Ilaiyaraaja's Film Score Revolution

Ilaiyaraaja debuted as a film composer in 1976 and rapidly redefined what a Tamil film score could sound like, bringing formal training in Western classical composition and orchestration together with deep roots in Tamil folk music and Carnatic tradition. He was among the first Indian film composers to use a full Western symphony orchestra extensively and with genuine compositional sophistication, while also mining rural Tamil folk idioms for melodies that felt at once populist and artful. Beyond film work, his 'How to Name It' (1986) and choral/fusion experiments demonstrated ambitions beyond commercial soundtrack composition. Ilaiyaraaja has scored music for well over a thousand films and is widely regarded, alongside M. S. Viswanathan before him and A. R. Rahman after, as one of the most important figures in the history of South Indian film music, with directors like Mani Ratnam and Bharathiraja building some of their finest films around his scores.