King of Melody

Being a big fan of A.R.Rahman never stopped me listening to songs of Illayaraja. Whatever new that Raja comes up I keenly follow and listen to it. I have never seen a music composer who is as good as he. Be it western,classical,folk, rap Illayaraja rocks. He is still the Raja (King) of Melodies.
To substantiate this,I would like to narrate a fantastic incident that happened in my life. I was travelling in a state government bus in a rainy day from Bangalore to Salem. It was raining cats and dogs in Majestic. I was full wet in fact everybody is. The bus is jam packed. Everybody is wet and everybody is tired. Its around 12 in the night. After an hour we were in Hosur. Then around 2 o clock we were travelling towards Salem. They were playing songs from Illayaraja all melodies. There is a old saying in Tamil "Thunbam nergaiyil yaazh eduthu nee inbam serka maataaya"..(During difficult situation will you play some music to sooth my heart). People were really happy and I closed my eyes to listen to his composition. Raja is truly great. His music reached right from poor to the rich.
Similarly when I was staying in Chennai used to hear the Illayaraja melodies played in FM during the nights. I used to sleep switching on the radio listening to his songs.
Raja is different Rahman is different. Though I am a big fan of Rahman I always admire Raja . His songs last longer. His songs reaches all classes of people. In these area he scores over Rahman.
I love all his composition . Here is my top 5 of Illayaraja
1) Almost all Mohan songs (illaya nila,mandram vandha,sangeetha megam etc.,)
2) Illayaraja + Bharathiraja + Vairamuthu (ultimate combination)
3) Illayaraja + Manirathnam (though short but it was a sweet combination)
4) Illayaraja and SPB awesome combination
5) Nothing But wind and How to Name it (its divine)
I can keep on writing on all his composition. He is truly the King.