Veteran film composer, singer and lyricist Ilaiyaraaja recently organised his Rock with Raja concert in Chennai where he stated that music was a work of deception.
The lyricist also spoke at length about music composition, saying it was similar to the work of a magician. The concert was organised by the management firms, including Noise and Grains and Mercuri.
Ilaiyaraaja has primarily composed music for the Tamil film industry and is credited for the introduction of Western musical sensibilities in the South Indian film industry.
Ilaiyaraaja has composed more than 7,000 songs and has delivered film scores for then 1400 films. He has performed in more than 20,000 concerts and is nicknamed Isaignani which means musical genius.
He is also known by the name Maestro by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London and has garnered significant acclaim for combining Indian folk music and Indian instrumentation with Western classical music methods
He was also the first Indian composer to record film songs via computer for the 1986 movie Vikram. Ilaiiyaraaja composed the first Indian oratorio, Thiruvasagam in Symphony in 2006.
The legendary composer has been honoured with five National Film Awards of which three were awarded to him for best music direction and two for best background score. Ilaiyaraaja was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2010 which is the third-highest civilian award in India followed by the second-highest civilian award Padma Vibhushan in 2018.
He also bagged the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, the highest Indian recognition awarded to practising artists in 2012 for unprecedented experimental works in the field of music.
Recently Ilaiyaraaja gave his nod to compose something for AR Rahman’s all-women orchestra Firdaus. Following the announcement, Rahman shared a picture of himself with Ilaiyaraaja at the studio of Firdaus in Dubai which cheered the fans of the two legends. Firdaus involves women from across the globe who perform both fusion music as well as classical melodies.
