Raaja's magical duets - Naarinil Poothoduthu (Irandil Ondru) [Archive] - Page 3

V_S

5th January 2012, 09:42 AM

Hey ThaNNi Nee Neeraada - Kadavul Amaitha MEdai

There are millions of songs out there, but how, why and how long does a song capture us?

There are songs which capture us immediately like a first time love, at first sight, but that can be just an infatuation, which will be dusted out soon on few/multiple listens. 
There are songs which takes time to sink in through multiple listens, yet might fall into same above trap. 
There are songs which takes time to sink in and then on becomes a classic.
There are songs which capture us immediately like a first time love, at first sight and that love becomes timeless/eternal.
 There are songs which does not fit in either of the above category (either because the movie was not released or movie went without a trace or there were more other popular numbers to be listened that time, or even the composer was still upcoming), rather neglected, yet after many years, it might turn out to be a classic and a research material too.
I felt many Maestro and other yesteryear composers' songs fall into last two categories. That's why we praise many yesteryear forgotten classics like Eera Vizhi Kaaviangal, Ethanai KOnam Ethanai Paarvai, Oru Iravu Oru Paravai, Rusi Kanda Poonai, Dhoorathu Pachchai and many more, decades after the movie got released (also includes many other composers songs in all languages, skipping it intentionally). Also when we are (were) young, there is a normal tendency to listen to only new songs fresh as and when released without realizing how many old classics we are missing. To be honest, somehow I don't get as excited when I listen to a old song for the first time, as I do when I listen to a new song for the first time. May be it's with my age, because I want to listen to those old rare classics as much as I can. First reason is because they are difficult to find. Second the quality in the tune (complexity) and singing. There is no match for it. As they say, some foods get tastier as they get older like a pickle, pazhaya saadham with thayir, podi vagaigaL (paruppu podi, karuveppilai podi et al), karuvaadu, meen kozhambu, but even there, there is expiry date on all of those, but the old classics does not have any expiry.

Another unique aspect which Maestro brings in this compositions is how he strikes an excellent balance between the tune and orchestration, unparalleled!. Sometimes, even an underwhelming tune can be compensated with some extra-ordinary orchestration and vice versa (but there can never be underwhelming orchestration from Maestro :wink:), but most of the times both these components are marked by extravaganza. So no song, overall can be termed as underwhelming. 1979 is a special year for IR music, as in my humble opinion, from 1979, Maestro shed all his mentors' (every one included) touches completely behind and started flying where no one could ever reach him. While the take-off was right from his first film, 1979 is the year, where he reached an altitude from where he can pass his music rays (like the sun rays) to all the listeners and fans alike, for us to get enough Vitamin M.

Coming to this song, it's a combination of the last two categories. It is a first time love at first sight and will remain with me always. Also since I am hearing it after decades of its release, it falls into last category. How did I miss this classic? Thanks App for introducing this gem to me.

This film has some great songs, Thendrale Nee PEsu by legendary P B Srinivas, block buster Mayile Mayile by Jency, soulful and underrated gem Vaanil Parakkum Paravai by none other than S Janaki and few more. It seems this film is a Sivakumar and Sumitra starrer. I don't know if the song 'Hey Thanni' was popular those days. Listening now seems a blinder compared to the first two. Full of energy.

I was taken off by the brilliant start. One gets a feeling when listening to the prelude that sun piercing out putting the dark aside, at the break of the dawn, birds flying out of their nest to get a fresh morning light and air. We put our laziness behind, get up and get ready for another beautiful day. The flute with guitar sounds as a sweet alarm implying another day has started. Please listen how the guitar adds to the ambience. While the flute plays folk, guitar carries the flute like the air carries the flute sound to long distances. Like the flute sound gradually diminishes, guitar sound also gradually diminishes when SJ start humming. S Janaki hums 'pa pa pa pa pa…pabapapapa….' and waking us little strongly. This humming is wonderful to hear. Her finishing of the uninhibited humming is just fabulous. Flute imitates her vocals. Prelude finishes with some water splashes implying cold water bath rejuvenating our body and soul.

SJ starts the pallavi with Hey Thanni and Raja supports the lead with 'nee neeraada naan meenaaga'. Only when Raja starts singing, we can clearly feel the folk flavor. His rustic voice takes us directly to the pump sets and well waters of the village. The difference between the first phrase and second one is way too big and Maestro handles this seamlessly with his own stamp. Sort of precursor to Poo Malaye where the singers share the same line one singing in upper octave and another one in middle/lower octaves. The pallavi-anupallavi is backed up by some triple bongo (?) type rhythm giving the tribal feel. Raja sings 'mella mella' and 'kiLLa kiLLa' in husky voice giving the erotic feel and SJ answering him appropriately with 'haan' in her own inimitable style. I think the time signature is 4/4. Please correct me if I am wrong. Even with the standard time signature, the rhythm structure is so complicated to follow.

It is absorbing how Maestro switches genre from folk in prelude to tribal in pallavi to Western classical genre in the interludes in no time. Starts off with violin chases followed by santhoor and WCM flute passages with synth punches followed by a superb finish by violins again. Those 15 seconds of flute is the one of the best I have ever heard from Maestro. The gasping for breath can be cleared in that flute. I sense some hide and seek playing by the lovers. The last violin says that he is chasing and finding her.

Charanam again takes tribal genre. The quickest charanam ever, finishes in just 20 seconds. Second charanam takes a little longer, since it repeats the first lines again, while first charanam does not. While the first charanam tune makes us visualize the lovers playing in water while bathing, second charanam takes us to lush green fields where they play under the bright sun. Lyrically first charanam is ok, while second one has gone haywire, except the starting lines.

Second interlude is even more fascinating than the first interlude. While in the first interlude Maestro keeps it mostly in western classical genre, in second interlude he freely switches between genres in those short 30 seconds.
Maestro starts with WCM violin splashes and evokes the folk feel with absorbing flute and santhoor and finishes off the interlude with stylish tribal sound with santhoor. The important point to note here is one short creepy synth sound creeps in from nowhere and dies just before the interlude ends.

There are two things here. 1. We hear multiple genres in second interlude. 2. That odd sound at the end of the interlude. We need to address both of them. :smile:

As the sun comes up and starts to shine bright, every plant, tree, flower or every creation is same for him. It gives the same light and rays to everyone. He does not classify anyone. In a similar fashion, Maestro concludes in second interlude that he does not favor any genre in particular and all genres are same to him and hence he shines his music rays to every listener, but each listener can grasp his genre(s) of interest and blossom. For him to show these rays he has to be at an altitude which I mentioned above. Just like the sun rays falls on everything/everyone, but it is up to the entity to blossom in its own fashion.

This is where we lead to the second question. As the sun ray falls, making the birds to fly (from hibernation), water glitters as they flow, plants and trees shine and glow describing their happiness. Each has their own characteristics to shine in the sunlight. The flute and santhoor sounds imply the above characteristics. The odd synth sound is that of a seed trying to open and come out of the earth piercing it, or the flower trying to blossom fully or the flowers trying to turn to leaves. You can hear the struggle it has for the transformation to get to the sunlight (from the synth sound), but once there, there is no stoppage for them. It will grow and grow more.

Same way, Maestro with his music invites new listeners like the seeds and the flowers to embrace his music and emphasizes that they will never be left alone thereafter, giving the examples of birds, plants, trees, water and landscapes (we fans :wink:) which already experienced his grace (those flute and santhoor sounds) and shining bright like never before.

This song is one such ray from the Master which shines bright on us even after 30 years.

http://www.raaga.com/play/?id=154545
http://www.thiraipaadal.com/album.php?ALBID=ALBIRR00245

jaiganes

5th January 2012, 08:51 PM

i cant listen to this song now - but your writeup has added a huge homework for me dude!!!
now coming to "The flute with guitar sounds as a sweet alarm" - I have observed that in some songs, when
counterpoints for flute are played - the melody cancells out to create a "buzzing" "90s cell phone ring" kind of sound.
I have observed this in the "Nothing but wind" album as well as some of the early 80s songs (siru ponmani asayum?)
Is it intentional or an accident - I don't know. But in the later years this kind of sound has been carefully eliminated by raaja.

app_engine

5th January 2012, 09:49 PM

V_S, excellent write-up as usual!

Though this song isn't well-known today like mayilE mayilE, it did have some air time on IOKS those days.

That's how I know about the song as we didn't have this on cassettes those days. Neither was it heard widely on kOlAmbi / tea-shop / bus kind of sources.

Both KAM & KVG were heard mostly on IOKS by us those days. All IR admirers owe a lot to IOKS!

app_engine

5th January 2012, 09:57 PM

While 'thenna maraththula thenRaladikkudhu' is possibly IR's first duet song, 'yEh thaNNee' is his first duet with SJ, I think. (It definitely predates 'kaN malarkaLin azhaippidhazh' or 'ponnOviyam kaNdEnammA engengum'...if someone knows any other IR-SJ duet from 70's, please post).

That way, this song has the distinct honor of being the beginning of one of the "top-hit-duet-pairs" of TFM! While IR-SJ cannot be compared with the likes of SPB-SJ / TMS-PS, they definitely had both quantity & hit rate (overall) compared to most pairs in the current market :wink:

skr

5th January 2012, 11:22 PM

Awesome post V_S.
Love the way you relate with some really nice incidents when narrating a song.
Also you seem to be such a Nature Lover interspersing lot of Nature's beauty with IR's music.Both are great gifts to mankind.
About the song , listening to it for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Very nice first post in the new year.
Keep em coming.

V_S

6th January 2012, 09:17 AM

Thanks a lot Jai, App and skr for your kind words and compliments. :D

Please listen, you will not be disappointed. Wow! Very nice observation Jai. How come you remember all the sounds. I need to listen again to NBW and Siru pon mani asaiyum.

App, yes we owe a lot to IOKS. Not just IR songs, I know from my father days that only Radio Ceylon station used to air some good old songs. While we appreciate their interest, I also don't know why our radio stations were not that popular those days. I heard that Radio Ceylon's Binaca Geet Mala (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSSZxw4K9cY) program hosted by Ameen Sayani was a huge hit for hindi songs. Some history about Binaca Geet Mala here (http://www.hamaraforums.com/index.php?showtopic=38). Similarly IOKS, wow, I used to listen with my father during my school days. But he used to say he misses Mayilvaganam and K S Raja very much. Inimitable voices and compering. Luckily I heard their voice samples in one of the site (I think in Yaazh Sudhakar site). Golden days!.

skr, Well said!. Nature's beauty with IR's music, great gifts to mankind.

Sunil_M88

8th January 2012, 07:12 PM

:clap: V_S sir

How true, only realised this now. There are not many songs that I like immediately from this generation and when hearing unheard old songs I feel I have more of a connection with them. We can say Raaja Saab is a bridge in every sense as his songs even in this age deliver an aptitude of immediate liking and still emerging victorious over time. I can recall numerous songs from 2011 that will be left in my playlist for a lifetime.

Coming to your description of the prelude, I have visualised a sunrise in uncountable songs by the maestro. Instruments are his brush and Orchestration is his painting evoking many images within an image.

V_S

9th January 2012, 09:59 PM

Thanks Sunil. :D Very nice description on the prelude. :thumbsup:

10th January 2012, 10:07 AM

V_S, you prove it again - even a seemingly average IR song has so much inside...! tks for taking time analyze and writeup. Look forward to more..

groucho070

11th January 2012, 07:30 AM

V_S, someone should create this job for you: Song scenarist. You should be consulted before shooting song sequences. Your words, which probably have taken few minutes of your time, and your productivity that probably cost a bit, and they totally overshadowed the expensively produced sequence for the screen. What imagery! If youtube is ruining our listening experience no thanks to those poorly produced sequences, your own imagination helps us to enhance it. Thanks V_S, you are awesome!

V_S

11th January 2012, 08:46 AM

Thanks a lot grouch and RR for your wonderful comments. I am truly delighted by your kind words. So very kind of you. :D With Maestro's grace, it is happening. All credit to Maestro and all of you who encourage me to write.

V_S

26th January 2012, 08:51 AM

Maalai Chevvaanam Un KOlam Thaano - Ilaiyaraajaavin Rasigai

The title of the film tells us something. The songs should display her feelings after listening to Raja's songs or after seeing his films or her day to day activities with Maestro's music. Having listened to all the songs from this film, it does not seem to be so. The current song is a love duet, there is another erotic song, and two funs songs, one similar to aduthaathu ambujathai from edhir neechal. No song matches the title. I guess the film (with a different subject) should have either shelved after the songs were composed (without filming) or the film should have been shelved after filming due to some unavoidable reasons. Good thing is they have atleast released the soundtrack with some good title, which should make it interesting for Maestro music lovers. We should appreciate the producer and director for this. Arya, Bhavna Talwar, Pankaj Kapoor and others are you listening?

Maestro has composed lot of tribal-based songs during 1979-80. Starting from Raman Aandaalum, Malai Aruvi, ThOttam Kanda Raasaave, Aasaya Kaathula, Meekodi ThEril, all composed within these two years. This makes me believe that this song should also belong to this period. Also the style in which this song is composed, the instruments used, orchestration style and Raja's voice all atleast convinced me. I may be wrong too.

This song is by Raja and Swarnalatha, not the Swarnalatha we know, she is another Swarnalatha, never heard of her. App, have you heard of this singer? Please throw some light if you happened to know.

Twilight is always a special moment of a day either during the dawn or the dusk. While the last song we discussed, talked about the time between the dawn and sunrise, this composition as the title suggests, speaks about the time between the sunset and dusk. Two contrasting costumes dying to please and cover the planet earth. Maestro paints a wonderful picture in us without we having to go after the film visuals. Also since this movie is not released, we have the freedom of visualizing beyond boundaries. Just at the play of santhoor for the first 11 seconds, we can feel the river or lake lit in gold, as the green earth gradually turning reddish-orange at the passage of gentle breeze over it, as if the sky passes its color to the breeze which in turn colors the earth. We have heard and highlighted numerous play of santhoor by Maestro in previous songs, but even if the sound of santhoor is same, the way Maestro plays it every time, it gives a different dimension and mood to the song. I can never imagine from the sound of this santhoor that it denotes a day or night,. That's how it has to be played to evoke accurate and precise timing of the twilight. Even this sound makes us visualize that the birds are flying back to their nest and all are way back to their homes. Please don't forget when going home, the bass guitar punches. :smile:

This is one of the best lines I have heard in a long long time and good lyrics overall. How he describes his lover's beauty comparing with the sky. Whatever picture the sky paints, it looks pale before her beauty. Beautiful imagery. Raja's singing takes us to pleasant memories.
மாலை செவ்வானம் உன் கோலம் தானோ (2)
வானம் அது நாளும் எழுதும் ஓவியம் உன் எழில் ஆகுமோ

Once the lover describes his love like this to his lover, she automatically goes to extremes and imagines that she is getting married to him. That's the next line, 'naalai poomaalai en thoLil aadum anbum thamizh panbum thalaivan unnidam ennaye thanthathu'. How do we take these lines. I somehow think there is no anu-pallavi. Maestro goes to charanam after pallavi or if the second line can be treated as anu-pallavi?

The guitar blazes along with the violins in the interlude providing absolutely stunning counter melody. Why Maestro chose a counterpoint between guitar and violins? She is racing towards future memorable dreaming about her marriage which is denoted by the guitar blazing away in full throttle. But she still is with her lover enjoying his singing which is denoted by group of violins (here they are a group of two). The feeling she currently is both in her dream and also with her lover together.Isn't it amazing? Like when we hear a happy news (like we getting married, getting promotion, whatever), we will be present in our home, but our mind wanders to think about the next activity, same way. A moment of ecstasy! Once she reaches her dream, then comes the synthesizer with the tribal rhythm pattern followed by some memorable tribal choir. This choir also resembles little bit of Meenkodi ThEril. This clears that she is dreaming to be married in a forest in the midst of them. The interlude gives a picture of people dancing before the marriage festival and also getting ready for the festival. Also we need to remember by now, it is dark (only in her dream). Normally the tribal marriages are held in the night (whatever we have seen in movies :wink:). The instruments, choir singing all denotes night now.

Short charanam gets over within 30 seconds. After Raja sings the first line of charanam, 'vaigai ennum nadhikkariyil mangai kaadhal neeraduvaaL', we can again hear the same percussion beats which we heard in the interlude. She listens to him when he is singing, but she immediately goes back to her tribal dream when we hear those sounds. She comes back, sings and remains here till the end of charanam. Simple charanam, Swarnlatha goes little bit out of pitch, but there is innocence in her singing.

Wonderful 2nd interlude. Starts with crash of cymbals which we always associate with opening of a dream scene. Then Maestro starts the actual marriage ritual with wonderful rhythm patterns, bass guitar and flute culminating in violin (with bass guitar) and brilliant choir again. The violin and choir with bass guitar is the highlight of the song. It's sad that we cannot hear these pieces clearly in the video and also at thiraipaadal site. The choir at the last denotes the marriage is over with greetings to newly wed from all over. Again, one of the Maestro's best interlude. Just for the last piece of choir with bass guitar I have listened to this song many times.

The song follows the 4/4 (Aadi) time signature throughout., but keeping the same time signature and creating this sort of varied rhythm arrangements is something amazing! The rhythm pattern and arrangements in pallavi, 1st charanam, 2nd charanam are all different yet adhering to same time signature. Sometimes, I feel there is little christian touch in the song (like DEvan thiruchabai malargaLE, DEvanin KovililE). Experts please also confirm the raagam.

Through this composition, Maestro first takes us to the twilight time and asks us to admire the sky painted with brilliant colors of clouds, glittering golden lakes and rivers, home flying birds and people. While doing so, he slowly brings a couple in front of us and their love. He also permits us peep inside their mind (dream inside dream) and join their marriage without any invitation (only invitation is to have a pair of good ears). By doing so, he does not just allow to join the marriage, but join their celebration and dance with them, wish the couple and see them off. He takes us from twilight to dusk and the memorable events related to it to relish the rest of the night. Each and every moment in these 5 minutes are sure to be relished for a long time.

Have we ever peeped into others mind without that person in front of us? Maestro always takes us to places which we have never imagined. These are only available in Maestro's book of music, unless we read and understand it, we will miss those memorable journeys, journeys of life!

http://www.thiraipaadal.com/album.php?ALBID=ALBIRR00196&lang=en

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5RqfXUqXcc

skr

26th January 2012, 05:14 PM

Thank you so much V_S for writing on this song Maalai Sevvanam.
This is a song which deeply affects me and i have some sort of affection towards this song.

I wrote about this song very shortly in the Orkut Ilaiyaraaja community run by Raj.
Asked him a few questions for which i got these answers.

My write up :
Whenever you listen to this song you get a sort of a mystical feeling.
The prelude starts sa sa sa pa pa pa,ma ma ma pa pa pa (repeat) sa sa sa ri ri ri (repeat) pa da pa da..
And then the Maestro takes over in his inimitable style and croons Maalai Sevvannam
The interludes are beautiful - the first one you get a small counterpoint portion and then lovely humming towards the end by the female singer.
The second one is more folksy with beautiul portions on the flute,and not to forget a small humming bit towards the end.
The Charanam is very refreshing to hear and you get that feeling of nostalgia listening to this number

The sad part about this eponymous movie is that it never saw the light of the day.The songs i beleive should have come out somewhere in 1982/83..Ive heard that this movie was laden with controversy and IR even went to court..Am not sure what exactly transpired and what the controversy was all about . Raj or anyone else who is aware of the story can probably throw some light on the events that took place.
The good part is atleast the songs were released.Its surprising to note that there are so many unreleased movies of Raja which have great songs..:)
For now,enjoy the beautiful mystique in the form of Maalai Sevvaannam..

Raj's reply :
It was sung by a young singer called Swarana and that is the reason for people associating the namesake with this song!).
This was recorded in 1980 and was scheduled for release towards the beginning of '81.I am not aware of any court case but I know that there was a spat between Raaja and TMS during the shooting of this film.Shall elaborate this in the RRR thread when I talk about 'Raaja and perceived/made up controversies'.
The lead actors of this movie were Sivachandran and Deepa and actually there was a tiff between these two.Not sure if the movie had to be shelved because of this..

V_S

26th January 2012, 08:31 PM

Thank you skr. So, I was right this film was in 1980. Thanks for sharing some good info on the song. Yes, the counterpoint was just amazing followed by the chorus.

app_engine

26th January 2012, 09:15 PM

Awesome article, V_S-ji!

IR's rasigai is known to me thru two sources - the obvious one IOKS. The other was an LP record in one of those V'nagar tea stalls :-) 'entha Aththuppaiyanavan yAru peththa sella makan' (MV-SJ-SPS) used to be regular on radio those days when the fresh-IR wave was hitting TN strong.

This song too had its air time on IOKS.

However, I don't have any clue on your question :

App, have you heard of this singer? Please throw some light if you happened to know.

nAnE googling-geegling paNNi ennOda (katta) vaNdi Ottikkittu irukkEn - ennaiyappAththu ippadi oru kElvi kEtpadhu nyAyamA? This is a Manisekaran / Ramki / Madhu / NOV kind of question. (Or, a dhool Saravanan question - unfortunately, he is not seen in dhool too nowadays).

V Kumar's wife's name is Swarna too and she had sung many TF songs... (http://www.dhool.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=6) Some of Saravanan's writings in this link has references to his conversation with Mrs Kumar and he'll know for sure if she was the singer for mAlaichchevvAnam or not...

V_S

26th January 2012, 09:35 PM

Thanks App, mikka NandRi! Enthaathu payyanavan still ringing my ears as I write, wonderful song and beautifully sung by MV sir. Good to know it was popular during that time. Thanks for the info on female singer with the dhool link.

Sunil_M88

27th January 2012, 02:20 AM

The experience of listening to songs during sunset is just something else. V_S sir and skr, I too could feel the mystical vibe through this song. V_S sir, your analysis just adds more intensity to the glory of these songs.

rajkumarc

27th January 2012, 02:50 AM

V_S

27th January 2012, 05:56 AM

Thank you Sunil and rajkumarc for your wonderful comments. Yes, the choir and interludes are fantastic, but it's unfortunate that these brilliant melodies were/are not much heard. Mainly because the movie is unknown to many. I too discovered this rare gem recently.

raajarasigan

28th January 2012, 10:09 AM

V_S'ji, beautiful pick... :D first time hearing.. ipdi oru padam irukkarathe theriyathu :sad:

V_S

29th January 2012, 01:53 AM

Thanks raajarasigan. Very glad you like it :D

raajarasigan

31st January 2012, 10:44 AM

Maalai Chevvaanam is still lingering in my heart.. indha paattu ennamo pannuthu.. :D

groucho070

31st January 2012, 11:12 AM

Maestro always takes us to places which we have never imagined. That can never be reproduced elsewhere but in our minds. A sensation that science cannot discover the reason behind. An agnostic by faith, but a spiritualist when it comes to music this grouch is. V_S, taking time to produce those writing, I know its labour of love, but giving your all and generosly in sharing it with us...that's totally something. I have run out of praise words, and can only say that your writing is awesome :smile:

V_S

1st February 2012, 05:45 AM

Well said grouch! It is always my pleasure to write about his music, whatever little I know, as he has given me those awesome moments. Can't thank you enough for encouraging me always with your great and motivational comments. Thank you so much:smile:

V_S

8th February 2012, 10:23 PM

ThOppiloru Naadagam Nadakkuthu - KallukuL Eeram

Those who spent their childhood/youth in villages or towns can relate these songs very much and can feel how special these songs are for them. Thinking of this song evokes lot of childhood memories. The setting of the song takes me to one of those places where we spent hours singing, dancing, climbing on every tree around, right from Banyan tree, to the tallest cocunut tree, make beautiful swing out of the 'thaambu kayiru', stealing fruits and get caught, running behind and attacking lizards with the surukku kayiru made from thin coconut tree leaf stick and what not. Bharathiraja made the visuals more interesting and arresting. It is good fun to see young Vijayashanthi, Janakaraj, Sudhakar, Aruna and of course Bharathiraja with lot other kids. I never watched this film, but heard a lot about this film from my chithi. My mother, her sisters were very crazy about any new films those days. Since we were kids, they will mostly leave us with our grandmother and go for many films only to come back and get scolding from my grandfather. We used to enjoy the fun. :smile: Siru Ponmani was most famous (still it does thanks to James Vasanthan) followed by ThOppiloru Naadagam. Even when I was a kid, I could feel something new and fresh and never heard kind of feeling those days. Especially ThOppilloru Naadagam gave that feeling, mainly due to unconventional start, hard rustic voice of Maestro, and the playful tune with some unique sounds. During later years, when we grew up, we could understand why these songs were considered classics.

Actually this song is not a Raja - SPS duet, it is Malaysia Vasudevan - SPS duet, with Maestro giving his voice only at the start, for the director (BR). Yet didn't want to miss this song and the fun mainly for S P Shailaja. Even when we have two male playback singers, this song totally belongs to S P Shailaja. Again no one can replace her in these songs, and no replacement for her till today in these circumstances. She has sung hundreds of songs for Maestro. She is very versatile, she can sing erotic Saamakozhi, melodic MalargaliL Aadum, sober SOlai Kuyile, classical Aanandha ThEn Kaatru, and many fun and peppy songs like this one. She has the perfect voice which suits every mood. It is unfortunate that she was under the shadows of PS and SJ those days and not utilized at all today. Still she sings the same. Due to her striking voice and rendering all her songs were instantly likable and became big hits. One of my favorite play back singers of all time.

Guessing the song situation. Aruna sees a film shooting session in her village and tries to mimic like the director (BR). So she rehearses a make-belief dance sequence with his team on a beautiful location under shades of banyan and peepal trees. The song also has a dream sequence of her (friends) actors with their lovers. Aruna as a director guides her team for a dance sequence when she encounter a series of fun moments and disruptions. Maestro has a serious challenge now. The location is a village and the song is more of a event driven rather than a plain situation song.

Let's see what instruments he picks up. For percussion he chooses two instruments; folk drums and tabla with Guitar, keyboard, flute and shenai/clarinet. Flute is used just for 8 seconds in the whole song. That is negligible. Apart from folk drums, no native instruments were used for this out and out folk kuthu song. What is he going to do with guitar, keyboard and shenai? We know Maestro always choses guitar for the bass. If you think that way, you are wrong. Please see why he chose guitar. Out and out daring, this guy is!

Let us see how Maestro approaches this song.

I would even go the extent of saying this one as Maestro's first acapella (playful I mean), if not full fledged like the Naan Poranthathu from Maaya Bazaar. During our childhood many of us might have mimic'ed like various instruments while playing. Maestro takes that as a cue and develops this song. This shows that Maestro never forgets basics when composing any song. He takes those emotions of our life and constructs this wonder. In that respect, I was saying this as the simplest acapella as all the sounds in the prelude are from vocals (with the folk drums which appear later). Since acapella was introduced during the Renaissance period, this prelude can even be considered as that style of music, but just a precursor for Maaya Bazaar song.

