Comments on Outlook article & other TiS criticisms

tmrrmt :

(Note: I am die hard fan of Illayaraja)

Of late journalists keep no ethics close to their hearts. So you are bound to read/view/hear all sorts of the news.

Also all journalists like Anand are not accountable to anybody, that's the crux of the issue. They should clarify and explain the coverage and encourage healthy feedback from the public.

I have been regular reader of Outlook for past 4 years and I have to say that I tag Anand's article as comical most of the time. The only platform available for us readers is the 'Letters' section. We have to raise our concerns here so things get heard.

And, again do not take me wrong in voicing my support for Marley and Dylon etc and I am not rakeing up any issues here. As I said I am not stating any things against Illayaraja and sincerely want the news to figment of Anand's imagination. When such a thing gets published in magazine which has enviable circulation all over India we can't simply ignore the issue and encapsulate ourselves from it. That was my point.


It is true that Handle, Mozart et al. should have featured in the article instead of Marley and others. But that dosen't take the steam from these guys. They are also respectable just like others. That was my point.

Tailpeice:
CNBC 18's Trend Mill telecasted on Sunday (17th July) had one or two minute info on TIO and it was sandwiched with a lot of Pop album info. Now what do we do, worry that it has been showcased as yet another pop album or feel happy that it had got atleast some window to so called 'other' guys. It is bound to happen some people wil treat TIO has yet another music album like some fusion flick, we can't help it.

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After reading the article my interpretations are like this, Illayaraja terms works/intentions of Bob marley, Bob dylan and Live-8 as garbage.

If Illayaraja had really meant what's printed, then his point of view is not correct. Music can't be used only to attain God.

For me music is first for humans, then comes the God.

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Could be IR meant that. I don't have any qualms. IR said his personal view that which he now believes and he was not passing any judgment that has to be followed by the rest. Even though he is a public figure and he might have answered NOT off the camera, still. He admits what he feels in his heart/head, like Jayakanthan (JK). Many in the atheistic camp also did and still are doing the same.

No path can be found true by a person until that path is fruitful to him/her. So we can find some cross-overs. EVR went to kasi/rishikesh and he was fed-up with that way of life and he joined in the atheist movement. He believed in that movement. He ridiculed the believers and he even made instigating speeches and abused the believers. He too was abused/ridiculed by the others for such speeches of him. But many of those who ridiculed EVR have reconciled to the fact that things like that co-exist (just like how EVR felt about them).

Before ridiculing IR we need to recollect that IR has been with those movement and might be he is changed now. If one is asked about one's personal view others should be ready to listen to that, appreciate it and may be even "agree to disagree".

I have seen many atheists who never have ridculed/abused belief in public. I have seen many believers who honestly believed that true atheism is also one way towards god. They had that kind of mentality. We need to have this much tolerance.

Music might be a way to attain god for some, IR might be one of them. But he did not say that music is only to attain god. If anytime he believed so or told so he would not have tuned music for films from that point onwards. And by the way the idea that 'attaining to godhood (or self-realization) will not be for humans' is itself incorrect. If self-realization is totally "selfish" then why many self-realized persons from Jesus to Gauthama Buddha, Nabi , Shankara, Ramanuja, azhwars, nayanmars, pattinaththaar et al were preaching to people. Because, they thought that by the way of such preaching they are doing human service. It is upto us to accept it and if we don't feel so we have every right to shun them as they had to preach. Selfishness never gives the virtue of preaching.

Hope we all have read the:
kalvi karayila; kaRpavar naaL sila
mella ninaikkin piNi pala
theLLithin aaraaindhamayudaya kaRpavE
neerozhiya paalun kurugiRRerindhu

Education/Knowledge is boundless; Learners life is limited
[in that life too] with lots of pains (distractions/health/routines);
[so] choose and learn the best [that suits you] like the swan separates water from milk.

So depending on our interest lets learn to leave the things that are unwanted for us, from IR's speeches too :)

Hope this helps in stopping the digression and concentrate of TiS.
If not, happy digressing :)

Kupps, good one. Personally, I did nt understand the connection between IR's origin/roots (with which Anand starts the paragraph) and the music-as-means-of-protest comment. Are these related in any way? What has IR's roots(dalit or whatever it may be) got to do with him doing music for protest?

On TIS itself, I have not been able to come out of "Pooveru konum" and hence have not been able to compose myself to write something about the album. A lot of goose pimple-inducing moments in the song. MS has written about it in dhool forum. This will probably be playing in a loop for a while.

