Tuesday, July 17, 2007
IR and my heartbreak
My liking for Ilayaraaja borders on devotion. Although he is past his prime now, I feel some of the music he created can only be created by a genius. And if you take the quality of music, the quantity of hits, originality into account, I don't think he has any successor. I was upset when he re-cycled, a la Rehman, his own music for the hindi movie, Cheeni Kum. But my heart really broke when I discovered that one of my favourite songs that he composed music for was actually a copy. I would've used the word "inspiration" at the slightest of excuse to defend my idol. But after hearing this, I just couldn't. Deva can do this, infact he is supposed to do this. Vidyasaagar can do this, even ARR can. But how could Ilayaraaja? I am still recovering.......
Ellam maya dhaan!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.itwofs.com/tamil-ir.html
Deepa, fret not. I am being optimistic that this may be a one-off case (Did I say I am being VERY VERY optimistic?). Look at the brighter side, at least IR was inspired by a song which originated in the 1940s. Unlike some of the composers who lifted from relatively newer songs and shameless promoted them as well.
ReplyDeleteDeepz
ReplyDeleteThe director of Cheeni Kum is Balki, National creative director of Lowe, a leading ad agency.. yes yes ad agency .. the place where people come with arai-pant, aatu daadi and paratta thalai for pre production meetings... calling themselves creative heads, dudes and others.
Balki is a major Illayaraja fan and he wanted his favourite songs to be redone in Hindi for his debut film.
So adanala IR decided to recycle the old melodies.. idila IR a kuttam sollradu tappu
Murattu kalai... mmm enakku eppovo teryum.. even I was upset.
deepa, he's still the best!
ReplyDeleteanantha! yaar ba maya? sollavey illaiye;-)
Man asks and God deigns.
ReplyDeleteOne songs of other millions would change that much... recycle is not all that bad but denying that is the worst.
ReplyDeleteiam not music expert and i can judge musically talent (not without any subjectivity)-- i dont care as long as i love the music and Ilayaraaja's work past,present,.. is great and i dont think beyond that.
I always rate Ilayaraja above A.R.Rahman. Bubby's clarification seems to be right. Otherwise, it must have been an one time aberration. Even a genius can slip at times. Don Bradman too had scored a duck. Ialayaraja is certainly the Don Bradman of Tamil film Music.
ReplyDeleteBetrayal! YES!!!
ReplyDeleteSometimes to be flawed a bit is also perfect!
ReplyDeleteIR is perfect example of how close a musician can get to being perfect.
http://onlineraga.blogspot.com/2007/07/music.html
ReplyDeletewhich song was this? And where did he copy from?
Yes, this very 'inspiration' broke my heart too. Someone told me that the brilliant introduction in 'Ennulle Enulle' from 'Valli' was also a lift! :-(
ReplyDeleteCheck out the itwofs site, which Ananth has posted. The Deva lifts posted there are amazing, because they are such shameless copies.
Some of the ARR lifts are not as blatant, but quite obvious too.
Shocking, yes!
ReplyDeleteDear Deepa
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday to your son, today and happy happy birthday to you for tomorrow, dear deepz
IR is still the best ...
ReplyDeleteHave been following your blog for quite some time but was a mute spectator... finally decided to speak up...
ReplyDeletei have similar feelings when I find out such things....no one is perfect i guess
Yeah, I remember Bubby mailing me about this very site, and remember being a bit let down.
ReplyDeleteBut let's keep some perspective: IR has created nearly, what, 2000 songs? (I suspect the number is significantly more) And out of all those, how many are inspired, and how many are blatant copies like this one? 1%? 10%? That still leaves about 1800 songs where his genius shines through with no room to cast a shadow of doubt. To me, that suffices his claim to all-time greatness.
I visited hajjar time on that site, thanks :-)
ReplyDelete