The song starts with 'Ready'aa and 'start soundu'. Some beautiful and all kinds of voice rhythms given by SPS I think. That's amazing!. When SPS starts 'ThOppiloru Naadagam nadakkuthu YelelangkiLiyE', the director (Aruna) tells 'cut'. Then she adjusts her voice to that of the actual director. That's where Raja's voice comes in and teaches how to sing the song with his rustic voice. After he finishes teaching the first line, everyone laughs and Raja says 'Silence'. I love when Raja utters 'Silence' with that dramatic touch. Then the actual shot takes place with SPS taking over the rest of the pallavi. Lot of events already. Till now he has used only percussion (with bass guitar of course) in the pallavi.

Each interlude is of 1 minute (in the video) for a 4.30 minute song. Very rare these days. Hear the starting of the first interlude. Few seconds of guitar shower (counterpoint with bass guitar). Then comes the keyboard (or is it harmonium? beautiful sound that is) followed by an abrupt stop there and a chorus lazy cry. Video tells us why there is a pause there. BR might have worked with IR on every nuances. The flute even though it comes for very short duration, steals the show. Again guitar showers to end the interlude. Except for a short duration flute, he almost covered the entire interlude with just guitar and keyboard for this kuthu song. Maestro demonstrates how to play guitar and instruments and make it sound folkish. Unless we take a close notice, we can no way say it is a guitar, because he joins two of them at different octaves giving different melody on its own, but the combined sound is astonishing to hear. This is the sound of authentic folk from a western instrument. Brilliant is the least word to say!

Maestro keeps charanam shorter to compensate for the interlude. There is also a reason for that. Both the charanams are for the dream sequence. In first charanam, it is a dream sequence between Vijayashanthi and Sudhakar with VS thinking about him, while the second charanam, Janakaraj dreams about Vijayashanthi. Maestro cleverly switches the percussion from drums to tabla here in charanams. That's where the real melody comes in the song. He chose Malaysia Vasudevan to sing the charanams with SPS. Even for an outright kuthu song, Maestro never compromises on melody. This is an excellent proof for that. Since this is a dream, it has to end soon as they are in the middle of rehearsal. So Maestro keeps the charanams short. There is a reason for every second of his composition. Despite beautiful melody in charanam.

He switches to drums in pallavi and again there is a pause there with 'cut'. Vijayashanthi is still unable to come out of her dreams. Maestro employs a variation in the percussion there while the director approaches her. Then the second interlude starts with the chorus. Next 25 seconds we are going to be in a state of bliss. We have come to the best part of this song. First Guitar cuts through while adding another hard hitting rock guitar in tandem. If this is not enough, we have shenai following it, for a dream run. Yes it is for Janakaraj's dream, imagining his lover dancing to this western rocking guitar. Then he joins her when shenai plays, when flute also joins.

It is also interesting to hear how the song ends (video does not have this). Haan…Ayyayya…Cut with the chorus laugh. Simply brilliant! I can go all the way to my childhood here!

With this composition, we have seen the oldest Renaissance style of music, WCM concepts, rock classic. It would also be based on some carnatic raagam as well. All these genres and styles joining and giving hands to this tremendous TN kuthu song. We also witnessed how Maestro develops a full blown song from a small cue. We also saw the list of events, pauses, rhythm variations et all. We almost saw a shooting rehearsal in the form of a song. With this we also saw various emotions. Starting from fun elements to the love dreams. Have we ever heard anything like this before?

But to enjoy this song, we don't need to know anything about renaissance, baroque, WCM, rock, carnatic classical or anything. How that is possible? That is the best kept secret of every Maestro's compositions. The recent example is the Idhayam POguthe which was essenced out of Schubert’s symphony. Until we know this, this was just a sober folk number. After we knew this, what difference did it make? Nothing at all, except the song would have reached greater heights in our hearts. Still it is the same composition, nothing changed.

Unlike many assume, he uses WCM technique and all complex stuffs which they don't understand. I too don’t understand. The problem is only when you come to know that Maestro has used all these techniques, you become perplexed. But in reality when you actually hear the song, you can never say that. His music is always as simple as this song. On the whole, the composition will look richer due to all these elements, that is all. Maestro keeps all these techniques and elements behind and only brings/stresses the melody and its associated mood in front. These techniques are visible only when you are willing to open your windows to get more sunlight. This is his style right from his first days till today, nothing changed at all. Only his techniques have changed. Unfortunately this is not well understood recently.

Maestro's music is all about emotions, all the emotions right from our birth till our death, not just our emotions, emotions of the people, nature and the world, no exceptions. Maestro only requests us to just sit back and enjoy and bring back our glorious childhood memories through this song!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6eamWWvHcA
http://thiraipaadal.com/album.php?ALBID=ALBIRR00255&lang=en (Etho Ninaivugal is listed wrongly here, it is from the film Agal viLakku)

app_engine

8th February 2012, 11:25 PM

Maestro's music is all about emotions, all the emotions right from our birth till our death, not just our emotions, emotions of the people, nature and the world, no exceptions. Maestro only requests us to just sit back and enjoy and bring back our glorious childhood memories through this song!

Exactly!

Great write-up, V_Sji!

One of my school-age favourite albums / songs!

V_S

9th February 2012, 12:15 AM

Thank you App for your kind words and support. :D I will come to your song soon. :wink: I just noticed that you put 'ji' in the quoting comments as well. So very nice of you, but I don't think I deserve this, all credit to Maestro and all your encouragement.

Querida

9th February 2012, 10:33 AM

Maalai Sevvaanam... what a wonderful song... and yet again a never heard one for me. Beautiful writeup V_S, take a bow :notworthy: The pleasure of listening to the song along with reading your writeup is truly exceptional.

The imagery painted in this song by the Maestro through his orchestration is totally spellbinding :notworthy: The interludes along with that lovely choir just soaks you up in bliss. I can keep listening to this gem continuously for a long time, it's that addictive of a song.

I am going to take the liberty of quoting rajkumarc's words as my thoughts exactly...truth be told...i found the second appearence of tribal music unexpected...more like an intrusion to Raja's singing...V_S your imagery is beyond poetical, reading it alone gives us the depth of your writing talent, reading it along with Raja's masterpieces give us the depth of your devotion and appreciation of his songs...please continue painting your musical scenery...

skr

9th February 2012, 06:12 PM

Super paattu , such a funfilled frolicking song.
It seems to be based on Natabhairavi Ragam.
Nice to know this song brought back a lot of childhood memories.

When VVS drives , its poetry in motion
When V_S writes , its poetry in music

V_S

9th February 2012, 08:41 PM

Thank you very much rajkumarc Querida, skr for liking my posts and giving wonderful comments. :D All the credit to Maestro. Thanks skr for the raagam info. Yes, these songs remain evergreen right from the first time I listened to till the end. Like they say 'pasumarathaani pOl pathinthu vittathu', like that. :smile:

Sunil_M88

10th February 2012, 07:02 PM

Super songs and super write ups, no doubt! But what I look forward to most of the times, is your relation with that specific song and how you share childhood memories with passion. Keep it up, Sir!

V_S

10th February 2012, 08:37 PM

Sure, Thanks a lot Sunil. :D Every song of Maestro has some relation with our personal life. Whenever I listen to these songs, the first feeling which strikes me is, 'when did I listen to this song for the first time and what was the environment around and how did I feel'?

raaga_kann

11th February 2012, 05:39 PM

Due to personal reasons, indha forum-la irundhu kaanamal poiytaen... During this short period, I had the golden moment of meeting IR on Diwali day (at his lower camp residence near Pannaipuram)

http://www.raaga.com/channels/tamil/album/T0000111.html

Some time back, I had started a sub thread – Soga Raagam Soagamdhaanae… But I had covered only 2 songs. But V_S and company have already covered the other songs (Nyabagam Illayo, En Kaveriyae, Otha Kizhi, etc in a brilliant fashion). Now I have been left with only song – probably the last in the Soga Raagam series.

Oru kanam Oru Yugamaaga from Nadodi Thendral – the last film of IR-BR combo. In fact, Raaja had written the story and lyrics for the film.

SJ starts with a haunting humming ‘Oooa…’. These hummings at the beginning of the song by SJ right from the first song Annakili unna thedudhae has never ceased to amaze me. Once again, you get immediately transferred to a rustic gloomy environment. The soft rhythm slowly begins its journey and travels thru entire song without much variation. The entire song seems to be set for a night atmosphere in a tiny village. Both IR and SJ voice-la theirgira oru irukkam thru out the song nammala irukkama kattipottu vidugiradhu…

The parallel violin piece which runs along with the Saranam is a beauty – Two dimensional Soagam Nammai Kavvi kolgiradhu. And at the end of the Saranam – when the violin exits and IR/SJ continues with IDHU KAADHAL RAAGAMAE…PURIYADHA MOGAMAE…, you get the feeling of traversing in a vehicle climbing a steep vertical road and suddenly you are on to a plain normal road!

Raaja for a change has used very simple words in the lyrics. Also for a change the preludes and interludes are strangely very short. But still the second interlude stands out.

For us – Living with his lively music for four decades, it is the other way round – Oru Yugam Oru Kanamaaga thondrugiradhu…

Sureshs65

11th February 2012, 09:09 PM

RK,

Why don't you write a bit more about your meeting Raja? It will be nice to read.

'Nadodi Thendral' is such a lovely album. And this song is a gem.

raaga_kann

14th February 2012, 11:45 PM

RK,

Why don't you write a bit more about your meeting Raja? It will be nice to read.

It was a brief meeting spanning around 2 minutes. There were lot of people waiting for him on Diwali day (Most of you must be knowing that on Diwali day he visits his lower camp residence without fail where he offers pooja to his mother's samadhi). He arrived at around 10:30 am. Thru a common friend, Mr. Suresh and Mr. Vaigairaaja (Mrs. Jeeva's younger brother), we met him inside the house. A brief introduction. Most of us fell at his feet. Then a brief photo session. And we came out. Then I sent my daughter to get his autograph, to which he obliged.

Then he offered prayers to his mother's statue and samadhi. Songs from Ramana albums and Thiruvasagam were continuously played in the loud speaker. After Pooja, Raaja met the hundreds of fans gathered. After some time, he left. We had lunch. Then we met Mrs. Jeeva. Had a snap with her. And left the place with complete satisfaction.

Two Notable (but not surprising) aspects worth mentioning - 1. When we requested Raaja for a snap, he immediately got up from his seat for the photo. After we insisted that he should sit, he obliged. 2. Mr. Suresh, thru whom we met Raaja is a close family friend of Raaja. Mr. Suresh's father is a music lover. During the initial days, Raaja along with his brothers, frequently used to assemble at Mr. Suresh's father house at Pannaipuram and their kacheri kalaikattumaam. It seems that Mr. Suresh's father used to encourage Raaja brothers a lot. Even in that brief meeting of 2 minutes, Raaja never forgot to enquire about Suresh's father. Mr. Suresh quipped that whenever and wherever he met Raaja, Raaja never failed to enquire about the well-being of his father. We all know about his musical Genius.. Panbilum Avar oru Genius dhaan..

app_engine

15th February 2012, 12:24 AM

Even in that brief meeting of 2 minutes, Raaja never forgot to enquire about Suresh's father. Mr. Suresh quipped that whenever and wherever he met Raaja, Raaja never failed to enquire about the well-being of his father. We all know about his musical Genius.. Panbilum Avar oru Genius dhaan..

:clap:

Nice share, nanRi raaga_kann!

This should help clean-up some of the slander that's often propagated on the e-media about IR, the person, and his treating of others.

rajkumarc

15th February 2012, 02:35 AM

V_S - Beautiful writeup for Thoppiloru Nadagam song. I'm always filled with joy while listening to this song and the heart feels lighter afterwards. It's a very special composition for a unique situation and the way the whole song is constructed with all the fun elements, :notworthy: to IR for gifting us this gem.

Raaga_Kann - Welcome back... nice writeup about Oru Kanam Oru Yugamaaga, one of my most favorite songs from 90s-IR. A beauty in folkish melancholy. Thanks for sharing your meetup with IR, what a wonderful experience it would have been, you are truly blessed.

Querida - Very glad to know that you loved Maalai Sevvanam as much as I did and a big thanks to V_S for his wonderful writeup about this song

V_S

15th February 2012, 05:41 AM

Welcome back raaga_kann!. Wonderful song! Very interesting to read your memorable moments with Isaignani.

Thanks rajkumarc for your kind words as always. :D As your mentionedThOppiloru Naadagam is indeed a special composition, for all of us to feel the innocence in it.

raaga_kann

22nd February 2012, 11:29 PM

From Soagam, I am shifting to Humour. No need to stress the fact – whatever may be the emotion, Raaja will come out with flying colors. Avarukku ellavidhamana isaiyum alwa saapittamaadhiridhaan…

Previously, 2 songs under this category have already been covered in this thread. 1. Siruvaani thanni kudichi 2. Ushaaraiyya ushaaru.. (Maybe Aanpillai aanaalum from Pondatti Ready written by V_S also can be included in this category).

In the 80s, Raaja’s any type of songs for any type of movie for any language used to hit the popularity chart without fail. But the following song – I am not sure whether it was as popular as it deserved to be!

POTTI KADAYILAE PUTTU - Film : Needhiyin Marupakkam. (Maalai Karukkaiyil from the same film – both happy and sad versions were a mega hit). This song was sung by Shoba Chandrasekaran along with IR (Most of the websites mislead you with P.Susheela’s name). Shoba has sung few songs for IR and all of them in her (or hubby’s) home productions. This film was also one of the Needhi series of her husband, S.A Chandrasekaran (Avarudiya ovvavaru Needhi padam varum podhum nammakku beedhi...!)

The situation is set to a humorous situation, wherein two brothers sing on the road – The elder one is hungry and wants to have a bite, whereas the younger one warns against this, as they do not have any money.

Raaja is at his usual best, with a rustic tune backed by his rustic voice. Raaja starts with ‘Potti Kadailae Puttu irukkudhu.. Dhuddu Kudu Thambi Puttu Thinganum..” – Hearing this first line in Raaja’s playful, youthful and innocent rendering, we are into a big expectation of a village based nayandi paadal. Raaja as usual ensures that his composition exceeds our expectation! And lyrics – simple and apt reflecting the humour and pathetic situation of the poor – Who else “O ranga srilanga kopparathenga.. inga paarunga naarthanga muthuna maanga” ponra paadalgalai perumbaalum eludhina Gangai Amaran dhaan.

With a mini teasing guitar piece for the prelude, we are into the song. Raaja’s energetic and village kurumbuthanam kalandha voice compliments the feeble and soft voice of Shoba (who has lent the voice for a 10-12 year old boy in the film).

The rhythm pattern in the Pallavi portion is a stunner. The customary folkish rhythm combined with grand WCM guitar stuff for a simple song – Simply Raajaism at its best!

potti kadaiyilE puttirukkudhu
thuttu kudu thambi puttu thingaNum
ittili irukku chattini irukku
ellAm irundhum thuttilla namakku

When Raaja returns back to the Pallavi portion again, the words ‘Potti Kadaiyile’ is sung thrice in different modulation – With this, he highlights one of the popular trends followed in traditional folk songs.

In the first interlude, each instrument and each note, adadhu levelukku nayaandi seigiradhu.

After trying to dissuade his elder brother from eating, citing financial reasons, the younger brother now tries to discourage by pointing out the quality factor of the food in the Saranam.

Adi Odi nAn vEla senjEn adhanAla pasi yEri pOCHu
Appam vada ooTHAppam pATHu vandha pasi innum koodi pOCHu
pArTHA nallArukkum aNNae thinnA kallArukkum
vAsam nallarukkum thinnA vayiRum dallArukkum
meena vaRukkirAn ( eNNa pOttu )
ada enna izhukkirAn ( kaNNi pOttu )
ada ettaNA thuttuTHAn kEkkurEn thuttu kudu

Another popular aspect of folk songs is brought to the fore here. After ‘Meena Varukkiran..’ there is a filler with guitar piece, and again after ‘Enna Izhukkiran’, the same guitar piece is played. Second time, when both the lines are sung, the guitar pieces are replaced with some meaningful words… “Meena Varukkiran Enna Poattu… Enna Izhukkiran Kanni Poattu…”. He has used this effective pattern in many of his other songs also.

The second interlude completely dominated by a folkish flute is a Graamiya delight. In the second saranam the lyrics takes a sharp turn from humour to realistic hardship faced by the poor.

Velai senchum oru Kaasum illa Ezhai Kadhai oru maatram illa
Vandha Panam adhu Meedhamilla Vandha Kooda yedhum podhavilla
Irundha Selavaagum aNNae Illaatti Kadan aagum
Idhu dhaan dhenam dhorum namma ezhainga kadhai aagum
Maada ozhaikkiroam ( vanjhanai illa)
Ada Oada ezhaikkiroam ( anjavum illa)
Ada kashtamo nashtamo ettana dhuddu kudu

At the end of the song, instead of singing ‘Potti Kadaiyile’ thrice, he replaces the second with ‘Maama Kadaiyile’…, which adds to the village kusumbu. The finishing ‘Dandada dandada daada dandada’ by the female voice followed by Raaja chellama scolding ‘Poada Rascol’ completes the humour riot.

Few Pasumaiyaana ninaivugal related to this song – Ettana / Oru roovaikku tiffen saappitta kaalathai marakka mudiyumaa. Few years back when my daughter was around 6 years, we both used to just scream this song and our joy knew no bounds. The ultimate comedy – Vijayakanth sings this song in the film along with a 10 or 12 year old boy (Vijayakanthukku thambiyaam…. Kadavulae…)

http://www.paadal.com/tamilsongs/neethiyin-marupakkam-tamil-movie-songs/potti-kadaiyile-song/5

I came across the following in TFMpage which gives the Notes for the song.

Song: potti kadaiyilE
Film: needhiyin maRupakkam
Notes: s r2 g3 m1 p d2 n2 S

potti kadaiyilE puttirukkudhu
s s s r g m g p m g rgr

thuttu kudu thambi puttu thingaNum
r g g r s rg r g r s s

ittili irukku chattini irukku
m m m gm r g p m gm r

ellAm irundhum thuttilla namakku
m m gm r g dp m g m rp

Stanza:

Adi Odi nAn vEla senjEn adhanAla pasi yEri pOCHu
gmp pp p pdn d p gg mpp p p pdn d p

Appam vada ooTHAppam pATHu vandha pasi innum koodi pOCHu
g mp p p p pd n d p g mp p p p p pS n d p

pArTHA nallArukkum aNNan thinnA kallArukkum
sp pd1 p m m m g rs p.s s rg mpp p

vAsam nallarukkum thinnA vayiRum dallArukkum
sppd1 p m m mg rg rs p.s s rg mpp p

meena vaRukkirAn eNNa pOttu
r r g r s rg r r rg rs

ada enna izhukkirAn kaNNi pOttu
pr r r gr s rg r r rg rs

ada ettaNA thuttuTHAn kEkkurEn thuttu kudu
ps s r g r g m g m pd p m g rs

app_engine

23rd February 2012, 12:02 AM

raaga_kann,
:rotfl:

Very humorous post for a fun song!

:clap:

groucho070

23rd February 2012, 09:01 AM

As your mentionedThOppiloru Naadagam is indeed a special composition, for all of us to feel the innocence in it.It's not about nostalgia. It's about the moment where you are suddenly rid of all the evil and corrupted elements within self and become pure again. I like it that you credited SPS with her superb vocal job. :thumbsup: V_S.

groucho070

23rd February 2012, 09:06 AM

(Avarudiya ovvavaru Needhi padam varum podhum nammakku beedhi...!)
:lol: His legacy is still out there, what to do....:sad:

Nice piece by piece analysis, raaga_kann.

V_S

23rd February 2012, 08:39 PM

It's not about nostalgia. It's about the moment where you are suddenly rid of all the evil and corrupted elements within self and become pure again.
Ezhuthanunu nenaikkum bOthu antha vaarthai thaan muttuthu. That's why I keep writing essays. Exactly wonderfully written! :clap: That's why we need grouch!. Like they say in computer terminology WYSIWYG, WYTIWYW(what you think is what you write) Thank you grouch! :smile:

raaga_kann, Great and humorous write-up :thumbsup:, and an excellent pick. I always love fun songs especially in village backdrop.

V_S

23rd February 2012, 09:28 PM

YEriyile Elantha Maram Thangachi Vacha Maram - Karaiyellaam Shenbagapoo

Alert: Starting my boring lecture again, please bear with me and also please correct me for any factual or technical errors...

A little bit of history of choral music as this composition stands a testimony for choral music. Choral music has various forms like a mass, Gregorian chant, oratorio, cantata, a cappella and so on and dates back to before medieval age or right from where singing started. It has evolved along the way. The sacred mass in medieval age was performed in churches and it slowly came out of the churches in Renaissance period where other forms like ‘A cappella’ took place. Voices sounding like instruments. Josquin des Prez was one of the greatest composers in Renaissance period and a pioneer to have established the concept of counterpoints in his choir works. Baroque period further enhanced the choral music to oratorio and opera forms where an orchestra was added to choir. Mozart, Hayden, Brahms took it further and composed Requiem and numerous other choral forms during classical and romantic periods. From last century till now, the choral form of music slowly began to recede as other popular forms of music took over. Yet composers from Richard Strauss to John Williams still were very famous for their choral works not to let down the legacy built over centuries. Maestro Ilaiyaraaja has to be fondly acknowledged here for his contributions on many of his choral works and I would even say he is the only Asian to have composed enormous choral works. At this juncture, if I fail to recognize another Indian who has contributed more towards choir works, I would not be forgiven. He has even instituted many non-profit organizations to develop choral music across India, especially down south. In that way more than composing, he has taken a step ahead and created interest and awareness in children and youth to do choir performances. He is a pioneer in this field. He is none other than Mr. M. B. Sreenivasan. More details here (http://www.mbsreenivasan.com/index.php?pg=mbsyc) and here (http://www.mbsreenivasan.com/index.php?pg=choir_music).

I got introduced to this legend and his music during Doordharshan days of 80's where he used to perform live orchestral music with choir. At that time as a kid it was boring, but looking back those are memorable now. Apart from several performances, he has composed many films right from 60's to late 80's. A great composer and legend. I suspect Maestro got either inspired from his works in early 80's to compose such a song. So it could be an answer to Mr MBS as he always tells, 'composers need not meet, as long as they answer them with music every time'. This song could also have been composed due to his interest in WCM which he was learning during that time and of-course the song situation demands such a composition.

Many might know that this film was based on the novel written (in the same name) by writer Sujatha (S Rangarajan) in Aananda Vikatan. This is a thriller movie directed by G N Rangarajan. I believe it was not a commercially successful movie. G N Rangarajan is the one who made films like Meendum Kokila, Kadal Meengal, Aduthaathu Albert etc. I love the title song Kaadellaam Pichchippoovu. Those days, we usually enjoy the titles not just for Raja's singing, but also for the different styles and colors they write the titles. Please don't miss the title song (http://goo.gl/YK1p6). Freaky guitar for a folk song. One of Raja's best.

This is a very special composition from Maestro. It has lot of intricacies. This song can be looked at various perspectives, but I am sure we are bound to lose many perspectives, if we are adapted to one perspective. It is very easy to get focused to one area while missing the other aspects. This song highlight is the choir music with vocal harmony. If any beginner (like me) wants to have an understanding of choral music right from the basic, this is the song they should hear. It has all the elements of the tutorial. At the same time, if any music professional wants to hear the best of choral music, this is the one. It caters to both, that's the beauty of this composition. In addition to choir, Maestro also employs counterpoints, a cappella, vocal harmony (at least a sort of) in this composition. In vocal harmony, if the main melody is sung in one of these three vocal ranges; tenor, alto and soprano, the harmony part will be done in other two ranges. The harmony is to complement the main melody. To put it simply, 'tenor' is the lowest range, and 'soprano' is the highest range and 'alto' lies in between the two. If the main melody is sung in 'alto', the vocal harmony will be applied one range below (tenor) and one range above (soprano). Another important point in vocal harmony is, the melody and the harmony part has to be sung at the same time, but here we hear it was sung at different times, still the imitation to the main melody is done always at a the same vocal range or a range lower than the main melody, that's why it may not be a strict vocal harmony.

Let us see which vocal range Maestro chose to sing the main melody. Since the song and the choir is sung by kids, I think Maestro aptly chose ‘soprano’ range for the main melody (as kids' vocal chords have higher range). You can hear that in the start 'Yeriyile'. Again this is not a duet, as Maestro sings and teaches the kids and then it is purely a SJ song with some outstanding choir. Maestro takes a simple 'akaaram' and builds with sandhams and swarams and takes a beautiful lead into the song with YEriyilE. No high fundas for end listeners.

After the kids are comfortable singing/learning the song, Maestro starts with faint bass guitar strumming along with lead guitar (from 5th beat) in counter point mode hinting that this is going to be a WCM composition. Then starts the swarms, sa ri ga ma pa dha ni sa along with guitar chords. Hear the second time when the swarms are sung. There is already a base choir vocals added. He does not waste a single chance given to him, however little it is. The sandham after this; 'thanna naadhinam thannanaa..thanna naadhinam thannanaa..thanna naadhinam thannanaa' resembles the choir in 'aaha OhO yEhE hOi' from Vaidhegi Kaathirunthaal. I believe he took the same cue from here. Bass guitar goes berserk while the sandhams are on. I am astonished to hear the variation shown in this piece when S Janaki and choir starts YEriyilE. YEriyilE (high)…YEriyilE (low)…YEriyilE (high)…YEriyilE(low)…YEriyilE (low) YEriyilE(mid) YEriyilE(high) YEriyilE(higher) onto the range of the main melody. One of the best starts to any composition, not just for a film song. I definitely see Mr. MBS here. Like a roller coaster riding high and low and finally steadying and finishing. That's what we call breath-taking ride! Imagining why Maestro didn't start 'Yeriyile' straightaway and why is he prolonging? The beauty, soul and the melody of the entire song belongs to this portion. If this portion was cut short the soul was gone. Hearing Maestro saying, 'Ellaathukkum time irukkupa'. :smile:

The choir imitates the main melody at a lower vocal range in eriyile elanthamaram thangachi vechamaram(high) vechamaram (low), thangachi vechamaram(high) vechamaram (low). Another biggest surprise in this song is while the song is seriously taking the western idioms seriously, the lyrics is outright funny. Especially the second charanam, absolutely no meaning, but it was intentionally written, will come to that later. For such a strict WCM composition, the tune and lyrics will never take you to Europe, only to our home, our village. Hear the tune with lyrics, YEriyila elanthamaram thangachi vechmaram. It is a pure folk tune with pure folk lyrics yet how he complements and adds western choir subtly without getting notice.

