Composers like Ilaiyaraaja are born very rarely - such are his phenomenal musical gifts/ talents!! while there have been great composers before, Ilaiyaraaja's Genius will always be a cut above the rest - it will be sometime before the magnitude of his contributions and creativity are fully realized - also, he is the LAST of the classical composers - with him, the art of composing music stops - what we have today are a bunch of nerds with some knowledge of using software and loops and very scanty knowledge of music and even scantier desire to master the art of composing - Ilaiyaraaja elevated the art to such a level that just as how Sachin Tendulkar rips apart bowling attacks once he gets into his full flow, this man's intutitive understanding of music simply allowed him to compose at relentless speed resulting in an unparalleled prolific output!! if our people and govt do not recognise him for his genius, we are the losers - not the Maestro!
