|
An evening with Ilayaraja
 The very news that
Ilayaraja was going to be in Raleigh, North Carolina, brought a lot of
excitement among the local Tamil community. The local Tamil Sangams tried
their best to make this happen. It was a decent but not encouraging crowd
for a weekday event. Had it been a weekend, a lot of folks from nearby
states would have attended.
Though the show was
supposed to start at 7 p.m., it was all snack time for the fans. Mixture,
spinach pakora served with coconut chutney and hot coffee was a good
relief to hungry IT professionals in the Triangle. You could see two kinds
of crowds in this kind of events - one serious fans and other any Indian
event crowd. I could see more of the first kind of crowd here.
Around 7-45 in the
evening, came a simple man in khadi-jubha and veshti - all pure and white
- like his music - Tamil musical genius, maestro Isagnani
Ilayaraja. In
reality, he looked very short and simple.
 Dr
Shankar Kumar gave a nice welcome. He introduced all the stage speakers
also - from a local Telugu
Association, a local Kannada Association and local Hindi
Association. He was smart enough to cover all Indian crowds for the event.
He also briefly talked about the initiative and the importance of it to
society.
Telugu Association
president Surya talked in Telugu about the maestro. His reference to
Ilayaraja's hits in Telugu and citation about his works was very
interesting. Ilayaraja should not forget that two of his three national
awards came from Telugu movies - 'Sagara Sangamam' and 'Rudhra Veena'.
The third one went to the
Tamil movie 'Sindhu Bhairavi'.
The next one to talk was
Ganapathy, the Kannada Association president. He talked in English and
Kannada. The Hindi Association president talked all along in Hindi. All
were some kind of eulogy on the maestro.
 Ilayaraja's turn came and
he started slowly. He mentioned about the noble cause behind this and what
the Kanchi Sankaracharya told him. It is true that it was a genuine
attempt that no one has done ever so far. His explanation on the need to
do this - to promote the best we have got towards culture or fame. He
mentioned about the popcorn that we eat - it is a simple food and you can
make it in no time, but it is not like the full-course meal. You can
satiate your hunger but not get complete satisfaction.
He also mentioned the
routine life people live and thrive that we should achieve beyond a
livelihood. Very true! The whole crowd was inspired and full of applause.
The way he thanked all-language support needs to be mentioned: Music has
one language and its all the same for him, he mentioned, in his opinion.
Be it Western or folk or Carnatic, it's all the same. He rendered the
differences for a brief time.
But some of what he said
was very egoistic: "I did not want to play my own trumpet but they
played my trumpet," was the comment from Ilayaraja. Well, it was not
well-received, I believe. I still remember the modest behaviour exhibited
by A R Rehman when Vaali was praising him at one of the concerts.
It was really
disappointing to see such a great musician not sing a song or talk much
about music in general. Ilayaraja talked for less than 30 minutes all
about the initiative - Thiruvasagam in Symphony. The only piece of
information we could get was Thiruvasagam in Symphony is not really
Thiruvasagam lyrics set in symphony but rather the background and that we
can expect this in September 2004.
 Had there been a Q &
A session, it would have been more interesting. A lot of fans had
questions. If I had a chance to ask I would have asked him: "You gave
some of the best music to Tamil movie industry. Your knowledge of Carnatic
music is amazing. Probably, you were the only one to set light music to
the rare raga 'Rasikapriya' (Sangeethame in Kovil Pura). You yourself
mentioned in one of the interviews that you expected a national award for
that. Your concert in rare ragas deserve much appreciation by experts like
Semmangudi. On the technology side, you were the first one to introduce
stereo music to Tamil cinema (Priya). Even today the songs are enjoyed.
Hits like 'Anjali' and 'Agni Nakshathram' proved this further. So, you
could have always taken either of the above approaches to continue
excelling. Why is not great music coming out from you these days? Are you
tired or bored or not able to do the way you used to say 'Isaye Oru Ematru
Velai' or you left it to your sons to take care of it?"
However, there was a turn
for one such to ask while donating: "Why should he get money from the
mass to score this music?" Well, good question for sure. But the
answer was smart though, "I am just a weapon. This music is for the
mass and the newer generation. I am behind this project with people money.
It is like the Srirangam Rajagopuram or
Kaancheepuram Sankara
Madam. It is
all people's money but somebody is executing it." Convincing but 50
million rupees for this is a question in mind. Of course, it is a fact
that he spent a lot of money on the Srirangam Rajagopuram and
Tiruvannamalai Temple.
The
final part was the donation on stage. Interested (impressed and
convinced?) fans can contribute to this noble cause by coming on to the
stage and handing over the cheque to the maestro. Although it looked
lively, I found the publicity cheap.
But arranging the whole
event deserves appreciation. Dr Shankar Kumar did his best to put Raleigh
in one of the five places in US the maestro visited.
Also, the free snacks
served that was included in the donation was an innovative idea.
Indeed a great evening,
for a few at least.
Rammesh Rajagopal
(Photo courtesy Partha) |
