Maestro ilaiyaraaja news & titbits

[kiru]

Rahman is an Oscar winner for BGM, while IR is not. This surely means Rahman atleast knows how to score BGM That said, I feel Rahman and IR's style are different. For Slumdog Millionaire, Rahman himself mentioned he was given 26 cues (or some technical term like that). He had come up with 26 melodies capturing the mood. Note, melody is the forte of Rahman (and I think it is an innate Indian musician's strength). Overwhelmed by the power of his melodies, the Academy gave away the statuettes to him.
Another strength of Rahman is - he understands the structure of current BGM and songs in America/Europe very well and plays well within the framework.
Going by my miniscule knowledge of music and the comments from western reviewers of IR's music, I think he is more of a non-conformist. His structure of songs and maybe BGMs might be different from the American/European contemporary works. This is my guess, that he might have trouble appealing to the West and winning any awards. I do know the Hungarian musicians called him "hollywood kind". Maybe I am wrong and one day IR will win an Oscar and we can have much more heated debates