This article was written in 2002. But it still holds good!
This appeared in The Hindu, Thursday, Feb 07, 2002
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Unquiet flows the Padma. Not the river that is the pride of Bangladesh but the ever-widening and increasingly muddy stream of Padma awards announced in this country on every Republic Day. The Kathak diva, Sitara Devi's contemptuous rejection of the Padma Bhushan awarded to her - on the ground that if a youngster like the tabla-maestro, Zakir Hussain, could get Padma Vibushan, she was entitled to nothing less than Bharat Ratna - underscores the sorry state of affairs.
This, however, is the only a sideshow that does no credit either to the system that has never thought of sounding out potential awardees in advance or to the lady whose self- estimation seems out of all proportion to reality. Ustad Vilayat Khan's protest against the award of Bharat Ratna to Pandit Ravi Shankar some years ago was in a different class though it was also petulant.
The real malaise is much deeper and may even have become irremediable. Incremental and often unseemly lobbying for the Padmas over the years has by now assumed shocking dimensions. It has indeed spawned the painful paradox that the more these awards are devalued, the greater becomes the far-from-savoury scramble for them. Things have reached a pass where a former Cabinet Secretary, who has presided over the Union Government's committee on civilian awards for several years, is constrained to say that the merit has less to do with the Republic Day awards than ``political muscle''. In the words of another of his peers, more awards are ``extracted'' than are given.
Yet another distinguished civil servant who sat on the award-dispensing committee (that, ironically, is itself overruled by the Prime Minister's Office quite often) holds artists to be the most clamorous of self-promoters. Politicians in power, especially Chief Ministers of States, he adds, also like to demonstrate their clout by garnering as many Padma awards as possible for their proteges. The media compounds the mess by habitually publishing the names of some - at least of the favoured ones, Indians and foreigners - well before the President even signs the coveted list.
As the Constitution makes it abundantly clear, these awards are not titles and cannot be used as prefixes to names. But as any number of newspaper advertisements and speeches from the platform show, the ban is flouted with impunity. Padma Bhushans and Padma Shris are flaunted as furiously as were the titles like Rai Bahadur, Khan Bahadur and Rao Bahadur during the British Raj. Some carry this practice to the ludicrous extreme of printing on their visiting cards `considered for Padma Shri', testifying to the fact that there is nothing secret or sacred about the selection process or about the importuning, successful or otherwise, that rages during it.
For some years since 1954, when the Padma awards were first given, there was no complaint about them. On the contrary, such names as S. Radhakrishnan, C. Rajagopalachari, C.V. Raman, Bhagwan Das, M. Visvesvaraya, P.V. Kane and several others, figuring on the list of Bharat Ratnas, compelled admiration, as did Satyajit Ray, M.S. Subbulakshmi and C. Subramaniam in later years. But, by the end of the sixties, things had started to go wrong.
By the time the Emergency ended and Indira Gandhi was voted out of power, the annual awards had fallen into such disrepute that Morarji Desai, on becoming Prime Minister, suspended them and so they remained until the fall of the Janata Government. On returning to power, Indira Gandhi revived the awards as well as the old practice of using them to keep fawning loyalists and even laughable sycophants happy. Rajiv Gandhi kept his mother's legacy alive in this respect as in many others. His most dubious decision was to confer Bharat Ratna on M.G. Ramachandran immediately after the latter's death. Other things apart, the late Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, for all his phenomenal popularity, had huge arrears of unpaid income tax. This is a mandatory disqualification for any State award.
In 1992 some `concerned citizens' went to court to challenge the validity of the Padma awards on the ground that they violated the principle of equality before the law and enabled successive Governments to act arbitrarily. It took the Supreme Court three years to throw out the case. But it was only in 1997 that the awards were revived again. The Narasimha Rao Government took care to appoint a high-level committee, headed by the then Vice-President, to frame guidelines for the choice of awardees. Needless to add that these - like the model election code - are being honoured more in breach than observance.
The result can be best illustrated by just one of countless examples. In 1997, when the Government of Mr. I.K. Gujral awarded Bharat Ratna to Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the country applauded the decision. This year the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is dismayed because the two scientists it had recommended for the awards do not figure on the list while two non-descript individuals have been `smuggled in'.
