.
  
  Srikanth: Some truth in Prakash Balakrishnan's words ? None in your's definitely....
  
  
• From: Srinath (@ 206-152-163.ipt.aol.com) on: Sat Sep 12 03:59:35 EDT 1998
  
  Manian:
  The fact that GA penned the lyrics for Mannil Indha kaadhal came out a long time back. Nothing new was revealed in the interview except perhaps GA's obvious (misplaced) frustration.
  
  
• From: Srikanth (@ slip-32-101-16-18.il.us.ibm.net) on: Sat Sep 12 12:05:58 EDT 1998
  
  Srinath:
  Your blind worship of Raja is not ready to accept the negative side of his. I admire your support for Raja, but sometimes there are many facts hidden which we dont know.
  GA has every right to complain about his brother, that too he does it at the fag end of his carrer.
  
  "devious, wily, scheming, traitorious, opportunistic, selfish, greedy person.:
  If you had spoken with Amar you would have used such words on him.
  From the day one on the studio he was just blindly obeying his big buddy without any objection., he has right to crib!...
  
  Srikanth
  
  
  
• From: Sriram Lakshman (@ sf-dnpqo-057.compuserve.net) on: Sat Sep 12 16:03:44 EDT 1998
  
  Did GA sound frustrated ? But I never felt that he spoke about IR disparagingly, if anything, atleast going by his tone, he appears to have relegated himself to the back seat esp when he says that IR used to score music for the big banners and he (GA) wasn't. Hard to discuss about GA's contribution to IR's music, though GA certainly has some talent (listen to 'nayagan avan oru puram', 'vidukathai onru','neelavana odayil'). The point to be noted here is that there has never been an MD who could not have been influenced by MSV , atleast in Tamil, even a mega-talent like IR.
  
  
• From: Rajesh (@ pdxss902.pdx.intel.com) on: Sat Sep 12 20:04:17 EDT 1998
  
  Srikanth,
  
  The fact that GA is cribbing at the fag end of the career is disturbing. Nobody can change anything now. He can crib all he wants and we never know what would have happened if he left IR very early in his career. You are talking about negative side of IR. I do not know how much you know about it to pass statements about his credibility. If I understand correctly, you are saying that IR achieved whatever he did only by suppressing musicians like GA. Well, I dont know IR or GA but for me that seems like way too much to attirbute to a person who has achieved so much.
  
  One can always make statements like "if i was allowed to do that.. if i was this... if i was that..." but those statements are only fit for fantasy. The fact GA is cribbing now is pretty bad for both IR and GA cannot do anything about it. If he had cribbed like this from day one, I would have apreciated that for there would have been no room for statements like these. Saying IR is not a force now is one thing and saying IR would never have been a force if not for GA is totally another thing. This makes me feel that you are smoehwat biased in your comments of late.
  
  
• From: SR Kaushik (@ nova4.cs.wisc.edu) on: Sat Sep 12 20:40:20 EDT 1998
  
  It is impossible for me to believe that GA was responsible for IR's success. Ok, after GA walked out, IR's success fell down, but consider output. Don't tell me IR's success is low because his quality is bad!!! You only have to listen to "Avathaaram", "Guru", "Nammoora Mandaara Hoove"(Kannada), "Kaliyoonjalu", etc. to know that IR's class is still shining bright. I have seen a recording of his and his ability will do nothing other than FASCINATE you. So I think its crazy to assume GA was responsible for IR's success.
  
  IMO, the main reason why IR lost out is the big budget movies in Tamil were (and are) going to ARR. He does get big budget movies in Mallu and Kannada and they are runaway hits because the good music has associated publicity with it.
  
  
• From: IR is the Lord (@ chcgb105-22.splitrock.net) on: Sat Sep 12 21:35:27 EDT 1998
  
  Yesterday I ask new friend from Bangalore is ARR popular there? He lookd blank. I asked about Illaiyaraja. He immediately brightened up and said IR is superstar in Karnataka. BTW this guy is only 24 years of age!
  
  BTW, I am joining Srinath is complete support.
  
