Iconic songs of Raja

crimson king wrote:The interesting thing is a lot of the violin passages in that song are based on Carnatic music (though the way the violin follows Malaysia in the charanam is not).  But the aggressive guitar riffs give the violin a totally different flavour.  That actually sums up the song. Very Indian melody with Indian-violin playing juxtaposed with rock riffs playing over a disco tempo...and it works!

crimson king wrote: It is totally mad music (and yet holds up to dissection, as usual), it has no place in film music but he was prepared to take such risks.  That and other such songs with massive amounts of risk taking like Ithu Oru Nila or Ada Macha from Chinna Veedu establish clearly the difference between IR and the other composers.  People talk about his mastery of both musical worlds, Western and Indian, or his speed but none of those things necessarily help to make his music as fresh and creative as it is.  That is down to his appetite for taking risks which is simply unparalleled.  Risk taking is not just using some new sounds or genres as RDB did in the late 60s/70s or ARR in the 90s.  It is also about experimenting with concepts that could potentially unsettle the listener and force them out of their comfort zone.  Ilayaraja has been prepared again and again to venture out of the soothing-calm-melody-circuit and do music that zaps the mind.