Happy Birthday Raaja!

Today we kickstart a new series on Raaja through which we attempt to construct a framework to approach, understand, and appreciate the phenomenon of Ilaiyaraaja. We dig deeper into his colossal career and try to make sense of how a composer with a classical approach achieved such immense admiration from the mainstream public. Through these discussions we ponder over how his staggering achievements could guide us in creating a better musical culture paving the way for a future where good music and hit music aren't parallel ideas, where classical music can once again attain its peak state as people's music. With such modest ambitions, do we start....

Participants:

Deepauk

Mahesh

Bala Chidambaram

Related links:

Raaja's interview sections.

The Guitar Prasanna article.

Bala's blog series on Ilaiyaraaja.