A Musician Par Excellence

Born and brought up in a remote village near Kambam, Ilayaraja one of the greatest music directors of all time India has ever produced. He is the first Asian to symphony for London Philharmonic Orchestra. Raja as people call him has scored music for over 1000 films (albums) in a span of 28 years. Annakili directed by Mohan in 1976 marked his entry into Tamil film industry. He has scored music for many great directors which includes K.Balachander, Maniratnam, Bharathiraja.

Came to Chennai at the age of 29,learned guitar and piano under Dhanraj master and later earned his diploma in music in London's Trinity College of Music. He has won 3 national awards for the film Sagara Sangamam, Sindhu Bhairavi and Rudra Veena. Apart from scoring music, Raja likes to write poetry not only in Tamil but in Hindi as well. He has a great passion for photography and painting. He is a spritual person and has composed several devotional songs on Ramana Maharishi and the latest being Thiruvasagam, which was a huge success among the public.

His song "Rakama Kaiya Thatu" in Thalapathi was the number one song in BBC's list of best song. He was the music composer for the 1996 Miss World held at Banglore. He had a great affinity towards carnatic music which is evident from his works. He gave music of life time for the film Sindhu Bhairavi which was of carnatic style. He also invented a raga named Panchamukhi. He also penned his own Keertanas.

One interesting fact about Raja is that during the 80's films ran for more than 100 days jus for the sake of his name. Songs which he composed during those period was a instant hit. He has scored music in many languages which includes Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi and English. He has produced some great compositions which includes:

• Sindhu Bhairavi
• Salangai Oli
• Puthu Puthu Arthangal
• Hey Raam
• Thevar Magan
• Poovae Poochudava
• Agni Natchatiram
• Anjali
• Nayagan

Apart from films, Raja has scored various albums like "How To Name It", "Nothing But Wind" which are mind blowing. Raja's music has bought laurels not only to TamilNadu but for the whole nation. We should be proud of him. According to me he is one of the pride of India.