Maestro ilaiyaraaja news & titbits

[Gregorysab]

Aakarsh - excellent points. Forget the commercial points, the 3 national awrds he already has don't mean much to me - you know why? Because he didn't win it for the right reasons. He won because the trend then was for the generally musically agnostic jury to award any significant film based on classical music - the same trend that conferred undeserved honours upon Keerabani for Annamayya over Raja's magnum-opus Guru. So, I really don't value those awards. On the contrary, when Rahman got appreciated it was for the right reasons - I mean we could argue for Thevar Magan over Roja but when the jury awarded Roja, it stated clearly that it was recognised for its " new sound and new paradigm". Which is exactly Rahman's mission. So he not only succeeded in his mission but also got nuanced appreciation recognising his mission. In that sense, Rahman is truly blessed in a way Raja isn't. But that's the way these things go - what Raja has is fans like us who deeply understand these dichotomies and quirks of the universe and WE are the awards to him - recognisig his musical philosophy and its application in his works and deeply understanding the significance and non-significance of external recognition.

Plum,

Interesting take. I didnt dwell on NA awards that deep to really feel good or bad about raaja winning them. But yes, the day Anu Malik won NA, i gave up on NAs. and i didnt know Keeravani also won NA.. For Annamayya that too!! Mediocrity celebrated! But i must say that I find it amusing (and slight pride) that out of 3 NAs that Raaja won, 2 were for Telugu films. The surprise for me was that his Swarna Kamalam did not win NA (going by the trend you have pointed out).

Anyway, we never understand how NAs are selected. To be honest, I never understood how Bhavatharini was given NA (Mayil Pola). If anything, I would have given the NA for Raaja for his Bharathi score, but i didnt find the rendition of Bhava great enough. whatever! i think we are wasting time discussing on NAs here.