Sunday, April 20, 2008

Favorite Music Directors

Here is the list of my favorite music directors. This is list is in the order of my preference.
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Ilayaraja - Forever

The GOD, Genius, Lord, Maestro, innovation, creativity are the words that can describe this talent to some extent, if not fully. Words fail me if I have to write about this Lord. I don't know how many of you know this fact. This genius has invented a new Raga called "Panchamukhi". His "Rakkamma" song in Thalapathi stayed in BBC World's top ten compositions for a long time. This man deserves at least 10 National Awards for the works he has done ever since Annakili. But has got only three awards. Of Course, National Awards are nothing but Bollywood Awards. They very rarely choose Tamil, Telugu music dir/singers as best.

A.R.Rehman - Trend Setter
Isai Puyal who took Tamil Film music to next level is popular arcoss the global. He was the one who set the trend of composing songs using technology (Eg. Synthesizer) and Software in Tamil. Has bagged so many awards in his career. He brought in a new style of melody songs which is even more softer, slower paced than a standard melody. Kannil midhakkum kanava nee, azage sugama are pretty good examples. His Vandhe madharam is a master piece.

Yuvan Shankar Raja - Creative Thinker
The youngest raja from Ilayaraja's blood. He had been a chip off the old block and now is becoming a block by himself. I like this guy's creativity. He strives hard to deliver the best quality, but it seems that he is not able to concentrate much in his works, coz he always works with many movies simultaneously. He has to reduce the no of movies he works on which may give a better output. Katradhu Tamil songs are still staying in my playlist. The best album of Yuvan. Of Course, i cannot forgive him for the no of lifts he has done in his career especially in Kadhal Konden (including BGM pieces). But, nowadays he has reduced trying his hands in foreign albums which is a good sign. (Or I dont know if he is still doing it).

Harris Jeyaraj - Mass
The guy who makes people wait for a long time for his albums. Coz he is choosy about what he does. He accepts very few movies. But shame is, he is still continuing to do Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V (Copy, Paste) job. All his recent albums, Pachaikili, Unnale Unnale had atleast one song lifted from foreign sources. His work in Kakka Kakka is the best so far.

Vidhyasagar - Consistent
Of late, this composer has refined himself and concentrating more on quality than quantity. Mozhi has transformed him completely to a new shape IMO. I was not much impressed with his works until i heard "Katrin mozhi". Wow!!! What an orchestration, what a mezmerizing tune! But this guy for no reason, bashed up Yuvan and Harris in an interview in Ananda Vikatan. He said that "Yuvan and Harris are doing fair job. But their works dont attract me much.". Visitors, I am expecting your comments on these lines of VS.
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Regards

5 comments:

Emjay said...

I know this can sound wierd to many of you. But, my opinion is after all my opinion.

Vidyasagar stands on par with ARR. Given free hand, Vidyasagar can really put me in bliss like Mozhi. ARR (90-00s) would definitely win hands down.

Illayaraaja - Please visit http://7swara.blogspot.com

Vinith said...

Thanks for telling us your opinion Emjay. Let me give my opinion about VS.

None of his (Vidyasagar) albums is as complete as Mozhi! Had he not delivered Mozhi, chances are there he wouldn't have got a place in my list. All his recent albums (Kuruvi, Alibaba, Muniyandi) were crap! I couldn't see Mozhi Vidyasagar in any of the songs in these albums!
IMO, if there is a guy who sets new trend and has created his own style after ARR, it should be Yuvan! Harris comes next in the list as he follows ARR's footsteps and gets inspired from many of his Guru's songs!!!

Anonymous said...

I would say the following.

Ilayaraja : all time folk specialist , 80s romance
ARR : contemporary romance and pop
KVM: pure classical based like shankarabaranam

Everybody else (yuvan, harris etc) is one level below the above.

And any of the above three try to do the other's specialization, then they will stand one level below the specialist.

For example kaathal ovium and salangi oli are great but is still one level below KVM sankarabaranam /Thiruvilayadal/thillana mohanaambal. Similarly Kaathaluku mariyathi is great but one level below Roja and Alai payuthey. Sankamam by ARR is great but nothing like Annakili/16 vayathinilay/Muthal mariyathi.

Hope someone has similar view!

K.RAGHAVAN said...

Mr.Raja, ofcourse I am that someone who view similarly but I feel u should have included Mr.MSV also.

Vinith said...

The only reason I couldn't include KVM, MSV is i grew up only with IR's music. Even now, to be frank, i hardly know 50 songs of MSV.
There is no second thought that MSV is ahead of IR in music. :)