Vel and Suresh, thanks for your raga updates.
Suresh, ragas like Bhairavi, Kambodhi , Begada etc are called "Gana" ragas . Not only IR, any film MD , unless they have strong foundation in Carnatic music would not like to do "visha pareekshai" of diluting them with "Anya" swaras for film music. Legends like KVM, GR, SVV were all well versed with Carnatic music and they freely used such Gana ragas in their films. Example : "kaviya selvama veerama" in Kambodhi, by KVM. Why Kambodhi, Raja has not even ventured into popular ragaslike Sahana, Dhwijawanthi , Kalavathy, SARASWATHY etc which MSV , surprisingly ARR who is perceived as a modern MD have used. IMO, Raja is so comfortable only with few scales like Sudha dhanyasi, Kiravani, SindhuBhairavi, MMG that he tirelessly reuses them time and again and after many songs , they start sounding predictable and stale. Moreover, Raja is not an MD who keeps experimenting with new scales unlike ARR, Vidhyasagar . His tunes come spontaneously rather than after much deliberation and thinking. That could be another reasn for his sticking to few known scales and risk sounding the same. Among today'd MD's Vidhyasagar alone seems to be capable of delving into classical ragas and delighting us with sweet melodies
