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Illayaraja honours Ramana
Mohan Thambirajah
Dec 31:
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Agi Music Sdn Bhd, a local production house with extensive contacts in India’s music industry, has launched its first Tamil album – ‘Guru Ramana Geetam’, a devotional effort by music maestro Ilayaraja.

Ilayaraja, a prolific composer with 850 albums to his credit, has not only written and scored the music – he also sang eight of the 10 tracks. Renowned classical singers, Bombay Jayshree and Unnikrishnan performed the other two songs. Ilayaraja – a devotee of Ramana Maharishi, the sage of Arunachala of Sri Ramanasramam – has devoted the entire album in praise of the sage. In this anthology of hymns and prayers, Ilayaraja expressed his anguish at being shackled to the material world, and his steadfast faith in Ramana to free him.

Agi Music Marketing Manager Rasi Ramalingam said: "It's an honour for Ilayaraja fans in Malaysia that he has appointed a Malaysian company to handle the distribution in Malaysia, Singapore and India.'' She hopes fans of Ilayaraja, and Tamil music in general, will support the album by buying original CDs and cassettes.

Sixty five per cent of the album's proceeds will go to Sri Ramanasramam. The CD comes with a 12-page booklet containing lyrics of all the songs, a synopsis of each song in English and a short biography on Sri Ramana Maharishi.

The album will be distributed in Malaysia by Veenai Holdings, a leading VCD distributor here. It's now available at all stores.

For inquiries, write to info@agimusic.com or call 017-3954919 (Ms Rasi)/ 03-74900585 (Veenai Holdings).