Composer Ilaiyaraaja is a sensation across ages and stages. Gen Z is the newest to discover why
In 2024, the Malayalam survival drama ‘Manjummel Boys’ placed the Ilaiyaraaja composition ‘Kanmani anbodu’ from the 1991 film ‘Guna’ at its emotional peak.
“It fits in with the way Gen Z consumes music today,” she says. They did not queue up outside music stores for his cassettes. They did not wait for All India Radio to play his latest number, nor did they experience the frenzy surrounding an Ilaiyaraaja album release in the 1980s and 1990s. Yet, decades later, Gen Z appears to have found the maestro on its own terms. For a generation raised on streaming platforms, playlists, short-form videos and instantly accessible global music, Ilaiyaraaja is becoming a fascinating rediscovery. Old melodies, instrumental interludes and background scores are being picked up for reels, edits and personal playlists, giving compositions created decades ago a new context and audience. Theatres across Tamil Nadu erupted, and a song older than most of the audience climbed back up the streaming charts. The reuse of his tracks has also stirred debate, with the composer repeatedly asserting his rights and sending legal notices over unauthorised use. Gen Z is also a headphone generation. Music is consumed intimately, repeatedly and often independently of the film for which it was written. That gives younger listeners an opportunity to notice layers in Ilaiyaraaja’s compositions — the bass travelling beneath a melody, a guitar appearing unexpectedly, strings changing the emotional character of a passage or a flute entering almost like another voice. Director John Mahendran believes this ability comes from Ilaiyaraaja’s understanding of cinema. “He had the ability to grasp a situation, write the music almost immediately and, importantly, recognise when silence itself is the most effective score. Ilaiyaraaja’s background music does not merely accompany a filmmaker’s images; it can reveal another emotional dimension within them. Music curator and television personality Subhasree Thanikachalam sees another reason for his connection with younger listeners — his mastery of the hook line. “His background scores demonstrate how a musician can transform the experience of a film, with individual themes functioning almost as emotions without words. His instrumental works, including ‘How to Name It?’ and ‘Nothing But Wind’, have also acquired a different relevance in the streaming era. They allow a young listener to encounter Ilaiyaraaja without necessarily knowing Tamil, recognising the film or understanding the cultural context in which his career developed.
Today’s filmmakers grew up on his music too, and they keep returning to it.