It is sad to see that S. Anand (and his piece on IR's opus) has been turned into a pinata by all sorts, completely oblivious of the role of "context" in criticism. It is the first time I have encountered this journalist (thanks for sharing the link) and I am happy to say that I do not refract my take through the prism of his (previous) textuality (call it baggage?)
The last question in his piece seems to have ruffled some ardent feathers, leading to typical knee-jerk reactions - not so unusual in these fora.
What do Bob Marley, Bob Dylan, G8 have to do with IR's Oratorio?
Those who are familiar with the biographies and discographies of BM, BD et al, would have no problem with the question: These western (and west indian?) artistes, given their personal struggles with power and disenfranchisement, gave voice to the status (or invisibility) of the "underdog." This was their cause celebre. Voices from the Margins, whether you like it or not, are essentially a "protest" or "cry" against the oppressive grip of the status-quo. This impetus is indispensible in what can be termed as "resistance literature."
Now, I urge those of you who so easily fly off the handle, to give pause.
S. Anand delienates the literary origins of Thiruvasagam, and points to the "catholic" influence in it's translation history:"The meek shall inherit the earth." In this regard, IRs origins (his religious conversion) are integral to the question posed. The Dalits of India are the meek and oppressed, and IR's geneology, in this respect, is crucial.

Now the G8:
The G8 concerts were used as lightning rods to pry the world's blindspot to the plight, poverty and the wretched indignity of the downtrodden and forgotten people of Africa. Hence, the concerts (and not necessarily the bands or songs) were undeniably Political.

Here's how it comes together: Is IRs use of Manickavasagar's verses in a cross-genre exercise an attempt to reiterate, in spritiual terms, the christian ethos of "the meek inheriting the earth"? Is it an anthem to the "meek" (underdog) that they can transcend the man-made categories of caste, class, creed and culture through spiritual engagement? Is it a call to resist these walls and barriers of Power and Subjugation through supplications to a Higher Power that/who is above and beyond the politics of everyday human oppressions?

I think so.
And I thank S. Anand for this contextual insight.

PS: IR's Oratorio is yet to make it to the stores here. I've only heard one segment on the net. This response is exclusively about the Outlook article, and should not be conflated (or read) as a review of the entire work.

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Originally Posted by Kupps

my pick is b, c and d :)

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Kupps, my pick is also that :D
Symphonix pathi cacaphonix enna ninaikiraar? :P

Still, the connection between TIS and music-as-a-means-of-protest is a little farfetched. When the objectives behind TIS were clearly stated at the beginning, where is the need to make such a connection? At best, its the writer's own (imaginative)interpretation/extrapolation of TIS's objectives. And IR has rightfully dismissed it.

If IR wanted to protest against this so-called oppression he wouldnt have waited till he was 63. He would have released many albums by now to do this or done through his film songs. And also there's no article I have read anywhere which states that IR was a victim himself of some sort of oppression.

vijayr
you are right, S Anand is known for these kind of misrepresentation , his view of world is only through a specific lens, ignore him, he is of kind of one who pretends if he knows it all. IR should be aware of these kind of people, should be careful of what he is saying.

The Outlook article against IR is something like the anti minority articles written by those ppl. in Indian Xpress who get sadist pleasure in talking against minorties and arousing their anger. This Anand probably belongs to same catagory. Whatever IR belongs to, he has no business in interfering in his personal matters. Ask him to review symphony and keep his mouth shut :x

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Originally Posted by alias

The Outlook article against IR is something like the anti minority articles written by those ppl. in Indian Xpress who get sadist pleasure in talking against minorties and arousing their anger. This Anand probably belongs to same catagory. Whatever IR belongs to, he has no business in interfering in his personal matters. Ask him to review symphony and keep his mouth shut :x

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alias, I know you are a HC ARR fan, but still supporting IR in this is a very nice gesture. Thanks a lot.

My take

Naaz,
If you read Anand S's other articles you will find that he brings in the Dalit factor in every article of his, espousing the Dalit cause (which is a very good thing), whether the topic is the S.Indian film industry, Kamal/Rajni or a study of Russian rainfall.
When you interview a celebrity and a genius at that, you prioritize your questions, based on their importance and relevance to the situation. And as Vijayr mentioned, IR had clearly and unambiguosly stated the objective on TIS a long time back and many times at that. I found it strange why Anand S connects IR's roots to TIS.

That said, if IR indeed felt that giving voice to social struggles through music as "rubbish", i would disagree. I'm not talking about Live8, which is a band-aid effort, for a deep and ghastly injury inflicted in the first place by the imperial, crusading West.