IlaiyaraajaвЂ™s innovative creations in music took the audience to a new world, a different listening experience, the songs in his debut film Annakili (1976) were authentically folksy and it changed the way the film music was composed. For the Tamil diaspora, Ilaiyaraaja has emerged as a cultural force. Ilaiyaraaja as a creator not only exemplified this era but stood as a catalyst bringing in phenomenal changes and one such big change was neo-nativism and representation of authentic rural lives.ДЄccording to film historian Theodore Baskaran, вЂњNo other artisteвЂ™s career symbolises the popularity and hold of film music, as does IlaiyaraajaвЂ™sвЂќ. However, the period between 19 ushered in a new wave with вЂpartly realistic and anti-sentimental storiesвЂ™. Dravidian cinema almost reached the level of saturation with its intent to homogenise culture and taste. His entry into films in the late 1970s was an era of new ideas in Tamil cinema, a period which saw the breaking up of star system associated with the ageing stars, M.G. Ilaiyaraaja was in many ways a trendsetter. In the song Pattale Puthi Sonnar (through songs he expressed morality) in Karagattakaran in 1989, the lines вЂњ Ezhaikalum Yeval Adimaigalaai Iruppadhai Pada SonnargalвЂќ (they asked me to sing how the poor were toiling and living as slaves), exemplify that. Ilaiyaraaja provided music that satisfied the expectations of large sections of society вЂ“ which includes the working classes and the rural masses вЂ“ and brought attention to their way of life and gave meaning to their emotions, desires, sorrows, anxieties and struggles. I look at IlaiyaraajaвЂ™s music as a social phenomenon and the experience of listening to it or the act of consuming it in terms of a social fact. In an attempt to fill that gap, this article discusses the music maestroвЂ™s contributions while trying to understand it in a sociological context.

IlaiyaraajaвЂ™s 75th birthday on June 2, 2018, which should have been a landmark event, went largely unnoticed because of the highly traumatic events in the form of state violence that took away 13 lives in the anti-Sterlite protests.

He has scored music for films in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi and Marathi films. Ilaiyaraaja now stands as a colossus in terms of being a cultural ambassador for Tamil culture. Venkatesh and such, while simultaneously trying to compose his own music. Ilaiyaraaja worked with famous music directors like M.S. Credit: FacebookД«orn in Pannaipuram village in Theni district, he had a meteoric rise as a music composer. IlaiyaraajaвЂ™s mural on the wall of a hut in Panniyan village in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. Hailing from a humble background and rural hinterlands, he took elements of everyday life and brought them to cassettes and the screen and wove magic in the world of music. Music legend Ilaiyaraaja stands out with his phenomenal achievements bringing in structural changes within the Tamil film world. Beyond the individual impact, his work, given the broader social context it has served, provides social meaning in terms of identity for communities and groups. ItвЂ™s clear to see how well his work is received вЂ“ on social media, many have written about how his music has gives meaning to many emotions, from happiness to sorrow, trauma, excitement, dullness, tenderness, anger, and peace.

They provide linguistic and regional pride as well as aesthetic pleasure. Given the strong aural culture in the Tamil context, his songs and music often convey political messages and are an integral part of social events and ceremonies. For the average south Indian, particularly Tamilians, itвЂ™s hard to escape Ilaiyaraaja вЂ“ it doesnвЂ™t matter if you live in India or belong to the global Tamil diaspora.ДЄ composer for more than a thousand films with a whopping number of 8,000 and more songs recorded, and more hits than anyone else in a career spanning four decades, Ilaiyaraaja is nothing short of a legend. It would be fitting to callВ Ilaiyaraaja the musical genius of the millennium from India.

Ilayaraja nothing but wind