IR 1000 - Vijay TV vAzhga! (Place for collection of all posts on this topic)

I would have probably missed this concert if not for SKR's call yesterday and from then on it was scramble to get a 
ticket, courtesy my long lost cousin who produces TV shows I gatecrashed my way to the concert with a complimentary pass.

given that I sat near the monitor from whatever I could overhear they had no freaking clue on how to run the show.
it was like watching it in fastforward, most of the time was spent on playing intro pieces on
celebs or cut shorting the performances to make way for even more speeches 
worstu tribute to the man. imo bestest tribute to Raaja happened @ NEPV audio launch,
after experiencing this shambles my respect for Subhasree T and GVM  

redeeming factors were surprisingly good acoustics(usually we would be bombarded with myriads of looping feedback) and
Guitar Prasanna and his entourage, he started with 'Hey Unnai Thaane' , man that bass prelude    and then followed it up with 'Chinna Kannan'
If only GP was given a free reign and was asked to move the trolley forward with SPB/Chitra/Mano/Karthik it would have been a fitting tribute.
After the speeches he again cameback with Karthik/GVM for a unplugged version of Kodaikala katre/Neethan En/Katrai Konjam/Pootu Vaitha
Apparently they had planned 6 but could do only 4 thanks to talkathon which took away chunk of the show 
After yet another intro for KH(which was again delayed so to make up they have to call in yesteryear herionees)
When DD shoved a muc he succinctly said 'Padra Edathula Enna Pesikitu'

 Rest of the show was run of the mill stuff ,Chitra/Mano were suppose to sing 3 but was allowed only 2 and 1 respectively.
SPB started with Ennna Satham/Ilaiya Nila/Sundari littered with his usual digressions 
by then it was already 11.30pm and my accompanies patience was running thin and their hungry pangs had the last word
so I had to rush back home





these CDs were pressed specially for this concert, will probably upload if any one is interested.




Apparently show went well past the midnight with performance form LS/Usha Uthup/DSP/Thaikkudam Bridge.
Hope SKR fills up about the rest of the performance or lack of

Read Roza Vasanth sir's post this morning and got triggered to start this thread :
https://www.facebook.com/Rozavasanth/posts/1231813676832122

மிகச் சிறிய கூட்டமான இந்த அற்பர்களதான் தமிழ் சூழலின் பெரும்பான்மையோ என்கிற பிரமை பல நேரங்களில் ஏற்பட்டு விரக்தி அடைவதுண்டு; அதிலிருந்து நம்மை மீட்டு விடுதலை அளித்து பரவசத்தில் ஆழ்த்தும் கணம் - ஒவ்வொரு முறையும் ராஜாவின் ப்ரசன்னத்தை பத்தாயிரக்கணக்கான ரசிகர்களின் பேராராவாரத்திற்கிடையில், தனக்கான ஒரு பிரத்யேக தருணமாக எதிர்கொள்வது. நாம் மதிக்கும் (ஒரே) ஒரு ஆளுமைக்காக, நம் ஆணவம் அடங்கி கூட்டத்தில் ஒருவனாக தன்னை அடையாளம் கொள்வது.

My two cents or rather 4050 words on the event, in Tamil. https://sirumazai.wordpress.com/2016/02/28/ilaiyaraja1000/.

Nice collection of videos, courtesy twitter:
http://www.techsatish.com/2016/02/ilaiyaraaja-aayiram-vijay-tv-show-28-02.html

My short vacation ended on a high note attending Ilaiyaraaja 1000 concert live. At last getting a glimpse of Maestro (even though little far) is more than enough for lifetime  Moment of my lifetime. Guitar Prasanna and SPB rocked the show. Four bonus tracks from Merkku Thodarchchi Malai, Muthuraamalingam, Appa and Kattam pOtta Sattai in a MP3 exclusive CD which they sold outside. More later...

