Human worship towards people in cine industry is always bit embarrassing especially when your in laws are around. But end of the day we are what we are and I just couldn’t control my exhilaration meeting the legend and my all time favorite Raja sir. In fact given a chance I would like to take pictures with many celebrities but ones I always want to take was with Raja sir and Actor Sivakumar. Before me talking about meeting the legend let me go over the Music concert. Actually this was the second Raja sir concert I attended and was definitely looking forward. It really didn’t matter who were the singers since Orchestration is the main ingredient in a Raja sir concert but we were lucky to have Chitra ji, Sadahana sargam, Mano, Karthik, Yuvan as singers. Typical of Indian concerts to start late but who cares since the excitement is still floating in the air but the concern was would a delayed start mean we would listen to less number of songs ? I bet a hard core fan must have had this question in mind. Then came the man with white dhoti onto the stage when the crowd was on their feet welcoming the legend. It was startling to see another devotional song sung by local priests before the man delivered his standard ‘Janani song’. When Chitra chechi sang her first song Raja sir showed a piece of paper where the notes was written way back in 1981. I was wondering the paper and myself belong to the same age and it is weird how the same pulp used to make paper can be used for music composition of Raja sir song as well as a tissue paper; So basically ‘Beauty lies in the eyes of beholder’; What stand aparts in a Raja sir concert is the Orchestration team –No minimizing the team for cost cutting reasons and basically sound coming from the instruments is retained from the original composition. Also the chorus part is something you see often in Raja sir concerts since the chorus brings the real flavor of the song’s lyrics. Three plus hours flew just like that and then came the climax song from Nayagan with a different lyrics only to appreciate and thank the man more and more. Concert was great and our seating spots were just what the doctor ordered only to enrich our overall experience. At age 73, I am not sure how many more concerts he will tour internationally but feel totally blessed and money well spent on attending this concert.
Coming out of the concert myself and my father in law decided to have dinner in a nearby Indian restaurant. As I was munching my szechuan fried rice around 9.34 pm I got a call from a friend asking whether I am interested to meet Raja sir next day morning around 7am. This is similar to asking a woman whether she wants to have a Kalamkari saree with handpainted flowers and peacock (I developed interest in Sarees since 2009 for reasons known) . I was delighted to say ‘Yes’ over the phone and I was all pumped up. We reached home and I already started dreaming about next day morning. I wrote couple of lines about Raja sir what I would call my way of thanksgiving to the legend. Around 12, I hit the bed keeping an alarm for 6am, 6.05 am on top of the usual 6.30am alarm; Believe me I am not sure how many times but for sure hurried to look into the clock atleast twice in the night to see whether its 6am already. Skandan rolling over and szechuan fried rice previous night did no good to my sleeping at all. Finally around 6am I got up and was getting ready to meet the man I cherish every single calendar day. I also had my father in law write down the lines I scribbled previous night into a piece of paper and left home like a child who got 4 lolli pops. I was bit concern whether elden street lights would delay my commute but I was given a royal welcome ..Thanks to all the green lights in Elden street. According to AT&T time I reached Worldgate Marriott lobby in Herndon around 6.59 am; We were a group of friends sitting in the lobby all waiting to see the man. Sir gave consent to meet us through one of the coordinators and we took the elevator to reach the respective floor. Though I do not take vallarai tablets for memory power I am going to try to remember as far as I can of what happened next.
We entered the room and saw the man ..Yes I saw the man and I couldn’t imagine I was few millimetres away from the man. He was all dressed up in western attire ready to take the flight back home in couple of hours but still had vibudhi and kumkum ..maybe he just had his morning prayers before we stepped in. He greeted all of us and all of us touched his feet to get blessings. I said it is still not sure whether whats happening is a reality….Then we all sat in the sofa and common friend introduced all of us and explained how much we all love his music. Raja sir was asking about the water tank seen from one of his windows which he was not sure what it was. When your mind is occupied I am not sure you will respond to a question ….Then I mentioned to him we missed hearing ‘Naan thedum sevanthi poovidhu’ song from the concert yesterday and he said it was part of the list but was missed ..I said when there is so much to choose obviously 3 hours will allow you to sing only so many ..he acknowledged what I said …Then I took out the green card from my pocket and gave him the lines I wrote. He did not read but am happy he took and placed it in the table nearby. Now its time to take Photographs ..we took a group picture. When we see a sign 75 MPH we get excited and wish we could drive in 80MPH and that’s what happened …after taking group picture we took individual pictures one by one ….Thanks to the type of books I read ..a senior inside me pops out at times and I said following words in tamil “Though it’s a selfish desire please take care of your health since we want you to do more music by that way my son, grandson should listen to your music’; He smiled and all of us again touched his feet and said good bye. I came out of the room ecstatically and we also met Yuvan in the hallway and I congratulated for his fatherhood and took a picture with him. Modern brain is programmed in such a way that anything like this happens the next thing we do is turn towards social media. I was very particular I should arrest this temptation and wait for couple of weeks before I share something on Facebook and I am happy I won the battle.