Under the circumstances, is it any surprise that many now feel that Morarjibhai was absolutely right about the Padma awards? Since the system is unlikely to be mended, shouldn't it be ended?
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Sunday, January 27, 2008
A farce called Padma Awards!
Another Padma awards list is out on the eve of another Republic Day.
I am not surprised to find many a deserving name missing from the list. And I am no longer disturbed to see so many also rans in their chosen profession finding a pride of place in the list under various awards. Because the kind of lobbying that goes behind the scenes every year to get oneself included in this list is common knowledge.
But nothing can explain the absence of Maestro Ilaiyaraaja’s name from this honour list. Year after year I have been, like millions of others, waiting to find his name in the list.
This list is supposed to be a list of people who excel in their chosen field and make the nation proud. And a proud nation acknowledges their contribution by bestowing these awards on them. But year after year this list is becoming a huge farce, to say the least.
After his more than a 30-year contribution to his chosen area, that is film music, what more the nation expects from Ilaiyaraaja? It is beyond my comprehension.
For more than 25 years he has been a colossus in the south Indian film music scene. He has composed music for a mind boggling 800 plus films-background scores plus more than 4000 songs. And he has many non-film albums to his credit including the recently completed Tiruvacagam in Oratorio format involving a western classical orchestra and chorus voices.
What else should he do to deserve such a honour?
Can some one enlighten the public?
From his first film “Annakkili” Ilaiyaraaja has been a path breaker. From then onwards his evolution and progression to the present level of writing a full-scale western classical work is gradual but in gigantic progression.
And for the school dropout son of an estate worker in a non-descript village at the foot of Kodaikanal hills, it is really a huge climb up the hill.
At first he was termed just as a folk tune charmer. Then slowly he started showing his knowledge of carnatic classical music. And his orchestrations also started showing a beautiful mix of melody and powerful arrangements. Purists may not have liked it. But can you forget the “Mohanam” varnam beautifully turned into a lovely song as in “Agninatchatram”? Can you forget that song with out “Avarohanam” in “Sindu Bairavi”? I believe his “Vedic Chants” is still a hot selling album in which he has made an 8-year-old girl chant the Vedas, against the tradition.
And we cannot deny the fact that he elevated film’s background scoring to an art form. So much so, even the themes he used in the films background music became humming tunes. And even today there is no one like him who can carry an entire film through on the strength of his background music alone.
The other day one of the top directors of the Tamil film industry, in the midst of working on the final mix of his latest release, was telling me: “After my MD completed the rerecording, I found total absence of music in many important scenes… I did not have time to sit with him again, so without any alternative, I myself filled up those areas from the music done in other reels. After all only Raja Sir is capable of deciding accurately where to leave the scene in silence and where to fill up with music, no one else, not even the directors”.
He is not alone. In the industry if late Sivaji Ganesan is a benchmark for acting then Ilaiyaraaja has set the highest possible benchmark for background scoring.
Hence whenever a director sits with his music director for a background scoring session, a comparison with the Master is some thing inevitable. Same goes for a viewer who cannot help feeling the absence of the Master when he could have easily elevated a reasonably good scene to a much higher plane.
With his arrival on the scene, for the first time in India, we got a complete music director who does every thing-composing, orchestration, arrangement of instruments and writing notations. A music director who unlike his predecessors and contemporaries, not dependent on faceless orchestrators and arrangers who are in plenty in the Indian film industry. That is, Ilaiyaraaja’s music alone is one hundred percent his own creation. Today for most of the Hindi films the music director whose name appears in credits composes only the songs. Even for this he gives the tune and some orchestrator/arranger does the rest. The film’s re-recording music is mostly not by him. It will be either by some nameless arranger or some music director from the south. Actually in today’s world any one can become a film music director. No great job really. What you require is a good collection jaz, pop, rock music CDs, that is all.
