Maestro ilaiyaraaja news & titbits

[krish244]

IR gets "Bharathamuni Arts Academy" best MD award for Sri Rama Rajyam.

http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/t...cle/79032.html

thanks,

Krishnan

[rajsekar]

As we all know, the National Movie Awards for year 2011 were announced on March 7. Almost all mainstream media news sites listed the winners, except for two glaring omissions. Two important categories were missing from the announced list - Best Music Directions (Songs) and Best Background Score.

I had to dig through several websites and got the names – as usual, I am surprised:

Best Music Direction (Songs) - Neel Dutt for Bengali movie "Ronjona Ami Aar Ashbona"
Best Background Score - Mayookh Bhowmick for Bengali film "Laptop"

As an ardent fan of Raaja, I am disappointed by these awards. Who were the runners-up?
Everyone was expecting Raaja to bag Best Background Score for atleast one of these movies - A.Kuthirai, Sri Rama Rajyam, Hello Jaihind. Sri Rama Rajyam could have been runner-up for songs with 13 classical items. How about Rahman's "Rockstar"?

The other surprising award is Best Female Playback singer for Roopa Ganguly - Bengali film "Abosheyshey". Who was the runner-up?
I was expecting Shreya to bag this award. Shreya did a fantastic job in at least three languages - Snehaveedu, Sri Rama Rajyam and Dirty Picture. Just hear the accurate pronunciations and melody in all three languages. She is an amazing and incredible singer.

For Male Playback singer, Hariharan (Snehaveedu, Hello Jaihind) and Mohit Chauhan (Rockstar) were strong contenders.

The million dollar question for Govt. of India's Information & Broadcasting Ministry is this. Why can't the government appointed screening committee (we still live in 18th Century British Raj) announce the runners-up for each category besides all films that were nominated? India's film industry is a bizzare association of nearly 20 languages - The Best Movie Award went to Byari language film "Byari", which is a language spoken by a miniscule population in Kasargod/ D.Kannada districts of Kerala and Karnataka. Can anyone get a DVD? We have to wait for Doordarshan to screen the film next year.
Why can’t we allow members of the film fraternity to vote for these awards? Or have a National Film Festival and select the winners (Cannes Model). This is an appalling situation with our National Awards.

For next year 2013 awards, don’t be surprised if Dhanush wins Best Playback Singer for “Kolaveri Di” and Anirudh for Best Music Direction (Songs) for “3”. No one can forget that Sridevi was snubbed by National Awards Committee for her role in “Moondram Pirai”. Raaja should have received one more award for 1986 - “Punnagai Mannan”. He got it for “Sindhu Bhairavi” the same year. 2010 award for Amit Trivedi was again twisted. I heard Dev.D songs several times and couldn’t comprehend how the committee chose this film.

[app_engine]

rajsekar,
Welcome to the club

Most IRF's here have given many "personal awards" to him and no longer care about "notional awards"

[teja]

National awards are a farce. It's bizarre that they gave away 'Regional best film' awards to every single language film except Telugu! Jury has completely ignored Sri Rama Rajyam. As per the telugu media and some other trusted sources, Jury didn't want to consider Sri Rama Rajyam for any category as they seem to associate Rama to BJP! (Shocking) Added to that, some Congress leaders at national level (T.Subbiramireddy and co) played some cheap tricks to get Sri Rama Rajyam out of the picture as it happens to be a Balakrishna film (TS is not in good terms with Balakrishna's sis).

Dirty politics!

[V_S]

Oh No! that's unbelievable. Why are they mixing art with politics and personal affairs. Can't they see it as a stand-alone art? That's totally unforgivable! I could not digest such a hard-work went without any recognition.

[venkkiram]

Tomorrow if BJB comes to power, I wish IR not involving any Muslim/Christian based movies!

[rajsekar]

app_engine – I agree 100% in what you said. At the same time, all artists should get due recognition for their hard work and talent. It’s indeed very demoralizing to snub talent and recognize mediocrity for whatever reasons. A classic case that everyone knows is that our great Mahatma Gandhi was never conferred a Nobel Peace Prize. Can we name one individual in the entire 18th – 21st century who has shunned violence and war to achieve a country’s freedom? Anyway, I digress here.

