In pics: 'Ilaiyaraaja 75', a tribute filled with music, memories and magic

On February 2 and 3, the Tamil film industry got together to celebrate Ilaiyaraaja’s 75 years as music composer.

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Tamil film industry has always boasted of its musical talents, having some of the legendary music composers in the country like MS Viswanathan, Ramamoorthy, Ilaiyaraaja, AR Rahman, to name a few. On February 2 and 3, the industry got together to celebrate Ilaiyaraaja’s 75 years in the industry, the period during which the composer came out some of the most popular tunes of his time.

On these two days of musical extravaganza, all roads led to YMCA grounds in Nandanam, Chennai. Ilaiyaraaja 75, a tribute function organised to honour the legendary music composer who has worked across film industries in India, brought together many stars from the film industry.

Seen attending the event on Sunday were Governor Banwarilal Purohit, Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Vikram, Vijay, Mani Ratnam, Suhasini Maniratnam, Shruti Haasan, Karthi, Shankar, and many others.

On February 2, AR Rahman attended the event, even playing out a few of Ilaiyaraaja’s famous tunes. Calling Ilaiyaraaja his ‘headmaster’ ARR reminisced of his early days in the industry adding that the composer has always inspired him. The Academy Award winner played Ilayaraaja’s popular background music from Punagai Mannan on keyboard with Ilaiyaraaja himself standing right next to him and cheering him towards the end.

@arrahman & @TheMaestroRaja sharing the same stage historical moments in Indian Music #IlayaRaja75 #ARRahman moment to cherish forever @SriniMaama16 how u feel? pic.twitter.com/8wSpoGboKh
— Mohamed Faisal (@Miracleboyz7) February 2, 2019

Actor Rajinikanth who attended the event on February 3 was all praises for the composer letting in on facts that there were times when producers stood waiting outside his recording studio and that when the composer completed their rerecording, they’d come out feeling confident about the film’s success. “He used to work on three films per day. He would have also penned 60% of the song’s pallavi. He has sacrificed a lot for the cinema industry,” he said.

Wow pure bliss #Ilaiyaraaja75 #THALAIVAR #ThalaivarRajinikanth https://t.co/XB42o3p7q6
— Makesh Selvaraj (@MakeshSelvaraj) February 3, 2019

While ‘bro’ and ‘dude’ might be the lingo millennials use to call their friends, these two-call each other ‘swami’. Want to know why? “He was the one who introduced me to Ramana Maharishi. One day I just felt like calling him swami and it has stayed since. He too calls me swami,” shared Rajini.

He also revealed that his favourite compositions by Ilaiyaraaja were ‘Raaman Aandalum Ravanan Aandalum’ and ‘Podhuvaga en manasu singam’.

Kamal also came on stage and sang some of his best compositions with his daughter Shruti Haasan. He sang a total of three songs, ‘Ninaivo Oru Paravai’, ‘Unna Vida’ and ‘Hey Ram’.

The legend @ikamalhaasan lit the stage along with @shrutihaasan with a pure blissful and beautiful vocal performance of #NinaivoOruParavai as a tribute to #Ilaiyaraaja75 pic.twitter.com/gt1nOpDyyf
— #ShrutiHaasanUnblushed (@Shrutzlovez) February 4, 2019

The evening also had performances by Ilaiyaraaja’s son Yuvan Shankar Raja.