I Met Maestro Ilayaraja

[rajaalltheway]

hey Sivakumarann..r u the guy who came to Prasad just before noon in a Mercedes S class,while ayya was talking with a Kerala producer director duo.If yes you have certainley irritated the Maestro,I knew it the moment I saw his gestures stopping u coming into the A/C cubicle.

[realactivex]

Rajaaalltheway..

Do you work for IR at prasad? I am amazed and would envy you if you reply yes to this.
You must be so fortunate to be under the Master's shadow!
God bless.
Tell us more about your interactions with IR. And how did you get to know abt IR getting annoyed by the guy in the merc

[kameshratnam]

I too was very interested to meet for a long time and after some experiences it slowly went off my system.

Hear his music and be happy.

I am sure in the process of trying to meet him you will have a wordly experience.

[kiru]

rajaalltheway..whats all this man ? Can't we talk something positive here ? Maybe you should have emailed him privately.
I am of the same opinion as Kamesh. The music is like the man to me. An amazing genius with ofcouse a real human side to him.

[rajaalltheway]

realactive dude..i was in Prasad to assist my senior who was repairing the DTS mixer.Actually im no way related to this kind of work but jumped at the opportunity to visit the studio.something inside told me I may get a glimpse of the great man.I was given strict instructions not to go anywhere near the recording area,but I couldnt help.I saw Santhyan Anthikad and another man talking heartily to Raja inside the Ac room with huge glass walls.This guy came in and I think did interrupt the trio talking.Raja with his hand gestured to him to wait and from his looks i felt he was really annoyed .

[Nakeeran]

Hello all

Isainyaniyoda isaya rasingappa. You guys analyse his music but not the individual.
Namma ellarum enna Mahatmava ?

Stop this crap stuff commenting about IR on a personal front.

[raaja_rasigan]

Hello all

Isainyaniyoda isaya rasingappa. You guys analyse his music but not the individual.
Namma ellarum enna Mahatmava ?

Stop this crap stuff commenting about IR on a personal front.

everyone is human & are tend to make mistakes

[sivakumarann]

Hi guys it's me again...mmmm..well I'm not the guy who came in a Mercedes S-class!!!I dont own any vehicles in India.I'm not an "Indian" but Malaysian,with Indian origins...I think I don't see why IR should not get annoyed when someone just go beyond his "limits" within his premises...Well that's is something not worth to be analysed here...
What I really wanted to share here is personal goodness of IR whom I met personally,through the divine blessings of Goddess Moogambika.
I came to know through someone very close to IR,that many people have come to meet him,asking many favours and they were behaved in a very uncooth manner!That's why IR doesn't want to meet unknown people...but trust me he love his fans,in the sense that he purely realise he would be anything if not because of his fans(also in my personal opinion he has the full blessing of Goddess Mookambika,as which humna can render such tunes,if it's not something "given" by the god to the mankind-to pacify our minds and souls!..please bear this is my personal opinion,kindly dont comment on that).
Well I would try to response to your quiries,up to what I know,since I'm not travelling much this month!Good day guys!!

[rajaalltheway]

friend romans countrymen
i didnt mean anything negative here,to me Ayya is a demi god.This bigwig guy came in,tried to boss around wanted to nose in and I felt Ayya didnt appreciate it very much.Even I would do the same and thats all.It was not a rude gesture from Ayya,just natural

[Nakeeran]

An ordinary fan of IR can meet him without much hiccups . However, it depends on his free time so that the meeting is amicable to both ends.

I am posting below , contents of a mail from one of the fans of Isainyani who resides in Gulf : ( his name is Venkatesh )

I was very fortunate and happy to meet Maestro recently at his residence. It was my long cherished desire to meet him in person in my life time. Lady luck finally smiled at me on 29th October 2006.

My wife and myself had been to Prasad Studios once around 2001, when Lajja scoring was going on and hence he was in Mumbai at that time. We left the place disappointed. Though I visited Chennai regularly, I didn’t have the courage to muster myself up to his studio or residence.

Finally, it happened during my visit this time. It was a Sunday evening and I was casually going out with my wife to T.Nagar for some shopping. I thought why not try out our luck today and see if it happens. If he was not at home, I thought of requesting for an appointment to see him another day.

As you all know, He stays at 38 Murugesan Street, T.Nagar. First we went to Vani Mahal to check on some drama play but due to heavy rains it was cancelled, but there was another function organized to release a book on Kannadhasan, where AVM and MSV were to be the main guests. Then I got sceptical that Raja may come there, so we may not be able to meet Him at home.

However, we took an auto and went to Murugesan Street. Landmark known to me was the Raghavendra Swamy mutt at the road corner. From there, you have to go ahead and take the 2nd right and His house was the 2nd on your right. It had a big white colour gate with some of the trees from his garden peeping outside. We reached His house around 4.30 PM and saw two security guards at the gate.

We went to them and said that we are from Muscat and wanted to see Maestro. He didn’t ask any other questions (my business card came out handy at that time). He said ‘ayya’ (they reverently call Raja by this name) is busy in a recording inside and asked us to wait near the gate. The house was silent - I thought others may be out at the moment. We saw that couple of short steps led to the main entrance which opened into a huge hall. I remember seeing a Vinayaka statue near the entrance and inside hall had a huge Tirupati Balaji picture (with golden lacing work).

The security removed his slippers and went near the hall entrance and softly called ‘ayya’. One can sense that Maestro has come out of the room to see him from the sudden change in his pose (he was almost half-bent). I heard him saying ‘some body has come from Muscat to see you’ and then ‘I don’t know’. He came back and said ayya is busy and asked us to stand there. We would have waited for 10 minutes which seemed like eternity. I felt like standing at the gates of heaven. In the mean time, couple of vehicles arrived – which were posh. Still no sign of Maestro calling us. We felt uneasy that we may be disturbing him.

