Deva, who crafted ‘Tamil gana,’ gave mesmerising hits, dies

Chennai: Noted music composer Deva, the self-made architect of Tamil ‘gana’ style rhythms and one who gave innumerable, striking hits for top heroes, including Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay in a career spanning 400 films, died here on Saturday. He was 75 and breathed his last at a private hospital here. “All of a sudden our father left us, his death was following a cardiac arrest,” the renowned musician’s son Shrikanth Deva told reporters here.

Remarkably, Deva fought hard to secure a unique place for himself among stronger peers and went on to give catchy, and memorable, all time hits for top stars Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Vijay and Ajith Kumar. Rajinikanth praised Deva as “pure gold” and generous and recalled that Deva’s music in his mega hits ‘Annamalai,’ ‘Baasha,’ and ‘Arunachalam,’ turned out to be phenomenal hits.

Notably, it was Deva who scored music for the popular Rajinikanth’s signature title-card-credit that appears in all his films. Although, many have composed music for Rajinikanth’s films, the title-card score remains Deva’s for over three-decades, and it began with the smash hit Annamalai (1992).

Beginning with the early 1990s, Deva began carving a niche for himself amidst the towering presence of Ilaiyaraja and also at a time when A R Rahman’s new brand of music began making waves. Rajinikanth recalled that Deva tasted success after enduring a string of challenges and trying times in his life as he was the eldest of five siblings.

In his about four decade career, Deva composed music for over 400 films, which includes runaway hits. Music for Kamal Haasan’s chartbusters, Avvai Shanmugi (1996) Pammal K Sambandam (2002) and Panchathanthiram was scored by him. Deva’s music for Ajith Kumar-starrer films like Kadhal Kottai (1996), Vaali (1999) and Aasai (1995), undoubtedly provided an emotional depth for the romantic content. For the films of Vijay, now the chief minister, Deva’s music did undoubtedly did sheer magic and it includes ‘Kushi’ which released in 2000 and is counted among one of the biggest hits of the actor-turned-politician. Rasigan (1994), Deva (1995), Vishnu (1995), Maanbumigu Maanavan (1996), Ninaithen Vandhai (1998) and Priyamudan (1998) were among the Vijay films for which Deva scored music that went to become pretty popular.

Devout, Deva’s stentorian voice is very popular and he has himself sung a variety of songs including ‘Salomia’. Besides his hit songs, some of Deva’s background scores are still a hit with the moviegoers. These include the pulsating “Baasha, Baasha” score from the Rajinikanth-starrer blockbuster. But more importantly, it was his score to veteran comedian Goundamani’s antics in the Tamil film ‘Sooriyan’ (1992) that is still vividly remembered by movie lovers.

So much so that it was played even in Deva’s recent music concerts, leaving the music-lovers in splits and making many to break into a gig like Goundamani did on screen nearly 30 years ago that saw peels of laughter in the theatres then.

Deva was a recipient of several honours including a Filmfare Award and the Tamil Nadu government’s Kalaimamani award. He has also sung for young composers including G V Prakash Kumar and Anirudh Ravichander. Noted for his smiling face, a streak of sacred ash and kumkum on his forehead, he always appeared in public in his trademark white pyjama-kurta and white sandals, with his choice of footwear reportedly inspired by Rajinikanth. His son Shrikanth Deva is also a well-known music director.

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The Hans India