Neethane En Ponvasantham | Yeto Vellipoyindhi Manasu | Assi Nabbe Poorey Sau

Vallavar, I agree with what you said. Also the number of village/Madurai films that invariably have a reference to Raja is proof that he is definitely of interest to current gen. There's no question.i guess what irks fans like us is that when it gets spoken as a revival of interest or comeback for Raja....since for us, he never went away. I'm just hoping that he gets the right projects, the right directors who can inspire him. I once met him for a full 3 hours back in 2001 and I gifted him a silver violin (gift piece). He was so simple and kind. I even have an autograph from him that simply says " Iraivanadi Ilayaraja". That is the happiest moment in my life.

Shank,
Thanks for understanding my concerns. No one expected Raja would survive in the music industry after say 95 or 96. Since many migrated and started enjoying music from others, they blindly believed that Raja does not exist in the music industry any more. In fact they don't want to hear anything from him. The reason for their thinking was since it happened the same way previously, that if a new music director comes in and hogs the limelight, the existing one has to fade and go out. Since it has happened mostly (and was the history), they expected the same during 90s. Since it did/does not happen, they believed it happened. To justify their belief, they put a fence (their changed music taste) around them that Raja does not create music the way they want (many others think that Raja does not create music at all nowadays). Whenever they hear anything from him, they are already prejudiced that it is not the same old Raja, before even listening to his music. Even if they listen, they don't come out of their fences with open heart. They already shut their fences/ears. Somehow this is irritating them that Raja is still around. Now since they could not ignore him like they did in 90s, as he is often in the news, they have to show off their dis-taste in some way or other. Now they could not go either way. They are caught up in a web. Only thing we have to think deeply is, why Raja's music is still around and who is the reason for all this? Just this question will answer all your doubts.

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Originally Posted by V_S

Shank,
Thanks for understanding my concerns. No one expected Raja would survive in the music industry after say 95 or 96. Since many migrated and started enjoying music from others, they blindly believed that Raja does not exist in the music industry any more. In fact they don't want to hear anything from him. The reason for their thinking was since it happened the same way previously, that if a new music director comes in and hogs the limelight, the existing one has to fade and go out. Since it has happened mostly (and was the history), they expected the same during 90s. Since it did/does not happen, they believed it happened. To justify their belief, they put a fence (their changed music taste) around them that Raja does not create music the way they want (many others think that Raja does not create music at all nowadays). Whenever they hear anything from him, they are already prejudiced that it is not the same old Raja, before even listening to his music. Even if they listen, they don't come out of their fences with open heart. They already shut their fences/ears. Somehow this is irritating them that Raja is still around. Now since they could not ignore him like they did in 90s, as he is often in the news, they have to show off their dis-taste in some way or other. Now they could not go either way. They are caught up in a web. Only thing we have to think deeply is, why Raja's music is still around and who is the reason for all this? Just this question will answer all your doubts.

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Super super super...................

Quote:

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Originally Posted by V_S

Shank,
Thanks for understanding my concerns. No one expected Raja would survive in the music industry after say 95 or 96. Since many migrated and started enjoying music from others, they blindly believed that Raja does not exist in the music industry any more. In fact they don't want to hear anything from him. The reason for their thinking was since it happened the same way previously, that if a new music director comes in and hogs the limelight, the existing one has to fade and go out. Since it has happened mostly (and was the history), they expected the same during 90s. Since it did/does not happen, they believed it happened. To justify their belief, they put a fence (their changed music taste) around them that Raja does not create music the way they want (many others think that Raja does not create music at all nowadays). Whenever they hear anything from him, they are already prejudiced that it is not the same old Raja, before even listening to his music. Even if they listen, they don't come out of their fences with open heart. They already shut their fences/ears. Somehow this is irritating them that Raja is still around. Now since they could not ignore him like they did in 90s, as he is often in the news, they have to show off their dis-taste in some way or other. Now they could not go either way. They are caught up in a web. Only thing we have to think deeply is, why Raja's music is still around and who is the reason for all this? Just this question will answer all your doubts.

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Super super super...................

I dont think Baradwaj has a conscious agenda. However, I do see that he has sort of peer pressure to praise Bollywood new age cinema to the sky and pull down anything else. He wasnt much enamoured with CKum and S2006 either. I wouldnt call him a MSV fan either - I doubt if he knows more than the obligatory standard numbers of MSV known in a DING household. Basically, Baradwaj Rangan sits in Besant Nagar, and expects everyone else, everything else in the world to come to him. His perspective is purely Besant Nagar driven, and while I do love his music reviews, which are usually spot-on and well articulated, I dont have much respect for the man's intellectual capacity as a movie reviewer and social commenter. He has very limited perspective - and what is more, is proud of it, and feels that he doesnt have to make efforts to broaden it. There are better movie reviewers here - P_R, and equa, for two, and Camfli, the man who replaced him in Indian Express - and if he posted the sort of filter cofeee tripe here in HUB, the likes of Geno will rip him apart.

