The Hindu Fridays: Ranjani and Gayatri discuss Ilaiyaraaja, music and more

Carnatic musician Gayatri of Ranjani and Gayatri duo shares her musical journey with Ilaiyaraaja's compositions in conversation.

Decades ago, Carnatic musician Gayatri of the Ranjani and Gayatri duo, was introduced to maestro Ilaiyaraaja’s music when she had to play for competitions for her college orchestra.

At a time when Men’s College Orchestra walked away with prizes since they had an added advantage of playing instruments, Gayatri walked in as a surprise star element in her college orchestra playing violin. Be it Andhi Mazhai Pozhigiradhu or Paadu Nilavee, she played the violin and used it to create maximum effect.

“I tried to unravel as much of layers as possible in a single violin and would try to capture as much as I could. That is how my journey of getting introduced to his world of music opened up. We ended up getting greeted with huge claps. The richness of the melodies and the ragas were the heart of his compositions. We didn’t imagine that one day we would end up doing Raaja by Raga. That’s how beautiful the canvas of life is,” Ms. Gayatri said.

In conversation with independent journalist and founder of Aalaap, Akhila Krishnamurthy, as part of ‘The Hindu Fridays’ event, the RaGa sisters spoke at length about the numerous aspects from pursuit of music from childhood to life being anchored in music, interluded with generous doses of different ragas.

Ms. Ranjani said film songs have played an important role in introducing to the people the sounds of Carnatic music. “But when a person listens to film songs, he is consuming it as a film song not as classical music,” she added.

She said whatever they do, their life is deeply rooted and anchored to music. “I will be cooking or doing any other routine activity but my mind is always in music. I was writing my Class X board examination and heard students around me asking me to hush. It was then I realised that I was singing,” she said.

Ms. Gayatri said from their childhood, music was more than an integral part of their daily life. She recollected how it was a life filled with music packed in different ways. “We didn’t think that one day we would become performers. Performance happened by chance. There was a lot of time committing yourself unconditionally to music. The journey was always all about preparation. We didn’t achieve fame easily,” she said.