Ilaiyaraja after the age of 50

[JamesDap]

ஏதோ சொல்லனுமேன்னு சகட்டுமேனிக்கு சொல்ல கூடாது - even assuming that these albums were not of a standard he has set for himself - which most hubbers would disagree with - these were definitely a cut above the other albums that came out in respective periods/years in terms of creativity and context of the respective film(s)..

I did not even go near albums like Azhaghi, or a few others in malayalam, or the more recent Rudramma Devi in telugu

Yeah, as I said in an earlier discussion, we have to evaluate his work in the context of the current film music environment and not from nostalgic longing for the 80s. From that standpoint, NEPV is like Fiona Apple's Idler Wheel, standing apart from the rest of the shallow, instant mainstream pop crowd and liable to be misunderstood on that account. I mean, who the hell bothers to experiment and fill their albums with tons of musicality these days? Apparently IR still does. Actually, NEPV is staggeringly different from his trademark 80s style. In hindsight, I feel much of his 80s work, brilliant as it was, was 'templated' and fitted into a format to suit the mass market requirements of the day. It was film music with more than a dash of irreverent experimentation. Now he doesn't really care about delivering hits and seems to be more interested in exploring things he hasn't tried before, which is good from a listener's point of view...well, at least those listeners who want to hear something new. NEPV sounds liberated, free from the clutches of commercial compulsions, just Raja doing his own thing. I am not going to say it is better than the 80s or vice versa. All I am saying is it is very, very different. We all have different tastes and I don't have any problem with people disliking NEPV. But when people claim NEPV is just a rehash of old Raja work, that tells me more about their capacity or lack thereof to understand music than anything about the album itself. I mean, yeah if you say all orchestral music is just the same...:P