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Whatever happened to Illayaraja's symphony?

Topic started by Swaminathan N (@ infosys.inf.com) on Wed May 14 15:38:06 EDT 1997.
All times in EDT +9:30 for IST.

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Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: Raj (@ 203.197.136.35) on: Mon Sep 15 03:37:54 EDT 2003
  
  Come on, after 25 years, you still want him to sign all the movies that comes to him. He has built a reputation of late, that he accepts movies only if the script is good. It could also be the reason. May be the reason is also that he is pre-occupied with other jobs, that he has given film music a lesser priority.
  But look at him at the moment, he's got this "Symphony" to work on as well as nearly 10 films and he will finish it on time. There will be a handfull of films that might come up, if one or two of his movies do become box office hits. So what does that mean, do you agree that he is the number one in the industry coz he has more number of films in hand at the moment??
  
  
• From: Dude (@ 67.167.55.147) on: Mon Sep 15 03:53:52 EDT 2003
  
  Speaker,
  Rajini does not make himself available for outside producers and directors. Rajini decides for himself when to make a movie, which producer to chose, which director to use, which music director, which distributor etc. Rajini is a one man industry.
  
  Wheras, Ilayaraja is a music director. A music director makes himself available for directors/producers to approach himself with scripts. Unless Ilayaraja becomes a movie producer, you cannot compare him with Rajini.
  Guys, when you are quoting examples/analogies, please try to have some kind of coherence...
  
  Raj, now that you have accepted that IR has built a reputation 'of late' that he accepts movies only if the script is good. Indirectly, you are accepting that he 'used' to accept crap movies even after going through the scripts...
  
  How come this good sense comes to a great genius like Ilayaraja only after 25 years? Whereas when a music director right from the word go selects his movies sensibly and does only 2 or 3 movies per year, you guys pounce saying that he is taking so much time to compose music.
  
  According to me, this is the definition of the phrase 'double standards'
  
  
• From: Raj (@ 203.197.136.39) on: Mon Sep 15 04:38:32 EDT 2003
  
  I think that you are refering definetely to ARR here and want to prove that he his better aint you.
  Come on, ARR had accepted crap movies like Parasuram, Jodi etc etc.(You want me to list them all?) and you call him selecting sensible movies. ( on the initial few postings you had particularly said that you didnt want to compare with any one else and here you are , digging u'r own hole.)
  What if the movies are crap, look at IR, he had given wonderfull movies for this crap films (many ramarajan, p.vasu, etc) and its only because of him the movies ran. Now take the case of ARR, he even said in an interview that a director is the one who drives him to produce good music? eh!!!
  'double standards' who you are us? What are you trying to prove here? Now dont come again saying that you dont want a comparision between two MD's . You started it here!!!
  
  
• From: Speaker (@ 203.126.142.232) on: Mon Sep 15 04:41:20 EDT 2003
  
  Cho cho:) One more reply on same stuff;
  
  Crap1:A music director makes himself available for directors/producers to approach himself with scripts>> IT IS PURELY MD'S CHOICE WHOM AND WHOM NOT TO. If IR not comfortable in doing music for HeyRam it is his call. If he wants to do for Kutty again it is his call. He is not like some other junks like doing mujik only for high budget, high marketable company.
  
  Crap2: If you say IR do not look into scripts because prev he never seen you are working on your assumption. No one other than person directly concerned know whether IR looks at script or not. He may or may not again it is his call. You cant force him to do what you want him to do! If its PA he may not even consider script. That is his approach. For argument sake we can do both ways, Some of the movies he indeed wanted script or atleast ask the director to explain - eg HeyRam, Bharathi. Some of the cases he may not -Example, most the movies first fix IR as MD and then to look for script, director, actors etc.
  
  Crap3: If IR asks for script, your argument why he does only after 25 yrs? Why nothing stopping any body to change the approach if they want to change. Again this is your assumption. Why MSV could go with TKR after 10yrs of split, you may keep aruge why did he do after 10 yrs not the day after their split. This type of statement is to put it mildly stupid. Sameway you can argue why rajni decides to do his own movies his own director after 25 years of cinema!!!Why this gnanodham not there when he was doing Kazhugu!!
  
  Come with something worthwhile buddy!!!
  
  
• From: Vatsa (@ 160.83.32.14) on: Mon Sep 15 08:11:06 EDT 2003
  
  Hi,
  
  Well said Speaker.
  
  Dude,
  
  adding to speaker's points:
  The volume of movies that are made then were way higher than now. He was doing alot of movies when ARR was at his peak 1993- 1996. I think its good IR does less number of movies and keep his mind at its creative best.
  
  No one in TFM can claim they have done alot of good movies than crap movies. For example, ARR has done music to a couple of movies and then withdrew from doing BGM because he does not like the movie (why sudden gnanodhyam after listening to script after the whole movie is done). Tell me a "TF" director who ARR was associated with and the movie was atleast decent except Bharathiraja's andhi mandharai and most of Maniratnam's movie. All other ARR movies were crap by normal standards (this includes all shankar stuff and KB's two movies with ARR).
  
