My father listened to a lot of old Hindi songs. My sister was listening to a lot of English music. Like you, I’ve followed Raja sir extensively. The obvious first question: Why Ilayaraja? I mean, why now? I’m not denying his talent or your regard for him. It’s like Mani Ratnam choosing to work with MS Viswanathan on Agni Natchatiram, for instance, and my interest in meeting Menon was to investigate both the reason for this collaboration and the ensuing process. This is easily the most interesting development in Tamil film music in a while, for we usually hear of directors moving on to newer composers – the way many filmmakers, even the old-faithfuls like Bharathiraja, left Ilayaraja behind and latched on to younger talents – but we rarely, if ever, hear of someone setting course in the opposite direction, a today’s-generation filmmaker seeking out a senior composer. So when I heard that Gautham Vasudev Menon was working with him, I sat up. The congregation has shrunk to a cult, with only a handful of dogged devotees still keeping the faith. There was a time we were in the same church, and I miss that.” That’s regrettably how I feel about much of Ilayaraja’s music today, and I think I speak for a fair number of his fans who worshipped the great man in the 1970s through the early 1990s. I’m in my church praying to my god and he’s in his church praying to his. “If I say movies are getting kind of geriatric and everything, he can say, ‘F- you, man! I’m doing what I want to do, I’m following my muse,’ and he’s 100 per cent right. There’s something Quentin Tarantino told Entertainment Weekly magazine about Martin Scorsese. Gautham Vasudev Menon talks to Baradwaj Rangan about working with Ilayaraja for the first time. The soundtrack of ‘Neethane En Ponvasantham’, which has been picked up for a record price, is due on July 1.
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March 2023
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