IR's composing technique

Rajdes, I completly agree with you. There is no point in speculating about what if IR had not accepted those junk movies. Ther period 1985- 92 saw the release of so many junk movies and directors trying to just cash in on IR's name to market their movies. As Rajdes said IR gave what the directors wanted. Most of these junk movie directors took whatever tune IR came up with and just ran with it( ihheard stores about directors/producers falling at this feet). Some of them ran commerically well making even the songs popular while some of them sank without a trace. Now we can always argue as to why he accepted those movies. But maybe that is the way he works . I am amazed that he came up with classics like Nayagan, Agni etc while working in so many movies (most of them junk). Makes you scrath your head literally thinking as to what if he had avoided those junk movies. Well it,s his way of working, maybe he wanted to keep composing all the time without breaks. Maybe thats the way Geniuses work sometimes. Thankfully we have enough classics to last a lifetime and more. So lets focus on those.

Digression (related to the `Genius' stuff and only distantly related to the thread)

Greenfield village in Dearborn,MI is a Ford sponsored museum where the house of Wright bros, their cycle shop, the home of Webster and a number of similar places are moved and set up in a old American village like environ. It also hosts an old lab and a workshop of T A Edison (Edison & Henry Ford were close friends, says the museum)...I remember reading there that Edison set himself a target of x number of inventions per week, y per month, z per year etc. Going by the number of his patents, there is no argument that he was prolific.

However, in the lab, along with the prototypes of the gramaphone, carbon-filament lamp and such treasures, you'll also see lots and lots of items that can be considered insignificant as we see today. (for e.g. they have preserved a few coconut fibers that he tested out for the lamp's filament and many such naturally available materials till he hit a reasonable quality fit)...While no one in his right mind can say he shouldn't have tried them (as it is part of experimentation, obviously), at least some of us might think that why he wanted TO KEEP THEM IN THE LAB after finding a superior stuff...shouldn't they been thrown away, we might ask silently...

However, he chose to keep them in the lab and the museum authorities still keep them as exhibit and people pay to visit and see these things...

Does this coconut fibre strike some common thread here in the digressing discussion?

A small clarification - coconut fiber =thEnga nAr:-)

"Well it,s his way of working, maybe he wanted to keep composing all the time without breaks."

He could have still done that-keep composing all the time-by doing 15-20 movies/year and spending the rest on some other projects like TIS or Moods of IR or India 24hrs and the likes. And at that time, he was commercially successful enough to sell or market such albums. Or spend more time on those 15-20 films and come out with 3 or 4 classics in each album. IR took several days to finish Guru's songs and BGM - he didnt compose them in 1hr like he did for the average movies. That shows that even spontaneous artistes have to work on their scores to make it perfect.Same with TIS.
Also,he himself has lamented publicly about the quality of films and directors who keep giving same situations. No one else before him has publicly lamented , atleast to my knowledge. So the best thing would have been to do limit movies in TFM, instead accept better movies in other languages(telugu, malayalam etc.) and release more HTNIs and NBWs. Rahman has been trying to do this somewhat(although of late his TFM selection hasnt been very good). He has been selective right from the beginning and (even if his classics arent high in number IMO) the dhandams associated against his name will be less. Meanwhile he spends time working on some worthwhile non-filmi projects. I think IR squandered some opportunities working on pathetic movies in the late 80s/early 90s when he could have done something better. That's just my stance. For his talent, he could have accepted something more challenging.

rajdes, I agree with your points. But in the first 6 or 7 years even bad films/directors got good songs because IR in an attempt to break through wasnt discriminating(eg.Karumbu Vil,PoonthaLir,Kaatrinile varum geetham and many others). Or the very first tune he got in his head at that time was a great one. But in the late 80s he either was discriminating or needed someone to push him to give a creative product. Thats when he should have drawn the line instead of complaining about it and then continuing to do movies like yenna peththa raasa, thozhar Paandian and the likes. Thats just my peeve. He of course had his own reasons to do those films.

Vijay, I see your point, but again how many good films were being made during that time? If he chooses 15 films maybe 3 or 4 could fall under the good category offering him challenges. Films like Guru are rare for IR where he takes more time than usual to compose. Infact he did do a lot of Telugu movies during that time along with tamil and other languages. Its very hard to find a movie that pushed IR to take more time to compose. I am not sure how much time classics like Agni, sindhu bhairavi, punnagai mannan took. Also lets not take seriously anythng he says to the media. We all know how eccentric he is and moody as well. I think its just his nature to keep accepting any movie by any director (as long as there has not been any ego conflicts Eg- Balachander, BR) especially during his peak. He just either does not know how to say no or just his nature. I think his talent to churn out songs with incredibile speed became a curse during that time made him feel like he can handle any number of movies. and as i mentioned earlier the junk movie directors helped it more by running with any tune he provided.

rprasad, not just good movies, good directors/actors as well. If it is Kamal, then even an average masala like Soorasamharam will have good songs. Kamal was doing 2-4 films/year at that time. Other than that KB, Manirathnam, Fazil, BaluM,BR, PanjuA-produced movies, Rajni, R.V. Udhayakumar movies and K.viswanath/Vamsi movies in Telugu would be enough to get to around 15 movies or more. I might have left out 1 or 2 more in that list.
Basically work with all the top directors/banners and just do 1 or 2 films for Ramarajan/Vijaykanth/Sathyaraj. Spend the rest of the time on some albums.I am pretty sure Sindhu Bhairavi wouldnt have been composed in 25 mins like Chinnathambi. KB had a keen music sense and IR must have worked atleast a few hours if not days on songs and BGM.

vijayr, you can spare your condescension. I don't know if you were around that time. But SG did provide a stiff competition in terms of mass hits. SG's golden period (by BO standards) was 78-84. Songs from "nenjamellaam neeye"("yaaradhu"), "theeraadha viLaiyaatu piLLai"("malargale idhoidho"), "megame megame", KalyanaKaalam, Nellikani, Nakshathram("Shivaranjini"),Neeya, Darling Darling
were lapped up by all melody lovers.After 85 till 92 when SG lost steam, the field became IR's personal fiefdom and few northie MD's like BappiL. LP proved to be just a flash in the pan. Chandrabose and TR were mercifully not prolific.
IR did attempt something different around mid 90's (94-96) after ARR had clearly overtaken him. But due to various obvious reasons, it did not pay him off and he must have become a frustrated man.
"Maharajanodu"- sathileelavathi , "nil nil ", "poongaatrile", "vazhi vidu" from paatupaadavaa, "munnam seidha" from vanaja girija , "ippodhenna thevai" from mmakkaLaatchi, songs from Kolangal, raasaiah etc had a very modern feel[more synth, less natural instruments] , soft, sophisticated and quite different from his earlier works .

btw, Iam mythila's mouth piece :))

vijay,
can see your point there. but he has moved on. No point we cribbing, especially 15 years after when-it-could-have-been.
Actually, what, he could stop making music now and I would still not find all his gems in my lifetime, including the 80's ones.
Namakku evvalavu kuduthalum podha maatengudhulla ? :-)

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btw, Iam mythila's mouth piece

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thumburu,

Was wondering whether you had a talk with guys like * (prabhu), hehewalrus before you took this mouth piece avatar :wink: