Ilaiyaraja & AR Rahman

This used to be the very subject of intense discussions, debates, fights and rivalry during my days in undergrad and engineering college. For the uninitiated, these are 2 legendary Tamil film music directors. Ilaiyaraja ruled the Tamil film world in the 1970s into the early 1990s. AR Rahman, took over from the early 1990s to where he is today.

Now, a quick look at their backgrounds. Ilaiyaraja (translated the young king/crown prince) came from a small village in Tamilnadu, from the grassroots as a performing sessions guitar artist to break into Tamil film music in 1976 and never looked back. He had strong roots in Tamil folk music, something that could be seen throughout his musical compositions. He also brought in the Western form of music, pop and instrumental into Tamil music. His music had a terrific sense of melody that draws me to him even today. That’s the biggest reason for his fan following across India.

AR Rahman, formerly Dileep, was a Chennaite by birth but came through difficult times in his youth due to family conditions. He in fact played under Ilaiyaraja before breaking into Tamil music on his own with Roja (1991). Rahman came in as the refreshing new sound of Tamil cinema and Indian cinema over the initial years. The sound of his music had immense clarity, a lot of Western influence, strong dose of technology and a modern touch.

I have had this debate/discussion about these 2 pillars of Tamil music and here are a few:
· Ilaiyaraja still holds the slight edge on melody than Rahman
· However, Rahman’s melody numbers are unbelievable and given the sign of times where popular numbers rule the charts, one hasn’t heard of them unless one had a collection of his melody numbers.
· Ilaiyaraja’s popularity is limited to Tamilnadu and South India; and across a strongly rural audience
· Rahman on the other hand has gone beyond Indian shores; he is now a global player. And that’s what amazes me. Blame it on the media and hype created by it. But you should have a reach to then promote it.
· Ilaiyaraja used almost the same group of singers for all his movies – SPB, Jesudoss, Chitra, Janaki; ARR on the other hand has introduced innumerable voices to the Indian masses – Karthik, Hariharan, Sreenivas and many more. This I think clinches it for ARR – creating and grooming the future.
· ARR brought in the culture of different singers for each song of a movie which was non-existent that time.
· Ilaiyaraja had a very mediocre group of chorus singers and never gave them credit; ARR had a brilliant bunch of prominent chorus singers and he would always name them in every album of his – Febi, Kanchana for eg.
· ARR would bring in the best instrumentalists from wherever for just one song – Kadri Gopalnath for saxophone for Duet, Vikku Vinayakram for Ghatam and many more. It was horses for courses approach. But only the best.
· ARR always comes up with something new and seems to change himself just when you think he is predictable – say from jingles to movies, from movies to non-film music, from Indian to world movies, to Broadway. Always reinventing himself.
· Ilaiyaraja was a volume player – scoring in many movies at one time; unlike ARR the perfectionist who would score for one/two movies in a year. There have been reports of him turning down film offers which demanded from him a quick film release.
· ARR has often been accused of stealing numbers from Western music; something unheard of from Ilaiyaraja.

So that’s my take on these 2 legends of Indian music. Whatever said and done, the ultimate beneficiary remains music and that’s what matters. It has to pass hands, keep the relay going, progressing from strength to strength.