Ilaiyaraaja ubiquitous. Anyone raised in any land that breathes the winds of Tamil music knows that. His melodies are more than just songs; they are lifelong companions, shape-shifting with the listener’s needs – a father’s wisdom, a teacher’s lesson, a friend’s warmth, a child’s wonder. His music is a sanctuary where you purge your sins, cleanse your soul, stand before yourself – stripped of pretence – question your biases, and unlearn patterns forged by society.Here is Ilaiyaraaja.At 14, he was immersed in music, travelling across South India with his brother. He might not have thought of it that way, but his ‘work’ had already begun. And yet, fast-forward past the decades of revolutionising Tamil music, past the 1,000 films, 7,000 songs, and immeasurable cultural, philosophical, and political imprints – cut to 2025, and he is now 81.If this were a feature film, a screenwriter would do what screenwriters do: frame him in sepia tones, retired, perhaps tending to a garden like Vito Corleone, basking in a peaceful life after music, after work. The old genius at rest, the yesteryear legend who has supposedly moved on – for is that not how it’s supposed to be?Ilaiyaraaja has always defied templates: expectation, structure, and label. He questions the structure that dictates when a man should stop and when an artist should fade into memory. And so, at 81, what does he do? He composes Valiant, a four-movement symphony, and premieres it in London’s Eventim Apollo Theatre, becoming the first-ever Indian composer to present a full-length Western classical symphony in the UK, conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra – as if to remind the world that his genius is neither confined to the past nor a single form.Each time you attempt to define and hold him still in your grasp, he slips through your fingers – like water – laughing at your desperate need to categorise and contain. You think his legacy is his film music? He composes a Western classical symphony. You think his strength lies in fusing Indian and Western traditions? He composes in pure symphonic form. You assume men in their 80s must reconcile with diminishing faculties? He writes intricate compositions over a month, displaying razor-sharp concentration and physical stamina.
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