V_Sji,

:clap:
:clap:
:clap:

indha bloggers thollai thAnga mudiyalaiyappA :-(

For all my initial skepticism about this album (not doubt over Raja's ability, but his 'choices' in certain aspects), I must admit that I'm already convinced and supremely confident that this is gonna be something special. I don't mean to make this sound like some 'eat that, suckers!' thing, but Raaja will have the last laugh on july 1st (or whenever the funk it releases eventually).
v_sji, I understand your kOvam. light theeskondi, sir. :)

I think Plum hit the nail on the head there. His writing on music is good but his understanding of music, I have my own doubts. Especially when he refuses to acknowledge some of the recent Raja's works with 'didn't work for me' stuff.

app,

Saw your posts in the other thread as well. That is the power of a brand!!! BR is a big brand nowadays and once you are a brand, truth be damned. There are enough fans who will believe whatever he says. At the same time I must also mention that with so many 'non actors' in Telugu and Tamil having fans who give them a great 'opening', people like BR having a fan base is a healthy trend. Atleast he knows how to write nice prose !!!

Guys ,
This s from his blog - he has a fair statement . Do give a pleasant read .

Aakarsh: Of course Kooda varuviya is lovely, as lovely a recent (as in, IR’s post-synth-era) tune as Enna solli paaduvadho. And I did write a fairly involved piece on the music of Naan Kadavul. Whenever I keep talking about his earlier work, people seem to think (to use your words) that “his best still lie in the past.”
I am not interested in that kind of categorical judgement at all. I am only interested in the music. (Though in my profession, while writing about movies or music, a bit of judgement does slip out.)
I listen to a song a bunch of times. (You cannot listen to a song just once and dismiss it.) If there’s something to it, I take it. Or I leave it. Like I love SPB’s singing in Jagadananda (Sri Rama Rajyam) — the way his voice subsides into a gentle ebb in that pallavi line with maa jeevaname… is astounding. But I don’t like the sharpness of the sound in the instruments. The tabla sounds positively metallic. So I focus on the voice and the beautiful way the tune has been shaped. This is the way I have always listened to music, even in the 1980s. (It’s not as if I lull myself to sleep with songs from Manaivi Solle Mandhiram.)
But there is an element of nostalgia that shades things from the past, not just Raja songs but everything — and that the new songs cannot have, so I naturally talk of present-day Raja output somewhat dispassionately, without the “affection” that comes from listening to music at a young, impressionable age.

And as you say, the tools. Listen to the opening lines of Oram po from Senkathu Boomiyile and the similar portions from Ponnu Oorukku Pudhusu. It’s not just nostalgia there. The sound is worlds apart, and I prefer the former. This is just so sharp. The effect is even more pronounced in the lovely Kaathiruppen, which is exactly like a late-1980s tune from a Ramarajan movie. The tabla rhythm. The clean segues to the interludes. You can almost imagine P Sushila singing and the song picturised on a dhavani-draped Rekha. But the “sound” is so different. Why is it so sharp? And why this voice?
Like I’ve always said, these choices are not his problem but mine. He is the creator. I am just the listener. But at times, as Tarantino felt, I wish we still were in the same church. At the same time I realise that people cannot stop evolving.

The other thing, we live in a country where if you don’t don’t praise someone to the skies it’s assumed that you’re damning him. If you don’t sing bhajans exalting a person, then you’re a rabid hater. I find that attitude baffling.

Am I crazy about current-day Raja? No. But do I hate his work now? Again, the answer is no. Like always, I like some songs very much, some songs not so much, some songs not at all. (And Raja made some real bummers in the 1980s as well.) And this is the case with all music directors, old and new.

I havent read many music reviews of BR. Read just a few and I do not know about the degree of his liking for raaja's music. I too found the introduction weird (Mani going to MSV for AN comparison) but i ignored it. I felt the questions were good. Contrary to what some thin, I did not feel that the tone of the interview was "Why raaja?", although that was the first question. Someone felt that hubbers here would have done better interview. Perhaps. Thats because the way some of us listen to music is such. All our thoughts, that form when we are listening to some raaja music, collectively arrange themselves in our mind, which we process to share here and it is from those thoughts that our so called "better questions" emanate, if at all we get to interview him. But none of us here have access to GVM. Like Shank said, BR has a job to do and he has to ask certain kind of questions. Within the limitations, I think, BR stretched enough and asked questions that are curious enough to the fans.

And as for the what BR likes, as Mumbai Ramki rightly said, he has a fair point. I asked BR if he listened to recent Raaja output and he replied. To each his own. Just because he admires Rahman, Amit Trivedi and he does not have too many favourites in new Raaja, it does not mean that he is not a raaja fan. Just that he has his own favourites, as cited by him. To each his own. nothing wrong in it.