Anything about IR found on the net - Vol 4

Ennudaiyaa favourite Ilaiyarajavin Madhyamavathi.....  ( en paiyan ipodhu indha ragathai IR musicil  kandu pidika arambithu
irukiran.. )

Madhyamavathi ragathin Maharaja by Madhura sudha..

Ennudaiya vaarthaigal.. ennagalai edhir olikirar...... really nice to see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik_ZdYqgZfY

Maniratnam about IR......... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVwm3MIBfpA

Happy Birthday Raja Sir............

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jOF4H59GZM

Usha wrote:Maniratnam about IR......... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVwm3MIBfpA

Note, that he used the word 'progressive' .. meaning IR is not progressive. I think MR always wanted very modern music. He has been going very modern in his stories as well. IR will not do "modern" like the way MR wants. MR wants the exact sound signature to be comparable with European/American pop music. This is only possible with Rahman, who will use the same loops, equipment etc. Rahman will keep hunting around for different sounds/genre all the time. IR needs to understand some thing very well, internalize and then do it, in his own way. For eg, some thing like Classic Rock is up in IR's territory but will not be perceived by MR or his audience as "modern". I have to agree with the rabid IR fans on the net who think there is no soul in Rahman's music. He is doing music just to make it sound "cool'. He relies heavily on his singers to add to the impact. On the other hand, even Imaan's music feels like it has some wholeness to it.  But Rahman will continue to be the commercial favorite as the young audience will go for the novel/cool sounds. I am not necessarily fond of MR, I know he knows his art well, but I rate him low on originality. In a way, MR and Rahman are made for each other. I am saddened only the ignorance of the value/understanding of music with our audience. At least, in the US/Europe the market is mature and differentiated - we dont have different courses for different horses. And unfortunately a thoroughbred gets compared with a pedestrian.

kiru,
  mennu muzhungi sollum  podhae poi theiryum.. avvalavu dhan.....adhaiyum thandi, IR patri sonna sila unmaigal..
dhairiyamaga solli vittar...............   (adhil poi theriyavillai......)

kiru wrote:

Usha wrote:Maniratnam about IR......... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVwm3MIBfpA

Note, that he used the word 'progressive' .. meaning IR is not progressive. I think MR always wanted very modern music. He has been going very modern in his stories as well. IR will not do "modern" like the way MR wants. MR wants the exact sound signature to be comparable with European/American pop music. This is only possible with Rahman, who will use the same loops, equipment etc. Rahman will keep hunting around for different sounds/genre all the time. IR needs to understand some thing very well, internalize and then do it, in his own way. For eg, some thing like Classic Rock is up in IR's territory but will not be perceived by MR or his audience as "modern". I have to agree with the rabid IR fans on the net who think there is no soul in Rahman's music. He is doing music just to make it sound "cool'. He relies heavily on his singers to add to the impact. On the other hand, even Imaan's music feels like it has some wholeness to it.  But Rahman will continue to be the commercial favorite as the young audience will go for the novel/cool sounds. I am not necessarily fond of MR, I know he knows his art well, but I rate him low on originality. In a way, MR and Rahman are made for each other. I am saddened only the ignorance of the value/understanding of music with our audience. At least, in the US/Europe the market is mature and differentiated - we dont have different courses for different horses. And unfortunately a thoroughbred gets compared with a pedestrian.

Kiru,

What you said is perfect. MR's movies have been very plastic in nature and for his films, the plastic nature of Rahman's music suits perfectly. I was watching what was a key scene of 'Kannathil Muththamittal'. The child meeting her real mother in Srilanka. What a waste!! The direction, the dialogues and the music all feel so fake. Rahman has absolutely no clue on how to enhance the scene, the dialog writer has no clue on how to do effective dialogs and Maniratham has no clue on how to manage this emotionally intense situation. If you check the BGM in MR's earlier movies with Raja and later with Rahman you can clearly see how Raja managed to keep the emotions real. That is a very big difference.