Our National Award winners are usually bizarre, to mildly put it. Look at the films/ categories ignored for 2011 – Angadi Theru, Mynaa, Nandalala, Kalavaani and Madarasapatinaam. Mysskin’s Nandalala’s was raw and had powerful performance by the lead character. Maestro’s background score for Nandalala was terrific and aided the flow of the film. Certainly Nandalala should have won Background Score award rather than Isaac Thomas Kottakapally for Malayalam film “Adaminte Makan Abu”. Instead “Aadukalam” won six National Awards in 2011.

The 59th National Film Awards – Feature Film Jury members who were appointed by Ambika Soni, I&B Minister include 10 members - filmmakers K.P. Kumaran, Vinay Shukla, Prakash Belawadi and Hiren Bora, actor Aloknanda Roy, film editor A.S. Kanal, academicians K. Hariharan and Ranjani Mazumdar, writer Kishwar Desai and former joint director of Osian's Cinefan film festival Latika Padgaonkar. There are no music artists in the jury panel. How can they judge categories like Best Lyrics, Best Playback Singer, Best Music Direction and Background Score.

I encourage TFM members to listen to Neel Dutta’s songs from the Bengali film “Ronjona Ami Aar Ashbona” which won the Best Music Direction (Songs) award – there are 10 songs in the album. What’s your take?
http://calcuttatube.com/ronjona-ami-...review/152416/
I’m sure everyone has listened to Rahman’s “Rockstar” – are “Ronjona” songs better tuned. The 13 songs from Sri Rama Rajyam songs are all classical and melodious.

Roopa Ganguly (Best Female Playback Singer) citation reads that she was given the Award "for her husky and haunting voice that gives a gentle, nostalgic tone and tenor to the film, "Abosheshey". The languid raw sensuality of her singing is heightened by the absence of musical accompaniment." Roopa rendered two Tagore's songs in " Abosheshey" - "Dure kothao" and "Bijon ghore".

Composer Mayookh Bhaumik was confined to his hospital bed when he got the news of being adjudged the Best Music Director for the background score in Kaushik Ganguly's "Laptop". The composer has been acknowledged for bringing in a "new dimension with his unconventional musical rendering using both live and electronic instruments to counterpoint the urban tragedies that accompany the peripatetic laptop". TFM members should watch the Bengali movie “Laptop” in Youtube and compare the background score to “A.Kuthirai”.

[kr]

I dont know if this is old news here. iTunes has an Album "Ilayaraaja Black (Emptiness)" that has all the songs from the movie Eera Vizhi Kaviyangal for those interested.

[rajsekar]

Maestro's prediction comes true - It now turns out that Maestro had rightly predicted that the Azhagarsamiyin Kudhirai would be critically appreciated and that Appukkuty, the lead actor in the film, would also come in for appreciation for his performance in the film. More than six months after the Maestro made the above prediction, it has become a reality now. “The welcome Appukutty got when he appeared on-screen was mind-blowing; It was almost a reception meant for the likes of Rajinikanth. However, Appukkutty can’t become Rajini and vice-versa. I’m sure Apukkutty would be going places in Kolllywood,” was the Maestro’s prediction which has become a reality today. The background score when Appukutty appears is truly incredible. Which Music Director in India uses a world renowned symphony orchestra troupe to play a background score? There should have been a honorouble mention by the Jury.

[app_engine]

rajsekar,
Though IR has not got the recognition he truly deserves, we can be pleased that he got at least some 'minimum' recognition from the powers (e.g. padma bhushan). OTOH, consider what happened to a talent like MSV.

While I don't recognize MSV at par with IR in my books, he is my "all-time-#2-in-IFM", after rAsA!

Neither the center nor the state had given him any worthwhile recognition - which is highly deplorable

It's a wicked, unjust system - without any doubt!