Hitting all the right notes

The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M.K. Stalin, has scored a point. By taking it upon himself and the State government to honour maestro Ilaiyaraaja, on a mass scale, on his completion of 50 years in the film industry and for composing a symphony, Mr. Stalin has focused on what the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) failed to capitalise on. Instead of feting Ilaiyaraaja, a quintessential Tamil icon, and showing that if he can be a supporter of the BJP and a follower of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, so can the average Tamil, who is pious and religious, the party has done little on the ground to build on Ilaiyaraaja’s popularity and acceptance.

It is not as if the BJP has not accorded Ilaiyaraaja his due. The party nominated him to the Rajya Sabha, invited him to perform at both the Kashi Tamil Sangamam (2022), and at Gangaikonda Cholapuram (July 2025) which Mr. Modi visited to mark 1,000 years since Chola King Rajendra I’s conquest of the North. But the BJP’s inertia in felicitating or announcing the conferment of the Bharat Ratna on Ilaiyaraaja has given Mr. Stalin a leg up and reinforce the point that the maestro transcends narrow barriers and belongs to the world of music. At a function in Chennai on September 13, Mr. Stalin made an appeal to the BJP government to confer the Bharat Ratna on Ilaiyaraaja. It is an appeal that the BJP cannot ignore.

Ilaiyaraaja said, “I am overwhelmed and overjoyed by the scale of the event...Why such love? Perhaps it is because of my music. Only he (Mr Stalin) can answer... Perhaps he considered my symphony [to be] a great achievement. I believe he must have felt [that] it was the duty of the State government to honour a Tamil who has gained worldwide fame.”

It was a masterstroke by Mr. Stalin. In March this year, Ilaiyaraaja had travelled to London to release his new composition — a symphony that was to be performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The moment this became known, Mr. Stalin visited the maestro to offer his greetings. The government also organised a reception for the music maestro on his return. Ilaiyaraaja revealed that he had expressed his desire to Mr. Stalin to bring the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to Tamil Nadu, and recalled Mr. Stalin’s reaction — “Yes, it can be done.”

Mr. Stalin is aware that Ilaiyaraaja, despite his political leanings, is a source of Tamil pride and represents cultural capital. When Ilaiyaraaja was trolled on social media by DMK supporters after he described the consecration of the Ram Temple as a “historic day” and praised Mr. Modi, Mr. Stalin intervened to stop the campaign. All his fans may not share his political ideology, but they will not tolerate any criticism made against Ilaiyaraaja. It was Mr. Stalin’s late father and the longest-serving Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M. Karunanidhi, who had conferred the title ‘Isaignani’ on Ilaiyaraaja. The musician, whose birthday falls on June 3 — the same day as Karunanidhi’s — was astute to move the day to June 2.

At the felicitation ceremony, Ilaiyaraaja, who would usually begin his concert with an invocation of Goddess Mookambiga, by rendering Janani Janani, instead chose a film song, Amuthe Tamiley Azhagiye Mozhiye Enathuriyere (‘Nectar-like Tamil is a beautiful language and my life’). It struck a chord with the audience which included Mr. Stalin, his cabinet colleagues and officials.

A day later, Ilaiyaraaja acceded to Mr. Stalin’s request — that he should compose music for Sangam period literature. Ilaiyaraaja’s announcement has been well appreciated.

After his close association with the Communist Movement — his elder brother, Pavalar Varadharajan was a singer popularising the ideology and politics, with Ilaiyaraaja and their other brothers as instrumentalists — Ilaiyaraaja was politically neutral, but retained an identity of being a devotee of Ramana Maharshi of Tiruvannamalai.

Ilaiyaraaja and his brothers are admirers of writer and Communist-turned-Congress supporter Jayakanthan, another Tamil icon. Jayakanthan was a bitter critic of the Dravidian Movement, but Karunanidhi succeeded in winning him over, stunning Jayakanthan’s admirers.

Mr. Stalin appears to have taken the cue from his father and done the same thing with Ilaiyaraaja, living up to the dictum of C.N. Annadurai, the founder of DMK, that “jasmine smells sweet even if it blooms in another’s garden.”

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