Raaga_Suresh wrote:

kiru wrote:

Usha wrote:Maniratnam about IR......... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVwm3MIBfpA

Note, that he used the word 'progressive' .. meaning IR is not progressive. I think MR always wanted very modern music. He has been going very modern in his stories as well. IR will not do "modern" like the way MR wants. MR wants the exact sound signature to be comparable with European/American pop music. This is only possible with Rahman, who will use the same loops, equipment etc. Rahman will keep hunting around for different sounds/genre all the time. IR needs to understand some thing very well, internalize and then do it, in his own way. For eg, some thing like Classic Rock is up in IR's territory but will not be perceived by MR or his audience as "modern". I have to agree with the rabid IR fans on the net who think there is no soul in Rahman's music. He is doing music just to make it sound "cool'. He relies heavily on his singers to add to the impact. On the other hand, even Imaan's music feels like it has some wholeness to it.  But Rahman will continue to be the commercial favorite as the young audience will go for the novel/cool sounds. I am not necessarily fond of MR, I know he knows his art well, but I rate him low on originality. In a way, MR and Rahman are made for each other. I am saddened only the ignorance of the value/understanding of music with our audience. At least, in the US/Europe the market is mature and differentiated - we dont have different courses for different horses. And unfortunately a thoroughbred gets compared with a pedestrian.

Kiru,

What you said is perfect. MR's movies have been very plastic in nature and for his films, the plastic nature of Rahman's music suits perfectly. I was watching what was a key scene of 'Kannathil Muththamittal'. The child meeting her real mother in Srilanka. What a waste!! The direction, the dialogues and the music all feel so fake. Rahman has absolutely no clue on how to enhance the scene, the dialog writer has no clue on how to do effective dialogs and Maniratham has no clue on how to manage this emotionally intense situation. If you check the BGM in MR's earlier movies with Raja and later with Rahman you can clearly see how Raja managed to keep the emotions real. That is a very big difference.

Suresh,


   Emotion, unfortunately has a language implication. When you want to sell your stuff to a pan-Indian audience, it's about the attractive colorful wrap and promotion that takes priority. Emotion takes a backseat. Unilever/HT has been practicing that for ages in India. The composer who comes from a 'Unilever' type setting does precisely that.


  Having said that, every time a MR film comes out, my sympathies go out to AR. He spends an enormous amount of energy in creating a couple of nice tunes which MR fritters away. But AR runs out of energy to write a good BGM for the film and they try to get away based on the early successes of Alai Payudhe, Bombay etc. AR should do us all a favor. He should do a crappy set of tunes for MR and be done with him. We will also be relieved :-) Unfortunately, he tried that with Ayudha Ezhuthu and it didn't work. Try again AR.

  Can anyone imagine Mounaragam without Raja? Mani's shots did not have any great emotion. Imagine Nayagan without Kamal, Raja and Janakaraj. That would have been a dud too.

  In my view, the only true directorial school that ever existed in Tamil was Balu Mahendra and his students. He taught every student the real aspects of cinema and background music.

Suresh, that's the word - plastic. And Ravi is right in pointing out the "marketed/packaged" art these days. Note, Mani has a Business degree and probably this is what makes him use various things in perfect proportions. I was really saddened by BM's passing away. He seemed to be a real gentleman who wanted to encourage young talent (ARR) but always stuck by his own standards (IR). Yes, many movies were made credible and serious by the music of this man. Without any qualms a true legend.

kiru wrote:

Usha wrote:Maniratnam about IR......... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVwm3MIBfpA

