last night there was heated/cheerful discussion at my house on IR and directors who extracted the best songs out of him . I am sticking to songs because BGM is completely dependent on the visuals and theme of the movie. As for as songs are concerned, there arent too many variations of the "situations" the directors come up with to Raja....
And There were so many usual suspects on this one. I wasn't surpised to see that the fight was Mahendren, BR, Mani Ratnam, R.Sunderrajan, Balu Mahendra. Each one of them can rightfully claim rights to the "I brought the best out of him". Although I am slightly biased towards Mahendren. But thats my opinion. Naturally we didn't have a conclusion, and the arguement took a different turn, on whether did they really do anything to bring out the best in him, since the situation of these songs is explained and raja composes without any visuals in mind. So Raja has to have a particular affinity towards directors whom he believes that they will do justice to his creation. Case in point being my biggest unsolved mystery which no one ever raises in any of the interviews to Raja. What is the world did the director tell him for the song "Poove Sempoove". Most probably "Sir, karthick goes in search of the girl, who is performing in a dance hall and there he sees her and he thinks its the same person" . These words cannot create a "Poove sempoove", it would have been entirely Raja's take. So thats why i bring up the question , was he partial to these directors. Although he there countless movies with no names, have some wonderful songs.
the other puzzling factor was why EVEN among raja's fans , his assocation with Pratap Pothen as an actor or director is held in the same esteem as the above mentioned directors. if you ask me to list the two most funkiest albums that raja has created, my answer would be "Agni Natchathiram and My dear Martharden". Give an ear to the songs of that album .. Illavattam should rank abomg the greatest bass works done by Sasi, The rythm of "Paaku vethala" ... the symphony of "Satham varamal"... melancholy of "Azhagu nilavu" and the groovy "My dear marthandan" ... that album has everything to rank among on of the best Raaja's almbum , but seldom talked in the circles as raja's best . and if you look at the compositions for Prathap's other movies... "Vetrivizha" .."Aatma" and all his moves as actors had fabuluos songs... So i adding him to the directors who bought the best out of him!! or atleast Raja was biased towards him too...