The enigmatic genius

“Music has only seven notes – Sa Ri Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni. There is nothing new in what we musicians create.
All that we do is a permutation and combination of these same, seven notes. One who manages to fool
the people by mixing these notes is a Wise man (Gnani). One who fools the people even more is
considered a Musically Wise one (Isaignani)”, was maestro Isaignani ( Ilayaraja’s) description of himself!

On another occasion, Ilayaraja said music composed by him and his colleagues was nothing more than a
legacy of alms given to a beggar by greats like G Ramanathan, K V Mahadevan and and Viswanathan
Ramamurthy. “Music directors like us are nothing more than beggars”, he would say. ‘Music directors
like me live and prosper with the saliva that they spat out”, burst out Ilayaraja at a live music
programme watched by millions of people.

He has also said that phenomenal music directors like G Ramanathan, C R Subbaraman, T G Lingappa
and many other geniuses like them had worked hard to build roads and tarred roads for the music
industry. “Today, it is easy for music directors like us to travel on these tarred roads in AC cars”, Ilayaraja
would say. He would never hide the inspiration for his songs. In the film Rajakumaran, SPB renders a
brilliant song Ennavendru Solvathamma. Yet, there is a reference to a Viswanathan Ramamurthy
number Athaiyadi Methaiyadi a few scenes ahead in the film. The SPB song was a take-off on the P
Susheela number. That was Ilayaraja’s way of paying his tribute to the Mellisai Mannargal, even
preparing us to recall VR.

While the world hails Ilayaraja as a musical wizard or genius, he doesn’t rate himself highly. There are
several such instances of humility at rare interviews or public appearances that sets Ilayaraja apart from
other music directors.

Yet, to a section of the film industry Ilayaraja seemed arrogant and haughty. This image was in sharp
contrast to the instances of humility mentioned above. Why did this happen? Any creative person is
basically proud of his or her work. Without such pride, it would be difficult to attain great heights. While
Ilayaraja would do his best for a song or a film situation, producers and directors who had no idea of
music would pronounce judgments on what was a good song or a bad one. It was this situation that riled
Ilayajaya and forced him to make comments that seemed to emanate from arrogance.

This situation was exemplified by actor-director Nasser who explained that when Ilayaraja first gave an
outline for the song Thendral Vandhu in Avadhaaram, he was disappointed and said so in so many
words. Nasser said he had hoped to present a good song as a sales pitch for his distributors. Ilayaraja
asked him to come back to the studio in the afternoon. When Ilayaraja presented the full version of the
song with the chorus and the orchestra pieces, Nasser was stunned by its overwhelming beauty and
virtuosity, and said who are we commoners to tell him what kind of song should be composed. We
directors should leave music to him and not try to impose ourselves, Nasser would point out.

How did Ilayaraja reach the cult status?