Once the pallavi gets over, flute with guitar picks up their turn. Initially only flute starts playing briskly for few seconds and guitar joins in the same fashion. Visually director brings in a train as the sound of flute and guitar together resembles the steam train's siren. Beautiful thought! This was how sound innovation took place from Maestro's era with no ready-made sounds available to pick and put your name to it. He has to experiment different ways of playing to get those unique sounds. Not that easy as today! This is the first time I am hearing such a piece. When both the instruments are played in tandem (harmony), we can expect a counter melody there from Maestro, but here he surprises us by playing the same melody on two instruments. So I think we cannot call this as counterpoint. But after this piece, he brings in vocals where he adds counterpoint in choir. Once the vocals are done, he again brings in the same two instruments, but this time guitar first and then the flute joins. Lastly he again brings the same choir vocals in counterpoint. All this four intricate pieces takes just 20 seconds (each 5 seconds). But this mere 20 seconds can result in a lengthy dissection from experts. So far the interlude was purely based on WCM techniques; harmony and counterpoint. Here comes the twist. He freely switches to folk with some synth-based shenai, without worrying what would happen to the composition. No worries, it perfectly fits the bill. If this is audacious, what would you call when he brings back the choir vocal again to end the interlude? Not just that, with WCM choir on, SJ yells a typical folk yodeling before the charanam as the charanam is all folk. Purely insane stuff! :notworthy:

The switch between instruments, vocals and the genre is so fast in the interlude that we can witness different threads being weaved into a beautiful sari in seconds :smile:. In computer words, the time slicing is so fast that we assume he is a multi-processing system, but we surely know he has only one CPU. How that is possible? Because he has infinite RAM :smile:.

Charanam gets better and better with more scope to choir part, especially at the start.
vellimalayil thenaruvi thenaruvi thenaruvi thenaruvi thenaruvi
veppamarathila poongkuruvi poonguruvi poonguruvi poonguruvi poonguruvi

Hear the choir support when SJ sings this line; 'senduga mElE vanduga vanthu undathu thEna bOthayilE'. A short a cappella or a vocal counterpoint however you want to take it :wink:. Take that!.

While the first interlude was a beautiful play of instruments and genre, second interlude is solely the pride of TN. Right from vocal plays of percussion with 'dumdumdum pee..pee.pee' (in counter point again), continued by all kinds of folk percussions right from ganjeera, udukkai to ghatam. It is a mini-avarthanam kacheri. So he has also touched carnatic classical here.

Now comes the fun part of the whole song. The lyrics in second charanam. Too hilarious. Too good, who is the lyricist? How can one compose such a serious song with some serious singing with some funniest lyrics? I remember some people who crack jokes with stern face. It will take minutes for us to get what he meant and once we get we all laugh, that man will not even show an iota of difference in his face. Like that this lyrics was there right from the day it was composed and released, but it took me so much time to understand it and enjoy. :smile:

அல்லி கொளத்தில தாமரையாம் (தாமரையாம் தாமரையாம் தாமரையாம் தாமரையாம்)
முல்ல கொடியில ஷென்பகமாம் (ஷெண்பகமாம் ஷெண்பகமாம் ஷெண்பகமாம் ஷெண்பகமாம்)
அல்லி கொளத்தில தாமரையாம்
முல்ல கொடியில ஷெண்பகமாம்
தென்ன மரத்துல மாங்கா தேடும் மடையன் சொன்னா கேட்டுக்கடா
வளர்ந்துவிட்ட வாத்துக்களே ஓடுற பக்கம் ஒடுங்களே
வந்தது மாலை காலையிலே :lol:
சென்றது மேகம் பூமியிலே :lol:

This song has everything. This song is a perfect example if one wants to know how singing has evolved. How the choir started, how vocal counterpoint technique got added into the choir, how the instruments slowly got added to the choir, how various instruments took center-stage replacing the choir, with choir (vocals) coming to background, how an orchestra was formed. This was not just from western classical standpoint, it is equally applicable to any kind of music evolution at various regions as, if one region started it, others would follow if it was good. This was just from a learning and evolution perspective. Coming to the soul of the song, it only has roots of our village (from the tune and lyrics). Other western idioms just enhance and complement our tradition. Just like he has seen his other compositions from western classical composers, he has seen this composition from medieval age composers. Through this composition we are seeing all the above composers listed above including our own legendary Mr. M. B. Sreenivasan. This is a great dedication to the pioneers. This song, as a soul has aged well, since we are still hearing this composition after 30 years. How it has aged well? Because it is inside every listeners of various ages. Those who listened when they were 10 or 20, they are still listening now at 40 or 50. As long as the body is alive it lives in them and takes a different skin after that. Compositions like this are everlasting. We should be proud that we were exposed to these high quality songs during our childhood, if not at least now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmKkXMLYCtk
http://thiraipaadal.com/album.php?ALBID=ALBIRR00278&lang=en

app_engine

23rd February 2012, 10:20 PM

Great post, V_Sji, on a song dearly loved!

I enjoyed reading about the vocal harmony part & the MBS contributions to TN, great guy! I've never seen any of his DD performances but heard a lot of 'sErndhisai' stuff on AIR. Trichy AIR used to have "new TF songs" at 1 PM Sundays which was among my most favourite programs those days. I used to tune in much earlier, 12:40 AkAsh vAni news and 12:50 - 1:00 used to be either 'mellisai' or 'sErndhisai'.

The sErndhisai typically used to be dEsa bhakti songs - 'sArE jAhAn sE achchA' and such Urdu ones sometimes, Bharathiyar songs sometimes, all with MBS directing. I still remember the 'veLLippani malaiyin meethulAvuvOm' by him (the 'Ayudham seyvOm -nalla kAkidham seyvOm...Ayudham, kAkidham, seyvOm seyvOm' rings in my ear as I type this post now).

On GNR - his biggest hit was kalyANa rAman (AhA vandhuruchchu). I don't know why they didn't have him direct the sequel (SPM did it). Neither did they have MV sing any number in JK :-(

On choir singing, you said :

In vocal harmony, if the main melody is sung in one of these three vocal ranges; tenor, alto and soprano, the harmony part will be done in other two ranges. The harmony is to complement the main melody. To put it simply, 'tenor' is the lowest range, and 'soprano' is the highest range and 'alto' lies in between the two. If the main melody is sung in 'alto', the vocal harmony will be applied one range below (tenor) and one range above (soprano). Another important point in vocal harmony is, the melody and the harmony part has to be sung at the same time, but here we hear it was sung at different times, still the imitation to the main melody is done always at a the same vocal range or a range lower than the main melody, that's why it may not be a strict vocal harmony.

Let us see which vocal range Maestro chose to sing the main melody. Since the song and the choir is sung by kids, I think Maestro aptly chose ‘soprano’ range for the main melody (as kids' vocal chords have higher range).

One of my friends (a violinist) who taught me basics as to how to read sheet music while singing, had a slightly different version (based on the song book that we used to sing) :

-it had four parts, soprano / alto / tenor / bass (SATB), soprano the equivalent of treble & bass is bass :-)
-all the songs he taught us (in that sheet music book) had the main melody in soprano, so that seems to be the norm (and may not be alto) ; so IR choosing soprano for the main melody in this song is not unusual
(please don't take these as nitpicks, just my siRRaRivu)

V_S

23rd February 2012, 10:44 PM

Thanks a lot App for your beautiful comments. :D Yes I did not mention intentionally the bass or the baritone part of SATB as I heard that was optional sometimes. Great to hear about your interest in vocal harmony. Again, these are not even nitpicks, definitely these discussions helps us to better understand the concept and the composition. I forgot the thamizh term for that, you 'app'tly mentioned it as 'sErndhisai'. I too have listened to MBS's performances on AIR, but DD memories immediately came to my mind when I was writing it. Great composer. Please also watch his film songs video in the link (in other tabs) I provided. Great songs.

groucho070

24th February 2012, 07:19 AM

Wow, V_S, simply Wow. Little would the Grouch of 1980s know that something that came out of that time would be analysed like this decades later.

V_S

24th February 2012, 09:39 AM

grouch,
Delighted to read your wonderful comments. Very glad you liked it. Thank you very much.:smile: All credit to the genius!

baroque

24th February 2012, 11:32 AM

It's a classic, V_S. Beautiful job. thanks.

raaga_kann, needhiyin marupakkam's wacky ilayaraja's composition sure is our favorite.
loved it, listening to it while reading your thoughts.

ரெண்டு மூணு தடவை கேட்டுக்கறேன், featured songs tonight.:-D

Namba IR is whimsical beyond human comprehension!

You guys are great.

love,

Vinatha.

24th February 2012, 04:18 PM

YEriyile Elantha Maram Thangachi Vacha Maram - Karaiyellaam Shenbagapoo

I got introduced to this legend and his music during Doordharshan days of 80's where he used to perform live orchestral music with choir. At that time as a kid it was boring, but looking back those are memorable now. Apart from several performances, he has composed many films right from 60's to late 80's. A great composer and legend. I suspect Maestro got either inspired from his works in early 80's to compose such a song. So it could be an answer to Mr MBS as he always tells, 'composers need not meet, as long as they answer them with music every time'. This song could also have been composed due to his interest in WCM which he was learning during that time and of-course the song situation demands such a composition.

Our maestro has even played for MBS as a sessions guitarist. Want to hear Raaja as a guitarist? Listen to Under the mango tree from the movie madhana maaligai composed by MBS singer Usha uthup. You will hear a brilliant guitarist.

V_S

24th February 2012, 08:41 PM

Thanks a lot vinatha for your appreciation.:smile: Yes it is a classic! I have to thank grouch for this, as I don't think I would have gone back to post these missed songs of 70's and 80's if grouch would not have told me. The main reason being, even though some of these songs were having Raja's voice, it was not a perfect duet with Raja, so I wasn't sure. Anyway, good that I have covered these memorable compositions too. All thanks to grouch!

kj,
Nice to see your post and a valuable information on MBS and Raja. Thanks for hightlighting the song where Maestro was a guitarist. Definitely will listen to it. Many thanks. :smile:

baroque

24th February 2012, 09:37 PM

:)

Glad we grew up with Ilayaraja, he offered us all kinds of songs, we developed a taste for them.

I have a huge appetite for these songs always!

Vinatha.

raaga_kann

24th February 2012, 11:25 PM

Thanks V_S... I never knew that Raaja starts this song. In the original audio (LP record), the song starts with the guitar prelude and Choir part. Raaja's portion was missing. I have not seen the film. It was a surprise! The hi-tech definition about choir - Great - But certainly out of my reach... Adhukkellam Nyaanam venum, Nyaanam venum,doi....
I had heard that the film, being a thriller, had scintillating BGM. The story was very popular when it got published in a weekly magazine (as a thodar kadhai). But it seems that Sujatha's plot did not reach the common man in the film.

I think the song Ennai Paada solladhae from the film Aan Paavam also belongs to the same category. The funny choir by kids in this song is a treat.

V_S

25th February 2012, 09:58 AM

Thank you raaga_kann. :smile: Yes Raja's voice only comes in the film/video, may be that part is cut out in audio version. I too have the song starting with guitar and choir straightway, no Raja's voice.

sakaLAKALAKAlaa Vallavar

25th February 2012, 10:04 AM

what a song! i know this one for past few months! Gramathu Symphony! The double track chorus is simply superb! thanks V_S for posting here :) Unga sevai intha tread ukku kattaayam thevai :thumbsup:

V_S

25th February 2012, 10:07 AM

Nichayama sir! :smile: Whatever little I know would like to share with you all. Thank you very much!

Plum

25th February 2012, 02:01 PM

V-s - brilliant exposition. But somehow karaiyellaam barring the title song strikes me as lacking in heart and soul. Seems to be more from the brain.

venkkiram

25th February 2012, 09:16 PM

V-s - brilliant exposition.
+1. பாடலை பிரித்து மேய்ந்திருக்கிங்க. சுவையாக, செறிவாக இருக்கு உங்க பதிவு! இதுபோன்ற சிறார் பருவப் பாடல்கள் என்றைக்குமே விரும்பிக் கேட்கக்கூடிய ஒன்று.

V_S

25th February 2012, 10:51 PM

Thank you very much Plum and venkkiram for patiently reading my lengthy posts and pouring in your kind words. :smile: Yes, songs sung by kids or songs for kids are always special.

raaga_kann

3rd March 2012, 12:57 AM

http://www.thiraipaadal.com/album.php?ALBID=ALBIRR00533

We all very well know about the chemistry between Raaja as a composer and SPB as a singer. How they understand each other and have come out with hundreds of gems is well know History. But how about Raaja and SPB as singers? This song is a great example of how they complement each other as singers. I doubt whether any other 2 singers would have created such an impact, if they had sung this song together.

Usually, in Raaja’s duet with any other leading male singer, his voice used to be a secondary force. But in this song he clearly dominates without doubt.

We all know how Raaja’s voice can effectively bring out any emotion in its true color. But what if the actor is playing a role, in which he has a problem – Thikku Vai. The character who cannot properly speak a sentence decides to sing. So, when Raaja gets a challenging situation like this – Velayaadida Maatara…!

For this song, there has a double challenge – First, he has to set a tune that will suit the repetitive words that are bound to be sung by the character. Second, Raaja as a singer has to ensure that “Thikkura” words must sound natural and should not end up as a sort of mimicry. But in his musical dictionary there is no such word called “Challenge”. He just bowls out every one with his flawless “flaw-oriented” singing.

Another factor to be mentioned here – During this period, few of the films with Janakaraj would have a number sung by Raaja and used to be a mega hit. Nila Adhu vaanathu maele, Kadhal enbadhu podhu udamai, etc. And it seemed that Raaja enjoyed an extra bit while singing for Janakaraj.

The main aspect to be observed and enjoyed in this song – the words and cheshtaies used by both Raaja and SPB in between the lines – Punmurval varuvadhai – You cannot avoid.

Also special mention has to be made about the lyricst – Vaali. Whenever he gets a slight opportunity, he will never hesitate to praise Raaja in the lyrics. He has done this in many songs. Even in this song, he praises Raaja with his truthful lyrics (given below in CAPITAL letters). And with Raaja having high regards for Vaali, he cannot turn down these words. Vaalikkum kushi, Namakku double kushi…

The song starts with a few dialogues – Vaasikireengala… Vaasingo.. Vaasingo… Here Raaja playfully mimicries Janakaraj’s voice. When he explains the rhythm pattern.. “Jumku chuchumku chumku…” – We wonder that many a times he may be giving the rhythm pattern in the same manner during the real recordings.

IR – Eduthu Naan Vidavaa, Enn Paattai… Tho… Tho… Tho……
(everyone blinks what it he is trying to convey… A mini filler with guitar (or
Keyboard) erupts and disappears with a blinking feel…)
IR – Kudikkathaan Udaney Konda Nee… So… So… So….

SPB – Ennada Solla vara

IR – Eduthu Naan Vidavaa, Enn Paattai… Tho… Tho… Tho……Thozha
Kudikkathaan Udaney Konda Nee… So… So… So….Soda…
ETTU KAATAIDHAAN ETTUVAEN…
VARNAMETTUDHAAN KATTUVAEN…
INBA VELLAMA KOTTUVAEN…
RASIGAR NENJILAEY OTTUVAEN…
Eduthu Naan Vidavaa, Enn Paattai… Tho… Tho… Tho…… (SPB – Thozha)
Kudikkathaan Udaney Konda Nee… So… So… So….(SPB – indhada Soda…)

The interlude starts with a happy trumphet piece followed by a flowing solo violin piece. In between, both of them throw a few words like ‘Ayo’, ‘Sabash’, etc which is very much in sync with the instruments.

IR – Yae..Naan Paada pirandhidum Sho… Sho… Sho… Shoakku
Aaanalum thadukkudhu… Naaaakkku…
EN PAADAL INITHIDUM THAEN… THAEN… THAEN..
ADA THENPAANDI KUYIL INAM…. NAAAN DHAAAAN…
Nee Paapappop.. (Raaja finds it difficult to continue… SPB immediately takes over)
SPB – PAADAL NAAN PADAVE.. EZHU SWARANANGALUM DHAN
THAAVIDUM… NEEVIDUM
OOR KOODIYAE MAALAI ANIDHIDA DHAN NAADIDUM.. AADIDUM..
ENNISAI KEATTAALAE VENNILLA VAARADHA…
Nalliravil naan konja thannaiyae thaaradha…
Enna un sangadhi..sollammaa… aaa…aaaaa…

The second interlude is a sample of his himalayan imagination power –
IR – tha..tha.. tha.. tha..tha
SPB - Thaththakida dha.. (IR - Hi.. Thankyou…)
IR – Thi.. Thi… Thi… Thi..thi..
SPB - Dheem thakida dheem.. (IR – Ha..Sabash..)
IR – Tha.. Tha..
SPB – Thakida
IR – Thi.. Thi...
SPB – Dhimida…
IR – Ki.. Ki..
SPB – Kidadha.. Romba Thikkudhada...
IR – Ha.ha.ha.ha.hae..

Sangadhigala vachi kurumbu seiyura technique – You cannot stop admiring him – Each time you admire him for a different reason.

In the second saranam, SPB mischievously tries to sing in Raaja’s mode..

SPB – Paadaaga Paduthudhu Ka..ka.. kaaa. (IR – Kkaadhal…)
Koodaadhu Namakkulae… Mooaaa (IR – Mmoadhal…)
Paal kooda kasakudhu.. Yaen.. Yaen… Yaen.. (IR – Yaeaen…)
Pattu paaikooda uruthida paarthaen..
IR – Enn..nn.. Oaav
SPB – Dai.. Nee Summairuda...
Enn Oviyam Neela nayanangalai Kaatudhae.. Vaatudhae...
Penn nyabagam paadhi iravugalil thondrudhae.. thoondudhae...
Pathu viral naan theenda chitiram vaaradha... (IR – Chuchhu...)
Pattu udal naan venda samadham thaaradha...
Ippavo... Eppavo... sollamaa..aaa.aa.

In the last pallavi portion, the character tries his best and successfully pronounces the word ‘Thozha” and “Soda”. Raaja brings out this essence beautifully while SPB compliments the successful utterance of these words. The two real life friends’ energetic singing will never fail to amuse you.

I conclude with Vaali’s golden words – ‘INBA VELLAMA KOTTUVAEN.. RASIGAR NENJILAE OTTUVAEN…’ How true…!

app_engine

3rd March 2012, 01:13 AM

Perfect timing, raaga_kann!

This is the next song planned for the IR-SPB thread (for Saturday, 3-3-12) :-)

Excellent writing :thumbsup:

V_S

3rd March 2012, 08:08 AM

Yes, that was great one again raaga_kaan and at the right time as App mentioned. :thumbsup: Raja at his best, as you nailed it surpassed SPB in this song. :smile:

raagadevan

4th March 2012, 03:37 AM

"என் கானம் இன்று அரங்கேறும்..." from ஈர விழி காவியங்கள் - Raaja with Jency.

(Thanks to RajsMed for the youtube upload)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK8way6JhVs&feature=related

V_S

4th March 2012, 05:09 AM

Thanks raagadevan for the video. In fact I watched all the songs now. How many years, how many years I wished how the video would be for these rarest of Maestro's amudha geethangal. Many thanks to RajsMed and his passion. Overall Ashok Kumar has done an excellent job, except he wasted Kanavil Mithakkum for the titles, where I see the hint of meloncholy in the song, but it was shown in lighter context, that's not his fault (at the director's discretion). Every song has that touch of sadness which was excellently captured by Ashok Kumar, by taking us to beaches and with lot of shadow frames. Just like 'Mike' fits Mohan, Guitar fits perfectly for Prathap, having seen him carrying it in many movies like this. Great to see the light at last!

Sunil_M88

4th March 2012, 05:47 AM

I know I missed some posts, but done my catching up now

V_S sir :musicsmile:

Alert: Starting my boring lecture again
:notthatway: I know you meant educational and not boring :) Eriyile Elantha, Whoa, what a song! Second Interlude, folk percussion :shock: :clap:

Welcome back raaga_kann and thanks for sharing and writing about such cheerful songs.

raagadevan and those who missed "En Gaanam" write up, please follow http://www.mayyam.com/talk/showthread.php?9369-Raaja-s-magical-duets-YEriyile-Elantha-Maram-(Karaiyellaam-Shenbagapoo)&p=710896&viewfull=1#post710896

V_S

4th March 2012, 06:22 AM

Welcome back Sunil and thank you for your enthusiastic comments and also for highlighting my post. :smile: I was missing your posts.

V_S

5th March 2012, 10:47 AM

OorOrama Aathupakkam ThennanthOppu - Idhaya Koyil

Whenever there is a harvest, there is also associated harvest festival. Every region has their own tradition and timing for the harvest festival. Like we have Thai Pongal or Makara Shankranthi during January, other regions/countries have at different periods and the way they celebrate also quite differs from how we celebrate. All these festivals apart from all the enjoyment are mainly meant to thank the farmers, who not only raise the crops for grains, but also responsible for the harvest and the whole harvest process like reaping (cutting the grains), threshing (removing chaff from grains), winnowing (separating grains from pests and straws) and up to the final edible product which is sold by the market. With latest technologies, the whole process have become simpler, but still only applies to large scale farms who can afford to technologies. Why am I saying all this? There is a reason to this.

Similarly in music too, the above said harvest is true, except the harvest is only after the film/audio is released, but the whole harvest process is before the actual harvest. Only difference between Maestro and others is, when the director tells the situation, actual harvest is immediately done by Maestro, while others just start sowing the seeds at that time (no offense meant, that's their style). Since harvest is already done, the time taken to give the final product (via reaping through winnowing) is very fast. In musical context, it can be taken as the time required for the musicians and singers to prepare for the final take. This is the only time required for Maestro. That's why he was telling recently that 'you come to me, if you want the food ready to be served'. :wink: Again, here it is not be mis understood that since the time taken from sowing the seeds to harvest for Maestro does not take time, there is no hard work involved. That's why he does many films consecutively. The autonomous system works promptly and early (I mean his CPU :smile:) for Maestro for conceiving a composition, which is a gift. So he has all his three life lines intact while answering his last question for KBC (:wink:), while others already utilized it during the process of creation to harvest. While everyone might win a hard fought battle, Maestro wins easily everytime.

Once you start tasting and relishing your dish on your table, you ought to think of the hard-work during the whole process from sowing to cooking till it is ready to be served on your table. Similarly in music too, when you enjoy someone's music, you think about the whole process it took until it is ready to be served for your ears and soul. I remember now the words of director Mahendran. 'When I see a food grain left on my plate after I complete my meal, I tend to think that this food grain has been sowed by some one, reaped by some one else, and it has travelled so far to reach our home and to my table and to my plate. It will be happy only if I consume it, otherwise just imagine, if it has come so far only to be drained away directly, what is the purpose of its life and why it should be created?'. Imagine this grain as the composition which we are going to talk now.

As all other compositions from this film has already been consumed, relished and appreciated much, assuming this composition as the last grain on our plate (in this soundtrack), it is upto us to either to leave it or consume it. As you might know by now that, every Maestro's composition is meant to be consumed and not be wasted, that's the whole point I am arriving at. Mainly because, every composition of Maestro take up the same process and diligence with no exceptions. Every film, every director, every situation is equal and unique to Maestro, inspite of variations in the output based on the situation alone and not based on any other aspects.

Let us start with the negatives. The song is sort of a competition song between college/class mates. Tall Kapil Dev and Radha dance with their friends. I believe it was taken in CEG, Guindy. If you want to see some horrible choreography, this is the one. I don't in what mood John Babu Master choreographed this song. Also, if you listen to the lyrics, the song definitely does not match the college background. It might fit the rural backdrop. Again if you just listen to the tune, orchestration and arrangements, it cannot be in folk backdrop. So there is some confusion. I don't know what situation Mani Rathnam conveyed to IR, or how IR conceived this tune for that situation. I would say, this is the first song where there is no relation to the situation, tune, lyrics and singing. Even within lyrics, there is not much relation/sync between pallavi and charanams and between charanam lines even. Only thing which is understandable is, the lyricist has taken birds carefree analogy with college youths. Even the analogy itself is plain embarrassing. Please add in your comments if you think otherwise.

For example:
F: peN paarkkum bOthe bErangaL PEsum aan vargham angEthu
M: ammaadi vEndam kalyaana vaazhkai nammalE aagaathu

First of all how can the lyricist take birds life as an example to humans in case of marriages. Big, big mistake. The above line by female where she is asking her friend, that there is no 'varadatchanai' business in birds, how horrible that can be to have such a analogy. For that, her friend answers that he doesn't like marriage life at all. Absolutely this answer does not have any relation to the question asked. I am still surprised how Vaali sir can write such a lyrics and how it got approved by Maestro. Absolute miscalculation by all four, MR, IR, Vaali and John Babu.

Despite all this, if you take this composition as a stand-alone piece and ignoring the lyrics (for the situation), it has some wonderful moments. The song starts with a different and catchy humming; 'Jumjumkujum jumkuchchuka jumjumkujum' which might interest a few and which might put off a few. The starting uneven male choir with some amazing bass lines, piano and acoustic drums all add to some nice jazz-based dance number. The beat pattern is a very simple (ending in hi-hat hit), yet the uneven male choir adds to the simple rhythm pattern making it complex. If you listen only to acoustic drums, it will surely be underwhelming for a dance number, but joined with the choir and bass guitar, it adds the required pepp. Maestro starts the song beautifully with 'OorOrama Aathupakkam' with open voice. The pallavi lines works just fine as a stand-alone piece. When the anu-pallavi is on, we also hear the lead guitar (along with bass lines), between the pallavi lines as fillers. Absolutely stunning! As if it nods his head agreeing to the lines, saying 'Yes' and 'Yes'. At the end of pallavi S Janaki joins the humming with Maestro.

Maestro's one of the finest interlude. The beat pattern does not change between the end of pallavi and the start of the interlude. Same underwhelming pattern. See how Maestro adds more components to that simple pattern. Start of this interlude is one of the best male choir and a very rare one as Maestro rarely uses male choir unlike female choir. It sounds very different. First we hear a single voice (like a cry) or atleast a group of voices which sounds like a single voice. Then he adds the choir with the same vocal melody making it a wonderful harmony. While the harmony is on, we can hear how Maestro punches in piano, and another lead guitar, without our knowledge. Then he cleverly removes the choir harmony and replaces it with high horns playing the same harmony melody (with the same lead guitar), but at higher octaves, may be soprano. 'Kaadhu katti vidhdhai' (just like kannkatti vidhdhai). :wink: Another interesting aspect is, when the choir pauses in between for a fraction of a second (you have to closely take a notice), he introduces another horn or piano (not sure) which adds to the rhythm along with the lead guitar. Sameway when the trumpet is underway and make a short pause, he adds the same lower horn (or piano). While the piano and lead guitar adds to the rhythm pattern, we now have to search that simple beat pattern which started the interlude, no way to trace that. Again, Maestro gives us another chance to trace that, by changing the choir pattern. This time the choir sounds like a rhythm, making the simple pattern rich enough in the second part of the interlude. This second part of interlude is the best example of vocal harmony, as the female choir range is in the soprano range, the male choir is either at alto or tenor, making it a perfect harmony. All this culminates, when the both choir goes higher with some freaking rolling drums. :thumbsup: Just imagine if it would have been choreographed well, how this song would be. There is so much in this interlude itself, that we can completely forget and forgive all the misgivings said in the earlier paragraphs.

