Music maestro Ilaiyaraaja has been very protective about his work. When he sued SP Balasubrahmanyam over royalty issues, the industry was divided on the matter. But one could see a point in Ilaiyaraaja’s concerns about others making a fortune off his creations without giving him his rightful share. His latest outburst, however, is slightly on the harsher side. In a recent interview, Ilaiyaraaja took exception to the usage of his classic songs in last year’s hit romantic drama 96. While describing the practice as “very wrong”, he said it showed the “impotence” of the composers to come up with something as good as his 80s songs.

I think this topic alone warrants another 30 minutes of discussion with Ilaiyaraaja to clearly understand his stance on the subject matter. Were his comments poorly worded? Of course, yes. But, at the same time, I believe he was overzealous while making a statement.

By his own admission, Ilaiyaraaja has not seen 96. Let’s assume that he was oblivious to the extent and the method in which his old classic songs were used to enhance the nostalgic theme of the movie. Say, he was also unaware that filmmakers of 96 had followed all due procedures to use the songs. And still, Ilaiyaraaja’s argument holds against using already established popular songs in a film’s soundtrack to strike an immediate connection with the audience.

Of late, Hollywood filmmakers have been accused of becoming lazy by heavily depending on retro to make up for their incompetent writing. Suicide Squad, for example, was criticized for overusing preexisting soundtracks to emphasise something very obvious. You hear vintage “Spirit in the Sky” in the backdrop when Suicide Squad is flown into the city.

Take the example of the bar scene in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, we see Terminator for the first time in his full leather costume to “Bad to the Bone” playing in the backdrop. We now know that he is “bad to the bone” but we are yet to find out whether he is the villain of the film. The practice of embedding pop culture hits in mainstream films to play up the nuances of specific scenes have been in practice for many years now in Hollywood. And this narrative technique is colloquially referred to as “needle drops.”

Acclaimed filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino are considered masters of “needle-drops” for their clever use of pop culture songs in their films.

In India, however, we don’t get to see a lot of needle drop films. In recent time, we had two Tamil films, 96 and Super Deluxe which extensively used this technique in an effective way. Before we dwell on the subject, just let’s also look at a few examples of needle drops in Tamil cinema.

The scene is set at the regular hangout place of the protagonists, Azhagar and Paraman . Azhagar promises Paraman that he will prove to him that their boss’ daughter Thulasi is interested in him romantically. As she passes by them, “Siru Ponmani” song from Kallukkul Eeram plays on the radio as Azhagar and Thulasi exchange romantic glances. The old Ilaiyaraaja song complements the scene in two ways. One, it establishes the period of the film, which is set in the 1980s Madurai. Two, it fits the scene so flawlessly, while kindling the old memories of the audience.

Another great service of the film is it helped Ilaiyaraaja’s old song stay fresh in the memory of the young audience. If not for this song, the chances of me typing “Siru Ponmani” in the search bar of my music app would have been slim to none.

The retro songs also help the filmmakers to achieve a higher degree of humor or as simple as put a smile on the face of the viewers. You can’t help but smile when Karthi in Paruthiveeran (2007) glams up a bit while “Kaadhalin Deepam Ondru” (another Ilaiyaraaja classic) is playing on the radio. You can’t say you didn’t laugh when Shiva slips into a duet number of “Poththi Vachcha” originally from Mann Vasanai (1983) when he sees his love interest in Chennai 600028, which was directed by Ilaiyaraaja’s nephew Venkat Prabhu. And Ilaiyaraaja’s son Yuvan Shankar Raja had scored for the film.