Professional Documents
Culture Documents
part 2
Let’s next take a closer look at the number of films scored by Raja over the past 37 years. Instead of
looking at the movies by years, let’s summarize it by years. The number of movies scored by Raja by
year is very debatable as there is no accurate record available that is authoritative. I have used
databases information available on the internet and I have filled the gaps where I am aware of. The
database covers all language films set to music by Raja. While this database may not be very
accurate, I find that the best way to use it is to summarize the number of films set to music by Raja
over a decade. This helps in:
#Films
Decade composed Percent
1970 72 8%
Grand
Total 909
Something interesting happens when we now try to correlate both these data sets. In other words, we
do this:
Unusual
conversation #Films
Decade occurrences composed
1970 6 72
1980 151 421
1990 47 314
2000 6 102
Grand
Total 210 909
When we use a statistical correlation function between Column 2 and Column 3, the correlation
coefficient works out to be .91642341. Any correlation coefficient greater than .7 is
considered strong positive correlation between the data sets being compared. Data does not lie!
Let’s try and interpret this at a more granular level – at the year level.
Unusual
conversation #Films
Year occurrences composed
1978 1 25
1979 5 30
1980 7 34
1981 15 33
1982 12 33
1983 20 47
1984 17 54
1985 18 51
1986 21 50
1987 13 32
1988 15 44
1989 13 43
1990 9 46
1991 9 41
1992 7 55
1993 3 42
1994 4 27
1995 7 25
1996 2 12
1997 4 20
1999 2 24
2003 1 11
2007 2 4
2008 1 5
2009 2 18
In the data table above, you will find a few years missing. Those are the years, where we did not have
any unusual C&R observations. The total of column 2 in this table is the same as before. However,
the total of the number of films composed will be lesser as we have excluded a few years where there
were no unusual C&R observations. When we use a statistical correlation function between Column 2
and Column 3, the correlation coefficient works out to be .7576654. Any correlation coefficient
greater than .7 is considered strong positive correlation between the data sets being
compared.
However, Raja is the best orchestrator ever from India. It is worthwhile analyzing his orchestration
techniques and their impact. Though the data sets are summarized ones, they show strong
correlation to the number of films he has scored in a decade/year. In other words, one can take an
extreme view, that ,this technique has a directly correlation to his popularity. It may be worthwhile
redeploying this technique in his future work as it has appeared to have served him well in the past.
One can even argue that when Raja introduced harmony and counterpoints to the Indian audience in
the 80s, he always provided it along with something known – C & R. It was easy for the listener to
enjoy something unknown, when it was served along with something known. It may be perhaps
worthwhile for Raja to consider reintroducing C & R as he continues to experiment with newer
techniques in the 21st century. If past is any indicator, of future behavior, why not use something that
has worked very well in the past?
While this analysis work was the hardest of all the areas I have explored of Raja’s orchestration, it
was definitely enjoyable. The data based interpretation of Raja’s work is worthwhile in my view. Hope
the readers enjoyed it as much.
Correlation and causation are different. However, correlation in this case, does have
a message - highly popular Raja years have a strong positive relationship with the
use of this technique. This analysis needs to be done for other techniques over the
years to get to a full understanding of the other factors influencing popularity.
However, in isolation, with the data gathered in this project, it appears that there is
indeed a strong positive relationship between his popularity and the use of this
technique.