Interesting info about Ilayaraja

[rkusenet]

Born in 1943 as Gnanadesikan (but known as Rasaiyya) into a Dalit Christian
family in Panniapuram of then undivided Madurai district, Raja had formal
education only up to Class viii. Yet, fusing Tamil folk idioms, Indian and
western classical genres, he almost monopolised film music in Tamil and
Telugu till the early nineties. He has scored music for some 750 films in
Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi and English for directors ranging
from Bharatiraja to Adoor Gopalakrishnan.

But despite his achievements, Ilayaraja is uncomfortable with the truth of
his origins. When K.A. Gunasekaran wrote Isaimozhiyum Ilayarajavum (The
Language of Music and Ilayaraja) in 2002, the composer was offended by the
fact that Gunasekaran had discussed his Dalit origins. Ilayaraja sued the
publisher and author for defamation. He has tried ceaselessly to merge
himself into all that Hinduism holds in high regard: he contributed several
lakhs to the building of the 13-tier gopuram (tower) of the Srirangam
temple; he is an ardent devotee of Thiruvannamalai; he had planned to start
a music research centre with the aid of the now-disgraced Kanchi math.
Apparently, just being a musical genius is not enough.

So why does Ilayaraja, having waltzed past many social obstacles, hate being
reminded of his past? Outlook asked Ilayaraja about Bob Marley, Bob Dylan,
Gaddar, his communist brother Varadarajan and even the recent Live-8
performances where music became a mode of protest. "I am beyond such
garbage," was his curt reply.

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20050725&fname=Ilaya+Raja+%28F%29&sid=1

[yshi...@hotmail.com]

The IMDB lists his name as Daniel Rajayya.I thought he was
Christian,but had no idea that he wanted to abandon his religion also
and come back to Hinduism(does he want to enter any particular caste?

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006137/bio

A weird about this IMDB bio is that it doenst mention any of his
ManiRathnam films except Anjali.

[Abhay Jain]

"rkusenet" <rkus...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:3l6q7tF...@individual.net...

> Born in 1943 as Gnanadesikan (but known as Rasaiyya) into a Dalit
> Christian
> family in Panniapuram of then undivided Madurai district, Raja had formal
> education only up to Class viii. Yet, fusing Tamil folk idioms, Indian and
> western classical genres, he almost monopolised film music in Tamil and
> Telugu till the early nineties. He has scored music for some 750 films in
> Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi and English for directors ranging

Is 750 films for MD a record?

AJ

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> http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20050725&fname=Ilaya+Raja+%28F%29&sid=1
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[Surjit Singh]

Abhay Jain wrote:

> "rkusenet" <rkus...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:3l6q7tF...@individual.net...
>
>>Born in 1943 as Gnanadesikan (but known as Rasaiyya) into a Dalit
>>Christian
>>family in Panniapuram of then undivided Madurai district, Raja had formal
>>education only up to Class viii. Yet, fusing Tamil folk idioms, Indian and
>>western classical genres, he almost monopolised film music in Tamil and
>>Telugu till the early nineties. He has scored music for some 750 films in
>>Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi and English for directors ranging
>
>
> Is 750 films for MD a record?

No, because (I better put a smiley or two :) :) :) )

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006137/

>
> AJ
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>
>>http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20050725&fname=Ilaya+Raja+%28F%29&sid=1
>>
>>
>
>
>

--
Surjit Singh, a diehard movie fan(atic), period.
http://hindi-movies-songs.com/index.html