So what’s special about Raja sir? After all he is also a Human being and does his work as a Musician..whats the big deal? Well for me personally Raja sir plays an integral part of my life. A fifteen minutes commute to the nearest Metro demands I turn on Ilayaraja music in the radio, my coast to coast trips would have been like traveling to next continent if not for his music, running in the Treadmill would have been a nightmare without his music, all of my hard drives has a dedicated folder called ‘Ilayaraja’. Let me give you few example of how his music lifts the spirits ..
1) Song ‘Sangeetha Thirunaal’ from the movie ‘Kadaluku Mariyadhai’ has lots of chorus and in my community during the marriages around 3-5 pm normally bride bids adieu to her parents/relatives and leaves to her in laws place and this is normally the emotional part of the wedding. Most of the studios insert this song in the background at this juncture or during any part of the wedding. Just listen to the song with the context and you will emotionally connect.
2) Listen to ‘Mandam vandha’ song from a guy’s perspective who is willing to forget the past and want to focus on future.
3) There is no song which portrays love,war, pain and longing of the couple like how ‘Sundari kanaal oru sedhi’ does, the way violin and flute is used mesmerizes a music lover.
4) Violin part in the start of the song ‘Kalyana Maalai’ is good enough to bring a smile to any music lover.
5) If we start talking about BGM score then my list will go endless ..but even if one doesn’t understand the language I am sure when you watch Apoo Kamal being rejected in love in movie ‘Apoorva sagotharargal’ you will see the pain ….BGM score in movies like Poovae puchudava and Varusham 16 created so much impact that you cannot imagine such movies without the BGM score.
This is what the man does …he advocates the musical instruments through his orchestration according to the context. In Trichy Ayyappan temple a place with lot of difference they have a wall with ‘Amma Endrazhaikaatha’ song lyrics and so many people come and play the song and do a sashtang namaskaram towards the lyrics. Thiruvasagam reached more public through his work and even now when I want to put Skandan to sleep I play ‘Lali lali’ song from Sipikul Muthu. Thank you Panchu sir, Raja sir family for sacrificing time, Directors who got the best out of Raja, Producers who made it all possible, singers, lyricists and his core orchestration team for all the songs we audience treasure in our lifetime. Raja sir is beyond music for me personally and September 26th is always a special day since it is my amma’s birthday and September 26th 2016 will be more special since I met a person whom I have lots of respect.
Raja rasigan
Coming out of the concert myself and my father in law decided to have dinner in a nearby Indian restaurant. As I was munching my szechuan fried rice around 9.34 pm I got a call from a friend asking whether I am interested to meet Raja sir next day morning around 7am. This is similar to asking a woman whether she wants to have a Kalamkari saree with handpainted flowers and peacock (I developed interest in Sarees since 2009 for reasons known) . I was delighted to say ‘Yes’ over the phone and I was all pumped up. We reached home and I already started dreaming about next day morning. I wrote couple of lines about Raja sir what I would call my way of thanksgiving to the legend. Around 12, I hit the bed keeping an alarm for 6am, 6.05 am on top of the usual 6.30am alarm; Believe me I am not sure how many times but for sure hurried to look into the clock atleast twice in the night to see whether its 6am already. Skandan rolling over and szechuan fried rice previous night did no good to my sleeping at all. Finally around 6am I got up and was getting ready to meet the man I cherish every single calendar day. I also had my father in law write down the lines I scribbled previous night into a piece of paper and left home like a child who got 4 lolli pops. I was bit concern whether elden street lights would delay my commute but I was given a royal welcome ..Thanks to all the green lights in Elden street. According to AT&T time I reached Worldgate Marriott lobby in Herndon around 6.59 am; We were a group of friends sitting in the lobby all waiting to see the man. Sir gave consent to meet us through one of the coordinators and we took the elevator to reach the respective floor. Though I do not take vallarai tablets for memory power I am going to try to remember as far as I can of what happened next.
