Though Illayaraja recently received an award for the best music of the year for his work in 'Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja', majority of the reviewers and the public were in the opinion that the music of the film was not up to the standards set by the maestro in the past. Almost all the songs are hits but the viewers seems to have expected much biggest hits than this.

Anyhow, Illayaraja himself was dissatisfied with the lyrics that he got for most of the songs of the movie, written by veteran O N V Kurup, Illayaraja maintains that the lyrics didn't matched the spirit of the film and even he was forced to set music to lyrics that had the least approval from most, in the case of tunes. The maestro was speaking in the music release function of the Tamil version of ‘Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja’.

Taking the example of the song “Aadhiyusha Sandhya”, Illayaraja said that the lyrics had the least anguish experienced by the warrior prince who was forced to wander in the jungles. And when he set some different and more potentially popular tunes, O N V is said to have failed to write on those tunes. Anyway, Illayaraja remembers that the veteran lyricist had been exceptional in his songs of the past and he is presently surprised with what could have happened with the litterateur in the film.

Listen to 'Pazhassi Raja' songs on Raaga.com