The fact remains Ilaiyaraaja is the only composer in India, even today, who composes the entire music mentally and puts it directly on paper. That is, composing at the highest possible level. Apart from Ilaiyaraaja there are only two composers capable of writing notataions-Vanraj Bhatia and (Laxmikant) Pyarelal in Bombay. But certainly not at the speed of Ilaiyaraaja. To compose music what Ilaiyaraaja requires is just a pen and paper, that is all.
Just when every one thought that Ilaiyaraaja has settled into a pattern, he again surprised every one by bringing out two independent albums. But even in these two works Ilaiyaraaja has been a path breaker. His albums “Nothing But Wind” and “How to Name It?” proved that. For the first time in the annals of the history of music, fusion has been explored and exposed in depth by Ilaiyaraaja. Though fusion has been attempted by many others, this is the first successful attempt, where he has altered and shaped the meaning of fusion into its actual interpretation and has given this interpretation not only self-expression but also a correlation of the traditional and modern techniques in music.
And his first full-fledged symphonic work with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London followed this in 1993.
Review his works, well known western music critic Prof. Sheryar Ookerjee says, “Ilaiyaraaja's conspicuous quality is his ability to so integrate the Indian and Western idioms that the seams can hardly be noticed and the result is usually pleasant, charming and satisfying”.
And Pritish Nandy was more candid in his comments: “There are few things that bridge the great Brahmin, non-Brahmin divide in Tamil Nadu. And one of them is admiration for the music of Ilaiyaraaja. One of the most original composers we have produced in recent times, Ilaiyaraaja achieves with great success what others have attempted over the years and fumbled-and that is a truly creative fusion of Indian and Western music, without it sounding like the offspring of a panther and a jackass howling in exquisite agony”.
I would not term Ilaiyaraaja a film music director. Ilaiyaraaja is a composer who happens to be working in the film medium all these years. So his present commercial rating in the film industry would not be relevant to him unlike other film music directors. He is still one of the most original composers India has produced in recent times. You cannot take it away from him.
But in spite of all this, if the powers that be feel that he does not deserve an award, then these awards have lost even the little amount of honour that come with them.
I am sure one day, some one somewhere will wake up and include his name as a also ran. And at that time Ilaiyaraaja’s answer should be “Thanks, No Thanks”.
That is the only way he can retain his self-respect. Not only his but also that of his millions and millions of fans across the world.
But in the mean while will someone from the government tell us why this omission is happening year after year……?
I am not surprised to find many a deserving name missing from the list. And I am no longer disturbed to see so many also rans in their chosen profession finding a pride of place in the list under various awards. Because the kind of lobbying that goes behind the scenes every year to get oneself included in this list is common knowledge.
But nothing can explain the absence of Maestro Ilaiyaraaja’s name from this honour list. Year after year I have been, like millions of others, waiting to find his name in the list.
This list is supposed to be a list of people who excel in their chosen field and make the nation proud. And a proud nation acknowledges their contribution by bestowing these awards on them. But year after year this list is becoming a huge farce, to say the least.
After his more than a 30-year contribution to his chosen area, that is film music, what more the nation expects from Ilaiyaraaja? It is beyond my comprehension.
For more than 25 years he has been a colossus in the south Indian film music scene. He has composed music for a mind boggling 800 plus films-background scores plus more than 4000 songs. And he has many non-film albums to his credit including the recently completed Tiruvacagam in Oratorio format involving a western classical orchestra and chorus voices.
What else should he do to deserve such a honour?
Can some one enlighten the public?
From his first film “Annakkili” Ilaiyaraaja has been a path breaker. From then onwards his evolution and progression to the present level of writing a full-scale western classical work is gradual but in gigantic progression.
And for the school dropout son of an estate worker in a non-descript village at the foot of Kodaikanal hills, it is really a huge climb up the hill.
At first he was termed just as a folk tune charmer. Then slowly he started showing his knowledge of carnatic classical music. And his orchestrations also started showing a beautiful mix of melody and powerful arrangements. Purists may not have liked it. But can you forget the “Mohanam” varnam beautifully turned into a lovely song as in “Agninatchatram”? Can you forget that song with out “Avarohanam” in “Sindu Bairavi”? I believe his “Vedic Chants” is still a hot selling album in which he has made an 8-year-old girl chant the Vedas, against the tradition.
