The applause at London's Royal Festival Hall last week was not just for the music. It was for half a century of a man who has refused to let the elite own culture. Ilaiyaraaja, the 79-year-old Indian composer whose melodies have scored the lives of millions, is being celebrated by British orchestras.
But for the working class in the industrial towns he visited on his first UK tour, the connection is deeper. This is a man who once walked miles to borrow a harmonium, who played for the poorest film industries. His music, a fusion of folk and western classical, is a reminder that art should not be a luxury.
As UK orchestras grapple with funding cuts, his resilience feels like a quiet protest. 'He made you feel that melody could be a wage,' said a Sheffield steelworker in the audience. 'It's a real economy of emotion.
' Ilaiyaraaja's 50 years are not a history lesson; they are a promise that the beat of the people never stops.