  
• From: suresh (@ bowerbird.qut.edu.au) on: Sun Sep 13 06:08:46 EDT 1998
  
  Wow!
  
  the sudden avatar of the 'sacrificial lamb', the self-righteous GA had me all dazzled.. granted, he may have had his own talents, but for a person who enjoyed the shade of his brother's popularity while at its peak, and now turn back to spite him, is of extreme poor taste, if not ungratefulness. The only facet of GA that has him scoring higher than IR is his being media-savvy and stage- friendly, qualities that IR dreadfully lacks, leading to much misunderstanding and attack..
  
  GA failed because of nobody; but his own fault.. he lacks the rigorous discipline, the almost senseless - devotion to the art, that IR has pursued steadfast over decades.. i wouldn't want to bring in a personal side here, but still at the risk of offending his sudden admirers, i have to say that while IR may be selfish, scheming etc... GA had even greater negatives... i've had first-hand experience, so i wouldn't add more..
  
  looking at this objectively, i think it's grossly unfair to attribute any of GA's "unfortunate, ill-fated" failures to IR; in fact, who would argue that GA's sole claim to (mass) popularity itself was his brother? wasn't it IR who gave GA the stamp of a hit director by the strength of his music alone, as in "kozhi koovudhu" and "karagattakkaran"? what happened to GA's creative juices in all the movies that he directed out of IR's dominating shadow?? what does he have to show to impress us that his periodic "discovery of inner truth" is not borne out of sheer frustration or jealousy, but on genuine grounds.. he can now say that sirpi, deva or anyone else are better MDs than IR, but who cares? even sirpi or deva would dismiss him as ludicrous? let us not invent newer avenues to someone who just minds his own business, and in the process of making more than 700 movies, given his heart and soul to producing music that appeals to the common man as well as the connoisseur..
  
  GA will of course, get his own 30 or so minutes of media fame by talking nonsense, a practice he's perfected to art on the stage.. who cares?
  
  
• From: Srikanth (@ slip-32-101-16-230.il.us.ibm.net) on: Sun Sep 13 15:11:53 EDT 1998
  
  Hi,
  You guys would have built a temple for GA had he told something good about IR. Since he made few remarks on his brother, he is your enemy now.
  Add his name in the huge and lengthy list you guys have as Raja traitors. KB,KB,Mani Rantnam, Kamal, Tom,D..,Harry - now it is GA.) In the interview -
  GA did not speak much about Raja's skills, he spoke only about his personal life.
  We all accepted him when he spread the Raja's Sermon in all the light music shows, he would wantedly talk about Raja's greatness, which was true on that day.
  I dont see anything bad about it the remarks he made on Raja - That too at the FAG end of his musical life.
  I am sure you guys accept the freedom speech policy, Here we tear apart all the musicians, Ga as a musician has all the right to speak.
  Take it if you want-other wise ignore it.
  This will not bring down and raise Raja's greatness.
  
  Pathetic!..Raja fans
  Thumb rule , anyone dares critize Raja - their words becomes non-sense. - Especially GA who was following Raja as a shadow, who knows more about Raja than anyone else in the industry. Suma ponga pa!.. "Nerupu illamal pugai illai"
  
  Srikanth
  
  
• From: Rajesh (@ pdxss902.pdx.intel.com) on: Sun Sep 13 15:28:51 EDT 1998
  
  Srikanth,
  
  Thumb rule: Anyone who cricises your comments becomes a biased critic, a hardcore Raja fan, someone who doesn't know music. So what proof is there that IR completely spoiled GAs prospects.
  Why is that we should never raise any questions about someone who questions IRs credibility. Isn't this a open discussion forum where we can raise our concerns too. Isnt that freedom of speech too.
  So why is that anybody who posts some comments like these becomes a hardcore Raja fan? By ridiculing anyone who raises concerns, you are not
  proving anything here.
  
  Again I respect your music skills but not ur thrashing of others comments just by branding them as Raja fans. This is almost your standard response. Most of the time it may be apt too but not always. If someone criticises you by saying that you have no idea baout music, I would be the first preson to come and say that person-"Shut up" for I have followed your postings regularly. Does that make me your hardcore fan? I don't think so.I just feel GA make have some reservations against IR and as I said earlier, to bring that out at the fag end of his career is in bad taste. Just bcos hesays something now and IR does not say anything, we just cannot accept that whatever he says is true. So whatever he was saying so far about his brother was all a big lie! and now whatever he says now is universal truth!. Please start giving respect to others postings too even if they have a different opinion.
  
  

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