Branding Padma honour to Ilaiyaraja as 'Dalit outreach' is denying him his legacy
When Ilaiyaraja’s name was announced in the list of Padma awardees, the Tamil Diaspora jumped with joy. The man’s music has made the people of Tamil origin laugh, cry and smile for decades. His tunes are as powerful as his silence and rests. It would not be wrong to call him the king of background music or BGM, as it is well known. His repertoire simply does not end with film music or how beautifully he blends classical notes into it. It extends to the realm of symphony and orchestration.
Soon after the announcement that Ilaiyaraja would be honoured with the Padma Vibhushan, wishes poured in from across the world. For someone who is deserving of any recognition bestowed upon him, the headline the southern daily The New Indian Express chose to report this honour — "Dalit outreach with Illaiyaraja's Padma" — was a big and shameful letdown; the paper has since apologised.
Ilaiyaraja’s music is his identity and attributing his achievement to his caste belittles his work.
Had they checked with a single person who knows Tamil in such a mammoth media organisation, they would have encountered eulogies because his legendary career transcended languages, with his tunes being copied and his music being included in the top ten worldwide. Yet, they chose to be shortsighted and limit his wonderful and varied career to a caste identity. His stature in the Indian music industry goes well beyond all identities of caste, religion and language, for he spoke the language of music.
By linking the mammoth musician to a caste identity in the time of the Bhima Koregaon violence and Jignesh Mevani’s rise in the political arena, they have done grave injustice to his legacy.
Ilaiyaraja started out as an assistant to the famed Kannada music director, GK Venkatesh. Though he came from a family that used music for communist propaganda, Ilaiyaraja was attracted to the music more than politics. Having worked in more than 200 films as Venkatesh’s assistant, he learnt the nuances and the importance of orchestration besides composition, which played a major role in his rise.
His entry into the Tamil film industry came at a time regional cinema music was losing to the RD Burman-Kishore combination in terms of popularity. Producer Panchu Arunachalam saw his potential and gave him the charge of the film Annakili.
With a single movie, Ilaiyaraja’s music — which fused the folk with the western — drew the attention of those who were humming Kishoreda’s tunes to Tamil music.
He never looked back until age caught up and the arrival of his protégé AR Rahman marked the advent of new wave. Even after Rahman came in, Ilaiyaraja did not lose the fight — right up to his peppy as well as melodious numbers in Kadhalukku Mariyadhai, Hey Ram or Sethu.
Even today, four decades after the composer's prime, directors like Bala, Gautham Vasudev Menon and Myskkin continue to go to Illaiyaraja for their films.
His grasp of various genres and cultures of music and his ability to bring them together give his music a timeless flavour.
In Tamil Nadu, there is perhaps no one who has gone to sleep without having heard an Ilaiyaraja number in the form of a caller tune or a ringtone, or on the FM and TV, or even at wedding celebrations. Illaiyaraja is such an integral part of the Tamil people’s everyday life.
Outside film music, he also explored other genres with albums like How to Name It? by fusing the music of Carnatic legend Thyagaraja with the West’s Bach. His composition of "Thiruvasagam", orchestrated by Budapest Symphony took Tamil literature to the world.
Besides Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ilaiyaraja holds the distinction of being the only other Indian who organised a full symphony that was performed by London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1993.
For someone as decorated, revered, cherished and celebrated as Ilaiyaraja, attaching his Padma award to his caste identity is akin to saying poet-laureate Rabindranath Tagore was given the Nobel Prize to add diversity to the awardee ranks.
The guitar composition in his Illaya Nila (Neele Neele Ambar in Hindi) alone will suffice to recognise his musical genius and understand why he is called Ragadevan (god of Ragas) — to justify the Padma honour if at all one needs justification.