The bass lines during charnams is terrific. This charanam totally belongs to Chitra, very well sung. Observe the beat syncopation. One long beat followed by two quick beats. Again lyrics is not in sync, but the soul of the song is in charanam, especially hear the last line. 'NaaL ThOrumE uravai kaattum panpaadidum kuruvi koottam naamE' and the finishing of drums (I believe it is by puru sir). The simple beat pattern suddenly turned into a storm. One of my favorite portion of the song!

If the above beat pattern is not enough, how about the one in second interlude?. The trumpet with some crazy beats. One trumpet plays high and immediately connects to another one at bass (baritone - may be trombone) in split of a second. May be Puru and Eugene Lazarus/Blasco Monsorate. Deivame! :notworthy: I totally forgot what I wrote initially about the song and its situation. Did you? :wink: Still the interlude is not over. Finest electric guitar playing which reverberates in us for a long time. If that was Lazarus and Puru, this time it is Sada sir. Stiff competition between those musicians and do you know who emerged as winner? As listeners we won and they all won our hearts! Maestro demonstrates his musical prowess in this interlude. If the first interlude was the finest, what do we call this? A Jazz fiesta!

If this song did not have incongruous lyrics and choreography, this should have been another 'Kaala Kaalamaaga' of Punnagai Mannan. 'ThennanthOppu', 'Kuruvikkoodu' type of lyrics and analogy did not fit the urban setting and the mood especially backed up some crazy and inspiring Jazz horns, piano, electric guitars and acoustic drums and rhythm patterns. It has an excellent tune and great singing by both Maestro and Chitra with some tremendous choir harmony and one of the finest interludes, if not the best. If you look at the positives and negatives now, positives outweigh all the negatives, provided the song is not seen at all. This is another classic example of any Maestro song does not and should not go waste. For that we need to be little patient in not dismissing by hearing just the starting humming. If we get past that hurdle, we are in for a greater treat and surprise which we would never thought of. Like maaya, it will always follow us and torture us, but once we get past that, we see a beautiful independent world in front of us.

There are some songs, which look beautiful outside (I mean the starts) and but it will be shallow inside with no soul, all wrapped up beautifully around a dead body. There are some songs which don't look beautiful outside, but it has got a beautiful and ever-loving heart inside. We also have both good looks and great soul-stirring songs, which is a different subject. I will take a vegetable analogy here. There are some vegetables which many have phobic syndrome at the very look of them. But they have more medicinal values. There are some other vegetables, which tastes and looks so good, but they only add to our health problems. Sometimes looks deceives us. That is applicable to music as well. I hope you know which category this song belongs to. Now we have to decide which one to choose, either the happy one or the good one!

All the above discussion about this song comes back to the same question I posted at the start. Does this song deserve to be left like the last grain on our plate to be drained out, having come a long way (yet its purpose not fulfilled), or does it deserve to be consumed, not just for the sympathy, for the merit alone. Choice is yours!

(Watch the video at your own risk)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj_NN2uuOkM&feature=related

http://www.thiraipaadal.com/album.php?ALBID=ALBIRR00211

Sunil_M88

5th March 2012, 06:59 PM

Sometimes our mind suggests we are too full but our taste buds tell us otherwise. You might have a similar proverb in Tamil, In Punjabi we say “Pet par gya par neeyat nai pari” "Eng: The stomach was full but the appetite could not be satiated”.

After hearing the whole album, it's likely one will finish the plate for the reasons above. OorOrama is on the peppier side of the album, so the question of sympathy does not arise because (coming back to your plate analogy) if you missed that last grain then you certainly don't know what you missed. It's right to say the song was flavoursome and provided different flavour :)

V_S Sir, Keep pouring the metaphors through, I love the way you relate music to anything if not everything. :clap: :clap: :clap: and Thanks for introducing me to this album, I liked the Mirdhangam and Konnakol jugal bandi in Kootathile Koil Pura but without a doubt, my pick of the album is Paatu Thalaivan :grin: heavenly charanams.

V_S

5th March 2012, 09:19 PM

Wonderfully put Sunil! :thumbsup: Can't agree more. We too have a saying, 'Even if stomach if full and satisfied, mind is not satisfied, it wants more'.
Idhaya Kovil songs were very popular that time and still it does. You picked the best. Paattu Thalaivan is a charming song with some outstanding arrangements. Thank you very much for your comments and wonderful thoughts on this song.

SoftSword

5th March 2012, 09:46 PM

all Maestro's compositions
finger slip?

watta writeup V_S :clap:
once read them in parts... poravu padikkiraen...

'oororama' is one song which amazed me from my childhood days for its uniqueness in singing and the peppy nature(idhellaam dhaan karanamnu appo theriyaadhu)...
oru inampuriyaadha eerppu indha paattula...
pitchu'la pichu odhariruppaar...
oru sema high'la aarambikkum... first rendu lines... (any other song which starts with such high pitch?)
apram aankuruvidhaan'la irundhu konjam keela pogum... aduttha line innum keela.. apdiyae... apram dhideernu 'jimchikku jimchiku'nu thirumba high...
they might hav had real fun composing this one...

indha song'um 'vel muruganukku mottai onnu podapporendaa'vum enakku appappo confuse agum.. think for the college backdrop or irrelevant lyrics...
adhu IR'a?

V_S

5th March 2012, 10:09 PM

Welcome here SS and thanks a lot for acknowledging my post with your kind words. Thanks for reading. You have nicely said how Maestro shows variation in every line. Yes, great fun song and good to hear that it is your favorite.

Regarding 'all Maestro's compositions take up the same process and diligence with no exceptions', anything wrong did I state? Sorry, didn't understand, Please explain. Every song is born out of his hands as his pet child. Process wise too it is same, if I am not wrong.

SoftSword

5th March 2012, 10:21 PM

nothing important there V_S...
i think u wanted to say 'all compositions of the maestro take up the same process'

'maestro'vin ellaa paadalgalum' is what u wanted and it came as 'ellaa maestrokkalin paadalgalum'... thereby acknowledging all the great maestro's in the music field...

kolappurena... puriyalena vitrunga V_S...

app_engine

5th March 2012, 10:27 PM

(Watch the video at your own risk)

:rotfl:

Excellent write-up, V_Sji, with beautiful uvamais :-)

The song was / is a big favourite with me, that too from a SPB-heavy album.

Actually, every song sung by IR has its own special charm. In one way or other, he sethukkify such songs (may not be consciously done but it happened in almost all cases).

Keep up the great job, we're in the thick of the 80's now!

V_S

5th March 2012, 10:29 PM

:oops2: Thanks SS for the correction. I thought there was 'poruL kuttram', so it is 'sol kuttram'. Corrected it now. That's my horrible language you need to bear.

V_S

5th March 2012, 10:40 PM

Thank you very much App for encouraging comments as always. Will try to do my best. I think I covered all 80's in our list, except just one left from Siva; VeLLikizhamai thala muzhugi song. Will be my next. Then we will be stepping into 90's.

SoftSword

5th March 2012, 10:48 PM

:oops2: Thanks SS for the correction. I thought there was 'poruL kuttram', so it is 'sol kuttram'. Corrected it now. That's my horrible language you need to bear.

ayyayo V_S, unga language'la naan thappu kandupudikkradhu paavam...
andha slip, IR mattum illaama 'avarai ponra' or 'maestro' ena paaraattatthakka matra musician'galukkum porundhura maadhiri vandhuruchi(rightly) apdinu solla dhaan highlight panen...

V_S

5th March 2012, 11:16 PM

SS, sure no problem at all. I understood and glad that you pointed out. Unless you pointed out, I would not have known that. Second eye is always better. Thanks a lot. :smile: I know, I still have a lot to improve.

Plum

6th March 2012, 12:34 PM

Raagas-kann - just saw your writeup on Eduthu naan vidavaa. Exlend - anubavichu ezhudharadhungaradhu idhu dhaan. If V-S's writings sound like they come from an incredibly artistic brain, this one seems to have come from your heart. Yes, IR outdoes even SPB here. One of the best fun songs from IR ever. Sadly, he doesn't touch the same heights in fun songs much - infact, a lot of my juniors in college/office refer to him as "azhugai MD" post the Sethu phase wherein his "sad" songs became more popular than his other ones. yaanaiya enge thadavuromo, adhai thaane shapeA nenaikka mudiyum?

kiru

6th March 2012, 12:57 PM

... If V-S's writings sound like they come from an incredibly artistic brain ...
Yes, he is very intellectual in his approach.. I have to read raagas-kann's post.

... wherein his "sad" songs became more popular than his other ones. yaanaiya enge thadavuromo, adhai thaane shapeA nenaikka mudiyum? ..

Exactly. my theory is, happy, especially fun songs are very trend oriented and so seem to be eclipsed by newer and newer MDs. Sad, melancholic songs are done with standard/classic instruments and stand the test of time..so for a senior MDs only these songs are exposed to the younger generation. So the young tend to generalize that MD's output with it. It is quite likely the ratio of sad songs to happy ones was higher in the earlier days as well.. it is all because of the socio-economic situation of that time-period. Now the country is much better of, so we can all go to parties and dance clubs etc while in MGR movies only the rich and him wore suits and danced rock-and-roll, even though he turns against the rich (and ofcourse marries the rich man's daughter or sister :-) )

groucho070

6th March 2012, 01:08 PM

V_S, my least favourite song of the album and now, I have changed my mind thanks to you. Jeez man, the song sound so modern even now. The guitar here is very Barry-esque (style sollurEn, not copying), all of which we can use as evidence for him to compose for a Bond movie, come on folks....the second interlude, what drums and horns, and the OO7 guitar comes in, oh man....how did I miss them in the first place????

V_S

6th March 2012, 08:58 PM

Thanks a lot Plum, kiru and grouch for your wonderful and generous compliments. Whenever I hear any Raja's song, it paints some analogy/landscape in me, thanks to the genius, but nothing intellectual or artistic (thanks to your generosity) Yetho andha time'la thOninatha ezhuthidren. Very glad you enjoyed it. Yes, coming to the interludes, it is top class, especially the second one, as grouch mentioned. Good to know grouch that the second interlude automatically brings in your favorite Bond in front of you. That's the beauty of the genius at work, for every one, he paints a different picture/perspective despite the song having the same mood and composed for only one situation.

raagadevan

7th March 2012, 04:01 AM

raagadevan and those who missed "En Gaanam" write up, please follow http://www.mayyam.com/talk/showthread.php?9369-Raaja-s-magical-duets-YEriyile-Elantha-Maram-(Karaiyellaam-Shenbagapoo)&p=710896&viewfull=1#post710896

Thank you Sunil :)

V_S: WOW!! What a write up :) The song is a lot more enjoyable after reading what you wrote :)

V_S

7th March 2012, 04:46 AM

Thank you very much raagadevan for reading and for your kind words of appreciation.:smile:

raaga_kann

9th March 2012, 09:02 AM

V_S - You keep bringing back my sweet 80s memories every now and then. Thanks a lot. I was just crazy about this number when Idhaya Koil audio released (We were all very eager about this film's audio as this was a Motherland creations, the makers of Payanangal Mudivadhilai, Ilamai Kalangal, Udaya Geetham, etc, where the Hero was none other than our Raaja!). When the audio released, "Oororam..." was the first pick with its hi-fi power packed orchestration. But Kaala poakkil, this song just started got erased from my "Must-hear" songs. The simple reason - the other classics in the film - Vaanuyarndha, Yaar Veettu roja, Naan Paadum Mouna Raaga & Kootathilae Koilpuar just drowned Oororama out of my list. Now with your analysis - it is right back in my favourite list. Thanks for reloading back this song back into my hit list.

raaga_kann

9th March 2012, 09:32 AM

Sadly, he doesn't touch the same heights in fun songs much - infact, a lot of my juniors in college/office refer to him as "azhugai MD" post the Sethu phase wherein his "sad" songs became more popular than his other ones. yaanaiya enge thadavuromo, adhai thaane shapeA nenaikka mudiyum?

Plum - If you go thru the list Raaja had sung in the initial phase of his career, most of them were fun-based and folk oriented ones (Oarampo, Vaadi en kappakilangae, etc). We got to know his other side of his singing only in the mid-80s with the advent of Amma based songs, Ramarajan, Raj Kiran, etc. And till date, I personally feel there is no other singer who can bring that sad feel and emotion 100% other than Raaja. Raaja's heavy voice and spot-on pronouncation is a big advantage for this type of singing. We became his adimais for these type of songs and it was quite natural that these songs were biggers hits than the other songs in the respective films (Eg. - Ponna pola aatha was the biggest hit of the film. Petha Manasu, Ullukkulae Chakaravarthi, Enge Sellum indha padhai, Un Kuthama, etc were on top of the hit song list of their respective films). And I can without any hestitation tell you - there was no one before Raaja and till date I am not finding any one who can do complete justice when it comes to singing sad songs. If your colleagues are calling him "Azhugai MD", there is no problem. It is in fact a tribute. It is not easy to make anyone cry with a 3 minute singing. But having said that, his humour filled songs, which may lag behind by a small margin when compared to Soaga paadalgal, has its own class. Some of the classical compositions of this genre have faded away to some extent. As a part of reviving this category, I am just revisiting some of these songs in this thread (with sub-title HUMOUR).

V_S

9th March 2012, 09:44 AM

You are welcome raaga_kann. Glad you enjoyed it. Yes, this song does not deserve to be left out. It's an all-rounder! :smile:

San_K

9th March 2012, 12:01 PM

Greate write-up V_S on a fabulous song.

Idhya kovil is an album which is very close to my heart, anytime I will chose a song from this movie (particularly Idhayam oru kovil) when somebody ask to pick top 10 songs (summa oru pechuku :)) of IR. Each song is a gemMO gem. The speciality of this album is anyone can argue for any song. I think only Raj TV plays many 80 songs including IK songs and not popular music channels :banghead: may be 'rights' issue. Ithellam pothu udamai aakkungappa, raajavukku perusa ethavathu senju

V_S

9th March 2012, 08:37 PM

Thank you San_K for your wonderful comments. As you said, we all have 'nanRi kadan' to Maestro. Ketka ketka (sorry, ketkaamalEyE) kodukkum amudha surabhi. Amudha surabhi gives only after we ask for something, but with Maestro, we don't have to ask him, he reads everyone's mind and gives us generously.

raaga_kann

10th March 2012, 12:59 AM

In the second half of the 90s, almost all the songs of Raaja (except for Kadhalukku Mariyadhai) were looked upon as untouchable stuff by the people (Enna oru nandri ketta ulagamaiyya…). This mediocre film was one of the unfortunate Raaja musical released during this period. As expected, no one was ready give a try to hear this magnificent folky music. All the songs in the film had a fresh folky flavour.

This is actually not a duet. It is sung by 3 singers - Raaja, Sundararajan and a GOAT! How about having a full song with a goat sound (“Mae…”) thru out…? And add to this - all the last word in each of the lines ending with “Mae…”. There you are… Raaja once again is ready with his experimental kit to unleash his skill in bringing out the rustic wit!

Here he pairs up with R.Sundararajan (The same director turned actor, who split with Raaja after his first film Payanangal Mudivadhillai, claiming that it was his directorial skills which made the film a success. After a couple of flops and realizing his foolishness, he again joined hands with Raaja in Naan Paadum Paadal… And after that no turning back, they gave many more memorable films like Vaidehi Kaathirundhaal, Amman koil kizhakalae, Kunguma Chimizh, Mella Thirandhadhu kadhavu, etc). This is the first and last song he has sung in films. Raaja, realizing R.Sundarajan’s limitations, handles him with care ensuring that only short lines are sung by him. And his pronunciations like palam, malai, etc can be pardoned as it is only a fun song.

This song once again brings to the fore Raaja’s imagination skills for a given situation.

The song starts with the screaming of goats in different modes. Then a short juggle bandhi between singers voice and goats’ voice… And immediately Sundararajan starts “Adi Unna Kaanaa..” followed by a short silence. “Onnum Thonaaa…” followed by a goat’s “Mae…” (thereby completing the word). This sets the tone for what to expect from the song…The MAE sound is inserted in various ways and in different tones thru out the song. Most of the time it sounds in the background when the word ends with the letter ‘MAE’. In few places it is used as a filler.. At other places, it teases the voices of the singers… and at times it sounds with a mini tune of its own… Aha… Only Raaja… Only Raaja…

Now – No more description… Get into the song… Raaja is bringing a herd of sheep to your drawing room…. Hear the song with goats surrounding you…

http://www.thiraipaadal.com/album.php?ALBID=ALBIRR00592

Adi unna kaanaMAE… (yamma..)
Onnum thonaMAE… (yehae..)
Thedi alanjoMAE.. (yamma..)
Naadi thalarndhoMAE…
Yen kannula aadudhu oorvasi rambaiyin padaMAE… padaMAE…padaMAE…
Adha kanda pinnalum unarchi illaiyna jadaMAE..jadaMAE..jadaMAE…
Dhum.. dhudhumdhum...

ennada koduMAE.. koduMAE
kolludhae thaniMAE…thaniMAE…
ilaMAE ilaMAE ilachi nikkama jodi ketkuMAE…
andha sogaMAE… sogaMAE…solla varaama thedi paarkuMAE

Poathuna ilaMAE..ilaMAE..
Thirumbuma iniMAE..iniMAE..
kaalaMAE..kaalaMAE..irukkum NeraMAE kaadhal inikkuMAE
pazhutha kilaMAE.. kilaMAE.. aana pinnalum jollu vadikoMAE

Vetti Pozhudha poakaMAE
Oru vevaram givaram ketkaMAE
Thonum paatta padipoMAE
Romba sogusa thaalam adipoMAE
EllaMAE onna vaachakka veluda thambi thayangaMAE
thadiyillaMAE ullasam pirakkum.. saamiyae saranaMAE

Malai vilundha... vellaMAE..vellaMAE..
Kuli vilundha .... pallaMAE..pallaMAE...
kolaMAE...kolaMAE... thanni illaena kaangchi poguMAE..
Mazha jalaMAE..jalaMAE...vandhu vizhundha neranji poguMAE..

Ilai ilaadha maraMAE..maraMAE..
Adhila yedhu palaMAE..palaMAE...
nelaMAE..nelaMAE... neeru kodutha kaachi kulungaMAE
andha pazhaMAE..pazhaMAE..sandhaikku poana panatha kodukuMAE...

vuttalangadi viduvoMAE...
nee keata innum kodupoMAE..
thandhanathan padipoMAE..
thamizh thavara poana adipoMAE..
yeani yedhum illama naamae yeri yeri povaMAE..
rendu rekkai yedhum illama naamae mela dhaan parapoMAE..

In the first interlude, there is a sudden blossom of a classical violin piece followed by a funny sound trying to extend as much as it can – Noteworthy. At the end of the Saranam, the goat sound goes missing…. Maybe Raaja wanted to deliberately keep the goats away as there were the words “Saamiyae Saranamae…” in the ending line of the saranam. This shows how he gets to the minute details of the lyrics – whether it is a serious or light song.

There are 2 other great songs sung by Raaja in the film.
1. Chinna Manikkaaga (Oh.. What a complex rhythm pattern for a village song).
2. Un Pakkathula – Another unique song with the female voice only laughing in various modes in between the lines of the entire song. This is a great song which can be explained in detail by only a great analyst like V_S. Hope he takes up this song in the thread (before I spoil it with my kirukkals)

jaiganes

10th March 2012, 02:50 AM

this song was discussed in funky ludes of raaja thread sometime back - for guys who proposed a theory that raaja has not been having fun since becoming a spiritual
bented person - this one is a solid fact to chew on and think what they have been spouting..

V_S

10th March 2012, 07:23 AM

Nice write-up raaga_kann and thanks for highlighting this rare song. Wonderful observations! Yes, I love Chinna Manikkaga and Un Pakkathula. Thanks for your confidence in me :smile:. We will sure write about it.

I agree with Jai, that IR has composed and sung many such light moment songs post 90's even till Achadicha Kaasu and Ennada Paandi from Vaalmiki (2009).

skr

12th March 2012, 04:16 PM

Thanks Raaga Kann for Adi Unna Kaanamma , never heard it before , its just louly
and thanks V_S for Oororama Aathupakkam , its a very favourite of mine
Funkiness to the core

Sunil_M88

14th March 2012, 04:00 AM

Old MacDonald Had a Farm And on that farm he just had a sheep lol

Never heard an Indian song like this, Raaja Saab jumping over every possible boundary. Thanks for the no. raaga ji :clap:

V_S

16th March 2012, 01:31 AM

Naarinil Poothoduthu - Irandil Ondru

ஹோல்டிங் மெதுவாக ஓடி வருகிறார். ஆனால் பந்தை மிக வேகமாக வீசுகிறார். நேராக வந்த பந்து. ஆப்-ஸ்டம்பிற்கு எய்திய பந்து. மிதமாக மேலெழுந்து வந்த பந்து. கவாஸ்கர் பந்தின் வீச்சையும் அதன் தடத்தையும் முன்னரே படித்துவிட்டதால் சற்றே பின்னடைந்து, அற்புதமான 'கவர்' ஷாட்அடித்தார். கஸ் லோகி'யால் தடுக்க முடியவில்லை, நான்கு! பந்து மட்டையை முத்தம் செய்த அடுத்த வினாடி, சீறிக்கொண்டு பாய்ந்தது கவர் பௌண்டரி'க்கு.

அடுத்த பந்து. ஆப் அண்ட் மிடில்'லை நோக்கியது. அற்புதமான பந்துவீச்சு. கவாஸ்கர் நிறுத்தி நிதானமாக நேர்த்தியாக விளையாடினர். ஹோல்டிங் பந்தை மறுமுனையில் பெற்று கொண்டு அடுத்த பந்திற்கு ஆயத்தமாகிறார். ரன் இல்லை.

இந்திய ஒரு விக்கெட் இழப்பிற்கு 67 ரன்கள்.

Those who have listened to Ramamurthy IAS, Abdul Jabbar, Koothabiran's thamizh cricket commentaries on AIR during the 80's, can relate to the above commentary and even hear their voices from the above lines. :smile: Especially the former, I am a big fan of his commentaries. When test cricket was so absorbing those days, the commentaries by these experts made cricket even more interesting. In English my favorite commentators were Richie Benaud and Tony Cozier. Also only few has the art of keeping the viewers/listeners in check. Similarly in music too, only few directors have the capability to visually and correctly narrate the music to show what it is capable of. I believe you got it! :smile:

Let's go into the song. Ramki was popular after 'Chinna Poove Mella PEsu' till atleast Rettai Roja and Viswanathan Ramamurthy, not at the level of Mohan or Ramarajan, but he had his own set of audience. These are the times (from 1987) new MDs like Devendran (VEdham Pudhithu - 1987), S A Rajkumar (Chinna PoovE Mella PEsu - 1988), Vidyasagar (Poomanam - 1989), Maragathamani (Azhagan - 1990), Deva (Vaigasi Poranthachu - 1991) kept coming every year (happy it was not like today, as we see new mds every day). The biggest surprise we found in most of the songs composed by them was, for a split second we would think it was composed by our Maestro. Especially it happened in most of their films that time (except Azhagan, it was a classic). But then during the interludes, we would clearly find it was not him. It seemed to us that it was some sort of planned trick to topple Maestro, as he was dictating terms in terms of music at every level (songs and BGM). May be I could be wrong and it was natural, but definitely we thought about it. Clearly those compositions told us they were just an imitation gold and not the real gold, within just few seconds of hearing. Even when this song Naarinil Poothoduthu came out amidst all the new entrants and their compositions, we are going to see how it stood out from the rest.

First and foremost thanks to the director for the situation. Not many directors want to narrate and develop a love story through a song (which will be over in just 4 minutes), instead they want to prolong it by adding more scenes and dialogues without the song,. The song would only start after the love blossoms (yes, after the bell rings from both sides :wink:). Here the director conveys the love between them in a very short and crisp fashion. Chitra's only portion in the entire song, the starting humming. After this, it is a Raja song. Yet the lead given by Chitra is enough to be considered as a duet, even though she is not part of the whole song. Another reason to consider this song as a duet as the visuals. The visuals completely justifies it as a duet song, as we will see in a little bit.

Nadhiya (Chitra) starts humming as she cleans the vessels. That point of time, she is not in love. Once she continues humming, Ramki (IR) adds his voice and answers her. She again hums like 'esapaattu' with her eyes wandering to see from where the sound is coming. No instruments till this point (except the night effect given by Maestro, again only in visuals). Three bass guitar chords add the beauty to his humming. Guitar chord is a symbol of love and the chords expresses his desire to see and connect to her. The point to note here, is the hero is already in love with her, while the heroine does not know him (much, except as a class-mate?). She is eager to know the man behind that voice, but he does not show his face, instead starts the song beautifully like this:

நாரினில் பூ தொடுத்து மாலை ஆக்கினேன்
காதலின் கோவில் வாழும் தேவிக்காகவே
அது காயுதிங்கே
ஒரு காதல் தீயில்
இதை யார் தடுப்பாரோ
பூங்காற்றே நீயும் சொல்வாய்

Maestro punctuates the first line with wonderful guitar, while there is no filler for the second line. From third line onwards; 'அது காயுதிங்கே', 'ஒரு காதல் தீயில்', 'இதை யார் தடுப்பாரோ' and 'பூங்காற்றே நீயும் சொல்வாய்' he plays santhoor (I guess) at the same time when Raja sings the lines, instead of adding santhoor as a filler to each line break. Now the question arises. Why there is filler (guitar) in the first line and why there is no instrument or filler during the second line and, why the remaining lines has instrument playing along at the same time.

Nadhiya acknowledges the first line, as that was her starting humming, so guitar acts as her acknowledgement and also as her appreciation to the tune and singing. But when he sings 'காதலின் கோவில் வாழும் தேவிக்காகவே', she gets the actual meaning and stunned as the song is leading to somewhere else. So there is silence there without any fillers. In next four lines, rather than acknowledging, she is eager into the meaning rather than the tune, so the santhoor plays along with the singing. The tune also supports these poetic lines. So there is a reason when Maestro plays instruments as fillers or as a backdrop. Another example that the tune need not vary so much from lower octaves to higher octaves to bring the beauty. Here you can note the tune operates in middle octaves throughout the pallavi, yet it is not bland, but it has all the sweetness in it. Excellent start to the song right from the humming to the pallavi with some wonderful lyrics and narration by the director!.

