ராஜாவை அதிகம் பாதித்த இசை வல்லுனர்கள்

[app_engine]

He is a maestro with a lot of creativity - no questions about it.

Lot of music flowed from "inside" and were his own "inventions" - not disputed.

However, like any human artist, he had drawn his inspirations from many sources and got influenced as well. At different levels and degrees during his "30+ years-and-still-running-strong" career.

Let's discuss what his inspirations / influences were / are and how it affected his music.

[app_engine]

I thought of opening such a thread this morning when the 'junior - iru manam koNda thirumaNa vAzhvil' song jumped into my mind involuntarily, while taking bath.

It's possible this song jumped into Raja's mind as well, when he sat to compose 'AttamA, thErOttamA' of captain prabhakaran

The last line of the saraNam of AttamA seems to be very close to 'mudivaichcholli sirikka koodAthA' of the ventriloquist. Even the 'AttamA' is close to 'jooniyar'

[Devaraagam]

App,

Good thought to identify the musics influenced into Raja's output. I feel its difficult to identify because Raja got influenced by lot number of people at various stages and various degree of influence. The beauty of the part is, we do not know many of them

I feel following people also should be there in your list.

1. SD Burman
2. Madan Mohan
3.Naushad
4.Shankar Jaikishan


I did not know the details of influence of these 4 MD but believe that their impact would be there in Raja's music as raja talked about them at various places.

[Devaraagam]

Let me listen Aatama and junior together so that I can understand your stmt.

[app_engine]

Let me listen Aatama and junior together so that I can understand your stmt.

A music expert may conclude that there're no connection at all However, somewhere in my brain the last line of AttamA saraNam jumps to 'mudivaichcholli sirikkakkoodAthA' of iru manam koNda.

There had been occasions where an old song was "referred" deliberately. (inji iduppazhagi supposedly was built referring an Hindi song, pudhu mAppiLLaikku got constructed after nAn pArththathilE etc).

My hunch is there had also been occasions when IR's "brain" referred to involuntarily

Experts please clarify

[Sureshs65]

app,

I think the one music director who sort of directly influenced him would be Salil Choudary. I see Salil's lasting impression in Raja. It was more during the initial years but even later we can see the influence. Raja took inspiration from the orchestration style of Salilda and the complexity of thought in Salilda's composition. He took them as his inspiration and then put his own stamp taking them to a different level. Check out the orchestration and rhythm pattern in 'poo vannam' from 'Azhiyadha Kolangal' and you can be pardoned if you thought that it was Raja song. Salilda was the first one to use WCM effectively in Indian music and we all know where Raja took WCM wrt film music with his 'Tiruvasagam'.

The other influence is definitely SD Burman / RD Burman. I find that in songs like 'kodi inbam', 'pon malargalin azhapidhaz'. I am not thinking of remaking of something like 'dum maro dum' but rather the guitar usage and the melody. SPB says how 'inji idupazhaga' was born from a particular phrase in SD Burman's song. K Vishwanath says that he had asked Raja to give a Geeta Dutt / S D Burman type of song in 'Sagara Sangamam' and he came with 'mounamelanoyi' dazzling Vishwanath. Balu said in that program that Raja has lots and lots of respect for SDB.

I personally find MSV's influence to be less compared to Salil or Burman. I can relate to a song like 'nee oru kadhal sangeetham' deriving its inspiration from 'iravum nilaum valaratume' from Karnan. And ofcourse many of the initial songs of Raja for Sivaji had tunes which people can say were like MSV's tunes. Overall I think Raja went for more complexity in tune and orchestration, different orchestral arrangements from what MSV had been doing. For that he looked to North India for inspiration initially before turning to various other forms like WCM, Jazz etc.

The impact of other music directors like Sankar Jaikishen or Madan Mohan can be felt only in a song here or there. Violin Vicky in his blog had explained how Shankar Jaikishen's "yeh pyaar ki tanhaahiyan' had morphed in 'oru kanam oru yugamaaga'. Raja has more than once indicated his love for 'yeh pyar hi tanhaahiyan' and had that sung in his Italy concert. Similarly SPB traces the inspiration for 'karpoora bommai onru' to the C Ramachandra's classic, 'dheere se aana re bagiyan mein'. I am sure we can find some such connections for a few other songs. But these are isolated instance and can't really be called inspiration for his style.

Lastly I think there is a subtle influence of V Dakshinamurthy on his style, when it comes to Carnatic music. Though I will not write with my blood. Dakshinamurthy Swami had this knack of morphing different carnatic ragas very well to suit the film music needs. Raja continued that tradition I would say. Dakshinmuthy Swami's handling of ragas had a different touch and so has Raja. This influence I can only say is very subtle and I can't really do a one on one comparison.

[Sureshs65]

And a couple of more instances. In a coffee with Anu program along with SPB, Gangai Amaran spoke about a couple of Hindi songs which had inspired Raja and mapped those Hindi songs to Raja's songs. Don't remember the songs as of now but we can check it in youtube. In another program, again with SPB, Gangai Amaran told how 'jaanavule' from the Telugu film 'Aditya 369' was inspired by 'oo devadas' of C R Subbaraman. Raja's respect for C R Subbaraman is very well known.

When we are talking about inspiration we are talking taking the original meaning of that word into account. We mean how a music director internalizes what he hears, gets new ideas due to what hears, then puts in his thought and takes this idea further or in a totally new direction. For example, 'karpoora bomai onru' is as close to 'dheere se aaja re' as it different from it. We can see how Raja had taken the idea from 'dheere se aaja re', made it his own and given it a totally new dimension. We need to explicitly mention it here because many a time nowadays copy-and-paste is passed under 'inspiration'. That is a different subject altogether.

[raajarasigan]

And a couple of more instances. In a coffee with Anu program along with SPB, Gangai Amaran spoke about a couple of Hindi songs which had inspired Raja and mapped those Hindi songs to Raja's songs. Don't remember the songs as of now but we can check it in youtube.

Suresh, one of them was "Mani Oosai Kaettu" from PV. Not sure about the inspirational Hindi song though.

[app_engine]

Nice, insightful posts, Sureshji!

My thought about MSV's influence was more on the melody side - orchestration was way different and that was the reason for Raja's slam-bang entry into TFM.

I didn't include the influences of his native (Pavalar & him mom / others) as that will win easily and possibly the biggest. We can grant that part as his real roots

We need to explicitly mention it here because many a time nowadays copy-and-paste is passed under 'inspiration'. That is a different subject altogether.

I get reminded of the andha 7 nAtkaL scene where aspiring composer Bagyaraj tries to create a tune with his harmonium and ends up with 'roop tErA mastAnA'

[thumburu]

Sureshs65 said "I personally find MSV's influence to be less compared to Salil or Burman ".
I concur with that observation . Few MSVish numbers [appane appane , ore naaL unnai naan, nadoorudhu] were during early films and now they seem to be like that more for continuity sake than anything else. But I too felt Salilda's influence even as early as "kanden engum poomagaL","chithira chevvaanam", "kaaverikara orathile","maanodum paadhayile" . I felt they were on the lines SC composed for films like "madhanotsavam" ,"madhumathi"