Isaiyaraja..

I revere Raja, the genius. He has done so much to TFM that we should be proud to live in his era. Many other music directors like Rahman, Deva, Vidyasagar have definitely taken leaves out of Raja's book and given a few numbers even Raja would be proud of.

This "Song of the day" SOTD is to write ones that I love so much. Recently I have aggregated a few songs in same raga together and collated a chunk of 1000 songs classified in around 150 ragas. The reason why i did this is to identify patterns in the way music directors handle a classical raga. To my astonishment, Raja has not stuck to one pattern while handling a Raga even if he has composed 100 numbers in the same Raga. His talent leaves me gasping about God's complete grace bestowed upon Raja and in turn to us, the benefited listeners. World knows it and there is nothing new when i say, Raja is a genius.

Apart from Ragas, the way he handles the Rhythm in songs is interesting and very experimental.. Some examples being Aagaya vennilave, Paartha Vizhi paartha padi.. etc. While its tough even to imitate that, what to say of the person who creates these tunes. There are other songs where the rhythm is trademark Raja. For instance Raasave unnai vida maaten from Aranmanai kili. You would have heard around 100 songs with similar rhythm but the way he has shown varieties in handling melodies would just mesmerise listeners.

In the ages before Raja(1960-70), Tamil film music was very classical oriented and college goers during that period used to lap up with the Hindi film songs from Kishore, Mukesh,Rafi et all. When Raja came and stormed in to TFM the tamil film music, folk music became so famous thanks to his genius. That generation of youngsters started getting glued to TFM and slowly Tamil songs began robbing hearts of many even in north. In his era he had no competition. When Rahman entered the trade, Hindi audience started lapping up tamil music. Even Rahman acknowledges that Raja has been his inspiration in composing soulful music. Thats the change Rahman has brought about. All said and done, though am a Rahmaniac I’d still put the soul stirring works of Raja ahead. Not to compare coz they are geniuses in their own right. Can we compare Sivaji Ganesan and Kamalhasan? Rahman/Kamal had the chance to see the world sitting on Raja/Sivaji's shoulders. Lets pray more such geniuses continue to arrive and delight us.

His songs define longevity;defy boredom. The song Ninnai Charanadainthen Kannamma from Bharathi- rendered by Bombay Jayashree – when listened with eyes closed brings tears. Its an expression of godliness. Lyrics are godly – music is divine and rendition touches you so deep that you are left with a blissful feel !

Hail Raja ! Thank god he gave ears to listen to Raja's music. :)