Interlude starts with brisk santhoor again backed up bass guitar (please hear the bass guitar throughout the song, it will take you to another song). This interlude is special as this is the one where the hero conveys his love to her. The brisk santhoor denotes his fast heart beat, as he is going to surprise her with a letter, so that anxiety in him. At the same time, we hear a solo violin, which also denotes his fear, if it fails. He throws a letter in her pot and disappears, before she recognizes him. The solo violin can also be imagined as her thoughts about the song which she heard last night. So even when she is with her friends, she is still alone. That solo violin depicts her loneliness.

Once she sees the letter in her pot, suddenly the atmosphere changes electric. Flute comes into play with the majestic guitar. Why?
1. Now that fast flute and guitar shows her anxiety to what's in the letter and she reads it.
2. It can also be viewed that hero is little relaxed as he did what he wanted to do, so that flute acts as a bit of reliever, even though his heart still beats faster.
3. Third interpretation is; this is the first time, both their hearts read the same thing. So the flute (of hero) and guitar (of heroine) plays at the same time.
4. Fourth interpretation; Technically the flute and guitar are in counter-point mode. She throws the letter fooling herself that she is not interested. If you take this into account, she is not accepting his love, so Maestro plays flute and guitar in couter-point mode rather than in harmony.

Director here cleverly writes the same pallavi in the letter which we heard above instead of upcoming charanam. There is a reason to it which we will address shortly. There ends the interlude with Maestro adding one more instrument at the end of interlude along with flute and guitar to give enough strength to their love.

Now hero is singing the same song, assuming the heroine enters the auditorium when the hero started singing the charanam. If the director would have written the charanam in the letter which she just read and threw, she would have immediately got that, the one sings is the one who gave her the letter. Here the director keeps her in suspense as he sings the charanam directly. Clever! Hear the charanam lines. Wonderful analogy describing her beauty with ragam and thalam. Since he saw that his letter was thrown away, he utters these lines; 'வாடுதே என் ஆவியே கேட்குதா என் பாடலே தேவியே நீயும் எங்கே'. What a pain in Maestro's voice there. :notworthy: Another aspect where the director shows his brilliance is when he finishes the last line of charanam; 'பூங்காற்றே நீயும் சொல்வாய்', which falls in the same tune as pallavi last line, the heroine immediately recognizes him (her face changes) when he is singing the last line of charanam rather than waiting for him to sing the pallavi again to recognize him (which is usual). Wonderfully done by the director! Kudos! :thumbsup:

உயிர் மூச்சில் கொஞ்சம் வார்த்தையே பாடல் ஆனதே
உன் மீது கொண்ட ஆசையே ராகம் ஆனதே
அசைந்தாடிடும் கண்கள் அது தாள சந்தங்கள்
உறவாடிடும் உள்ளம் தரும் ராக பந்தங்கள்
வாடுதே என் ஆவியே கேட்குதா என் பாடலே
தேவியே நீயும் எங்கே
பூங்காற்றே நீயும் சொல்வாய்

Once she knows her lover, there comes the blistering barnacles and thundering typhoons from the Maestro (only visually!, not in the audio version). After all the rain and thunder, there is silence and love has blossomed. When Maestro repeats the pallavi we are again back into her house front during early morning hours. The first pallavi was shown during night time. Here the director symbolically shows that dawn broke out from the dark. விடியல்! This is what is called narration of the music!

Another wonderful exhibition of visuals for the music happen in second interlude. But First music. Two guitar playing one the lead and another bass, both again in counter-point. Why counter-point now as the love has blossomed already right? She thinks of him and he thinks of her. He has his own imagination of her and vice versa, eventhough they are both in love. That's why Maestro did not pick up two different instruments, only guitar. Just the instrument here is the symbol of their sync and love, yet their imaginations about each other can be different, hence the counter-point. Again the one which is the lead guitar is of the heroine, as her imagination is over top of his imagination, that is usual of females. May be true or not, but that's how I see it.
You have to hear the racy tabla which pops from nowhere during the interlude. Maestro uses tabla just when their eyes meet. Phenomenal! :clap: That tabla dies down to normal pattern when the flute picks up where he gives another letter to her. You can hear the difference in the flute played in first interlude when the love has not blossomed and now. The flute is more of a soothing nature which implies their two hearts in love. There ends the interlude with trademark santhoor! Classy interlude in all nature!!

Director has captured the visuals in the interlude exceptionally well taking it to the instrument level and the timing (editing) is perfect, especially the tabla part. Now again it is interesting to see how the director captures the visuals in the second charanam. Here he narrates the charanam as read by the heroine in the letter given by hero during the above interlude. The whole charanam is all close-ups of both the lovers, as he is singing the charanam and she is reading the letter at the same time and their facial expressions. Here he switches from wide-angle landscapes to portraits to leave out everything in the world except they two and their love. Wonderful!

இளமாலை தென்றல் வீசியே என்னை வாட்டுதே
குளிரோடை துள்ளும் போதிலே உன்னை தேடுதே
உன் கூந்தல் சேராத மலர் வாசம் வீண்தானே
என் தேவி இல்லாத பொன்மாலை வீண்தானே
துடிக்குதே என் நெஞ்சமே தேடுதே உன் தஞ்சமே
காதலி நீதான் எங்கே
பூங்காற்றே நீயும் சொல்வாய்

Beautiful singing with heart by Raja! Director takes the third repeat pallavi to greater heights with the lovers becoming casual and roaming around, with lush greens and libraries as backdrop. This song is a perfect example how the director is thorough in explaining the situation for a song and how Maestro conceives it throughly. It's not all. Director has to faithfully reproduce what he conveyed to Maestro. He can do that only if he is first satisfied with the tune, mood and its orchestration. Even if he is satisfied, to reproduce to such a level as this song requires a thorough understanding of Maestro's music. In that way, he as accomplished both. With this 4 minute song, director takes from a single side love, to love blossoming on either side till it attains maturity. What else do we expect? Is it not phenomenal from the director's standpoint? May be that's the reason I could recollect those glorious cricket commentators who narrate so well, even when we are not watching the match, we can feel we were there! After praising the director, If I don't know who is the director, it is not good. Anyone know please?

Great folk tune to the roots, backed up by soulful orchestration with western influence! Coming to our original question. Whether this song stood among the rest in terms of tune, singing and orchestration? Definitely! Each and every note and every instrument speak their love and Maestro's love for music. Every instrument has a reason to be played and every note has a reason to be sung and not just for any anonymous reasons. That how Maestro's music is different. Added to this, this time every visual has a reason to be shown and every word has a reason to be heard. Just imagine the first interlude and all the different interpretations, every interpretation seems to be right (IMHO). There could still be many more. These are the different and multiple landscapes which Maestro paints in us for a single interlude. When the same song is done by others, these many landscapes are not there and there it becomes a monotone or monotonous. We are at no fault, as Maestro spoiled us with these enormous treats every day for the past 35 years, a single missing piece or a little downgrade in quality will be immediately spotted by us, as we know he is the real gold, 'Mackenna's Gold'!. :smile:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzeVHWpcI7s

app_engine

16th March 2012, 04:19 AM

Yet another great write-up, V_Sji!

Nice reminiscence of Thamizh commentators!

I'm listening to this song for the first time :oops:

Quite melodious & soothing!

V_S

16th March 2012, 05:02 AM

Thank you sir for your compliments and prompt response and support. :D This soundtrack is dominated by MV, Mano and Chitra, with only one chance for Maestro which he wins! :smile:

V_S

16th March 2012, 05:12 AM

rajsmed,
Vaango sir! :D Good to have you hear. We are missing some videos from films like Kadavul Amaitha MEdai, Lakshmi which we discussed in this thread. In case you have, please post the song videos on youtube.

Querida

16th March 2012, 10:13 AM

V_S I am just at a loss of words as how to explain the sheer depth of your analysis...
the various interpretations, the relating of how the music is in harmony with each action, emotion and theme, the detailing of the instruments and the music itself...really it boggles the mind...

I am curious, if you don't mind do tell how you write your posts? Do you listen to the song first then write or write while listening or write about the part after listening to only the part you are detailing?
The number of factors that you consider: the visuals, your interpretation of why Raaja does such and such to convey such and such, instruments used, comments about the tune, the beat etc. and then also an analysis of the lyrics/storyline and sometimes we also get a little bit of nostalgia/background/info and also the director's take. Really you continue to outdo yourself!! :notworthy:

What a pain in Maestro's voice there. http://www.mayyam.com/talk/images/smilies/notworthy.gif
Yes too true!!

Searched and found that movie's director is V. Azhagappan
http://en.600024.com/director/v-azhagappan-movies-list/

V_S

16th March 2012, 08:53 PM

Thank you very much Querida for your kind words and generous comments. :D I am delighted!
Thanks for asking me how I write. Nothing great, I just write what Maestro and director has/would have conceived. All credit to Maestro and the directors.

First I just listen to the song fully for few times to get an overview and the mood (if at all I get it). Sometimes I get what that song is all about, from the lyrics. If I have watched that film, I already know the situation for which it was composed, that becomes little easy. If not, then, I jump to visuals to see how the director has approached the song. If I don't get the visuals (from youtube) nor I have seen the film, then you have to bear the pain of my imaginations totally :wink:. In this case, I plainly go by the lyrics and the orchestration why and how Maestro composed that song in that manner and add my imaginations/interpretations to it, whatever comes to my mind at that time.

Once I have seen the visuals, and also have listened to the song fully few times, then I deep dive section by section, from prelude, pallavi, charanams, interludes till the end. I rewind every section again and again and ask questions why it has been done like that, and why not this way. At the same time I also rewind the visuals how the director has conceived. Since music was composed first (for the situation), I assume that as the standard as I believe that Maestro has conceived the situation 100% from the director, and what we hear is the direct interpretation of director's thought. Believe it or not, everytime Maestro has answered me why he has composed that way, why he chose this instrument particularly, even if every instrument was at his disposal. That's what he surprises me everytime. He has never used any instrument out of proportion or just for the sake of it. If the visuals does not match Maestro's music (atleast for me), I just pour in my unwanted thoughts on how this could have been done. Not pardonable at all, I know!

As and when I ask questions and get answer, immediately I note them down. then proceed to the next section. But the first few paragraphs in my recent posts were just for connecting links between the songs and my real-world experience, just to make the reading little interesting. Sometimes it will be about the background of the film/singers. Mostly I concentrate on the emotional aspect of the song. Since I don't know much technical details, I usually skip unless I am 100% sure, so that I don't make more mess. Somehow I am not able to contain the length of my posts, still trying hard. Thanks for patiently reading my lengthy posts. I hope I have answered your question.:smile:

Thanks a lot for the director's name. All credit to the V Azhagappan for excellently and truly sticking to Maestro's music and coming out with excellent visuals. :thumbsup:

Sunil_M88

16th March 2012, 10:54 PM

V_S sir, your amazing! A very melodious song :)

Thanks for the question Querida, it was probably doing rounds in most of our heads but you were the chosen one :lol: and what a wonderful answer :thumbsup:

But the first few paragraphs in my recent posts were just for connecting links between the songs and my real-world experience,

If there is no link formed with a song then IMO it's not a song. Conversely, when revisiting a song leading to pleasant memories of when we first heard that song, means that the connection will be evergreen and those songs are the ones which we cherish the most. This is the aspect which pulls me towards your write-ups, I'm not here just to be introduced to these numbers but through these write-ups I think I can live these songs as much as you.

V_S

17th March 2012, 12:00 AM

If there is no link formed with a song then IMO it's not a song.
Wow! well said! :thumbsup:

Conversely, when revisiting a song leading to pleasant memories of when we first heard that song, means that the connection will be evergreen and those songs are the ones which we cherish the most. This is the aspect which pulls me towards your write-ups, I'm not here just to be introduced to these numbers but through these write-ups I think I can live these songs as much as you.
Thank you sir! I am very happy to hear this! :D

raaga_kann

17th March 2012, 11:36 PM

Naarinil Poothoduthu - Irandil Ondru

நாரினில் பூ தொடுத்து மாலை ஆக்கினேன்

Great V_S... That was really a new find for me... Thangal varnanaiyum oru vagaiyl - "Naarinil Poo thoduthu Maalai Aakuvadhu" pol dhaan..

Querida

18th March 2012, 01:45 AM

V_S sir, your amazing! A very melodious song :)

Thanks for the question Querida, it was probably doing rounds in most of our heads but you were the chosen one :lol: and what a wonderful answer :thumbsup:

If there is no link formed with a song then IMO it's not a song. Conversely, when revisiting a song leading to pleasant memories of when we first heard that song, means that the connection will be evergreen and those songs are the ones which we cherish the most. This is the aspect which pulls me towards your write-ups, I'm not here just to be introduced to these numbers but through these write-ups I think I can live these songs as much as you.

:) yeah thought it was about time I asked...and thank you for your eloquent answer, I share the same sentiments... :thumbsup:

Thank you for your in depth answer V_S it's very much appreciated...as for all the gosh darn modesty...please set it aside V_S, we thoroughly enjoy your imaginative input, we don't always get the chance to peek into other's imaginations, and marvel at how different or similar they are to our own perceptions. As for the length of posts...well you are tackling the Maestro's work...detailed, nuanced, layered and marvellous work...and even then we all know we are seeing the tip of the iceberg so to say :) so Thank you very much V_S and please continue!!

V_S

18th March 2012, 02:26 AM

Thank you raaga_kann for your kind compliments! :D Very glad you like the song!

V_S

18th March 2012, 02:33 AM

we don't always get the chance to peek into other's imaginations, and marvel at how different or similar they are to our own perceptions. As for the length of posts...well you are tackling the Maestro's work...detailed, nuanced, layered and marvellous work...and even then we all know we are seeing the tip of the iceberg so to say

Querida,
Very true and excellently put, especially the bolded part. :clap: Yes, we can never cover all the perspectives with which Maestro has composed a song. As you aptly said, all his compositions are multi-layered, to track atleast a glimpse of it, I can only steal VadivElu's words; 'ippavE kaNNa kattudhE'.:smile: Thank you very much for your ever encouraging words. Surely will try to do my best! :smile:

raaga_kann

18th March 2012, 11:28 PM

We know about many MDs you have scored music in multiple languages. But is there any Lyricst who has written lyrics in 2 regional languages? Yes… Raaja has done that. He had written the lyrics for this Kannada song. I very much doubt any one else has written lyrics in 2 regional languages.

After a gap of few years, he was returning back to Kannada industry with this film - Shivasainya. And all the songs were a stunner (though the film fared badly..).

He had earlier written and composed a similar kind of song sung in Jail premises for his home production – Raajadhi Raaja (Ulaga Vazhkaiyae oru Jailu vazhkaidhaan). That was a bit song and it seems that he wanted that bit song to be extended to a full song. And his wish got fulfilled in this song.

When it comes to current music, current society, current culture – He is a very harsh critic. You can see him openly criticizing the sad state of our society and culture, whenever he gets an opportunity on stage / media. Similarly, he has used his powerful lyrical strength to show cause the society’s plight in few of his songs (Best example – Enna Petha Aathanu Esayedhuth paatha…. From the file Karagaattakaari). In this song, he comes very hard on the current (1995) scenario pertaining to political, education, corruption, government, etc. There is also a mention about the share market scam which was popular during that time.

But whether this song will fit in to the humour category….? I had this question in my mind. Though the entire song takes a dig at the society, each line of the lyrics is filled with lot of “Nakkal”ism. For eg.. see this line – Eenaadu Punyadha bhoomi… Paapagalae Illa swami.. Adhrunu paapigalliladhi oorae illilaa (Meaning… This country is a Puniya Bhoomi… As it is a Punniya Bhoomi, there are no sins… But still there is not a single place / town without sinners). This is one rare song for which I admired Raaja more for his lyrical show than his musical treat! For fans who are not familiar with Kannada, I have tried to translate to Tamil. The translation may be horrible… But please pardon me. Adikka varaadhingo.. Just catch the essence of the lyrics.

The other singer in this song is Mano. Though he sings for the Hero, he is just like a oorugai in this song. Very minimum opportunity for him – In fact, the chorus portion is much bigger than that of Mano’s. As such, it is Raaja, the Singer, the Lyricst & the Composer - All the way. (But still Mano should have been a happy man – Reason – All the songs in the film except for the evergreen Chikkamangaloora (Raaja & Chitra) was sung by Mano).

The prelude starts with the sounds of aluminium plates combining together to form a rhythm. The prisoners start the song by tapping the aluminium plates.. A teasing instrument joins the rhythm. The foot tapping rhythm compliments the dancing mood of the prisoners thru out the song. The singing by Raaja is spot on.. a la – Ellarumae Thirudaingadhaan style.

Both the interludes take a sudden serious deviation from the original mood of the song. The first interlude is a revolutionary one – similar in the lines of Manidha.. Manidha.. song. In the second interlude, the sudden sad solo violin piece really pierces you.. This is followed by a serious drum / violin combo.

Another notable aspect… The chorus thru out the song has done a commendable job. In the interludes the chorus brings tears, whereas in the other parts of the song it brings bountiful of joy.

Jaillalli Hutti Bayalige bandhe… Krishna.. Krishna.. Krishnaa..
( Jail-la porandhu vayalukku vandhae… Krishna. )
Naavu Bayalalli Hutti Jailige Bandhvi.. Krishna.. Krishna.. Krishnaa..
(Naanga Vayalilae porandhu jailukku vandhom..krishna..)
Chora Gurvae.. Krishna.. Idhu Chora Raajyavallo…
( Thirudar guruvae..krishna… idhu thirudar raajyam dhaanae..)
Ee Maaya Leelaigella.. Nee Soothradhaariyenao…
( indha maaya leelaikkellam.. nee soothradhaari dhaane..)
Ye.. Keshava Idhenu Mosava Maadidheyoo… Hoi…
(Keshava.. idenna mosathai panninaayo… hoi…)

Ee Naadu Punniyadha Bhoomi..
(Indha naadu punniya bhoomi..)
Paapagalae Illa swami…
(Paavangalae illai saami..)
Aadhrunu Paapigalalladha oorae illilaa…
(Aanaalum pavigal illadha oorae ingillai..)
Gandhiyannu Suttavaru yaaru…
(Gandhiyai Suttadhu yaaru…)
Share Market Kallaru yaaru…
(Share Market kollaiyar yaaru…)
Paradeshi allave alla… Yella Nammavare…
(Velinaatavar illavae illai… Ellam Nammavardhaan..)
Bekaadha Chaalis Nammalli untu… Kottodhu neena Krishna.. Krishna..
(Vendia alavu thirudargal nammidai undu… kuduthadhu neeya Krishna..)
Nee HelidhBaghavat geethailu kooda Ee point ellu illa Krishna…
(nee sonna Bagavad geedhaiyil kooda indha point engum illai Krishna..)
Deshavo.. Deshavo.. Indhu Nashavo.. Nashovo..
(Desamae.. Desamae.. Indru Naasamae.. Naasamae..)
Yaaru Bhikkaari.. Yaaru Shikkaari... Thoriso Keshava...
(who is Beggar.. who is enemy... show me keshava..)

Kelasane illadha janarae... Badhukokae kashtava yenu...
(velaiyae illaadha janangalae.. vazhvadharku kashtama enna...)
Nimageshto badhukuva dhaari noadi illunttu...
(ungalukku evalavo vazhugira vazhigal paarungal ingundu...)
School ondhu ollaya Business..
(School oru nalla business)
Politics-u innodhu Business..
(arasial mattroru business..)
Matha Kooda ollaya Business… Thapadhae Gantuntu…
(madham kooda nalla business… thavaraamal dhuddu undu…)
Kauravar yella Gauravavaagi Barodhu Style Nodillavo..
(kauravar ellam gauramaaga varugira style-ai paarkkaliyo..)
Kamsanae Bandhu Krishna Hai yendhu Helidhu Style Nodillavo..
(kamsanae vandhu hai krishnanu sonna style-a paarkkaliyo..)
Deshavo… Deshavo.. Indhu.. Nashavo.. Nashovo..
(desamae..desamae.. indru.. Naasamae..naasamae..)
Desha Nadisoakkae Leader Ellaya... Thoriso Keshava....
(desathai vazhi nadatha.. thalaivan engaiyya.. kaatidu keshava...)

The following video has got a lip sync problem…. But Raaja’s song will never have a subject sync problem… Enjoy…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSMq333zXfs

V_S

19th March 2012, 07:20 PM

Excellent write-up again raaga_kann!. This time taking kannada song which is a rare one. :thumbsup: And good to know that Raja has written lyrics for a kannada song. I see the hard work that you have translated the whole song. Thanks to you, as I learned many kannada words through your translation. :smile:

Divine22

21st March 2012, 01:22 PM

V_S sir,

:clap: :clap: for you phenomenal posts ! Its such a joy to read your writings.. Such an incredible work you are doing :)

Btw, I wanted to highlight another duet song IR - KSC from the 80's (I think so,) Some what a rare song, but it is an excellent number.

''Kaathala Kaathala Kangalaal ennai Theendu'' from Thaaikku Oru Thalattu.

Thanks Rajsmed for the YT upload.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twpQjSruwh0

V_S

21st March 2012, 07:26 PM

Thanks a lot Divine22 for all your kind words of appreciation. :D Ella pugazhum raasavirkE.:smile:
Regarding Kaadhala Kaadhala, I have posted about this one last september. http://www.mayyam.com/talk/showthread.php?9369-Raaja-s-magical-duets-Naarinil-Poothoduthu-(Irandil-Ondru)&p=744449&viewfull=1#post744449. Yes, a very beautiful lullaby. First time watching the video, thanks to you and rajsmed.

Sunil_M88

21st March 2012, 08:14 PM

Thanks for the share raaga, great to hear IR and Mano together. :thumbsup:

Raaja’s song will never have a subject sync problem…

:clap: WRT ^^ The mood of the song changes at 2.56 and as you rightly said, "it really pierces you" and the way Raaja Saab builds up the percussion (timpani) leading to the second charanam, for me is the highlight of this song. :)

Divine22

22nd March 2012, 07:44 AM

Oh, yes... My bad :oops: :))

Thanks.

groucho070

22nd March 2012, 08:51 AM

V_S, just read your take on Naarinil song. As usual, mere compliments are not enough. This song was an instant favourite that time among my classmates, and are the ones sang when we get together. I'd play the tablela (tabla on table ::mrgreen:). Beautiful song, and that's an understatement. :thumbsup:, waiting for more...

app_engine

22nd March 2012, 03:57 PM

I'd play the tablela

:rotfl2:

V_S

22nd March 2012, 10:19 PM

Thanks a lot grouch :D You are a big music lover having listened to these many rare gems like this. Would like to hear more from you about your nostalgic moments on your various musical interests. :smile:

V_S

28th March 2012, 08:28 AM

Vatti Edutha - Graamathu Minnal

We are back again with another number from Ramarajan's Graamathu Minnal. I somehow get excited whenever I watch Ramarajan films/songs :smile:. We already discussed another song Rettai KiLi from the same film sometime back. While that one describes the separation between the lovers, this one describes the love between the fresh lovers clubbed with their real life situation. Maestro's voice perfectly suits Ramarajan. Raja has sung some beautiful melodies for him followed by Mano and MV. While the world is becoming richer day by day, there are still people who are deprived of atleast one time meal a day. While most of us are aware of the nutritional facts of our meal and how best to be fit, there are people who still live only by carbohydrates (rice and water). These are the people who does the hard work for our stomach and for us to rest easy on the arm chair. When some of us can't stand simple problems in our life and take even some small issues under big lens for scrutiny, these people despite having major problems starting from their daily bread and health, they least care about all these only to live that moment. They have a big welcoming heart at the same time very rigid.

This song showcases two such beautiful people who have big and brave heart and are in love, which just blossomed. While they express and celebrate their love, he has a doubt whether he is a good match for her beauty and heart. He expresses his inability but she encourages him. I read some of the youtube comments saying the lyrics is silly. If you just hear the lyrics superficially, it will sound silly, but if you hear and see with the context and intent, you will see how good the lyrics is, matching the situation. Mind you, they are not poets or writers who can write good lyrics, They are lovers, and mere shepherds. They just express their real feeling in a colloquial way.

வட்டி எடுத்த சோத்த போட்டுட்ட
தண்ணி ஊத்தின உப்ப போட்டுட்ட
தொட்டுக்கிற ஒன்னுமில்லையே
நான் ஒன்ன கொஞ்சம் தொட்டுகிறவா

He is saying to her lover, you filtered the starch from the rice, then served rice with water and salt, yet there is no side dish, can I touch you for a side dish?. Even there we need to note that, he is not cared to see first there is a main dish at all. Main dish is only plain rice with water and salt. Just that, we feel sad about them, not them. You have to hear Raja's voice here, not a hint of sadness there. I also love the slang when he sings 'thottukiRava' instead of thottukidava. For this authentic folk, how about a bright guitar chord progression? and how it descends during the line 'தொட்டுக்கிற ஒன்னுமில்லையே'? brilliant!. Immediately followed by synth/guitar and tabla, as if these two instruments were waiting for their chance. Chitra repeats the pallavi when Revathi accepts his above request. Very bright singing by both Raja and Chitra just like the spring flowers. Hear the bass guitar which closely follows the melody, yet very subtle.

Another interesting aspect about the start is, till the third line, the song is still in colloquial fashion with lots of gaps between every two words. Once the third line finishes, Maestro introduces the guitar/synth with percussion which actually marks the start of the song with free flow. So the first three lines of Raja's singing can be even taken as a prelude with voice this time. Isn't it interesting how he builds the song? When Chitra starts singing 'naaana naaana naaana naananaa' the full blown orchestration starts with more synth elements coming in and kissing our ears taking turns. Maestro intentionally leaves the sandham instead of words when chitra hums, as the tune of the humming is same as the last line of pallavi. Also she doesn't want to answer with a single line, 'Yes, you can touch me' :wink:, instead she wants him to be more comfortable, so she repeats the pallavi and accepts his offer. :smile: Raja ends the pallavi with same 'naaana naaana naaana naananaa'. Why? Here hero is out of words when she says 'Yes', so he sings just the sandham. Beautiful isn't it? Innocence, ignorance and carefreeness is bliss!

Coming to the visuals, our 'Douser' Ramarajan has grown up to wear 'kattam pOtta mukka' lungi/kaili with trademark 'thalappakattu' and thaayathu around his neck, with cattle in the backdrop and typical MGR style romance and gestures. Really adorable he is! Only if you see the visuals you will understand the other side of the lyrics. So far we have seen lyrics literally based on their background. Now we are going to see it in lovers point of view. He is indirectly asking, you have expressed love to me (by filtering your heart only to me), added your engrossing looks and smiles (like adding water and salt to the rice), still that is not enough to satisfy my appetite to your love, until I feel your heart completely. Indirectly he is requesting her to talk more so that the love can develop further (asking if he can touch her) in the last line of pallavi.