Note, that he used the word 'progressive' .. meaning IR is not progressive. I think MR always wanted very modern music. He has been going very modern in his stories as well. IR will not do "modern" like the way MR wants. MR wants the exact sound signature to be comparable with European/American pop music. This is only possible with Rahman, who will use the same loops, equipment etc. Rahman will keep hunting around for different sounds/genre all the time. IR needs to understand some thing very well, internalize and then do it, in his own way. For eg, some thing like Classic Rock is up in IR's territory but will not be perceived by MR or his audience as "modern". I have to agree with the rabid IR fans on the net who think there is no soul in Rahman's music. He is doing music just to make it sound "cool'. He relies heavily on his singers to add to the impact. On the other hand, even Imaan's music feels like it has some wholeness to it.  But Rahman will continue to be the commercial favorite as the young audience will go for the novel/cool sounds. I am not necessarily fond of MR, I know he knows his art well, but I rate him low on originality. In a way, MR and Rahman are made for each other. I am saddened only the ignorance of the value/understanding of music with our audience. At least, in the US/Europe the market is mature and differentiated - we dont have different courses for different horses. And unfortunately a thoroughbred gets compared with a pedestrian.

It was a pretty strange interview from MR.  In trying to please both sides, he ended up insulting both composers.  He says he is a practical man.  Meaning, if it was practical (read commercially viable) to hire IR, he would go back to him in the blink of an eye?  Meaning further that all the praise he lavishes on ARR is empty?  As far as progressive, I don't know in what exact sense MR meant progressive, but as I have often said, it is IR who brought the closest there is to progressive rock in IFM.  If there is such a thing as progressive 'jazz', it is a very rarely used term because jazz has been very complex, technical music for a long time now. And other than that, I am not aware of any other usage of progressive in a music classification context. Rahman certainly isn't, ok but for a fleeting glimpse in Thiruda Thiruda.  I wonder does he in private sing about that fleeting glimpse and lament having become comfortably numb because that's the best phrase to describe his current work.

CK, I like your Floyd references :-)

<Self plug>
Any serious researcher on Raja's work comes out with a sense of defeated happily that his/her research could not contain the creativity of this genius with their theory.

This is the strangest emotion of a Raja researcher.

Happy while defeated!

Most of them (me included) share that emotion with the world.

</Self Plug>

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DC3flpXVwAAEvMi.jpg:large

Raja isaiyil.. Violinist Anitha.........

Happened to watch a small portion of the KH show on Vijay TV and he talked about IR & Sundari neeyum

Said IR made a last minute change to the melody and contrary to the expectation of KH that KJY should sing it, picked him to do the honors!

The funny part is IR declared the song a hit as soon as the recording was completed it seems

When KH grows very old, they should host an exclusive show that covers his experiences with IR - on each and every song!

app_engine wrote:

When KH grows very old, they should host an exclusive show that covers his experiences with IR - on each and every song!

Agree. But why wait till memories fade with age? Time is right now ripe to
conduct a year long programme on "Kamal and music" with Kamaal
recounting/recollecting intersting incidents with MD's right from Devarajan of
"Gynaayiru oLi mazhaiyil" , MSv , during the making of "Aboorva raagangaL",
"ninaithAlE inikkum" , then to our man for most part right from "iLamai
OonjalAduthu", "16 vayadhinilE" till "Mumbai Express" . He must also unravel
his experience with ARR on Indian, aborted "MarmayOgi", Harris for
"VEttaiyAdu..." and then the gen Y MD's like Gibraan, Aniruddh.

ellAm oru alpa aasai dhaan

Looking forward to Naachiyaar!  

http://www.sify.com/movies/bala%E2%80%99s-naachiyaar-nears-completion-news-tamil-rhgpPRhaehcid.html

Director balaku Happy birthday from IR...