And we cannot deny the fact that he elevated film’s background scoring to an art form. So much so, even the themes he used in the films background music became humming tunes. And even today there is no one like him who can carry an entire film through on the strength of his background music alone.
The other day one of the top directors of the Tamil film industry, in the midst of working on the final mix of his latest release, was telling me: “After my MD completed the rerecording, I found total absence of music in many important scenes… I did not have time to sit with him again, so without any alternative, I myself filled up those areas from the music done in other reels. After all only Raja Sir is capable of deciding accurately where to leave the scene in silence and where to fill up with music, no one else, not even the directors”.
He is not alone. In the industry if late Sivaji Ganesan is a benchmark for acting then Ilaiyaraaja has set the highest possible benchmark for background scoring.
Hence whenever a director sits with his music director for a background scoring session, a comparison with the Master is some thing inevitable. Same goes for a viewer who cannot help feeling the absence of the Master when he could have easily elevated a reasonably good scene to a much higher plane.
With his arrival on the scene, for the first time in India, we got a complete music director who does every thing-composing, orchestration, arrangement of instruments and writing notations. A music director who unlike his predecessors and contemporaries, not dependent on faceless orchestrators and arrangers who are in plenty in the Indian film industry. That is, Ilaiyaraaja’s music alone is one hundred percent his own creation. Today for most of the Hindi films the music director whose name appears in credits composes only the songs. Even for this he gives the tune and some orchestrator/arranger does the rest. The film’s re-recording music is mostly not by him. It will be either by some nameless arranger or some music director from the south. Actually in today’s world any one can become a film music director. No great job really. What you require is a good collection jaz, pop, rock music CDs, that is all.
The fact remains Ilaiyaraaja is the only composer in India, even today, who composes the entire music mentally and puts it directly on paper. That is, composing at the highest possible level. Apart from Ilaiyaraaja there are only two composers capable of writing notataions-Vanraj Bhatia and (Laxmikant) Pyarelal in Bombay. But certainly not at the speed of Ilaiyaraaja. To compose music what Ilaiyaraaja requires is just a pen and paper, that is all.
Just when every one thought that Ilaiyaraaja has settled into a pattern, he again surprised every one by bringing out two independent albums. But even in these two works Ilaiyaraaja has been a path breaker. His albums “Nothing But Wind” and “How to Name It?” proved that. For the first time in the annals of the history of music, fusion has been explored and exposed in depth by Ilaiyaraaja. Though fusion has been attempted by many others, this is the first successful attempt, where he has altered and shaped the meaning of fusion into its actual interpretation and has given this interpretation not only self-expression but also a correlation of the traditional and modern techniques in music.
And his first full-fledged symphonic work with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London followed this in 1993.
Review his works, well known western music critic Prof. Sheryar Ookerjee says, “Ilaiyaraaja's conspicuous quality is his ability to so integrate the Indian and Western idioms that the seams can hardly be noticed and the result is usually pleasant, charming and satisfying”.
And Pritish Nandy was more candid in his comments: “There are few things that bridge the great Brahmin, non-Brahmin divide in Tamil Nadu. And one of them is admiration for the music of Ilaiyaraaja. One of the most original composers we have produced in recent times, Ilaiyaraaja achieves with great success what others have attempted over the years and fumbled-and that is a truly creative fusion of Indian and Western music, without it sounding like the offspring of a panther and a jackass howling in exquisite agony”.
I would not term Ilaiyaraaja a film music director. Ilaiyaraaja is a composer who happens to be working in the film medium all these years. So his present commercial rating in the film industry would not be relevant to him unlike other film music directors. He is still one of the most original composers India has produced in recent times. You cannot take it away from him.
But in spite of all this, if the powers that be feel that he does not deserve an award, then these awards have lost even the little amount of honour that come with them.
I am sure one day, some one somewhere will wake up and include his name as a also ran. And at that time Ilaiyaraaja’s answer should be “Thanks, No Thanks”.
That is the only way he can retain his self-respect. Not only his but also that of his millions and millions of fans across the world.
But in the mean while will someone from the government tell us why this omission is happening year after year……?
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