Ilaiyaraja's New Albums 2016-18, News and Titbits

[rajsekar]

I happened to watch the audio launch of “Theri” where Director Mahendran spoke about his debut appearance as an Actor/ Villain in the film. The introduction video of Mahendran had Raaja's signature music and songs. I always felt that Mahendran perhaps got the best juice out of Raaja as compared to Mani Ratnam, Bharathiraaja, Balu Mahendra, and Manivannan. As soon as I watched the segment, my memories went back to earlier interviews of Mahendran, especially a recent one given to News 7 Tamil (copied below). Mahendran talks about the importance of background score and how Raaja composed for "Mullum Malarum". As many of Raaja fans know, Mahendran and Raaja shared a special symbiotic chemistry for all his movies. Mahendran’s movies had excellent background scores to lift the mood of the film in sequences where key events happen. The drum sequence in “Uthiripookal” towards the end of the movie is awesome. You cannot hear such music compositions even in award winning Hollywood films. Mahendran is one of the few Indian cinema directors who opposes song sequences in films. He has always spoken against Indian films spending lavish production costs just for song sequences which happens only in India. All of Mahendran’s movies do contain song sequences and they are always part of the story and shot to highlight Ashok Kumar’s impeccable camera angles and lighting. Majority of Mahendran’s songs are shot as the lead characters are walking (Rajini & Deepa in Jhonny), engaged in conversation (Nandu) and in action (Nenjathai Killathe). "Mullum Malarum" had dance based song sequence as part of the story.

Now roll forward to 2016 where Mahendran has debuted as a villain in “Theri”. Based on the film’s review, Mahendran’s character seem to be the only saving grace. I was curious to hear the songs from “Theri” by Prakash Kumar and my reaction was the same. Is Theri’s songs the current standard of Tamil film music? Is it the lowest point in Tamil Film music wherein composers cannot stoop to much lower level to produce an album? Mahendran explains this phenomenon in his News 7 interview and explains the dreams and expectations of Tamizh people wherein we see grandiose architecture wonders in Tamil Nadu not seen elsewhere in the world including rich music/ dance creations from the region. Tamil films have churned out world class classical and fusion music albums over the years and now we are offered the lowest point in film music. You feel agitated and angry while listening to such songs, especially the one sung by T.Rajendar. Compare this song to many Kuthu songs composed by Raaja. I would like to hear from Raaja’s fans and folks who love real music.



One of my best song sequences from Mahendran’s movies with impeccable cinematography and tune from Maestro, are “Nandu” film songs. This could be the only full Hindi song in a Tamil film conceived by Mahendran. Raaja should have bagged couple of National Awards for Best Background scores for Mahendran’s movies. Unfortunately our Indian Govt. didn’t create such a category until 2010 when Raaja won the first Best Background score National award for “Pazhassi Raja”.