omg Disc 2 is a gold dig, 4 unreleased tracks, 

Kekkatha Vathiyam - Merku Thodarchi Malai

Manasil Neranjavanae - Muthuramalingam

Manidha Kulamae - Appa

Sirukkiyae - Kattam Potta Sattai

Icing is our man on the vocals on all 4, been looping Kekkatha Vathiyam which starts like a bolt from,incredible number, as fun a ride as 'Mella Oornthu'
'Manidha Kulamae' is straight out of 'Raajaa pour himself into' genre as Jai Ganesh puts it.
'Manasil Neranjavane' reminds me of 'Enn poo Nenjay' but this has an uncharacteristic distortion guitar.

remember 'Basheer Cds' tags from Raajafm? some of the songs are tagged with that, guess that explains surprisingly good transfer of his 80s/90s songs.

P.S couldn't reply to all PMs hence uploaded both the CDs in mega and have posted the links in the members section.

The Vijay TV prep shows were good. They will perhaps telecast the live show later.  The singers did a very good job.  Priya Himesh always does a good job.  

Who are the the other two who did most of the singing? 

I guess the guy with the hat is Ranjith. Who is the woman who sang most of the songs?  Her diction was very good and she sang well too

Pratap Pothen upset

இந்த விஜய் டிவியின் எப்போதுமான சம்பவாமி யுகே யுகே அட்டூழியங்களால் ருபெர்ட் முர்டொக்கின் (ஸ்டார் டிவியின் நிறுவனர்) பெயரைக் கெடுக்கிறார்கள். ஒரு மேஸ்ட்ரோவுக்கு மரியாதை செய்யும் பாணி இதுவல்ல. நான் பார்த்ததிலேயே மிகவும் மோசமான நிகழ்ச்சி இது தான் என  கோபமாகப் பதிவிட்டுள்ளார் பிரதாப் போத்தன்.

indhu paper report

‘மருதநாயகம்’ படம் மீண்டும் தொடங்கப்படும்: ‘இளையராஜா ஆயிரம்’ நிகழ்ச்சியில் கமல்ஹாசன் தகவல்

The Hindu photo album of the event

Looks like vikatan is collecting all "critique" posts

அடுத்தமுறை இந்த மாதிரி ராஜா நிகழ்ச்சி என்றால், பிஸினஸ், டி ஆர் பி, ஃபுட்டேஜ் பற்றியெல்லாம் கவலைப்படாத ஒரு பரிசுத்தமான ராஜா ரசிகனையும் நிகழ்ச்சித் தயாரிப்புக் குழுவில் வைத்துக்கொள்ளுங்கள். அது ஒன்று போதும்!

indhu paper titbits

P Vasu wrote:
"'சின்ன தம்பி' படத்தில் குஷ்புவின் தாலி தெரியும் முக்கியமான காட்சியில் பின்னணி இசை இல்லாமல் விட்டுவிட்டார். நான் கேட்ட போது இயக்குவது உன் வேலை, இசையமைப்பது என் வேலை என்று தெரிவித்துவிட்டார். 

While there is a lot of criticism for Vijay TV (not organizing this show properly), I've chosen to have "Vijay TV vAzhga" thread

Why?

Well, most people who have read my posts/ tweets probably know that I'm not an avid TV watcher. Neither do I admire Vijay TV (or for that matter any TN TV channel) in general.

Actually, on the super singer thread in the other forum, I've more than once posted my disappointment over the frequent "non-appreciation" of IR (while praising persons with only a very small fraction of his talent or his achievements as "legends / geniuses" etc in their shows, making such terms meaningless to public).

I have a strong opinion that their "awards" are a mostly a joke and their shows are obviously with the primary purpose of commercial sponsors. For that purpose, they'll even go to such cheap levels as getting VM to a super singer show and ask him a question " What is the problem between you and Ilayaraja" (as if this had any relevance in the new millennium)

Likewise, I had also seen that they often let jokers such as Mano / Srini etc make hints against IR (e.g. "If not for ARR, so many new singers wouldn't have had opportunity")!

More than these, the quality of the shows themselves had been mostly pathetic IMHO (true about all TN channels and most of their programs), hardly deserving any time and attention from a typical IRF. (கனி இருக்கும் போது காய் எதற்கு?)

