Karthik Raaja

Karthik Raaja !

I think Suresh , Baradwaj , Karthik(itwofs) have written wonderful articles on their journey with Illayaraaja /ARR . I believe we have all ( ~25-30) would have grown with Raaja or ARR songs and hence definetly lot to write about ARR or Illayraaja .

For some reasons , i like Karthik raaja . May be , the very first time i heard that son of Illayraaja is composing , and beinga naive , emotional music listener at 14 , i wished Karthik Raaja deliver music that would push ARR to the bottom of charts , as at that time even a sneeze of ARR was becoming a hit . ( it is another story that i secretly enjoyed ARR music but put up a brave front before my friends that im a die haard fan of Raaja and that i don't hear ARR much ) . But Manikkam , Enakku Oru Magan Pirappan , Alexandar didn't do much ,except adding 5-6 songs to my likeable songs .

Then came Ullasam - it just blew me up and i started having some kind of unique liking to Karthik Raaja . It was not rehman , not Illayraaja , but a unique sound which i liked very much. Ullasam songs were a big hit and i went mad with that album , almost mentioning the name of album to everybody . Next started by search on dhinaa thanthi , dhina karan on the new films that come up and the music director for those films . I started searching *Raaja* in the names and it used to excite me to find a karthik raaja in the crew.

Another album which excited me was GRAHAN . The minute i heard in those hindi channels , i was just sucked to it . So much so , that after 8 years when i was working in delhi , i searched for Grahan soundtracks only to see a whimsical smile from the cassete shop owners . Till now , it remains one of my favourite albums that just remain hard wired in my mind . Esp kehte ke jisko , chum chum , Ye sochu ta

By then, yuvan gave a Aravindan , a good debut and i also started liking him (again hoping that he will push rehman down) . I started tracking each and every album of Karthik and Yuvan . At one phase i liked yuvan abit more , when he delievered Povellam Kettu paar , dheena and it just mingled with my college life so much .Yuvan dished out his career in his own way , his own hip hop, pop sounds that slowly became a big hit with Karthik .

Two albums which made my loyalties move to KR are Naam Iruvaar Namakku iruvar and kadhal Kadhaala . I was the first guy to buy Kadhala Kadhala in the saidapet cassete shop ( was in anna univ ) and just rushed back to hostel to listen to the sound tracks.Esp , Naam iruvar songs defined my freedom i got in my hostel days and my life just got interwined with it .

Karthik raaja made a couple of unforgettable outings like vaanchinaathan , which made me hate his music for aa short time . Again , when dumm dumm dumm , Ullam Kollai Poguthey came up , it was just candy -time for me .
It is difficult to say why you like a composer . You would ideally like to say ' i like songs and doesnt matter who the composer' , but somewhere the bias comes in !

Post-2001 , KR adopted an change in his compositions . He tried his best to maintain his original style at a time where even if you follow 30% of rehman's style , you are sure to find your numbers in the top 10 . Of course this resulted in KR giving scores which find a mention only in musicindiaonline . But i liked almost all of the scores that came after 2001 - atleast couple of numbers in each movie. My favorite songs of KR .Just hope that he gets good movies to score !

1. Indha Sirpinnai - Naam iruvar Namakku Iruvar
2. Konjum Manjal - Ullasam
3. Kehkte Jisko - Grahan
4.Kavithaigal Sollava - Ullam Kollai poguthey
5.Onnu rendu - Kudaikkul Mazhai
6.Oru Matram - Naalai
7.hei Unnidam- Chakravuyham
8.Kadhal VanOli - ALBUM
9.Sutrum Bhoombi - DUmm Dumm DUmm
10.Mein Cheese Badi - 16 December
11. Belli chandriudu - Hoo Anthiyaa HuHoo Anthiyaa
12.Oduthey Ooduthey - Ragasiyamai
13. EN Kadhali- Muruguga
14. Poo Vaithal - Kadhalai Kavurivukum Neram