So, if we just listen the pallavi, definitely like the youtube comments, it will look silly/mediocre, but it will get better as we see from their background perspective and will still get better when we finally see the visuals. We can surely unwind lot of knots if we have some patience. Like a 'moondraam pirai' (crescent moon - third night after new moon), it will not appear to our naked eyes at a glance. As they say, see in between the tree branches, you will see it, as the tree branches act as a picture frame through which you can see the true picture. What a treat it will be when it is visible to our eyes and to our heart! Same way to our ears and heart hearing this pallavi!

I was wondering why Maestro chose jumping xylophone in the interlude along with the synthesizer. I believe the director would have conveyed the situation of this duet between the green fields, trees with cattle, sheeps and lambs behind. So Maestro would have chosen xylophone to sync with the jumping sheeps/goats and director has brought out exactly what he told Maestro at the time of composing. Synthesizer symbolically represents these wonderful creatures which jump on the fields. He switches from synth to flute, but sustaining the xylophone for little more period as now the lovers are dancing. He now adds percussion for the rhythm for dancing. Please remember he did not have percussion at the start of the interlude when the goats were jumping. Maestro gives time for every bit of visuals, so that the director can easily choose his shots, based on the orchestration. After the flute, then the group of violins take over and now the xylophone has dropped down. During this whole interlude, we can see how Maestro adjusts the pace. Starts with intermittent synth, followed by continuous flute, then a staggered flute, then a continuous flurry of violins, then staggered violins culminating in rolling tabla to end the interlude and start the charanam. Since the lovers are going to dance for this interlude, he automatically visualizes ahead and gives a staggered interlude to aid various dance steps/movements altering the pace. It is always very interesting to go back and imagine how Maestro would have conceived all this in one go. As and when the director utters each line of situation, each line of composing (right from the instruments) is automatically done/written in his mind. The time he takes is to only notate all this in a score sheet. With his lightning fast mind, see how the composition has come out (is it lightning fast? never), you can never say it was done in seconds. Just the relaxing flute can say how relaxed his mind is to conceive it. A Beautiful mind!

Am I getting serious? Please watch Ramarajan in typical vibudhi/ kumgumam, kaili with this typical dance steps struggling to keep up with Revathi. Our heart will definitely feel very much lighter :wink:.

Let me jump into second charanam as the lyrics is more interesting and apt to the story and the end. First charanam is also very good. Before that, the second interlude gives us the hint what is going to happen to the lovers. Starts with a brisk violin with guitar (in phaser/wah wah pedal) giving a unique sound. The guitar punchy sound denotes the jubilant mood of heroine while the solo violin denotes his mood, not bad, still good. Let see how the solo violin changes the mood. She puts her feet in wrong spot in mud and hero cleans her feet. Hear the solo violin here. It has completely changed from good mood to sober mood, followed by group of violins. While hero clearly visualizes what is going to happen to their love, hence the solo sober violin, but heroine is very happy because he is taking care of her very much (by cleaning her feet, assuming he will take care of her for the entire life). Her mood is denoted by the group of violins (happy mood). If you hear the solo violin closely, you can hear that it is speaking to you. I can clearly hear as if the hero is asking her, 'can you be with me for ever'. The longing effect is there in that solo violin. That's when Ramarajan looks up to her with the same face. Following this, is a sober flute which still gives us a convincing argument about their love and how it is going to end. You have to see Ramarajan's face when this flute is on. Brilliantly done! One of his best! He feels she is going away from her life (symbolically director makes the heroine walk away). Once he feels that in his mind, immediately Revathi turns upto him and her face changes. Director cleverly gives the audience a hint that how this story is going to end. Maestro appropriately acknowledges this in this interlude brilliantly. If you focus little bit you can get the whole story out of this interlude. I would die to listen to this solo violin and flute! It can tell stories of Maestro's breath of music, bigger than any epic like mahabaratham. :notworthy:

Compare the first interlude and second interlude. Within minutes Maestro has changed the mood of the song completely. While the first one was driven wide, second one was driven deep. :thumbsup:

Once the hero feels the above scenario, it reflects when he starts the second charanam.

நானா மால போட போறேன் (am I going to marry you)
நாளும் ஆட்ட மேய்க்க போறேன் (I am only going to be a shepherd)
ராசா கூட போக போற (you are going to marry a king)
ராணி போல வாழ போற (and live like a queen)

Now the heroine interrupts
உன்னை விட யாரும் ராசாதி ராசன் இல்ல (no one is bigger than you)
பொன்னுப்பொருள் பார்த்து பூக்காது வாச முல்ல (no money can make a flower blossom)

Hero still not convinced asks her
வெறும் பய நான் விரும்புறையா ஆ..ஆ..ஆ.. (I am nothing, due to still love me? she acknowledges)
பறிச்ச வெச்சு பாக்கிறியா (are you plucking a flower and seeing sarcastically its beauty -- beautiful line and I love the slang here, paricha vechu)

She substantiates
உனக்கென சமஞ்சது உனக்கென சமைச்சது நான்தானே (I am only for you)

Coming to the tune, orchestration and singing of this charanam, beautiful start to the charanam at lower octaves. Every second line Maestro punctuates with a flute and santhoor. Flute and santhoor speaks and answers him 'yes you are going to marry her' as an acknowledgement from her heart. After a fast start to the charanam, Maestro underplays the tempo, in the next lines when Chitra starts singing adding the required sweetness to the tune. This is like whenever someone is in pain, and you are consoling them, your tone and tempo will be low and slow. That's what Maestro employs here. What a sweet tune there. After this, Ramarajan still not convinced, gets high as Raja sings 'verum paya naan', you can literally hear the cry of him. Incredible singing showing the deepest concern all reflected in Maestro's voice! Can any singer bring this emotion? Intentionally Maestro picks up the tempo during these lines to emphasis the cry and Chtira (Revathi) perfectly finishes the last line gasping to satisfy him (Ramarajan). Structured programming! Another aspect of the singing is, during the whole song Maestro's voice can be heard in pensive mood (except the pallavi), while Chitra's voice can be heard brimming with confidence. Visually too wonderfully done. During the second charanam, Ramarajan is wielding a stick with goats at the backdrop. I love that! There is no dance here, only emotions.

A perfect song for a perfect situation. A song soaked in emotions, but if you just listen to the song (as an overview), you can never notice it. That's the beauty of Maestro's creation. Even with visuals it is hard, unless you intend to. Even lyrics can be outright silly, unless we make a note of its inner meaning. So, on the outer-surface it will look like an ordinary folk-duet, but when you dig inside you can see much more than the duet, as we explored. The default bass lines, structure of the pallavi/charanam, why it was done that way, the structure of the interludes; variations in pace/rhythms, contrast singing styles and the reasoning, how Maestro forecasts each and every bit of visuals ahead and composed accordingly giving time for every bit. It is Maestro's beautiful new world made from his beautiful mind. His music world is never ending and once we are into it, there is no way getting out, as we will be caught up in a bond of eternal love. Do you want to join us and experience this eternal bondage?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5-3BWCL8nY

app_engine

28th March 2012, 10:12 AM

Excellent narration of the movie / song situation, V_Sji!

A dearly loved song, both for music and lyrics! Most TN-ers of today, especially those who are of the "net gen" may not even understand what this 'vatti' means - they may know the "loan interest" thingy but not the vessel used to serve / eat food in villages. Why, even among my gen, not many collegemates / colleagues could understand the word :-(

Fortunately, I was privileged during childhood to eat in piththaLai "vatti" in my dad's village & his sister's vAkkappattuppOna village. And on most occasions, it was chOLachchORu or kambanjORu from prior evening, soaked in just water overnight. kal uppu was available to add & not even pickle but only pachcha miLakai to go with it :-) On occasions, you'll get some curd to add to it...AhA, what a fantastic tasty experience was that!

"thottukkiRa" only pachcha miLakAi - sureer to the nAkku, it had to be hurriedly followed by a few mouthfuls of that "salt-only-added-cold-old-chORRu-uruNdai-immersed-in-water"!

romba nanRi, for hosting this song!

BTW, this story of a girl loved by an ordinary person getting suttufied by a wealthy / powerful person is a thousands of years old thingy :-)

There was this Padmarajan classic in Malayalam during the same time period, called namukku pArkkAn munthiri thOppukaL (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namukku_Parkkan_Munthiri_Thoppukal) starring Lalettan that had some inspiration from "Song of Solomon" (of The Bible). SoS is the same basic story - girl loving a shepherd boy brought to King's house and being pressurised to become the King's girl (King already had tons of wives and concubines also) & how she refuses the proposal and longs to get united to her shepherd boy lover...I haven't seen that movie and is in my "to-be-watched" list (won't be family-friendly)...

V_S

28th March 2012, 09:37 PM

Thanks a lot App and thanks for the super post App which brings me back all the nostalgia:clap:. kal uppu, pacchai melagai side dish, with rice soaked in water overnight, yes nothing tastes better than that.

especially those who are of the "net gen" may not even understand what this 'vatti' means - they may know the "loan interest" thingy but not the vessel used to serve / eat food in villages.
Well said! :thumbsup: Thanks for introducing Padmarajan classic! :smile:

Divine22

29th March 2012, 08:42 AM

Hi V_S sir

Such a wonderful write up abt vatti edutha song, I can't recall the last time i heard the song, I must revisit it soon, Great going ! :ty:

App sir,

Thanks for the 'vatti' explanation, I didnt know that was the actual meaning. :cool:

groucho070

29th March 2012, 09:19 AM

Finished reading. What can I say, V_S, excellent as usual. The lyrics are in no way silly. Actually its very clever, I tell you, the way it nicely filled the tune.

app, my in-law still has that vatti thingy, bent out of shape and all. Of course, they refuse to let me eat in that, being mappillai. Maybe I should steal it one day :smile:

Devaraagam

29th March 2012, 02:41 PM

V_S, "Vatti Eduthey" is one of the song which used refuse to listen as it starts like colloquial and many time not concentrated on it. your detailed write up is making me to give important to taht song..will listen and come back with my feedback.

" As I used tell, we will find some magic in any IR song at any point of time in our life and will start like it,love it,addict it so do not choose and collect IR songs, keep all songs in one movie"

Devaraagam

29th March 2012, 02:43 PM

App, thanks for the Vatti explanation and it reminds me my grandma as she used to have food only in that.

San_K

29th March 2012, 03:12 PM

enga paati gramathula vattai-nu soluvanga thattai. athu thana idhu?

app_engine

29th March 2012, 06:41 PM

enga paati gramathula vattai-nu soluvanga thattai. athu thana idhu?

It's actually "vattil" in proper Thamizh and the 'il' eaten away in spoken colloquial language
(konjam AzhamAna thattu, to accommodate the water that soaks the carbs)...

V_S

29th March 2012, 07:33 PM

Thanks Divine22, grouch and Devaraagam for your wonderful comments. :D grouch, I too was surprised, how someone felt it silly. Good to know your in-laws still have 'vatti'. I love those words and slang 'vatti', 'thottukiRava' 'parichu vechchu' in this song very much, which tells the smell of our land. To be honest, I would not have gone back to these songs, unless grouch asked me, so thanks to grouch. :smile:

App, thanks for the detailed explanation which kicks interest in many of us. :smile:

After all this, who is the lyricist of this song? Great lyrics!

app_engine

29th March 2012, 09:10 PM

dig

V_Sji,
Your help needed in SPB-IR thread as a colossal song will get posted today...that thread had been missing a detailed analysis from you for quite sometime.

'sundari' beckons you, whenever you have time :-)

end-dig

V_S

29th March 2012, 10:07 PM

Sure App, please give me some time, will try to come up with something. Thanks for asking.:smile:

Sunil_M88

30th March 2012, 01:55 AM

A very very insightful write-up, like every other write-up you have also written this one assiduously. I throughly enjoyed it. The first paragraph definitely deserves an extra applause. Thanks for taking time out to translate the lyrics, I can enjoy the song even more now :grin:

V_S

30th March 2012, 07:27 PM

Thank you Sunil fro your wonderful and motivational comments. :D: I actually did not translate literally, just the overall meaning out of each line, as there are some words and inner meanings which cannot be translated fully in English. Every language has its own specialty/beauty, only our mind knows what it is exactly, however we try, we cannot translate it 100%.

rajsmed

4th April 2012, 01:16 AM

Hey everyone,

I recently uploaded this very rare and hit song from the combination of Maestro Ilayaraja - S.P.Balasubramaniam - P.Susheela - S.Janaki. The song is "Naan Oru Ponnoviyam Kanden Ethire" from "Kannil Theriyum Kathaigal". Enjoy everyone!

I will be uploading many more rare and hit Ilayaraja songs over the next few days.

My channel is www.youtube.com/user/rajsmed

Please share your comments on Youtube! I always find it encouraging when people share their unique take on Maestro's songs! Best wishes!

- Rajesh

Tamil Movie Song - Kannil Theriyum Kathaigal - Naan Oru Ponnoviyam Kanden Ethire

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smV4gxkBkuM

rajsmed

4th April 2012, 10:02 AM

More rare and hit songs from recent uploads:

Tamil Movie Song - Dhuruva Natchathiram - Poovendrum Ponne Endrum

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PQcISGPKMM

Tamil Movie Song - Naan Sonnathey Sattam - Athikaalai Neram Kanavil Unnai Paarthen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A356Lovv9Bk

Tamil Movie Song - Parvathi Ennai Paaradi - Chinna Poongili Sindhum Thenmozhi Inikkum Nannaal Ithu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T07pmlcQ_g0

Tamil Movie Song - Bhagavathipuram Railway Gate - Kaalai Nera Kaatre Vaazhthi Sellu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g83t-hSw4KQ

V_S

20th April 2012, 10:27 PM

Sorry for all the delay. After a long break, we are back again with our last IR duet of 80's, from one of my favorite film that time.

V_S

20th April 2012, 10:54 PM

VeLLikkizhama Thala Muzhugi - Siva

Any Rajini film will work for me, just for the energy and his charisma. Whatever be the subject, whether it is a hit or not does not matter, thanks to my neighbors (hard core Rajini fans) who took me to every Rajini film during my school years. I even watched his lesser known films like Sivappu Sooriyan, Thaai Veedu etc. and enjoyed a lot. That habit continued atleast till 90's. To watch a Rajini film during college years was still more exciting with our whole gang. Siva was one such film which I saw during my college years. Unforgettable moments! I think I mentioned this before that many friends warned not to see this film, as it was not good and not a hit too. As I said earlier, when it comes to Rajini it does not matter, as long as Rajini is there and our dearest Raja is there, that is more than enough. SPB dominated fantabulous songs like Ada Maappilai, Adi Vaanmathi, Iru Vizhiyin and Adi Kannaatha were the companions for us during our late night studies in hostel. IR and SPB will also join us during our gossips and conversations, as we stop/pause/rewind/play/discuss their songs :wink:. Carefree life with only friends, films, songs, studies and dinner.

Definitely when SPB is dominating a soundtrack, obviously other songs will be given second priority, as we didn't grow enough. We now know the value when Raja sings a song. VeLLikizhama thalamuzhugi was least preferred also because of one more main reason to it. While all the SPB songs were for Rajini, this song was picturized on Janakaraj and Disco Shanthi. Good going for Janakaraj . In Puthu Puthu ArthangaL he was romancing Disco Shanthi's sister, here with Disco Shanthi herself. Both are KB's venture (Siva was Kavithalaya's production with MEri Jaan sorry Amirjaan is the director. :smile:). Ananthu's screenplay, quite good.

Now if you ask me, leaving the visuals behind, this fun song is no way inferior to other SPB fun songs; Ada Maapplai or Adi Kannaatha. This song almost belongs to Chitra, except Maestro lends his voice in couple of lines in charanam and also adds fun quotient when Chitra sings, sure it is a treat to hear Maestro's voice in this song. While seeing the visuals you will be hearing only Janakaraj's voice, it is so apt for Janakaraj, brings back Puthu Puthu ArthangaL song, Eduthu Naan Vidavaa, almost same timbre in his voice as that song, because of the same year.

Chitra's humming seduces us completely. Like snake dancing for 'magudi' we can completely dissolve in that humming. Uneven hi-hat hits adds the surprise element and makes the humming even better. The beat pattern after this is something only Raja can conjure. We are not yet into the song and I am already bowled by this rhythm pattern.

I believe it is 6/8 time signature. The pattern is uneven which has 4 long notes (4 quarter notes) followed by four short (two eighth) notes (fifth and sixth note). For the fifth and sixth note you can hear two shorter beats, but it makes one beat (because the time taken to hit one single beat for the first two notes is same as hitting two beats for last two notes). The beat pattern is like this: (b - stands for beat and '-' denotes rest). b-b-b-b-bbbb. The last four bbbb denotes two notes. To be clear, first four b-b-b-b => four notes, next two shorter beats bb => 1 beat, last two shorter beats bb =>1 beat. So, totally there are 6 beats/measure. Not sure if I am clear. Till now it might appear standard 6/8 beat pattern. Within this time signature how Maestro improvises the beat pattern is just a joy to hear. So then innovation does not stop there. The above standard pattern repeats for two cycles. After this Maestro changes the rhythm pattern for next two cycles. Now we hear b-bbb-b-bbbb. He adds one more eight note in between during the first four notes. For the next two beat cycles, he again changes the pattern to b-b-bbb-bbbb. He again adds one eighth note, but see where he adds, at a different place. The last four beats being the same for all the six beat cycles. He just adds a beat during the first four notes, but hear the difference it makes to the rhythm. Summarizing below the beat pattern for six cycles.

First two beat cycles
b-b-b-b-bbbb (tha-tha-tha-tha-thaka-dhimi)
b-b-b-b-bbbb (tha-tha-tha-tha-thaka-dhimi)
Next two beat cycles
b-bbb-b-bbbb (tha-thaka-tha-tha-thaka-dhimi)
b-bbb-b-bbbb(tha-thaka-tha-tha-thaka-dhimi)
Next two beat cycles
b-b-bbb-bbbb (tha-tha-thaka-tha-thaka-dhimi)
b-b-bbb-bbbb (tha-tha-thaka-tha-thaka-dhimi)

I may even be wrong to place that eighth note (it is very fast) during the last four beat cycles, but the idea is how he improvises each beat cycle without we even noticing it. All this happens in 11 seconds. That's the syncopation we could never imagine!. :notworthy: It is little hard to notice, but when I first observed this, I could not hide my joy. You have to again see this innovation is for a Janakaraj song. I can never imagine any composer doing this kind of thinking for a dance song which is not for lead pair, but for a comedian. This again goes to prove that he never differentiates and discriminates each of his composition. All are same to him. The discrimination is only in our minds. I keep singing the rhythm pattern (tha tha tha tha thaka dhimi…), but it took sometime to find this pattern and get used to that beat pattern, but for Maestro it just flows right from the word 'Go'.

Maestro continues the last beat pattern when the pallavi starts. Bass guitar starts too. More instruments flow in as the pallavi progresses. Another beauty is the way Maestro tuned the pallavi exactly on the same uneven rhythm structure. Try to sing tha-tha-thaka-tha followed by ve-LLi-kkizha-ma and ma-lli-gappoo-va, it will exactly match the rhythm pattern. Normally the sandham would only match the tune, but here it also matches the underlying rhythm. That's because the rhythm pattern is very close to the tune, unlike sometimes Maestro keeps the rhythm pattern little slow or fast compared to the main melody. Maestro keeps us guessing the anu-pallavi. He changes the tune completely slowing the anu-pallavi with rhythm pattern again changing as per the tune, keeping the same 6/8 beat cycle. Chitra sings beautifully and brings the erotic feel exceptionally well. All my doubts about Chitra's singing are cleared now. Hear the anu-pallavi to believe it. Within 1 minute into the song, we already saw some breath-taking musical adventure. In this mysterious adventure, whichever route we take, we will never go wrong, instead a big treat is waiting for us at every outlet.

Enticing 1st interlude!. Starts with sober synth followed by trumpet. The synth sound is like tugging our heartstrings. That is understandable as hero's heart string is already beating for her. When trumpet is on, there are so many other instruments which play together with tabla giving the percussion back drop. Since other instruments play, we cannot distinguish if it is tabla or some other instrument unless we take a close notice. Again Maestro is trying to create new sounds (which has been his second nature) here by merging individual natural sounds to get one unique sound of it. All these new sounds are organic, very healthy to ears and soul, no plastic feel to it :smile:. Why these new sounds are needed and what do they tell us and what is its purpose? Hero is already mesmerized by the initial humming of his lover, the sweetness in her voice and singing, just like a snake floored by 'magudi'. Once she starts singing the pallavi-anupallavi, that kick still takes him higher and over. The interlude with new sounds and trumpet just shows he is in a trance (bOthai, mayakkam) with trumpet is just echoing his state of mind similar to the sound of 'magudi'. This is where Maestro starts with a seducing humming just like Chitra did during the prelude, closely following the trumpet. He hears the trumpet in his mind and he wants to sing along with it and sings unintentionally. As the interlude ends , Maestro's humming and trumpet go hand in hand, as the hero becomes hypnotic. Maestro's one of the best humming ever. What a feel in it! Exactly depicting hero's state of mind, who was totally floored by his lover.

A very brisky and fun charanam. Maestro switches to tabla percussion during the charanam. He comes to reality now after day dreaming during the pallavi and interludes. While the lyrics gives us the chill as it starts with kuthaala aruvi, Chitra singing feels like we are in arctic and Maestro's voice and singing at the end of every line adds more spice which neutralizes the chillness. When she sings 'uLLam kettadhu kettadhu onna enni, he forgets to add spice during that line as he goes in for trance again for a short period hearing those beautiful words from his lover. Then he regains his state and sings 'adi kuthalakkadi gumma gumma, onna vittaaleppadi summa summa'. Now I am mesmerized by his singing. Rustic yet lovable! Imagine any other voice like SPB or KJY here. It would be totally out of place. MV might have done some justice, but not to the extent what Maestro does here. Hear each line when he says pOnaa, ohO, paartha. Every word has a unique expression with folkish tinge which only he can deliver.

C: kuthaalathukku pOna pona …. R: pOnaa
C: ange kottuthu kottuthu thanni thanni …. R: OhO
C: ada kottura thaniya paartha paartha…. R: paartha
C: ullam kettathu kettathu unna enni

R: adi kuthalakkadi gumma gumma
R: onna vittaaleppadi summa summa

The best portion of the song is the following four lines. The tune is captivating, honey-soaked, honey-dripping, whatever adjectives we pour in it will not be enough to describe it. Sweet singing by Chitra. :notworthy:
ada onna neneiche manja kuLichEn
oosi munaiyaa mEni eLaichEn … adadaa (Maestro's punch!)
andhi pagala sindhu padichEn
thannan thaniya kannu muzhichEn

Another highlight of the song is this last line of charanam. They have to sing together. She cannot say 'adi' to him, only he can say 'adi'. If you hear closely, she sings 'ada neeyum naanum onna sEra' and he sings 'adi neeyum naanum onna sEra. Great thinking, at every minute opportunities. Not a hint of tedium shown (after almost 500 films that time) which we hear frequently in today's compositions.

adi/ada neeyum naanum onna sEra

In repeat pallavi Maestro adds his voice at the end of every line which was originally filled by instruments which adds the fun element to great extent. Great ornamentation! Please hear how Maestro punctuates with AhA, ohO, mm, ammaamaa. During the repeat he completely changes the ornamentation and sings along with Chitra and ends with thanthana thannaa. It is the same pallavi anu-pallavi, but every time it is sung, we hear how differently it was handled till the song ends. Also please hear the repeat pallavi after the second charanam and how Maestro adds the fillers at every line. Another highlight is he continues with tabla for repeat pallavi as in charanams, while the prelude and first pallavi had drums. A perfect example to showcase, if the tune is right, we can accommodate any changes without affecting its flow or rhythm. See how everything comes together nicely. Master Composer, sorry Master Creator!.

While the singers are taking rest, there is a possibility that the erotic feel coming down which would take back the listener. Maestro understand that and he uses second interlude to that effect to continue on that feel. He starts briskly with fast drums as the hero watches his lover dancing and his heart pounces. Guitar and trumpet marches in with the same drum rhythm, adding fuel to his already burning desire. The beauty of this interlude is how Maestro switches from Western blues to Indian folk in split second, but there is still Jazz in that folk flavor which can be hardly noticed. We just now saw drums, guitar, trumpet all part of western influence. Hero feels that he is not in his country and he is in a wild dream. To bring him down again to nativity, he switches the percussion to tabla with trumpet and changing the rhythm as well. Tabla and trumpet go well together. What a wild imagination to use trumpet with tabla!. He still uses guitar, but hear the tone of guitar now, compared to the one which you heard at the start of this interlude. Western guitar completely changed its color within seconds. While we saw Maestro's humming and trumpet went hand in hand at the end of first interlude, here we can hear a perfect harmony between guitar and trumpet. It still puzzles me how can guitar be played at that octave level of trumpet. For a split second I thought it was two trumpets, but when closely heard the second one is actually a guitar! That's again a new sound we are talking about. Deivame!! :notworthy:

The second charanam highlight is again Chitra's extra-ordinary singing, especially these lines; kitta nerunga, katti anaikka. What a modulation and what a feel!

Before we realize these nuances, many of us already would be on their way to trash this. I don't blame them, that's the hurried way of life of today. Taking an analogy here, just for today's music lovers. Unless a jack fruit is peeled of, we will never know its inner taste and sweetness. To peel it we need knife, some oil, sometimes scissors too and most of all patience to cut it. Once you peel and taste it, the taste can beat anything. Another unique thing about Jackfruit is it has flavors of pineapple, mango and banana. Unless we really have patience and some good tools for hearing :wink:, definitely we cannot admire its inner beauty where the real soul is. It will be thrown out as the look is ferocious, as many today's youth go by the looks which can deceive them most of the time.

Maestro has employed unique and fast rhythm pattern of 6/8 time signature and added Jazz, Blues, Folk and tribal flavors, just like a fruit punch. If we slow down the rhythm pattern to half which is 3/4 then we could even hear the Waltz pattern. He also does not miss syncopation in these kind of songs which is very typical of Jazz compositions, which gives a peculiar effect. To reiterate, the same amount of hard work which went in for other SPB songs also went in here. Excellent singing by Chitra and Raja. We can hear the physics, chemistry, biology between the two :thumbsup:. This composition as the visuals suggested, is like taking a big long shower in kuththaaLam on a hot summer day to make us chill and following it up with a spicy hot lunch to make us warmer again only to cool if off again with triple flavor Jackfruit.