  Vatsa
  
  
• From: Kupps (@ 203.199.209.101) on: Mon Sep 15 10:51:12 EDT 2003
  
  >>>>>>>>>>>>
  Raj, now that you have accepted that IR has built a reputation 'of late' that he accepts movies only if the script is good. Indirectly, you are accepting that he 'used' to accept crap movies even after going through the scripts...
  
  
  How come this good sense comes to a great genius like Ilayaraja only after 25 years? Whereas when a music director right from the word go selects his movies sensibly and does only 2 or 3 movies per year, you guys pounce saying that he is taking so much time to compose music.
  
  <<<<<<<<<<<
  
  Whats wrong in accepting to do music for a JUNK film? Whats there for a MD whether a local village educated youth fights against arrogant paNNayaar and at the same time loves his daughter, as long as he could give good music.
  
  As long as one feels one gets inspiration to give good songs one can sign a movie. IR had that feeling/gut in his early and peak days so he accepted those so-called-junk movies, gave many of his very good songs in those junk movies also. After 25 years he has reset his priorities. This adds with he getting less and less inspiration to do good music for oft-repeated situation (for him). Be it for a so-called-junk (a.k.a 'mike' mohan or 'tavusar' ramarajan or 'kaattan' rajkiran movies) or so-called-gr8 persons movies. Basically he is looking for a different source for getting inspiration.
  
  In the case of ARR i think he feels (or has understood) that he wont enjoy that kind of long term reign period for him. Also his priority for getting inspired might be different. One need not has to gauge all MDs in a same measure, always. So he wants to do less movies. That is also not wrong, what IR is doing now is what ARR is doing in his early days. The only thing is that ARRs early days itself crosses a decade thats all.
  
  Regarding the films (not the MDs), given any day i would prefer a udhaya geedham (or) karakaattakkaaran (or) aen raasaavin manasila to a boys (or) a thuLLuvadhO iLamai. To me these later two are real junks (ala alaigaL oiyvadhillai).
  
  
  One more thing. When one says ARR is doing music slowly. Its not pointing to he signing only a max of couple of movies a year. Its pointing to the turnaround time of his output for a movie. Thats all.
  
  
• From: Kupps (@ 203.199.209.101) on: Mon Sep 15 10:55:08 EDT 2003
  
  >>>>>>>>>
  In the case of ARR i think he feels (or has understood) that he wont enjoy that kind of long term reign period for him.
  <<<<<<<<
  
  I just want to add that this is not to paint ARR in any negative sense. In the present globalized world no one can enjoy such a long tenure of ruling film music thats all.
  
  
• From: Jag (@ 35.9.20.100) on: Mon Sep 15 17:06:28 EDT 2003
  
  Dude
  I still retain that IR had read/heard all of the scripts before accepting movies. If you show older folk movies, the current young generation will call them trash, but in reality it may not be so. But that's a different topic. He has done movies which have given him artistic freedom and its easier if the production house is small with a relatively new director. There is more scope for experimentation.
  
  I make a clear distinction that reading/hearing scripts is different from the actual seeing of the movie. An MD usually only gets to hear the script before the filming is done and he does not have any say in the execution of the script. This may explain the number of crap movies which had IR as MD.
  
  But there is another fact which is usually conveniently ignored that IR has done more number of good movies than any other MD in Indian Film History. The only others closest were Naushad, Shankar Jaikishan, Naushad and Salil Chowdary. But even then it would be like comparing 200's vs 20's.
  
  A look at the 94-2002 is enough to show that even within this time frame he has done more number of better scripted movies than other MD's.
  
  
• From: V (@ 147.129.97.80) on: Mon Sep 15 20:33:22 EDT 2003
  
  Guys,
  
  I think there are lots of miscrepancies here.
  
  1. It is true that IR has become more selective now and he does not want to do the so called "kuppai" movies as his music should not be wasted in this age of excellent competition.
  
  2. It is true that IR has done lots more than ARR, but using that as a yardstick to compare the two geniuses will make a fool out of everyone here.
  
  3. ARR's style (which is primarily experimentation with sounds) makes him work harder and loinger for his songs and thus it takes him longer time to do the songs. SO he does 2-3 films a year.
  
  4. IR relies on his genius mind to spontaneously write the notes from his mind. Thi style of composing enables him to deliver more songs in lesser time.
  
  
  5. We are comparting two different styles and that is a wrong comparison. One guy is so brilliant he studies for IIT for only one month(IR). Another guy is very intuitive that he solves question banks from deifferent regions, institutes,, books, sources and wants to be fully qualitative in his preparations(ARR). The first guy gets into IIT with one month reading. Second guy loves to work hard and thoroughly execute his knowledge and he to gets in. We cannot say first guy is better or second guy is better. They both are IIT material, but both have different styles of working.
  
  
• From: V (@ 147.129.97.80) on: Mon Sep 15 20:35:30 EDT 2003
  
  In essence please stop comparing IR and ARR in terms of their capabilities. They both are different kinds of musicians.
  
  I like the idea of ARR taking more time to deliver songs. In fact I wish he relkeases lesser albums every year.
  
  At the same time, I like how IR delivers his rustic typical tunes with a strong tamil flavor. I am sad that movies like Solla marantha kathai and Julee ganapathy flopped miserably.
  
  

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