Cinema

Happy birthday Ilaiyaraaja: A special B'day greeting from PM Modi to the Maestro!

By alagu, 02 June, 2022
Ilayaraja, Narendra Modi, Tamil cinema

Musical maestro Ilaiyaraaja has now entered the club of octogenarians as he has celebrated his 80th birthday on Thursday - June 2 in the midst of a sea of wishes and greetings from across and beyond the borders. Weeks after writing an analogy of comparing Prime Minister Modi with the father of the Indian Constitution Dr Ambedkar, the legendary musician has got a special birthday wish from Modi. 

According to ANI, Prime Minister Modi has made a phone call to Ilaiyaraaja and extended his birthday wishes to the latter. Ilaiyaraaja has been a great icon in the Indian movie industry through his unparalleled and stupendous contribution. He is a towering musician and composed music for over 1,400 movies across the languages, which is certainly a phenomenal feat. 

In his over five decades career, Ilaiyaraaja has composed more than 7,000 songs and has performed at over 20,000 concerts. Lakhs of fans and hundreds of fraternities have been raining wishes to Ilaiyaraaja on social media and his son and music director Yuvan Shankar Raja has shared an unseen picture of his father to extend his birthday wishes.  

Ilaiyaraaja has begun his career with the movie 'Annakili' and in his glorious career, he has shelved several accolades and awards. He has won five National Film Awards - three for Best Music Direction and two for Best Background Score. In 2010, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian honour in India and the Padma Vibhushan, the second-highest civilian honour, in 2018. 

In 2012, he had received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, the highest Indian recognition given to artists and he is a gold medallist in classical guitar from Trinity College of Music, London. He also has won Kerala State Film Awards three times. Recently, Ilaiyaraaja had collaborated with Netflix and given the iconic Stranger Things title track his own twist. 

The clip was released by the online streaming platform and it had made rounds on social media. The musical maestro has been getting ready for an upcoming event 'Raaja by Raga- Celebrating the classical glory', that will be held on June 5 at the Music Academy in Chennai. On the other hand, he had invited outrage across Tamil Nadu after he wrote an analogy comparing Prime Minister Modi and Dr Ambedkar. 

Ilaiyaraaja has made a comparison between Ambedkar and Modi in his foreword for a book that was launched on April 14, on the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti. In the book titled  'Ambedkar & Modi: Reformer's Ideas, Performer's Implementation', Ilaiyaraaja has said that there were parallels between Ambedkar and Modi as both of them saw poverty and stifling social structures from close quarters and worked to dismantle them. 

About the book, the foreword by the maestro said that the book brings out some striking parallels between the personalities of Dr BR Ambedkar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He had penned, "Both these striking personalities succeeded against odds that people from socially disempowered sections face. Both dreamt big for India, but both are also practical men who believe in action rather than mere thought exercises." 

The legendary musician has further turned heads by stating that Ambedkar would have been proud of Prime Minister Modi for his work for the progress of women, including criminalising triple talaq and the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme. By highlighting that the book is an attempt to study the interaction of India's development journey under Prime Minister Modi with the ideals and vision of Dr Ambedkar, Ilaiyaraaja's foreword says that Modi has strengthened the legal safeguards for socially marginalized communities through constitutional protections. 

 

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