Bhavam.. adhu dhanae IR. so nice....

http://www.vikatan.com/news/cinema/95145-ilaiyaraaja-tribute-to-bala-on-his-birthday.html

Nice video..

pichai pathiram yendhi... soulful  rendering.....

valaiyosai.. instruments sound -   dominating the singers. but so sweet..............

enna oru instrumentation........ sooooooo sweet..............

https://www.facebook.com/Ilaiyaraaja/videos/1523213024389906/?notif_t=live_video&notif_id=1497162019701673

from madhura sudha

yarunu theriyanam illa.......... what a word. true.........

saranam bhava karuna  - bit song....... nice one.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQaO_y120rs


about padariyen padipariyen patri......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfnEk4PqlDs

kamal.. kombula poova suthi.. paatuku IR dance adi padinar...

IRoda kavidhai indha paatu.........

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F5zELViU5c

Only today I came across Raja's rant during the birthday celebrations and felt compelled to write about it.  Thought he profoundly articulated the problem concisely in a couple of minutes with his typical scathing turn of phrase.  I couldn't help LOL @ Tirupati mottai though he would have spanked me if I had done so in his presence.

https://rothrocks.wordpress.com/2017/07/20/ilayarajas-day-the-music-died-rant/

Good one, C_K!

BTW, a related video where Vaali says MR wasn't even inside the room when IR composed melodies for such biggie albums such as mouna rAgam / agni * / thaLabathi etc :

https://twitter.com/rajinirams/status/886805840975364096/video/1

KH fans often ridicule the likes of Santhana Bharathy as doing only "bakkOdA eating" while getting name tag of director (for movies such as mahAnadhi / gunA).

Here, one is not sure if Prasad studio offered MR bakkOdA or only chAi

Regardless of whether MR had a say on the tune selection etc, one can be 100% sure that he couldn't have had ANY kind of input on the phenomenal stuff such as the ludes of sundhari kaNNAL / rAkkammA kaiyaththattu and other instrumental brammANdams in those albums ... all from IR's kabAlam only!

app_engine wrote:Good one, C_K!

BTW, a related video where Vaali says MR wasn't even inside the room when IR composed melodies for such biggie albums such as mouna rAgam / agni * / thaLabathi etc :

https://twitter.com/rajinirams/status/886805840975364096/video/1

KH fans often ridicule the likes of Santhana Bharathy as doing only "bakkOdA eating" while getting name tag of director (for movies such as mahAnadhi / gunA).

Here, one is not sure if Prasad studio offered MR bakkOdA or only chAi

Regardless of whether MR had a say on the tune selection etc, one can be 100% sure that he couldn't have had ANY kind of input on the phenomenal stuff such as the ludes of sundhari kaNNAL / rAkkammA kaiyaththattu and other instrumental brammANdams in those albums ... all from IR's kabAlam only!

Going by what Mani said (I think it was in the interview series that BR did with him recently), more like a sumptuous virundhu in the Raja residence. Apparently, that is where the composing sessions for Dhalapathi happened.  He didn't say if that also included Sundari Kannal but anyway a half a dozen songs or so were ready before he realised it.  Like, he narrated the script and then they had lunch and post lunch IR had all the songs ready.  So he had little if any control over the process and by his own implicit admission, this was the reason he wanted to work with somebody else eventually.  Because he did want to have some say over what kind of songs and what kind of BGM there would be in his films and he found it difficult to do so given the speed at which IR operated.  And we know who eventually offered him what we wanted, nevermind the quality of the music or the BGM.  He says nowadays he doesn't even suggest specific song situations anymore to Rahman.  He just narrates the script and they mutually decide where to put songs.  All good, but what of the songs themselves? 

Fantastic interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhjabfAnbfM

It takes manOramA to bring out IR's mind with such exactness and precision



BTW, only few days back I had the "IR-Memory" dream and this interviewer ALMOST touches upon that exact thingy (of a new song having "sAmyam" / similarity to any of those 5K+ numbers done already) - what a coincidence!

"பூர்ணமாயிட்டுச் செய்த ஆள்க்காரு யாருமில்ல" - to make a statement like that about ALL singers, that include KJY & KSC - to a Malayalam channel, is possible ONLY for IR!

No artist in the country has such guts!