Popular music composer James Vasanthan made heads turn with his work in his film debut, Subramaniyapuram, starring Sasikumar and Jai, in 2008, which became a blockbuster. Having started as a television host, his song 'Kangal Irandal' in the period action film has since became an all-time cult classic, with the music director also delivering hit songs in Pasanga (2009) and Eesan (2010). James Vasanthan, who has since then worked on several notable films, including composing the 'Yaaraiyum Velgira' song in the recently-released Ariyavan, sat down with Galatta for an exclusive interview where he discussed the reason for his displeasure towards 'Isaignani' Ilaiyaraaja.
Hailing 'Maestro' Ilaiyaraaja as a musical genius, James Vasanthan called out the legendary composer for his words in the name of spirituality. He said, "My social media posts are not against Illaiyaraja. Music director Ilaiyaraaja is my guru. Will anyone disrespect their guru? Or, can I, someone who has attained success, say that? He is still my guru to date because I learned music by listening to his music and growing along with it. I have a strong criticism against Ilaiyaraja as an individual. I will also say another word. We will not see such a low-quality person anywhere. He is a big music director and he's been given the title 'genius'. He is suitable for that because he has composed music for many films. How can I criticize my guru? I have learnt from him. I might not like his musical score much because our creativity differs. He is a big genius, but I need not like everything. That is different. If you begin, I can talk about his music for hours. But, as a human being, he is a very cheap person. If he were an ordinary person, we would not criticize him this much. He has been in the cinema industry for 25 years and many even call him God. Rajini sir also calls him Saamy (God). That is because he talks about spirituality deeply."
Explaining his views further, James Vasanthan continued, "The more you get into spirituality, generosity, maturity, patience, acceptance, and understanding will come to you. That is called spirituality, isn't it? He says he's going into spirituality, but is using obscene language on the outside. For example, he participated in a Google event in the US one or two months back. During that event, when he was asked questions regarding music, he ended up talking about Jesus and Christianity. Do you know the main belief of Christianity? It is based on the birth of Jesus, the life he lived, his crucifixion, and his resurrection on the third day. If you reject any of these, Christianity doesn’t exist. It stands on that alone. He has gone and talked over there like an idiot that he doesn’t know if Jesus lived, died or was reborn. Is this needed? What is he trying to say? Among us, only Ramana Maharshi was reincarnated. If someone really understood spirituality and has a little maturity, what will he say? I have a lot of thoughts regarding other beliefs. He need not say that too. He could at least say our person Maharishi is the only person who died and was reborn. This in itself is being proven as false by the writer-director who made a documentary about him that he didn't die. He said that he didn't die, but rather lost his breath and speaking abilities for the next 6 hours due to epilepsy, which led to seizures. Some people are back to normalcy in 20 minutes, some others in 1 or 2 hours, but he was revived after 5 or 6 hours. They are spinning a story that he died, but I’m not telling him to say that either. Even if he believes that he was resurrected back to life, will someone with a good nature say that? Crores of people around the world believe in Jesus, right? Do we need to hurt all of them? Because he isn’t a history teacher nor a big researcher. If he wants to talk about his belief, why doesn’t he talk about that alone? He has a cheap mindset to talk low about everyone else, right? Like, 'you are all wrong and I’m the only one who's right', is the reason why I’m saying that he is a cheap person. He didn't have to say that."
James Vasanthan further stated, "I know what I’m talking about in front of the camera and that it will come on YouTube and there will be criticism in the comments. I've been in the media for 28 years. Won’t I know this? I’m not a youngster to be impulsive. If someone who goes into spirituality and doesn’t have these qualities, isn't he a cheater? As I said earlier, the way he talks and his character isn’t good. His characteristics aren’t right. Celebrities, who are popular, whether we like them or not, whether we expect or not, there will be at least two people who will keep us as role models. I should behave in a proper manner for him. If they say, 'I can't believe that I idolized him. He's not a good person,' then, it shows that I haven’t been responsible enough with the popularity and identity I have attained. In our public life, when we have gained this much goodwill, the only cost we end up giving is our individuality and freedom. We should be responsible enough for others to follow us. This is a sad problem with having a public life. We have been experiencing a lot of positive factors along with it. The only sad aspect is to be responsible in front of the people. Only when he didn’t exhibit these traits, I started criticizing him."
Watch James Vasanthan's interview below:
