Re: Must read/must see IR related articles and interviews

crimson king Wed Nov 04, 2015 6:04 pm

plum wrote:
crimson king wrote:^^^ Yeah, while I could relate to the comparison on the ground of spontaneity, I did think it was a bit off base. Sehwag gave himself a very limited set of options but which he could execute with amazing consistency. IR's speed of ideation comes from the hard yards he put in in his struggling years. As SPB had said in the mid 90s interview, IR was once an ordinary musician so to rise to the level he has is full credit to him. It's not quite 'natural talent' in the way it is characterised in the article. I think IR is more like Federer. Both know exactly what they are doing but like to build an air of mystique with these cryptic soundbytes; both also appeal to a classical sense of aesthetics even though they are actually very unorthodox. Nevertheless, that John Cage joke was funny. Adyar Anandha Bhavan-la kidaikuma?

Federer is a good comparison even in the way innocuous self-recognitive appraisals are mis-construed as ego. Both are prone to precise self-appraisal, down to the last decimal point, they know exactly where they stand.
This, however, doesn't sit well with the humility mafia that is normal society in all of the world, who expect sole privilege to the right of calling IR a genius. They don't even want to extend that privilege to IR himself(or Federer)

However, Federer, as great as he is, is still not in the same genius ball park as Raja.

Probably not. But....exactly, as you said, their respective rival camps have made desperate attempts over the years to paint them as arrogant. Another similarity is just as how IR can talk about the history of film music, Fed too is quite articulate and well informed about the evolution of tennis.

kamalaakarsh Fri Apr 01, 2016 11:18 am

Rajkumar Hirani's interview: http://www.newindianexpress.com/entertainment/tamil/I-Love-Tamil-Songs-Rajkumar-Hirani/2016/01/06/article3213241.ece

"I used to be in Chennai every 15 days. We would shoot an ad and then come here to do Telecine. So, I would be here for a night or a day and when I went back, I would carry audio cassettes from here. I have a huge collection of Ilaiyaraaj’s music from that time. A R Rahman was emerging then. I first began listening to music from here. Then, I got fascinated with films. There’s a theatre called Arora in Mumbai where a lot of Tamil films are screened. I remember watching Kamal Haasan’s film Mahanadhi (1993). I watched some eight to 10 films there. But whenever I hear about a good film, I watch it. I’ve seen Pithamagan (2003) and Sethu (1999)."

Never expected Rajkumar Hirani to say that. But then, interesting connection is Rajkumar usually has Shantanu Moitra do the music for his films and Shantanu again is a fan of Raaja.

kamalaakarsh Wed Jun 01, 2016 4:25 pm

Ajay Atul's music for Marathi film Sairat is already a hit and is being talked about a lot, particularly for its 'Raaja' like music. Here is an interview in which they spoke about Raaja: http://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/regional/ajay-atuls-score-for-sairat-is-as-audacious-as-its-plot-2812629/

One evening in 1989, Atul had rounded up an audience and collected money to rent out the VCR for the Kamal Hassan-starrer Appu Raja. “I’ll never forget the music of the film. This was the first soundtrack by Illaiyaraaja that we’d heard,” recalls Ajay, 40. “Until then, I thought music could only make you dance. I never felt that music could make you cry or laugh,” says Atul.

Ajay-Atul’s score for Sairat, Nagraj Manjule’s heartbreakingly real love story set against the backdrop of caste differences, ticks all of these boxes — it makes you laugh, cry and want to fall in love. But most strikingly, it recalls the oeuvre of Ilayaraja. The swooning string arrangements alone are an example of orchestral genius and hark back to Ilayaraja’s ground-breaking soundtracks for Tamil films such as Moondram Pirai, Mouna Ragam and Nooravathu Naal in the Eighties.

Again, it was Ilayaraja’s music that drew them towards symphonies. “We didn’t know what symphony meant until we heard Ilayaraja’s 1988 album, Nothing But Wind, which he made with Hariprasad Chaurasia. We came across a symphony on the album called Mozart, I love you. We wondered, Ai, yeh Mozart kaun hai (Who is Mozart?),” says Ajay.

Good to see that they worked with symphony orchestra in LA for Sairat.

Sponsored content