Who is the Greatest ?

The maestro and the protege : who is the greatest ? A.R Rahman or Ilaiyaraaja? This debate about the great sons of south-Indian music have split their fans for long. The heated discussions which started in school & college campuses in the early 90s, have now shifted to message-boards and chat-rooms and even YouTube. After his Oscar triumph in 2009, A.R Rahman-fans now seems to have the upper-hand. The following article is my 'expert opinion' on what I think about the subject :

I don't highly rate A.R Rahman as a music composer. He is more of a good music-conductor than a composer. His stock of tunes are rather very limited. Nor he is very prolific or spontaneous in his output like Ilaiyaraaja. What makes A.R Rahman click is that he packages his limited tunes well. Perhaps his early experience in the ad-world may have come handy. He often comes up with some 'jingles' that catches the instant imagination of the youth. But they didn't have a longer shelf life. Most of his compositions are mediocre, with an occassional flash of brilliance here and there.

In case of Ilaiyaraaja, vise-versa is true. Even his mediocre works are now considered world-class. From start to finish, there is no irrelevant or insignificant piece of notes in his composition. Any portion of his music can make a beautiful 'ring-tone'. There are many movies (musicals) which became super-hit by his music alone. Even instrumental albums based on Ilaiyaraaja's music still sell like hot-cakes.By the sheer number of hits, creativity,innovation, consistency - A.R Rahman is no match to Ilaiyaraaja. while A.R Rahman is more of a pop-composer, Ilaiyaraaja has shown complete mastery in all area of music - folk, pop and classical.

(to be continued) ...