When several industries honor Isai Gnani Ilayaraja for his mammoth feat — scoring music for more than 1000 flicks in various languages, 100 renowned artists from all over the country have come up with a three-part programme to salute the great musician in a unique way, in Chennai.
They are all coming under one roof paying their artistic tributes to Maestro Ilayaraja with the title Ulagatthin Ore 1000 with the tagline Ilayaraja —Vannangal Kondadum Ulagatthin Ore 1000. Accordingly, they would be painting or drawing pictures taking inspiration from Raja’s 1988 album titled ‘Nothing But Wind’, which features five unusual compositions blending Indian and Western music and a non-filmy exploration. The event commenced on Saturday at Loyola College, Chennai, where several popular artists including Chandru, Natraj and film personalities like Vijay Sethupathi, S.P. Jananathan, Nasser and Ponvannan took part.
“A two-day event, the paintings will be kept for public exhibition and will be auctioned then and there. The proceeds from the auction will be used for a cause and Ilayaraja sir will be present on the occasion,” revealed the organizers.
The pictures of all the paintings/drawings will later be complied and brought out as a book. It will be released later. On the occasion, filmmaker Pa. Ranjith who is directing Superstar Rajinikanth in Kabali was spotted busy with his colors and canvass. It seems Ranjith is an amateur artist. Yet another interesting aspect was that Sethupathi revealed that he would bid and take one of the paintings from Raja 1000.
Speaking on the occasion Vijay Sethupathi said, “It’s a proud moment for me to be present here as the chief guest. For a very long time, the question of how music can be transformed into an artistic representation has been lingering on my mind. Now, I got the answer after witnessing these artists' works on the canvass. It's an amazing experience.”