Despite all these, I've chosen to do a "vAzhga" thread here! What's more - I am also personally resolving not to be too much critical of this particular channel, going forward!

This is simply because of them doing an IR-1000 event, when no other medium in TN has done ANYTHING WORHTWHILE to celebrate him for such a remarkable achievement!
(This is pretty much similar to why I no longer post ANYTHING critical of Gautam, because of his honoring IR remarkably during NEPV launch).

People might say "they are doing this only to make use of IR's name and get mileage for super singer / get more TRP / get more reach for their TV channel etc".

So what?

Why didn't Jaya TV or Sun TV or Ananda vikatan or kumudam do this? What were / are they doing for the ONLY TN COMPOSER to achieve such?

Instead, all those fellows were signing up with the idiotic media association against IR for the "beep" controversy! Fellows who have not achieved 0.00000001% of what IR had done were advising him as to how he should have been diplomatic etc! Mad idiots!!

Even during this Vijay TV effort, the press was trying to get some nasty mileage by getting the movie industry's tiff with the TV channel sensationally reported / scandalized etc, even making it seem like IR is begging to have such function!

What kind of appreciation such fellows have for the living genius of their soil?

ஆதலினால், இன்னொரு முறை உரக்கச் சொல்லுவேன்!

விஜய் டிவி வாழ்க!

app,
nanum idhai than feel panninen.........

THe Hindu.... ahzagaga solli iruku...... show patri..........

TVG about IR.........

'At 4.30 in the morning, a guru would call his sishya for the day’s classes. Many a time, the disciple would dash in, fresh from his bath, water still dripping from his hair — he would have recorded till midnight, caught a few winks and then rushed to learn. The guru would lovingly towel his hair, and then proceed to teach. “I’ve never looked at him just as a sishya; he was beyond that. I considered it a privilege to teach a man who’s God’s gift to music,” said veteran T.V. Gopalakrishnan, of Ilaiyaraaja.'

SPB about Jotheyali---“I’ll get beaten up if I don’t sing this in Karnataka,” he laughed..

Really Nice Review......

Ilaiyaraja aayiram

http://www.techsatish.com/2016/02/ilaiyaraaja-aayiram-vijay-tv-show-28-02.html


niraiya miss panniten...... rasichu parkanam....

Balki and IR interview..... about Romance... adhai patri sollum podhu............ IR.. Balki idam.. nee parthaiya endru Goutham interiview il sonnadhai
sonnar endru ninaikiren....

adharku Balki.. Parthen........... romance aga irundhadhu endru oru reply.....

yes.. idhai than naanum ninaithen.

Goutham kannil............ kannu niraiya affection.... Love....... IR idam..........

chinna kuzhandhaiyai.. adhan manasai purindhu kondu... anbaga parthu kollum oru nalla ammavai pola... Goutham... IR idam nadandhu kondar..........

Some of the news articles that criticize the event are telling that people who went with an expectation of listening to "IR singing / performing" got disappointed.

What!

Only people with zero brains could have gone to an event that is supposed to be a "felicitation of IR" with an expectation of "performance by IR"

@ptcv summarized it beautifully in his tweet  that says something like "கல்யாணப்பந்தியில் மாப்பிள்ளை வந்து சாப்பாடு பரிமாறலை என்று குறை சொல்லாதீங்க"

Part 2 by Roza Vasanth

இதை எல்லாம் அளித்ததற்கு பாராட்டுவோம்.

while it is good that Vijay TV took initiative I still feel that something like this should have been not driven by any media channel but by the film industry. The Tamil film cine musucuans union or one of the tamil director/nadigar sangams. Unfortunatkly a lot of these events are being sold to the highest channel bidder. When ARR was felicitated for his Oscar it was only a small function(in scale) organized by TAmil cine musicians union but one in which all the legends were there. He will never get another tribute like that with all his peers/seniors/juniors assembled in once place. It was one of a kind. Something similar should have been there for IR at the very least. With less emphasis on TRP and more on peer recognition.

