Maestro Ilaiyaraja New Albums 2011 - Hello Jaihind / Sri Rama Rajyam

[kiru]

ARR is a "free form composer" IR is a classical composer ie. even for ordinary situation he goes to his library of raagams and starts composing with it as the base. Even thanni thotti thEdi vandha kannukutti naan is based on a classical raagam. ARR will do a 'classical' composition only if the situation is called for. IMHO, if ARR consistently used raagams as base for all songs, he probably would not have sounded different from IR and hence successful.
(Re: VS - I am with rs. I dont think he is that original, but he does know to build a strong tune, just like IR and other old MDs who use raagams as base)