The Ministry Of Information and Broadcasting will felicitate music composer Ilaiyaraaja at the International Film Festival Of India which is underway in Goa. For the first time, the composer, 76, will conduct a masterclass for cine-enthusiasts tomorrow in Kala Academy in Panjim, and a TOI report quotes a source as saying that Ilaiyaraaja will also perform for the audience at the end of the session.
Ilaiyaraaja, who began his career in films as an independent music composer through Panchu Arunachalam’s Annakkili in 1975 has been awarded the Padma Vibhushan and Padma Bhushan by the Indian government. He has won the national award as the music director thrice, and for best background score twice. He has worked in movies in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi, English, Marathi, Sanskrit, Punjabi.
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The eight-day film festival has already seen masterclasses by Oscar winning actor Isabella Hupert, art director Sabu Cyril and director Priyadarshan. On 25 November, American cinematographer and director John Bailey, who is heading the international jury at IFFI, and editor Carol Littleton will jointly hold a masterclass on “The Interplay of Cinematography and Film Editing”.
One of the many highlights of this year’s festival is the screening of a curated set of classic silent films by filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock and Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein with live piano music played by musician Jonathan Best.