41. Raaja in my Life (Blog Tag Game)

My thanks to Vicky for giving me a chance to relive those moments once again. My sincere thanks to Kamal for tagging and for nagging me to write something on the blog after a long time. Here goes my tortoise / kosuvarthi posting (read flashback).

Me & Raaja - The 5 things I should tell you:

1) The moment that introduced you to Raaja:

As far as my memory goes, it was the film Naan Paadum Paadal (1984). I was emotionally affected at that age by the song Paadava Un Paadalai and the BGM of the movie.

Naan Paadum Paadal...

So I can say 1984-85 is the time of Raaja-awareness in me. Before this, I used to hear many of the popular songs from radio, but I didn't know about the MD's role. I was humming Vellai Roja songs (I was a Sivaji fan) without Maestro's contribution in it. I have seen people going crazy with Ninaivellam Nithya songs, but didn't know the composer behind it.

My father, who was an ardent fan of yesteryear MDs like KVM, MSV, etc started liking Raaja for his BGM skills and the songs, with the densely crafted orchestration. He always used to tell me to note the various instruments used in his songs and how He didn't leave even a second of the song unorchestrated. I slowly used to pick up interest from there and started hearing songs with more care.

My father appreciated His BGM scores also which I picked up from him. I still remember discussing the BGM of movies like Aan Paavam, Unnal Mudiyum Thambi, etc with him. The moment we leave the theatre, we used to hum the BGM themes from the movie but alas! next day morning we would have forgotten the intricate BGM themes and there was no way of hearing it again!

My father and I used to jointly hear the songs and appreciate the tune and orchestration. We have many favourites from this period which is a futile exercise listing here.

We had a rickety radio in house which used to entertain us all the time. Accidentally, one day we heard Telugu version of Anandha Kummi songs from a Telugu station (I don’t remember the station now) and our joy knew no bounds. The reception was so feeble that we had to keep the radio to our ears like a headphone to hear it.


2) Name one occasion where Raaja's music directly / indirectly influenced your life.
This is not one, but many occasions. In fact, Raaja has touched our lives, the every other minute.

As I said earlier, Raaja's music became a part and parcel of our life. We used to watch many movies those days - some on the screen and some on the video. Rs.10 video rental was famous those days, which I used to watch in friend's house / neighborhood. Thus, I was in constant touch with Maestro's songs. We especially loved Ramarajan movies for great songs and BGMs. I also used to like T. Rajendar's movies and songs which were super hit those days with good lyrics and grand picturization of songs. Between 1985-89, I would have seen almost 80-90% of His Tamil movies.

Those days, it was a very special enjoyment and favourite pastime to browse the newspaper cinema ads. Dinathanthi was replete with ads for new launches, which invariably had Maestro's photos within a circle, proclaiming Isaignani Ilaiyaraajavin Innisai Mazhayil, Ragadevanin Geetha Mazhayil, Isai Chakravarthiyin Innisayil, etc. Same was the case with posters on the street. No wall was left without his photo. All this created euphoria. We used to derive great satisfaction, as if His achievements were our own.

In school also, we had discussed songs from Mann Vaasanai, Mundhanai Mudichu, Moondram Pirai, etc.

By 1989, I started working. Those were the days of pirated Cony (duplicate Sony?) 60/90 cassettes which used to be played in all private buses in our place (Coimbatore). I used to wait for additional 15-30 minutes to get the bus which plays songs in the bus. Thus my 30-45 minutes ride was brightened by Maestro every day, while going and coming. With my earning, I purchased a cassette player and even managed to record couple of cassettes with my favourite Raaja songs.

Between 2004 and 2006, I was back to bachelorhood again for some family reasons. Again, Maestro was with me every minute of the day. I used to collect BGMs from many of his movies.


3) Lets take Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi into account. Assuming that one of this is either your mother tongue or native language, name a favorite song in each of the other 4 languages that immediately comes to your mind.

Until I was exposed to Internet, which was around 1996, my knowledge of Raaja's songs in other languages was almost zero, though I have heard Telugu version of some of His songs. After the proliferation of the Net, I gained knowledge on His masterpieces in other languages. I went on exploring those songs with my collecting mp3s from all over the Net.

My native language is Tamil. So here I name 4 songs that immediately come to my mind from the rest 4.

Telugu : Karigipoyanu (Marana Mrudangam)
Malayalam : Janmangal Varum Tharum (Kaaveri)
Kannada : Oh Prema Devathe (Gulaabi)
Hindi : Rimjhim (Mahadev)


4) One song of Ilaiyaraaja that you consider rare and think a song that many people should have known but don't.

Kadhalil mattamal (Parvathi Ennai Paaradi) - aaha Saaranga! short but sweet.


5) Lets keep the last one simple. Raaja's number that you are hearing right now/ most recently heard?

Kaaveri aaru (Themmangu Pattukkaran)

Note: All the songs mentioned here are my top of the mind and there are many, many more I can add to each category.