How the gaana tag overshadowed Deva’s melodic genius

The opening scene of the recently-released film Lubber Pandhu. Inside a bus, the song Rasithan Kai Rasithan plays in Swarnalatha’s voice. Entranced by the music, a passenger joyfully praises Ilaiyaraaja, saying, “Raaja is Raaja after all.” Overhearing this, a student travelling in the same bus interjects, “Raaja is indeed Raaja. But this is a Deva song.”

Tamizharasan Pachamuthu, the film’s director, later mentioned in interviews that this scene was deliberately placed to shatter the widespread misconception that many of Deva’s compositions — particularly his soft, melodic tracks — were composed by someone else. To that extent, many songs composed by Deva were assumed to be the work of Ilaiyaraaja or other music directors.

Whenever he travelled abroad for stage concerts, Tamil film music composer Deva would send ahead a list of songs he planned to perform. Upon reviewing it, the organisers would call him and say, “Sir, it is enough if you only sing the songs composed by you.” Deva would reply: “Every single song on that list was composed by me.” Even then, they would remain doubtful, asking whether songs such as Pulveli Pulveli from Aasai and Engenge Engenge, sung by Asha Bhosle, from Nerukku Ner were truly composed by him. “This used to hurt me deeply,” Deva earlier confessed in an interview.

Despite his songs becoming chartbusters, it caused him immense grief that the very listeners celebrating those tracks never realised that he was the composer behind them. Although Deva is widely celebrated for popularising gaana songs in Tamil film music, that very fame paradoxically overshadowed and denied him the recognition he deserved for his soft melodies.

Right from his early days, Deva delivered numerous exceptional melodic songs. In one of his debut period films, Manasukketha Maharasa, the track Aathu Mettu Thoppukulla won everyone over. Similarly, in Vaigasi Poranthachu, the film that firmly etched Deva’s name in the hearts of Tamil music lovers, songs such as Chinna Ponnuthan and Kanne Karisal Mannu Poove stood out as fine melodies.

Following this, soft melodies were consistently featured in the films he scored. Throughout the 1990s, Deva gifted countless gentle tracks across a vast slate of movies, including Therku Theru Machan, Annamalai, Suryan, En Aasai Machan, Baashha, Aasai, Kadhal Kottai, Nerukku Ner, Gokulathil Seethai, Kaalamellam Kaathiruppen, and Vaali.

Yet, just as Deva pointed out, many of his hit compositions continued to be mistaken as that of other music directors. When he began popularising gaana songs in his films during the early 2000s, that genre became his singular identity, completely defining his legacy in the public eye.