Also, this Jackfruit is available only in tropical regions (mainly Asia) and only in Summer. Should we not hurry to taste it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQiJcS0iOAo
http://www.einthusan.com/music/watch.php?lang=tamil&id=1393 (HD)

app_engine

21st April 2012, 01:41 AM

Awesome write-up, V_Sji!

a veLLikkizhama song for veLLikkizhama :lol2:

I have heard this number only a few times, like you said it's a 90% KSC song with rAsA doing very few lines - almost as a filler. I'm not a big fan of KSC doing mukkal-munagal songs but since this doesn't have too much of such content, one can listen to it without laughing. (SJ is the quintessential choice for such numbers from IR era - LRE from prior era).

Your threadbare analysis to such a not-so-well-known song makes one stunned - what a commitment :shock:

As you said, a palA (not one from siRumalai or vErppalA but palA, yes) ...

Sunil_M88

21st April 2012, 02:35 AM

Well done again :clap:

I cannot say how popular the song is, but I feel the same as App Ji about your commitment.

Nice write up on Rajini Sir's films :) Your metaphorical notions are simply superb, nice incorporation of Jackfruit. This time round I actually listened to the song around 4 times and your analogy is bang on. You certainly posses a lot of creativity as a writer. :thumbsup:

V_S

21st April 2012, 04:35 AM

raaga_kann

22nd April 2012, 11:22 PM

Thank you very much App and Sunil for your superlative comments. :smile: Some Maestro songs deserved to be stressed more because its sweetness is not known obviously unless we cut open and take a closer look.:smile:
http://www.about-bangladesh.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Jackfruit.jpg

To be frank, I do not think Raaja's fans have ever failed to cut open Raaja's jackfruits and enjoy the sweetness... we had done in the past... we are doing it now... and we will be continuing to do the same... Thanks for bringing out this not-so-popular song of Janakaraj-Raaja combination. One of the main reasons the song did not get its due like "Nila adhu vaanathumaelae..." was because the film was a big flop and even Rajani's die-hard fans could not tolerate the film... But despite the disaster, it was only because of Raaja we still remember this film...

raaga_kann

23rd April 2012, 12:07 AM

“There is a woman behind every successful man” – I used to interpret this with a different explanation in a lighter vein. If a man has to taste success, he has pull out the obstruction (woman) in front of him and put her behind him. When I heard this song, I was surprised that similar explanation was given by Raaja in mid-eighties itself! All the songs in the film were penned by Raaja. To get to know the real power of this writer, you should hear the other songs in the film – Thoondamani, Moonu velai & Chittukuruvi. You just wonder how this man could write so many songs (with substance) when he was very busy composing for around 50 films in a year..!

Paattukku Paattu is an ancient musical format where two contrary opinions are put forward by two different singers. This song is composed in this format. One of the singers (Raaja) has a high opinion about women where as the other one is very critical about the females (He considers them only as a bhodhai porul…).

If there were two singers in the 80s who could pronounce Tamizh words without any problem, it has to be MV and Raaja. These two singers come together in this song – and you are sure that Tamizh lyrics will be safe in their hands.

The prelude starts with a simple guitar-flute piece, followed by humorous “Logula..
Logula…” humming by MV. For a change, both the singers have equal chance to exhibit their singing talent. And the winner is…. Mudiyala…. I could not come to a conclusion… But ultimately the real winner is the listener..!

All the instruments in both the interludes blend perfectly with the humorous situation. In the second interlude, MV mimicking M.R.Radha will not fail to bring a smile in you (Radha Ravi was the hero for this film – another disastrous film..)

The rustic rhythm pattern keeps on changing frequently thru out the song and you will find it difficult to control your feet from erupting into a dance..! The connecting base from saranam to pallavi… a brief tabala beat… is a stunner. The chorus adds to the overall “kutthu” effect.

IR – Eesuvaranae.. Eesuvaranae… Pombaliya ennathukku thalaiyil vachaan
Pombalai illaatti ulagam illaada.. idha purinji kolla venum.. Manadhil kollada.
MV – Eesuvaranae.. Eesuvarane... Pombalaiya ennathukku thalaiyil vachaan
Pombalainaalae ulagam kettudum.... adha purinji kolladhannada..marachi
Vechittaan...

MV – Aathula thala muzhugi... Meattula mayir unarthi.. Kaatupakkam poava..
Adhu oar Azhagu...
Veettula velakku vachi... Vaasalil vidiya vachi... Kaathiruppa paaru..
Adhu oar Azhagu...
IR – Azhagu irukkum idathiladhaan... (dandanakadi thankkudhaan...)
Aabathuga kaathirukkum... (dandanakadi thankkudhaan...)
Ethanaiyo sithanugadhaan.. Paadi vachadhu unakku puriyalaiyaa...
MV – Unakkirukkum mana kuzhappam enakedhukku..enakedhukku...
Siruvaa.. Siruvaa... vazhividu...

IR – Medaiyil Manam mudichum.. saadaiyil sarasam pannum..
Appanoda buddhi unakkirukkudhu...
Kattura thaaliya vittu.. Thotathil veliyia thaandum..
Paattanoda buddhi unakkirukkudhu...
MV – Solluravadha Solludhu... (dandanakadi thankkudhaan...)
Pacha kizhi pillaida... (dandanakadi thankkudhaan...)
Anubhavathil arinjikondadhu... Adha alli cholla vaarthai illaidaa..
IR – chinnavano.. mannavano... sonna sollu unmaiyinna..
arinjaa.. purinjaa.. vazhi vidu..

http://www.thiraipaadal.com/album.php?ALBID=ALBIRR00707&lang=taKEERAVAANI&sort=duration_desc

Sunil_M88

23rd April 2012, 06:33 PM

Thanks for throwing light on IR male duets. What a topic for a song :lol: it just shows that a song can be made on ANYTHING.

V_S

23rd April 2012, 07:21 PM

Thanks raaga_kann for sharing a rare duet. :smile: I could not recollect, will have to listen to it.

Sunil_M88

4th May 2012, 04:09 AM

Netru Vantha Katru En Paatai

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3y3dy7kPI2U

Karthik Raja at his BEST :bow:

V_S

19th May 2012, 10:10 AM

Sorry guys, It's almost a month since I posted here. After a long break we will continue with Raja duet of 90s shortly.

V_S

19th May 2012, 10:33 AM

Machchi Mannaaru MansukuLLa bEjaaru - En Uyir ThOzhan

If Slumdog Millionaire was about a boy from Mumbai Dharavi Slum raising to become a Crorepathi, this film was about a man from the Madras Slum whose life was taken as granted by the politicians for their election/personal mandate. This was a very bold film by one and only Bharathiraja and very close to my heart, just after Mudhal Mariyaathai, 16 VayathinilE and Sigappu ROjaakkaL. Watched this film in Devi Bala or Devi Kala theatre in Chennai. Except for the song picturization and some mediocre acting performances, his stories and scripts are very powerful and he goes to the depths and roots. This film was one like that. The film was not a hit, but that's the fate of some good films, as many of them did not want to see a slum life. Another reason might be the unique Madras slang which many would not have understood or didn't want to understand. A great film by all means. Bharathiraja is a great story-teller and exceptional director, lost in time! We were very crazy for his films during our school and college times, anxiously looked for his every outing, every year. Even when we watched many films during school times, only after Bharathiraja's arrival, we knew the director's importance in the movie, mainly because he was the first director to show his face (atleast to my knowledge) on screen (from KallukuL eeram) and also introduce his films with his unique voice and accent. I believe no film lover would have ignored mimicking his style, 'en Iniya Thamizh MakkaLE' and his mannerisms and on how to capture a shot with this hands. For the type of stories he tells, Maestro was a huge pillar of strength and has given him a tremendous support and it was a perfect match. It is sad that he left him, especially for village-based subjects.

Even when the film was not going well, the song absolutely caught like a wild fire. Kuyilukkuppam and Yeh Raasaathi were way popular and memorable compositions. The title song; Thambi Nee is also instantly likable. Machchi Mannaaru is a rustic folk song with pungent, yet organic Madras flavor and slang which were adorned by us that time, even now and will be forever. This one tips the other song mainly because of this dialect. Again, you have to note here is, a man coming from a rural village from South TN understands the pulse of every people in every region (rural or urban or slum, TN or outside), their culture, their emotions, their way of life. Isn't it amazing and if this is not Dheerkadharisanam (foresightedness), then what else?. This composition is again an example of how he gets the pulse of Madras slum and its people and how he reflects that in his music. I don't know, somehow the great yesteryear actor, comedian and legend Chandrababu comes to my mind whenever I listen to this song and in fact any Madras dialect film or song. Who can forget his Bambara KannaalE, Kunguma PoovE, Naan our MuttaLunga and who can forget his perfect Madraswala in Sabaash Meena and 'Un moonjila en peechankayya vekka!'. It was Chandrababu who first made the Madras dialect famous in films. Even there is a song 'Ayyo Machchan Mannaaru' from the film VaLLi (1961) sung by Chandrababu. May be Maestro took the cue from the first line for this song. A Connoisseur and a Legend!

A perfect example of how the lyric fits the tune like a T. Whenever I used to sing the song I usually become conscious during the line ' Tachchu Panaaru Taakkara Ninnu POnaaru' . If we observe closely there is no delay between 'Takkara' and 'Ninnu Ponaaru'. If we relax between these two words (just like the first line) we will surely miss the tune (sandham) and the rhythm. Compare the second line with the first line. Same tune, except there is a slight variation in the note. He tries to squeeze in more notes into the same time signature. When you sing the first line, you have a breather between Machchi Mannaaru and 'en MansukuLLa bEjaaru', but you don't have that gratitude in the second line. That's why he starts Takkara Ninnu POnaaru a bit earlier after 'Tachchu Pannaaru' (atcharam ahead). I think, since there is a fraction of delay earlier in the first line, he needs to make that up, that's why there is no delay in the second line, so that there is no delay overall. He replaces the word 'en' in first line to 'takkara' in second line. He adds three notes for a note in the first line. Why all this? Because now we come to know that he is not just a composer, but a great mathematician too of highest calibre! No wonder Ramanujam and Raja resembles the same. He knows where to add and where to subtract without interrupting the flow. Just imagine, if the tune was composed in a normal way without giving that lag and lead, the curiosity aspect is gone. That's the Ilaiyaraaja knockout punch! No Black Label, Bacardi, Haywards 10000 or any cocktail punch will knock you out at your first sip, but Maestro's music will! This is a very unique aspect in the sense we are hearing the climax right at the start of song. No relaxation! There are more to come! Very very precise tuning and lyric fits in the most perfect way anyone would have ever imagined. It does not stop in pallavi, it continues till the end.

I don't know who sang the first lines first time. Great start to the song with unusual yawning. Filler for the first line is a three note flute, but one long one and two shorter notes. Like a impulse flute, asking what's your problem, which he answers in the next line. When one expects flute in the second line, Maestro starts the fast percussion. After the first time pallavi, Raja takes over. The beat pattern is so fast for a seemingly 4/4 time scale. Flute joins the rhythm rather hesitantly and goes on continuously afterwards, punctuated by folk sounding guitar (take that!). The guitar playing there invokes or visualizes the casual dance steps, without we needing to see the song. Then the guitar chords plays along with the flute providing harmony. Coming to the lyrics it is unimaginable to put almost 90% of words in Madras slang fitting to the tune as well. Just in first two lines, every word is a slang. Some exceptional lyricist. Is it Vaali? Even the word mansukuLLa instead of manasukuLLa (swallowed that 'a' to give that kick). I love these words takkara, daavu, sammu sammunu vaasam, sallu sallu'nu thookkum, most of all oththamoyam poovu. I love the melody in the line; 'daavu our daavu naan kattum nEram, nOvu oru nOvu puriyaama yErum, thaarEn oththamoyam poovu', especially the latter line where he extends the 'poovu' to bring the sweetness to the core. If Maestro brings in such melody, Raja as a singer takes it higher with his energy, the smile, the slang, sruthi and most of all 'heart'. Raja's singing is something extra-ordinary, no other singer can even come close, even professional I mean. The way Raja sings oththamayen poovu instead of oththamagan poovu tells stories of Maestro as composer and Raja as perfectionist. The adjectives he pours in every anu-pallavi line; ayya, haan gives the required kick and madras slum slang flavor confirms, how he gets into the pulse of that region at every smallest possible opportunities instead of shying away.

(M)
யாங்.. மச்சி மன்னாரு என் மன்சுக்குள்ள பேஜாரு
டச்சு பண்ணாரு டக்கரா நின்னு போனாரு

(M)
மச்சி மன்னாரு என் மன்சுக்குள்ள பேஜாரு
டச்சு பண்ணாரு டக்கரா நின்னு போனாரு

டாவு ஒரு டாவு நான் கட்டும் நேரம்
நோவு ஒரு நோவு புரியாம ஏறும்
தாரேன் ஒத்த மொயம் பூவு

ஆ சம்மு சம்முன்னு வாசம்
அய்ய சல்லு சல்லுனு தூக்கும்
ஆ சம்மு சம்முன்னு வாசம்
அய்ய சல்லு சல்லுனு தூக்கும்

மச்சி மன்னாரு என் மன்சுக்குள்ள பேஜாரு
டச்சு பண்ணாரு டக்கரா நின்னு போனாரு

Let us break the first interlude to see how he structures it. When Raja sings the last line of pallavi; 'Takkara Ninnu POnaaru', we would expect he would extend 'pOnaaruuuuu', but he cuts short to give space to changing rhythm pattern. Now the rhythm pattern is even more faster than in the prelude and the pallavi. If you rewind , you would see till the last word of pallavi, he keeps a different rhythm pattern, but once it ends immediately he switches to another pattern with no time lag. Normally he would use a flute or some string section to connect as a bridge between different rhythm patterns, but he switches with no help from other instruments, which is quite amazing. He continues the new rhythm pattern for the next 26 cycles. He leaves first two beat cycles alone with no other instruments (as a warm up). From third to tenth cycle(8 cycles) he adds xylophone(or vibraphone?), flute and synthesizer. He repeats these instruments one by one for first four cycles and repeats again for the next 4 cycles. Hear that new sound of xylophone which is unique only to Maestro's music. We covered now 10 cycles. He adds a wonderful shehnai for the next 8 cycles, which gets repeated by mesmerizing flute for another 8 cycles. That completes the 26 cycles of rhythm pattern with layering of other instruments on top of it. The interlude is not yet over. The flute which was riding on drums just now switches its carrier to folk/country guitar played in exquisite Maestro trademark style! This is for the next 2 cycles. Just before the interlude is over, Raja comes in with yawning to start the charanam. For the first 26 cycles, for each cycle we can hear 6 percussion beats, but for the last two cycles when the guitar takes over the percussion, Maestro maintains the same 6 beats with guitar in place of percussion.

The way Maestro places and paces the whole rhythm arrangements tells stories of perfection. How each and every instrument play their role and go away on a dramatical stage to make way for new instruments. Philosophy of life!. The percussion and guitar acts as a (stage) platform for other instruments to perform. The fast rhythm is synonymous to his fast heart beat while the instruments on top of it, is synonymous with his varied thinking having just caught into love.

A word again on lyrics and lyricist. I am still wondering how he could fit the slang in the tune at every line. Except the phrases which Chitra sings, where it takes a normal route, every other line has these striking ending like Vaa MaE, YE MaE, pOttukinukeeraen, kiLLikeenu, regentA, peechangara (sea shore) all beautifully rolled into the tune. It is not just the slang, the innocence in the lyrics takes it to another level. Hear these lines; ஏ காவேரி ஆராட்டம் நீமே.. நீ மே ஓடாத கூவம் தான் நா மே (You are like river kAvEri, I am like river koovam) With added slang it is even more richer. Another line; சோக்கான குப்பத்துல குயிலுக்கு வூடு கேக்காத பாஷையில கூவிப்பாடு ஏய்.. Beautiful imagination! The last lines of the charanam is the ultimate one, where hero wanted to hug her, pour his heart out to her, date and roam with her round the city. When you read/translate this in english, you would only guess the emotional/desire quotient in it, not other parts to it. That's the beauty of the language how it can bring the innocence to the lines and accommodate and adapt to every slang. One of the best charanams, marvelously composed. Raja stealing the show and Chitra could not compete with him. :notworthy: Once the charanam ends, Maestro continues with anu-pallavi rather than going back to pallavi immediately is another highlight. Why this is the highlight? As anu-pallavi is more catchy and has to be repeated, he composed in such a way that it can serve both the purposes, one as anu-pallavi, second as the extension of charanams. Code reusability! One function, multiple calls! Above we called him a mathematician, now we call him a specialty developer. :wink:

யாங்.. சோக்கான குப்பத்துல குயிலுக்கு வூடு
கேக்காத பாஷையில கூவிப்பாடு ஏய்..
(F)
ராசாவே ஒன்ன விட்டு நான் என்ன பாட... (M) அய்ய
கூசாம கைய தொட்டு சேர்ந்தாட
(M)
ஏ காவேரி ஆராட்டம் நீமே.. நீ மே
ஓடாத கூவம் தான் நா மே
(F)
பழசெல்லாம் போயாச்சி ராசா ராசா
மனசெல்லாம் பூவாச்சு லேசா
(M)
ஏ ஆசையில அள்ளிகினு அங்கே இங்கே கிள்ளிகினு
உள்ளதெல்லாம் சொல்லிகினு ஒன்ன வச்சி தள்ளிகினு
ஊரெல்லாம் ரௌண்டுடுவோம் வா மே

(F)
அட சம்மு சம்முன்னு வாசம்
இப்ப சல்லு சல்லுனு தூக்கும்
(M) அய்ய (F) சம்மு சம்முன்னு வாசம்
இப்ப சல்லு சல்லுனு தூக்கும்

This interlude starts with brisk drums with Raja casually singing இன்னா சட பாதுக்கினியா... இப்ப இன்னான்ற... ஹே..ஹே..ஹே..ஹேய். What energy there! :notworthy: Rewind please! The ending laugh is just amazing. We can hear how he enjoys singing. Does any one still have any doubt about Raja's singing and modulations capabilities? Maestro surprisingly uses trumpets here to show the hero is on a high and also introduces a melancholy violin hinting how their love will end, but I bet no one can ever notice hints like these, he gives in every song. Through the killer bass tracks and the ending electric guitar strokes with flute symbolically shows the electric guy like a hero joining hands with a girl whose heart is as soft as the flute. Except flute there is not a single native instrument, yet there is no tinge of western influence (unless heard closely) as he starts the interlude cleverly with his unique voice. The beauty in Maestro's work is he keeps us to focus where he needs us to focus. Even though he adds trumpet as filler to his voice at the beginning of the interlude, we are more glued to the slang, energy and humor thereby completely bypassing the instruments used. He takes that as advantage and adds more trumpet and guitar to quench his jazz thirst, then leaves us quench our thirst. Isn't it brilliant?

(M)
ரீஜென்டா கோட்டு சூட்டு போட்டுகினுகீரேன்
நீ கேட்டா எல்லாத்தையும் வாங்கியாரேன்
(F)
சூப்பர் ஸ்டார் படத்துக்கு தான் கூட்டிகிட்டு போங்க
அதுக்காக டிக்கெட்டு ரெண்டு வாங்கியாங்க
(M)
அய்யே கயக்கால பீச்சாங்கர ஏம் மே ஏம் மே
கை கோத்து என் கூட வா மே
(F)
நீ போகும் எடமெல்லாம் நான் தான் வாரேன்
தாங்காது பிரிஞ்சாலே வேறே (M) அப்பிடீங்கற!
(M)
சாமி கையில் சத்தியமா சொல்லிப்புட்டேன் நிச்சயமா
சிட்டியில நீ தான் இங்கே தர்மனுக்கு சொந்தமும்மே
சேர சம்மதத்தே தாம்மே

(F)
அட சம்மு சம்முன்னு வாசம்
இப்ப சல்லு சல்லுனு தூக்கும்
(M) யா (F) சம்மு சம்முன்னு வாசம்
இப்ப சல்லு சல்லுனு தூக்கும்

7. Raja's electric energy voice and singing and soulful tune. I would call this as an Application layer.

6. Lyrics and the slang at its best. This is the data representation, which we call as Presentation layer. The first two layers are the ones people get acquainted with immediately.

5. Outstanding arrangements. We can appreciate the precision with which this song was composed (mathematician). The time taken to structure the interludes, adding each instruments one by one, like a relay racing and finishing top, cleverly composing anu-pallavi for reusability (foresightedness), hinting the inevitable with that magic violin. If we jump from the application/presentation layer to one layer below, we call this as the Session layer. This layer explains how he manages different sessions or components (preludes, interludes).

4. How he integrates the session layer into the application and presentation layers and so that it gives a complete connection right from start to end. This is the Transport layer. The seamless flow of the song.

3. One of the important layers; To whom we are addressing this composition, logical addressing. Target audience. This is the Network layer. According to me, those who are lucky to listen this one are the target audience. :smile:

2. Again, one of the most important layer. While the previous layer addressed the target audience, this one addresses each one of them individually. We call physical addressing. This is the Data Link layer. Like you are getting a call from Maestro regarding this song. :smile: So far one way communication.

1. Last, but not the least, the core, Physical layer. When you answer the call (listening the song), connection is established physically or the time we get physically attached to the song. It is now up to us to how long we need to keep the connection live.

In communication systems, these are the 7 layers of abstraction in open systems interconnection model (the meanings are quite different, used it here for convenience). Why am I addressing this here? Any Maestro's composition is synonymous to these layers. Application/presentation layers are of immediate attention to people, but to present these layers, the layers below it has to help them. Every layer has to work together down the ladder so that we get physically attached to the composition and also to completely understand the composition. Mostly, we tend to focus in the first three layers (7, 6, 5) ignoring the purpose of the composition which lie in layers 3, 2 & 1. The backbone of every Maestro's composition. Machchi Mannaaru is one such deserving composition where we deserve to know its purpose (I know you got it), so that we get permanently attached to it.

csramasami

19th May 2012, 11:40 AM

VS :

I am stunned, left speechless. It’s awesome writing!

Particularly, your analogy of these communication layers ! That has universal validity for all the thousands of Raja songs.

I have seen certain league of IR-writers in dissecting and explaining the creations of IR, like Violin Vicky, Vel, Raj, RaviNat, AppEngine, Suresh and now VS.

You have established your style of writings VS, which not only shows the details but also vary each time and creating the expectations go high every time.

Each one has their own style, focus and target audience. But, a common point in all of them, is the cent percent faith & belief in IR and his creations and their dedication to reach & spread out the same to all of us!

I continue to believe that there are no bad songs in IR, the only thing being the songs you have heard often and the songs you have not heard (for whatever reasons).

Your writings and selection of songs repeatedly prove and strengthen my above belief.

Keep going!

CSR

rajkumarc

19th May 2012, 11:58 AM

Truly awesome writeup V_S for one of my most favorite songs sung by IR. Ever since you have mentioned that you are going to write about this number, I was eagerly awaiting your post. Totally worth the wait :notworthy:

This is a song where no one else could have done better justice than IR. The way he renders the Madras slang is incomparable and super authentic. Love the percussions in pallavi and the first interlude(which is stunning stuff by itself), it sounded pretty unique and fitted perfectly with the mood of this song. Lyrics were superb for this song and as you have put it fits perfectly to the tune.

Sunil_M88

19th May 2012, 04:34 PM

Again, you have to note here is, a man coming from a rural village from South TN understands the pulse of every people in every region (rural or urban or slum, TN or outside), their culture, their emotions, their way of life. Isn't it amazing and if this is not Dheerkadharisanam (foresightedness), then what else?

This is one of your best quotes that WILL remain set in stone.

Application/presentation layers are of immediate attention to people, but to present these layers, the layers below it has to help them. Every layer has to work together down the ladder so that we get physically attached to the composition and also to completely understand the composition. Mostly, we tend to focus in the first three layers (7, 6, 5) ignoring the purpose of the composition which lie in layers 3, 2 & 1.

Brilliantly summed up :bow:

That has universal validity for all the thousands of Raja songs.

+ infinity

app_engine

19th May 2012, 05:45 PM

V_Sji,
:clap:
:clap:
:clap:

Great writing!

Especially, loved the OSI reference model illustration :-)

Sureshs65

19th May 2012, 06:29 PM

V_S,

CSR nailed it. I am amazed at your energy. I honestly don't think I can write in so much detail. It requires a certain amont of passion, which will give you the required energy.

And yes, Raja understands the nuances of each area as only he can. People can also check out songs like 'jakkamma' (Solla Marandha Kadhai) and 'ennada paandi' ("Valmiki") to understand how wonderfully he captures the spirit of Madras. It is not just any other 'gana' song. This man and his music are magical.

V_S

19th May 2012, 10:30 PM

csr sir,
Truly honored by your generous appreciation and kind words. As you mentioned, I don't know I deserved to be listed among you all, but just your comments shows your heart and it means a lot to me. Thank you sir. You all are inspiration to me and all credit to Maestro. I somehow see him standing in front of me whenever I listen to his compositions. I mainly focus on the connect/emotions, as I am not qualified to write much technically.

I continue to believe that there are no bad songs in IR, the only thing being the songs you have heard often and the songs you have not heard (for whatever reasons).
Wow! Very well said sir! Very true.

rajkumarc,
Thank you very much for your high praise. Very glad to hear that you enjoyed my post. You are one of my best supporter and because of you all, I get that motivation to write.

Sunil,
Thanks a lot for your encouraging words all the time. I know the lyrics in Thamizh would not have made much sense to you, but I will try to translate sometime soon, so that you can understand and enjoy the song better. But it is little tough to translate given the slang and some unique inner meanings. I will try my best.

app sir,
I know without you asking me to write in this thread, I would not have written. Even I could see I have improved a little bit compared to when I started. It is all because of you. So a big big thanks to you for this and also thanks for your kind appreciation.

Suresh ji,
Thank you very much for your kind words of appreciation. Thanks for all your support and encouragement. Yes as you rightly observed, all our passion is Raja and his immortal music.

This man and his music are magical. Absolutely! Thanks for the Madras oriented songs, will listen shortly. As you rightly pointed, it is not another gana song, it will never be.