We entered the room and saw the man ..Yes I saw the man and I couldn’t imagine I was few millimetres away from the man. He was all dressed up in western attire ready to take the flight back home in couple of hours but still had vibudhi and kumkum ..maybe he just had his morning prayers before we stepped in. He greeted all of us and all of us touched his feet to get blessings. I said it is still not sure whether whats happening is a reality….Then we all sat in the sofa and common friend introduced all of us and explained how much we all love his music. Raja sir was asking about the water tank seen from one of his windows which he was not sure what it was. When your mind is occupied I am not sure you will respond to a question ….Then I mentioned to him we missed hearing ‘Naan thedum sevanthi poovidhu’ song from the concert yesterday and he said it was part of the list but was missed ..I said when there is so much to choose obviously 3 hours will allow you to sing only so many ..he acknowledged what I said …Then I took out the green card from my pocket and gave him the lines I wrote. He did not read but am happy he took and placed it in the table nearby. Now its time to take Photographs ..we took a group picture. When we see a sign 75 MPH we get excited and wish we could drive in 80MPH and that’s what happened …after taking group picture we took individual pictures one by one ….Thanks to the type of books I read ..a senior inside me pops out at times and I said following words in tamil “Though it’s a selfish desire please take care of your health since we want you to do more music by that way my son, grandson should listen to your music’; He smiled and all of us again touched his feet and said good bye. I came out of the room ecstatically and we also met Yuvan in the hallway and I congratulated for his fatherhood and took a picture with him. Modern brain is programmed in such a way that anything like this happens the next thing we do is turn towards social media. I was very particular I should arrest this temptation and wait for couple of weeks before I share something on Facebook and I am happy I won the battle.
So what’s special about Raja sir? After all he is also a Human being and does his work as a Musician..whats the big deal? Well for me personally Raja sir plays an integral part of my life. A fifteen minutes commute to the nearest Metro demands I turn on Ilayaraja music in the radio, my coast to coast trips would have been like traveling to next continent if not for his music, running in the Treadmill would have been a nightmare without his music, all of my hard drives has a dedicated folder called ‘Ilayaraja’. Let me give you few example of how his music lifts the spirits ..
1) Song ‘Sangeetha Thirunaal’ from the movie ‘Kadaluku Mariyadhai’ has lots of chorus and in my community during the marriages around 3-5 pm normally bride bids adieu to her parents/relatives and leaves to her in laws place and this is normally the emotional part of the wedding. Most of the studios insert this song in the background at this juncture or during any part of the wedding. Just listen to the song with the context and you will emotionally connect.
2) Listen to ‘Mandam vandha’ song from a guy’s perspective who is willing to forget the past and want to focus on future.
3) There is no song which portrays love,war, pain and longing of the couple like how ‘Sundari kanaal oru sedhi’ does, the way violin and flute is used mesmerizes a music lover.
4) Violin part in the start of the song ‘Kalyana Maalai’ is good enough to bring a smile to any music lover.
5) If we start talking about BGM score then my list will go endless ..but even if one doesn’t understand the language I am sure when you watch Apoo Kamal being rejected in love in movie ‘Apoorva sagotharargal’ you will see the pain ….BGM score in movies like Poovae puchudava and Varusham 16 created so much impact that you cannot imagine such movies without the BGM score.
This is what the man does …he advocates the musical instruments through his orchestration according to the context. In Trichy Ayyappan temple a place with lot of difference they have a wall with ‘Amma Endrazhaikaatha’ song lyrics and so many people come and play the song and do a sashtang namaskaram towards the lyrics. Thiruvasagam reached more public through his work and even now when I want to put Skandan to sleep I play ‘Lali lali’ song from Sipikul Muthu. Thank you Panchu sir, Raja sir family for sacrificing time, Directors who got the best out of Raja, Producers who made it all possible, singers, lyricists and his core orchestration team for all the songs we audience treasure in our lifetime. Raja sir is beyond music for me personally and September 26th is always a special day since it is my amma’s birthday and September 26th 2016 will be more special since I met a person whom I have lots of respect.
Raja rasigan
