It’s like he was giving us presents, in the form of new songs, to mark our schooldays, our days at college, our first (or third) job interviews – heck, the man was so prolific, he was giving us new songs to mark our Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays… It’s hard to explain (and I’ve tried, oh I’ve tried) to younger cousins and colleagues what it was like to be in the Ilayaraja era. (Apparently, no generation can resist the “who is greater?” dispute.) But Ilayaraja’s was the music that marked my generation, like inches on a height chart, like candles on a birthday cake. The songs on radio and television came from the 60s, 50s, sometimes even the 40s, during special programmes that would give rise to debates among elders as to who was better: MK Thyagaraja Bhagavathar or PU Chinnappa, Saigal or Pankaj Mullick. This doesn’t mean that his is the only music I grew up with. So Ilayaraja’s music and I, we’re both in our forties. ![]() ![]() Looking back at the Ilayaraja era, which began forty years ago, with the release of ‘Annakili’ on 14 May, 1976.
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