On  different note there have been too many of these kind of functions recently and the novelty factor is just not there. Every time there is a live show the same celebrities come and talk. And then you had shows for NEPV and Thaara thappatai. It becomes monotonous. They need to space it out. And think of novel formats.

I am seeing a lot of social media rants about the way the felicitation was done by a private TV channel.

It does not matter, who does these kind of shows. I see a pattern in these type of programming that irritates most music fans (not just Raja fans).

1. Clueless film directors are asked to speak about Raja's work. Trust me, these guys played no part in creating any of Raja's body of work. They may have triggered a spark by accident. Asking these clowns to talk about Raja is an insult. Most of them talk about commercial crap that is of no relevance today. He has survived the commercial onslaught for 23 years and none of these guys know how he did that

2. I am tired of the clueless TF folks speaking about Raja stemming the rise of Hindi Film Wave in the 70s - Wake up guys, you are talking about a man who is doing well 5 decades later. There is no HFM to challenge any South Indian composer today. The realities of the 21st century are different and these guys are stuck in a timeframe that is at least 30 years old. You can be outdated by a few years - these guys are truly from the museums

3. I saw another pundit wondering about Raja's humble beginnings in a remote village to blossoming as a successful film composer who could do western (?) music. Thank god, this guy was not in front of me and I did not have a gun Raja's humble beginnings perhaps has mileage till 1980, not after that. He is in a different league after that and stop running back to his beginning. Indians  love humble beginnings and poverty - stop dramatizing it

4. For heaven's sake, please do not bring actors to talk about Raja's work. They are a rung below the clueless directors. Just because Raja's music feels like paradise, do not make it into a fool's paradise. All these morons tell you is that they grew up with his music - did they really grow? And their car's music player plays Raja - what a revelation!

5. These type of programming must be clearly divided separate sections (Carnatic, folk, Western, voices, orchestration, background scores, title scores) with performances punctuated by a discussion panel that throws new light into the master's work

Let me stop ranting...

ravinat wrote:The Vijay TV prep shows were good. They will perhaps telecast the live show later.  The singers did a very good job.  Priya Himesh always does a good job.  

Who are the the other two who did most of the singing? 

I guess the guy with the hat is Ranjith. Who is the woman who sang most of the songs?  Her diction was very good and she sang well too

I liked Priya Himesh's rendition in general. She has been performing in Raaja's concerts as well and does enough justice to the songs. Would like her to sing more for Raaja. Her recent numbers in Oyee & Game were very nice.

The other singer is Reeta and she has sung a quite a few numbers for Raaja. My favorite numbers of Reeta are Thukkamenna Thuyaramenna from Mayilu and Unnai Patri Sonnal from Mathiya Chennai.

மதிமாறன்

இவ்வளவு விலை வைத்த பிறகும் ஆயிரக்கணக்கான மக்கள் திரண்டு வருகிறார்கள் என்றால் அது இசைஞானி இளையராஜா ஒருவருக்காக மட்டும்தான் நடக்கும்.

குவாட்டரும், கோழிபிரியாணியும் வாங்கிக் கொடுத்து ஜாதிப் பாசத்தோடு மாநாட்டிற்கு ‘அழைத்து’ வருகிற அரசியல் கட்சிகள் உள்ள தமிழகத்தில்; இளையராஜாவிற்குகாகத் தன் பணத்தைச் செலவு செய்து வருகிற ரசிகர்கள் கூட்டம்,

பணத்திற்கு விலைபோகாத மற்றும் ஜாதி உணர்வுகளுக்கு எதிராக மக்கள் எப்போதும் அணித்திரள காத்திருக்கிறார்கள் என்பதற்கான குறியீடு.
தேர்தல் நேரத்தில், ராஜாவிற்குகாகக் கூடுகிற இந்தக் கூட்டத்தைப் பார்த்துக் கட்சிகள் தங்களின் கூட்டணிக்கு, ‘நீங்கதான் முதலமைச்சர்’ என்று அவரைக் கூப்பிடாமல் இருக்கணும்.
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நான் போனதற்குக் காரணம் கோவையிலிருந்து வந்திருந்த நண்பன் வெங்கட். (Venkat Raman) இவன் இளையராஜாவின் ரசிகர்களில் தீவிரவாதி பிரிவைச் சேர்ந்தவன், ராஜாவிடம் இல்லாத அவருடைய பாடல்கள் கூட இ்வனிடம் இருக்கும். சர்வதேச இசை குறித்த ரசனை உள்ளவன்.