Wanted to clarify further about my conclusion in my post. Maestro is always there, even we were hearing layers 7, 6 & 5, but he is not visible to us, unless you go down the path and reach layer 1. Slowly, but steadily he will start appearing before us, when we are down to layers 3, 2 and 1. Layer 1 is where the exact connect between us and Maestro takes place. Ringing of bell. :smile: My humble opinion.

kiru

20th May 2012, 09:37 AM

V_S, this is awesome..after veLLi kizhama song..you have analyzed the thala patterns in another song.. this is one of the basic aspects of music (even though I still find it difficult to detect and follow) and you are proving IR's attention to detail and innovation start from the basics..not just in sounds/harmony and layers. No wonder it took a long time for another MD to break his monopoly. I think people in the industry completely lost confidence in themselves to compose after seeing him compose/hearing his compositions.. Not only Rahman used all his musical prowess but also help from other areas like sound engineering, different singers and improvising musicians in an effort to take on the man. A Legend for sure.
(I agree with CSR in elevating you to the likes of Violin Vicky et al..you present a very holistic and organic picture of the composition. Unique style. The standards of this forum keep going up with contributors like you. Thanks so much.)

skr

20th May 2012, 11:47 AM

:ty: so much V_S for this absolutely stunning write up ..
Its just so nice when you infuse so much passion in describing Maestro's compositions ..It glorifies them to an alltogether high ..
Thorougly enjoyed it , i listened to the songs 3 times continously as i was reading your write up ..

You have linked this song to the open system architecture which is interesting ..
I had this Information system paper in my CA Final , appo reading this used to be a bor , but listening and linking with a Maestro song indeed is a different experience alltogother ..Ipdi padicha , im sure students will start loving the subject :)

That's the Ilaiyaraaja knockout punch! No Black Label, Bacardi, Haywards 10000 or any cocktail punch will knock you out at your first sip, but Maestro's music will! :bow:
You are so very right , you just go into another world alltogether which IMHO the most expensive alcohol cannot do, moreover its a pleasant experience ..

You have mentioned the beat pattern to be going in 4/4 , but somehow i hear the Tisram beats making the song go in 3/4 pattern. Please correct me if im wrong..
Also a small request to attach the song link in the write up ..

CSR Sir has given you the highest amount of praise and rightfully so ..
I really think you should have a blog dedicated to Raaja properly archived so that we can have easy access to your posts ..
You deserve one ..Feel you can start one on Raaja's B'day which is coming soon :)

V_S

20th May 2012, 07:24 PM

kiru,
Thank you very much for your elevating comments. I honestly feel, I don't fall into that league of writers and their exceptional knowledge. All I can say, somehow Raja is writing for me.

No wonder it took a long time for another MD to break his monopoly. I think people in the industry completely lost confidence in themselves to compose after seeing him compose/hearing his compositions.. Not only Rahman used all his musical prowess but also help from other areas like sound engineering, different singers and improvising musicians in an effort to take on the man. A Legend for sure.
Wonderful quote and can't be said better.

skr,
Thank you so much for your wonderful compliments, as usual. Glad you liked it. I also had a doubt about time signature, that's the reason I added 'seemingly'. You may be right. Anyway I will listen to it again and confirm. I was little taken by the 28 cycle first interlude rhythm pattern, which made me write that.

Thanks for your recommendation for creating blog for Raja. Let's us see. Sorry, forgot to add the link, normally used to get video link, but for this song, I could not get, so forgot about that. Here is the audio link.

http://thiraipaadal.com/album.php?ALBID=ALBIRR00142&lang=en

Sunil_M88

20th May 2012, 10:55 PM

Sunil,
Thanks a lot for your encouraging words all the time. I know the lyrics in Thamizh would not have made much sense to you, but I will try to translate sometime soon, so that you can understand and enjoy the song better. But it is little tough to translate given the slang and some unique inner meanings. I will try my best.

Please, don't mind me. You're doing an outstanding job :clap: Don't worry about translating. Your posts are justified enough for me to deeply enjoy the songs :D

groucho070

24th May 2012, 11:43 AM

Finally, read it. I saw the post, but kept postponing. V_S, it was awesome until layer part :oops: I yam not technical (software), so orE confuse. Otherwise you are in your usual form = fabulous :bow:

V_S

24th May 2012, 08:11 PM

Thanks a lot grouch for your wonderful comments. Thanks for your constructive feedback. Sorry about the last part. I will make sure hereafter that I don't confuse and will try to appeal to everyone.

What I wanted to convey was, the beauty in Maestro's compositions does not like only in tune, singing or orchestration, it is much more than that. Unless we know its purpose, we will not be able to see Maestro and Maestro will not be visible to us. By purpose, I meant that you have to believe that this composition (every composition) was composed only for me. To believe that, you have to cross those 6 layers (maaya) to find where Maestro really is waiting for us (real Maestro world - physical bond/connection between Maestro and us). Since I found the OSI abstract analogy quite matching to the abstract layers, which I wanted to convey, I just added it to make it little interesting. Hope this makes sense.

app_engine

24th May 2012, 08:28 PM

I yam not technical (software)

adhu total software-um illeenga :-)

Both hard & soft - basically computer networking technologies and what model defines the communication systems that run the internet :-) In other words, the layers that make it possible for us to hub :-)

Also, not many software people are aware of the OSI reference model. And not many hardware people either :lol2: (I was in telecom industry, doing both hard & soft but had never heard about this for a decade or so - until I attended a training conducted by Novell Netware on internetworking...)

V_S

24th May 2012, 08:41 PM

Thanks App for clarifying.

Plum

24th May 2012, 09:55 PM

V_S - bayangarawesome post! I have to quote SPB when he talks about Raja - ratchasan. rathcasan yA neer.
Only one corrction: It is 'thArEn oththa moyan(m) poovu' - oru mozham poovu as opposed to only son's flower - unga lyrics kEkkavE oru mAdhiri irukku ;-)

was ... doing both hard & soft - yov ennaiya mAdhiri kamnAughtys vandhu pORa edam, pArthu pEsum ;-)

skr

24th May 2012, 10:10 PM

V_S ji
I have one request .. I find the song Kathala Kathala to be so extremely romantic and musical ..
Please do write a detailed post on that song ..Its my current crush :)

V_S

24th May 2012, 11:11 PM

Thanks a lot Plum for your encouraging words. Your appreciation means a lot to me. Thanks for the correction. Somehow I could not hear that 'm' in 'moyam' instead I heard 'n' only 'mayen'. I got tricked by the slang. I will correct it.

skr,
I have posted about Kadhala Kadhala sometime back.
http://www.mayyam.com/talk/showthread.php?9369-Raaja-s-magical-duets-Naarinil-Poothoduthu-(Irandil-Ondru)&p=745751&viewfull=1#post745751
And you have responded too! :smile:
http://www.mayyam.com/talk/showthread.php?9369-Raaja-s-magical-duets-Naarinil-Poothoduthu-(Irandil-Ondru)&p=745751&viewfull=1#post745751
I will try to re-view my post again and add more details if possible.

skr

25th May 2012, 10:13 AM

My bad ..
I should have checked before posting :)
somehow this song has been running in my mind the last couple of days or so ..
I will again re-visit your post ..Thanks a lot :)

P_R

25th May 2012, 10:55 AM

Do keep writing V_S!

For the most part I was 'sabaas nallavarundra...'

I didn't like the song though.
I liked the opening beats and the interludes more than the singing.
I don't like IR's madraas baashai singing, doesn't sound authentic. oru maadhiri muyarchi theriyudhu. I remember feeling this in some other song too, I can't recall now!

But sure made me listen to the song in the album I always skip. :ty:

V_S

25th May 2012, 07:26 PM

P_R,
Welcome to this thread. You comments are valuable, thanks a lot. Glad to make you hear the song. :smile:

sakaLAKALAKAlaa Vallavar

25th May 2012, 07:52 PM

adhu total software-um illeenga :-)

also, not many software people are aware of the osi reference model. And not many hardware people either :lol2: (i was in telecom industry, doing both hard & soft but had never heard about this for a decade or so - until i attended a training conducted by novell netware on internetworking...)

PDNTSPA :)

Hope u get it!

groucho070

28th May 2012, 07:37 AM

Sorry about the last part. I will make sure hereafter that I don't confuse and will try to appeal to everyone. :lol: ithukku ethukku sorry. EllArayum appeal panna neengga enna makkal kalaingar-A :smile: Can't please everyone all the time. Just do it any way you like, ambuduthEn.

app, got it, thanks.

raaga_kann

31st May 2012, 09:44 AM

Machchi Mannaaru MansukuLLa bEjaaru - En Uyir ThOzhan

Thanks V_S for the elobarate description of a non-filmed song. I had covered this song in this thread when I was relatively new to this thread. That was a very brief "run thru" the song.

http://www.mayyam.com/talk/showthread.php?9369-Raaja-s-magical-duets-Naarinil-Poothoduthu-(Irandil-Ondru)&p=716947&highlight=uyir#post716947

Now after reading your mega expertise about the song, I think I should axe my previous post without any mercy.....!

V_S

31st May 2012, 07:33 PM

oops! Totally forgot about it. Thanks a lot for reading and nice to read your comments, but your post is a eye opener as I also don't remember about this song being excluded from the picturization. Thanks for the information.

V_S

22nd June 2012, 08:51 AM

Thendral Vanthu Theendum bOthu - Avathaaram

என்னோட கண்ணா இருந்து இந்த ஒலகத்த பாரு

You would have known the famous Sir Richard Attenborough who made the film Gandhi. I think you would also know his younger brother, a naturalist Sir David Attenborough. Two great brothers of our times. I am a big fan of his BBC Documentaries and Serials. I have collected few of them like Life of Birds, Life on Earth, Planet Earth, Private life of Plants, The Living Planet, The Blue Planet and so on. He has been making documentaries right from 1950s till date. His narration is a joy to hear. The way he structures the episodes is just awesome. The cinematography is breath-taking. In case you have not watched any of these, it is highly recommended. In Blue Planet he explains various species at different areas of the Ocean; The Coastal Sea, The Deep, Open Ocean, Frozen Seas, Tidal Seas... There are lot of astonishing things like how the gravitational pull of moon affects the sea life. How some species evolve over the period of time and how some species does not even change for million of years. How all these relate to the epic composition we are going to discuss. Since the above title, 'என்னோட கண்ணா இருந்து இந்த ஒலகத்த பாரு', it is sufficient enough to get me the hook. :smile:

The song starts in a dramatic fashion. We can write and develop a full movie with just this prelude. It has so many elements in it. If you hear the prelude from a higher altitude/plane all you can say is, it is a very nice and soothing humming, just like the birds view of our land, searching for the music where it comes from. From that altitude all we can see is one color. Once you drill down to say 1000 feet, you can distinguish the female choruses and male voices separately and also know from where the music is coming from. If you further come down to say 100 feet, you can hear the backing guitar, bell chimes and the rhythm. Once you are grounded, you can hear every bit of music separately, that was created for you. Every vibrant color that you can possibly see.

Three separate female choruses start 'thaana thantham' at three different times, one at the zeroth second, second at 1st second and the third at the 2nd second, yet all three overlap beautifully in 4th second and join together and continue to sing the same sandham till the 8th second. Like three separate roads joining together, three separate rivers joining together before joining the ocean, three rivers joining to form triveni sangamam, like three Gods join together. Once the road/river merges, it loses the identity from where it comes from. After this for the next 6 seconds the chorus takes different route. This is because once the rivers merge into the sea, it takes the flow of the ocean and it is not a river anymore. Sameway the tune for the next 6 seconds takes a different route. This can even be said as the time taken to adjust to the flow/pattern of the ocean. Once it completely adjusted its flow, that's where the the lead to the actual sandham (pallavi) on which the song starts, comes in. This real sandham (tune) continues for the next 14 seconds.

This is not over. Still we are scratching the surface of the ocean. So we still see only one color, the blue. These 14 seconds are vital for us to identify different contours of this composition. The previous 6 seconds of female vocal harmony which gave lead to the main melody, is still there, but in the background, if you hear closely. This back vocals serve as the rhythm for the main melody (sung by Raja). This rhythm vocals is very beautiful to hear. Maestro adds backing guitar chords to it and also the bell chime for enhanced listening experience. No other rhythm/percussion arrangements, yet hear how grand it is. Maestro still not convinced. He adds another layer of violins along with the main melody and the backing harmony. On top of this, he also adds another layer of female vocal harmony. Can we call this a counter-point? I am not sure, as it involves four (instead of two) different layers each contradicting and complementing the main melody yet sounds in perfect harmony.

He starts the song with just one female chorus and within 29 seconds into the song, hear how many layers he applies. The top main melody sandham by Raja, supported by female rhythm vocals, group violins, second set of female chorus, well backed up by bell chimes and bass guitar. As I always tell, Maestro's music is not a diluted one. Unlike in a diluted one, where we can hear every single instrument clearly and admire the sound quality. It has multiple dense layers, thoroughly merged and mixed and the unique sound we get out of this is way different from those sounds heard by those single instruments. You can never hear such sounds at all. Remember all this comes mainly from the vocal harmony and the way it is tuned. No instrument can give this pleasure. Hear the amount of hard work and innovation went into this prelude, second after second. Not just a plain humming with guitar strumming. Raja casual singing makes it more interesting and makes us more relaxed.

With this multi-layered prelude, we are now adventuring into the sea, seeing different species of fishes right from the smallest paedocypris to the largest shark, blue fin tuna to axolotl, bizarre sea creatures, various kinds of coral reefs right from sea anemone to sea urchins, all constituting different spectrum of colors opening in front of our eyes beautifully. With all this vibrant colours, one thing is constant, that is the silence of the ocean which denotes that true blue color. The Blue Planet. That's the main melody. These various special creatures serve as the color palette; the orchestral segments and the vocal harmony. The density of the water is more as we go deep down, so is the silence. It is so pure and original. That's the experience you get when you listen to this prelude. Just cut this prelude and listen to it in repeat mode and you will know what I mean. You will never need to go to doctor for any pressure/pulse checkups. We will become 100% focussed. Watching the Blue Planet with this prelude can tell you the depth in the composition. How beautiful this world is! That's the purity of this prelude.

(To be continued)

V_S

22nd June 2012, 08:56 AM

The Life of Birds is another interesting documentary by Sir Richard Attenborough which I would have seen umpteen times. He takes us from Sweden to Venezuela to shallow waters of Braziil to Seychelles, to different countries and continents to gather information on various species of birds. How many different species, how many different colors and behaviors. I frequently watch one episode; The Signals and Songs of Birds. How the birds communicate between themselves by some special signals to defend their enemies like Raven and Hawks and even attack them. How they communicate when they are spotted by the enemy. A bird called Kagau in South Philadelphia sings to attract another Kagau from her family and get together as a family. Once they see each other they add visual display by expanding their feathers. It seems the sounds from them can communicate upto 1/2 a mile. For some others birds like American bitchin if they need to communicate to greater distances, they have to sing in their low pitched notes. It gulps the air and throws it out. It echoes and carries over two miles even through the thickest of the forests. There are others birds which can produce two different notes at the same time, one lower and one higher. There are many such wonders in our planet.

The pallavi starts in a lazy fashion, unlike the prelude start which was racy. To make it lazy, he touches only the lower octaves, but extends every line to make it more sweet. Raja's baritone voice when he finishes 'manasula' and 'nenappula' is so haunting to hear. Th pallavi is set in this fashion to even accommodate the lyrics appropriately. The breeze will pass us in a gentle and lazy fashion, so is the tune. Perfectly thought out process. In anu-pallavi he goes little high to give the variation and balance to already sweet pallavi. Wonderfully written too. Every thought has a color, every change of thought is interpreted by the change in color. What a beauty! Another unique aspect of this pallavi is the rhythm arrangements. New percussion, I think it is synth-based percussion, but sounds very fresh, but has a shallow sound to it, which was intentional to backup the lazy tune. At the end of each line in pallavi, there is another synth-bass guitar (?) which extends and asks, 'is it?' every time. At every alternate words in pallavi, a short, quick and subtle flute comes and goes. Very feeble to notice. In anu-pallavi, the flute extends to give the richness. There is also xylophone and piano playing at the back if you notice closely at the end of each anu-pallavi line. Another beauty is I even hear hi-hat played at the end of every line in pallavi/anu-pallavi as as the synth based percussion could not finish it. Again the hi-hat is so mild. See how he balances the synth with the real instruments. The percussion gives an echo effect whenever it is played. See the amount of nuances he adds at every split second. If these are not there, the tune will not get its deserved sweetness, how sweet you sing. That's the Raja we know with his signature.

Right from the start of pallavi, hear the instruments used for arrangements. Shallow synth-based percussion giving echo effect, subtle and short flutes, synth-bass, extended flute, piano, xylophone, hi-hats. Normally these number of instruments will be used for prelude or interludes to show his orchestration skills as that will be heard by most. To our surprise he uses heavy orchestration during the pallavi-anupallavi, which is rarely heard by many, as they would be concentrating mainly on the tune and the singing. When you expect something with Maestro, it will never happen, he is bound to surprise, but unfortunately, these things are not noted at all and he is portrayed as 'template' driven. That is so unfortunate. If you note even with all this instruments, these instruments never overtake the singing. We can hear every word clearly and the orchestration never prevents us from hearing it, as he keeps it mild. Coming to the tune, it is a authentic folk tune to the roots, backed up by heavy western counterparts. Can anyone distinguish these western instruments used in this pallavi alien to the song at any moment? Never! Again see the complex layering, those fresh and compounded sounds drawn out of the orchestration, you can never hear such new sounds in any other composers compositions. It is so original and from his brain. Yet it is so simple to hear.

Whenever I hear the low notes in pallavi or the short flute sounds for every two words, or the echoing percussion, extended flutes, gentle tapping of hi-hats, it takes me to those wild dense rain forests, shallow waters and streams to watch those birds communicate between themselves and sing for their joy and for us. Like how these different species add different color to our planet, Maestro brings the color through this pallavi-anupallavi in the same way. Extra-ordinary experience in that sense!

தென்றல் வந்து தீண்டும் போது என்ன வண்ணமோ மனசில
திங்கள் வந்து காயும் போது என்ன வண்ணமோ நெனப்புல
வந்து வந்து போகுதம்மா எண்ணமெல்லாம் வண்ணமம்மா
எண்ணங்களுக்கேத்தபடி வண்ணமெல்லாம் மாறுமம்மா
உண்மையம்மா உள்ளத நானும் சொன்னேன் பொன்னம்மா சின்ன கண்ணே

(To be continued)

V_S

22nd June 2012, 08:58 AM

Life on Earth. We saw Life on Sea. We saw Life of Birds. Now Life on Earth. There is an interesting episode in this series, called Theme and Variation. The title is little close to the music we are discussing, I chose this one. There are so many different creatures on earth, but they all are closely related. They are mammals. By Theme, Sir David Attenborough means the basic or ancestral theme through which variations developed. There are some extreme variations from the main ancestor (say the dinosaurs which existed 100 million years ago) and it becomes difficult to believe that if this variation is really from the main theme. Even when dinosaurs disappeared 65 millions years ago, its descendants still exists in various forms from 'Tree Shrew' of Malaysia, Desman and even bats, squirrels, rabbits to the big blue Whale.

Female chorus start the proceedings closely mimicing the rhythm pattern, while another choir sing on top of this, making it a perfect counter-melody. First two cycles of rhythm followed by the haunting pauses adds more beauty to this interlude. From the third cycle second female choir start on the same rhythm with violin closely following the choir. When we almost conclude that these are the only two female choir in this interlude, there comes a big surprise in the form of third female choir. They continue from where the second choir left them, sparked by sharp staccato violins (along with a wind instrument?) to end the interlude in the same way how it started. Like a Code piece. These three female choir if extended and extrapolated can lead to three beautiful melodies, which is always the highlight of any Maestro's interludes. Short and sweet interlude.

Those female choir mimicking the rhythm pattern resembles the main basic theme which Sir described and the counter choir describes the variations to the main theme (descendants). Different choir patterns (tunes) over the main theme describes the evolving process over million years. As different species born out their parent, violins are suddenly born from those choir, but the underlying rhythm pattern stays the same denoting the main theme does not change and also reminds us of our ancestral bodies. Just Sir describes Life on Earth, Maestro describes Music to our soul.

(To be continued)

V_S

22nd June 2012, 09:02 AM

Private Life of Plants. What a beautiful title!. Since they don't speak, it seems 'private' is apt. But this documentary speaks everything about plants and trees, right from how the plants move (:lol:), defend themselves from animals, how do they transport their seeds, what are all the problems they face while transporting, how they make a deal with animals, most of all how do they survive from calamities. This is something very close to our hearts, as they are special being. One episode which I like the most is the Flowering. How wind, birds, water and insects transport the pollen to other plants and trees. The main intelligence is the stigma of a plant/flower can recognize which pollen grain is for them and which one is not for them to fertilize. If the pollen is again from the same plant as they are, they deny and only accept pollen from other plants. There are some flowers like Protea where they don't expose themselves to get pollinated, but they always face the earth and covered by its plants, so no way to pollinate through winds or birds. A little bush mouse pollinate them during nights through its nose which it carried from some other plants. Amazing isn't it?

The charanam sustains and retains the sweetness of the pallavi-anupallavi. The highlight of the tune is it shuttles in middle octaves without going too high nor going too low like in pallavi. Within this, see how Maestro brings the sweetness with the swinging laziness. Especially when ending each line of charanam; veeesuthu, pEsuthu, he extends to the maximum to enhance the sweetness. Lyrics aptly support the tune and its laziness and singing to 'T'. Some best lines for me;
ஒறவும் இல்லாமலே இரு மனம் ஏதோ பேசுது (without any relation, two minds speak to themselves randomly)
எதுவும் இல்லாமலே மனசெல்லாம் இனிப்பா இனிக்குது (I don't have anything/I am not thinking anything, yet my mind sounds so sweet)
நேசம் பொறந்தாலே ஒடம்பெல்லாம் ஏனோ சிலிர்க்குது (I get goosbumps when love is born)
குயிலே குயிலினமே அன்ப இசையா கூவுதம்மா (Even cuckoo's language of music is love)
and the way Raja sings these lines. :notworthy: SJ steals this charanam with the last line; நெலையா நில்லாது நினைவில் வரும் நெறங்களே (Colors which comes to our mind does not stay with us forever), as if she is waiting to win in the last ball through a mighty six. Same way Raja does in second charanam. In fact every line is a sixer by their singing.

எவரும் சொல்லாமலே பூக்களும் வாசம் வீசுது
ஒறவும் இல்லாமலே இரு மனம் ஏதோ பேசுது
எவரும் சொல்லாமலே குயிலெல்லாம் தேனா பாடுது
எதுவும் இல்லாமலே மனசெல்லாம் இனிப்பா இனிக்குது
ஓடை நீரோடை இந்த ஒலகம் அது போல
ஓடும் அது ஓடும் இந்த காலம் அது போல
நெலையா நில்லாது நினைவில் வரும் நெறங்களே

ஈரம் விழுந்தாலே நிலத்திலே எல்லாம் துளிர்க்குது
நேசம் பொறந்தாலே ஒடம்பெல்லாம் ஏனோ சிலிர்க்குது
ஆலம் விழுதாக ஆசைகள் ஊஞ்சல் ஆடுது
அலையும் அல போலே அழகெல்லாம் கோலம் போடுது
குயிலே குயிலினமே அன்ப இசையா கூவுதம்மா
கிளியே கிளியினமே அத கதையாய் பேசுதம்மா
கதையாய் விடுகதையாய் ஆவதில்லையே அன்பு தான்

Whenever I listen to these charanams, I used to wonder how beautifully it was thought out. One of the best lyrics! It explains the principles of life with some terrific analogies and it also tells that all principles are bounded only by love. Fantastic! How the wind (தென்றல் வந்து தீண்டும் போது என்ன வண்ணமோ மனசில), water (ஈரம் விழுந்தாலே நிலத்திலே எல்லாம் துளிர்க்குது) birds and insects (குயிலே குயிலினமே அன்ப இசையா கூவுதம்மா) carry the message of love (pollen) between trees, plants and flowers. When they see their pollen, love is born and they blossom into a beautiful flower or fruit. Same way, whenever their is love the world becomes so beautiful. Since the love is posted by these carriers, they get nectar as a gift. :wink:. The beautiful world we see is only due to love.

(To be continued)

V_S

22nd June 2012, 09:04 AM

Planet Earth. This is the most expensive and popular documentary. He explains that 4 months of pitch darkness in Artic and Antarctic with temperatures down to -70c, how trees helps preserve the atmosphere by emitting oxygen, the biggest migration on earth of about 3 million caribous across the arctic tundra, some travel 2000 miles every year, biggest migration of birds from Siberia to South Korea, the change of seasons and how deciduous forests shuts down by losing their leaves and prepare for the winter, and in the tropics where sun hits the earth always, there are millions of species of animals, insects and plants. Sun rays hitting the tropical waters, alters the weather system of the planet and creates storms and rains and the winds sweeping the land across the continents. A sand storm in Sahara fertilizes the Amazon rain forests. Where is Sahara and where is Amazon. What an amazing planet!

Next seven seconds has the most brilliant piece of music, a musical wonder which is a tribute to Bach and his contemporaries. Violins plays tremolo base, while one synthesizer plays a scintillating fugue (??) of one theme imitated by another synthesizer at a different pitch. First is a long theme which is imitated by second synth, second is a short theme played by the first one, imitated by the second synth. Most complicated pieces which you will hardly find in other musical pieces. After this, some new sound evolves out of the synthesizer which continues for next 7 cycles. Maestro takes a short gap and continues the same synth for next 3 cycles. During the 4th cycle, I think vibraphone plays such that we can feel the sound of pearl falling on the floor. Something opens up there, a beautiful smile, a beautiful world in front of our eyes, a beautiful moment. Violins immediately follows the vibraphone. The tune of the violin is in sync with the synthesizer. When synthesizer stops in between (after 7 cycles), the violin just extends during that gap to again follow the same tune for the next 3 cycles. Just this piece alone can extend into a beautiful song. Female choir and guitar sets up a breezy finish to the interlude. Also observe that intermediate duff percussion. Wonderful! One of the best female choir, and what a tune to end the interlude.

To recap, the first two themes and its imitation, 3 cycles of synth taking over from the themes, vibraphone breaking loose at the 4th cycle, violins taking over from the 5th-7th cycles followed by the female choir with guitar. These are the five independent pieces in this interlude. If you hear it separately there is absolutely no connection between each one of them. But how brilliantly Maestro tied all these piece together speaks volumes about this genius and his work and dedication. With all the synth based sounds, guitar, vibraphone, the nativity is not compromised even with these non-native instruments. That last female choir makes a huge difference to bring in the nativity. You will never feel from all these synth sounds that it is actually synth, that's how Maestro uses every instrument not to reveal its true color, instead adapt to our environment. No one cares all these, just taking pleasure to write him down at every minute opportunities. But what a fantastic score this is! Once in a lifetime interlude with great tribute to the western classical era and equally a great tribute to our land.

Just like different parts of the world communicate with each other without even knowing they are communicating, one region's oxygen is transported and absorbed by another region, one region's sand is used by another region, one plant's pollen is absorbed by another planet in a different country, these different contrasting pieces of music in this interlude are tied to each other, but to our ears it is a single entity, as a planet is a single entity.

(To be continued)