Maestro 1000 etched in colour

While several people have honoured Isai Gnani Ilaiyaraja for his mammoth feat — scoring music for more than 1,000 flicks in various languages — now 100 renowned artists from across the country, have come up with a three-part programme to salute the great musician, in probably the most unique of ways!

 They are all coming under one roof and paying an artistic tribute to the Maestro, under the title Ulagatthin Ore 1000 with the tagline Ilayaraja — Vannangal Kondadum Ulagatthin Ore 1000. The artists will 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 where several artists including Chandru, Natraj and film personalities like Vijay Sethupathi, SP Jananathan, Nasser and Ponvannan among others were present. Over the next two days, the paintings will be kept for public exhibition and auction; the proceeds of which will be used for a cause. Sources say that Ilaiyaraja himself, will precede over the event.

Pictures of all the paintings/drawings will be complied as a book, which will be released later. Seeing director Pa. Ranjith armed with a canvas came as quite a surprise — he is apparently an amateur, upcoming artist! Yet another feel-good aspect was that Vijay Sethupathi revealed that he would bid and take one of the paintings from the exhibition. Speaking on the occasion, 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 my answer after witnessing these artists working on the canvas.”