உலகம் முழுக்கப் பயணம் செய்திருக்கிறான். லுட்விக் வான் பீத்தோவன், மொசார்ட் போன்ற இசை மேதைகள் பிறந்த ஊர்களுக்கெல்லாம்கூடப் போய் வந்திருக்கிறான். ஆனாலும் ராஜா என்றால் அவனுக்கு அவ்வளவு அன்பு, காதல், நேசம், பாசம் இன்னும் இன்னும்..
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நடிகர்களின் அல்லது சினிமா பாடகர்களின், பிரபல இசையமைப்பாளர்களின் ரசிகர்களைப் போன்றவர்கள் அல்ல, இளையராஜாவின் ரசிகர்கள். அவர்கள் தமிழர்களின் ரசனை சர்வதேசத்தரத்திற்கு நிகரானது என்பதின் அடையாளம்.

 அரைமனதோடு செய்யப்பட்ட ட்வீட்

ARR wrote:
Dear Maestro Ilayaraja, thank u fr composing quality music for 1000 movies n inspiring us. May u do many more. Best wishes fm all of us @ KM

அதாவது, அவர் தனிப்பட்ட விதத்தில் சொல்லலையாம். 

KM என்ற நிறுவனத்தின் சார்பில் சொல்றாராம். 

Nice article, a balanced one in india's "national newspaper", by S Shivakumar

Magic is sleight of hand but in the true sense of the term, I can assure you it is watching Raja scoring the background score. It can enhance the emotions in the most mundane of sequences. He makes it look like child’s play, watching one reel just once, writing the respective musical notes and dispensing them to the respective musicians to be performed in perfect harmony. It’s only when you watch another music director struggling, that you realise the sheer genius of the man. For me, it’s the ninth wonder. For ‘Nandalala’, he individually recorded stray notes from four Hungarian musicians with various instruments. When it was mixed with the rest and played along with the scene, they were awestruck. Mysskin was in tears because it was a crucial scene. The best thing about Ilaiyaraja’s score is that he knows when a scene could speak for itself without him interrupting with an unnecessary interlude.
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Of course, Kamal was there for his ‘Annan’. Theirs is a relationship that goes beyond the professional. A few days back, Kamal had tweeted that Raja had rescued ‘Hey Ram’ from wrong hands. Well the ‘wrong hands’, L. Subramaniam, was there to recall how his father was Raja’s first music teacher. There was an awkward moment when Kamal and LS greeted each other sheepishly.
...
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The show will be remembered for stray moments but Raja’s songs will survive generations. Is there any other Indian music director whose background score is instantly recognised and associated with the respective film? As the encomiums flowed Ilaiyaraja sat stoic, seemingly unmoved because he feels he’s not the creator.

He’s just a messenger.

இந்து நாளிதழின் தமிழ்ப்பதிப்பில் சந்திரமோகன் (காற்றில் கலந்த இசை தொடர் எழுதியவர்) கட்டுரை  

இளையராஜாவின் இசைப் பயணத்தில் முக்கிய வழித் துணையான ஜானகியைப் பற்றி யாரும் பேசாதது ஒரு குறை. நிகழ்ச்சி முழுவதுமே சலிப்பூட்டும் நிகழ்வுகளுக்கும் அதை மறக்கடிக்கும் சிலிர்ப்பூட்டும் சம்பவங்களுக்கும் இடையிலான ஊடாட்டமே. பல குறைகள் இருந்தாலும், ஆயிரம் படங்களைக் கடந்த கலைஞனுக்காக நடத்தப்பட்ட இந்த விழாவும், இந்தத் தருணமும் மிக முக்கியமானவை என்பதில் சந்தேகமில்லை.