Ilayaraja - An Inspiring Phenomenon
Many FM radio stations are alive primarily because of Ilayaraja. These TV and Radio networks will find it very difficult to fill their night slots without Raja's evergreen songs. Ilaiyaraja music is not just limited to song compositions. But, his music has given life to so many films. There are so many Tamil movies that succeeded because of Raja's brilliance and innate understanding of movie-making. Raja's background score conveys the scene more effectively and efficiently than a lengthy dialogue; he knows when to include the background score and where to go silent.
Many young film makers revealed that they came to film industry after being inspired by Ilayaraja's music. Mysskin, Gautham Menon, and Prakashraj of the current generation go gaga over their experience working with the maestro. From prior generation, Raja's Background score for directors like Mahendran and Balumahendra were top notch. Mahendran who used Raja's music as a essential ingredient in his style of film recently said "My film is nothing without Raja's Music".
Another aspect of Ilayaraja that impressed many film makers is that his orchestration technique, Maniratnam's words convey this very well, "Ilayaraja would look at the scene once, and immediately start giving notes to his assistants, as a bunch of musicians, hovering around him, would collect the notes for their instrument and go to their places. When the orchestra played out the notes, they would be perfect, not just in harmony but also in timing ,the background score would commence exactly where it should and end at the exact place required. Ilayaraja is a genius, who could compose music with just one look at the scene".
Even Thiagarajan Kumararaja, the young and dynamic film maker who made a stunning debut with the highly critically acclaimed Aaranya kandam says " If I have to name someone who is responsible for me coming to films, it is Ilayaraja's music. From a young age, I've been a huge fan of his music. Because of that, I studied Visual Communication. I like films and I have been watching films from a young age. So, making films happened to be a natural progression."