Now another car came. The person was in safari suite kind of dress, asked something to security and went inside. I couldn’t recognize him and thought may be some director or His manager. He also removed his shoes and went in respectfully, after few minutes we could see him sitting in the hall sofa and the next sofa was occupied by another person of whom we could see only the edge of his hand and a bare leg – it was covered in white kurta and veshti!! You can now imagine how I would have felt at that time.

Raja would have talked to him for 5 minutes or so – we could see only his hand gestures from where we stood but not anything else. Now another big car came inside and stopped in the portico. It was Sujeya (Yuvan’s wife) and I think a small boy was also there. She was giving some instructions to the driver. Before she went in, she saw us and then asked the security who we were. The security told about us and handed my card to her. She took it and went inside.

Within few minutes, the man in safari dress came out to receive us and took us inside. He asked us to leave our footwear there. When I went in, I saw Maestro coming to me with a question in his eyes and saying ‘vaanga’. I immediately touched his feet to take his blessings and said I come from Muscat. He was very respectful to us. He showed us the sofa and we took our seats. I told him that I have been his ardent fan for the past 20 years and he just nodded with a smile. I then presented him with the gift (Mont Blanc pen) that I had taken. I just kept the box on the glass table and requested him to open and see. He smilingly asked ‘edhukku idhellam?’ (why all this?) I said ‘its just for my satisfaction, hope you will like it’. I opened the box for him and showed the pen. He saw it for few seconds with lit up eyes and nodded his head in perfect satisfaction.

I apologized to him for causing disturbance in his schedule and he just smiled at me. Now I was dumbstruck and frozen after seeing him at such close distance, my eyes were roaming all over him, drinking this great figure in jibba and veshti. I was having mixed feelings inside me like reverence, surprise, shock, ecstasy, happiness, etc and all sorts out emotions overcame me. My tongue was tied for few minutes. I kept seeing him and he kept seeing both of us.

In the meantime, he gestured to somebody and we received a glass of drinks in our hand. It was some cold orange juice. We sipped it in silence.

I tried to get back to some sense and asked him about Ajanta songs and his Hey Ram BGM album. He just smiled at me and nodded positively. Then, I told him about singer Manjari who was born and brought up in Muscat became she came to filmdom. He nodded his head in affirmation.

He asked me where I was working, how many years in Gulf, etc. I told him briefly about my family background. The choice of words were not occuring for me and I knew I was blabbering. Before going there, I had many questions in mind to ask him but nothing came to me at that instance. Also, I felt awkward to speak to him in the presence of another man whom I didn’t know. It looked like they were talking something important and we interfered.

I took out my note to request him for an autograph and I gave him my pen. After that, I asked him for a photo and he graciously agreed. My wife took out the digital camera and shot a snap. Then Maestro pointed my wife to me and the other person and said ‘avangalum nikkattum, innoru photo edunga’ (let her also join us for another photo). The safari man took the camera from me and asked how to operate the flash. My wife stood next to Maestro and the photo was taken. Now, Maestro saw the flash and asked me ‘avange eduthappo flash varalaye, innonnu venumna eduthukkalam’ (when she took there was no flash, so let us take another one). So, the safari man took another snap with only me and Raja. I immediately tried to check the camera and saw that the snap that my wife took was shaky and not come out well. I mentally thanked Maestro at that time for his presence of mind.

I asked him if I could come to one of his recordings (he nodded ok) and when would it be. He said nothing for the next few days. I said I will be in town till 10th November and would try my luck again.

We apologized to him once again for disturbing him and left from his house.
Whole of that evening, my mind was reeling from the effect of the meeting. I couldn’t believe my luck that I had seen one of the great composers in the history of music.

After a week or so, I casually went to Prasad Studios to check if any recordings were happening, but there was nothing. I just went to the back entrance of his studio (I guess this gate is used by his musicians), where there are couple of sofas and the wall is adorned with a Maestro’s photo gifted by Parthiban (isai alias raja) and two big portraits of Maestro by Maniam Selvan, which you would have seen on the covers of Venpa Malai and Gnana Ganga books. I could just look at the deserted recording hall and sigh.

I wanted to know when is the next recording scheduled to be held. I was told to contact his manager Mr Subbiah but could not find him anywhere. Some fellow tipped me to go to Kalasa recording theatre (which is nearby) where he can be found. I took an auto and went there to see him. Subbiah also said there is nothing planned and most probably after 15th November only.

Kalasa is relatively new studio and is regularly used by Yuvan, Karthik, Devi Sri Prasad and others. There were two short recordings scheduled by Karthik and Yuvan that evening. I didn’t feel interested and also had to go elsewhere, so I left the place after spending few minutes in seeing the recording console, etc.

The pen I gifted to Maestro was a theme built on his favourite composer JS Bach. It had a fountation pen with gold plated nib with Bach’s image and his signature engraved on the pen. It also had a small booklet on the composer and reprint of the original manuscript of his magnum opus Brandenburg Concerto No.5. This pen came to me few years back through some of my sources and seems to be very expensive. I am glad that I could get it, preserve it and then reach it to the right hands. For those interested, please refer to the attachment for further details.


Regards

Venkatesh


My comments :

I have the photos of Venkatesh along with Maestro IR. IMHO, anyone can meet him provided a convenient time is set and a proper arrangement is made in advance.

Its time we talk more about IR's music than about the individual