18. MAATHA UN KOVILIL

[Oldposts]

Ras, you very correctly said it.

"Pon Vaanam Panneer Thoovudhu Inneram" is a great song by SJ and stands testimony to her versatility till date.

I will only be surprised, if this is not part of the pick of Mani Sir.

Her hummings in that song, are very difficult to replicate by any other singer.

Sheer Voice Magic.

She will drag the humming like anything and a sheer wonder and magic.

In fact, I will rate this one ahead of the othet three mentioned by Mani Sir.

Simple Reason, the other three songs have a tinge of sadness and pathos, whereas "Pon Vaanam Panneer Thoovudhu Inneram",though, Aekkam Niraindha Ondraaga Irundhaalum, is vibrant still.

[Oldposts]

While all these songs by IR/SJ combo are great / mesmerising, I personally feel they are great melodic compositions basically and any one of the top singers (PS, KSC, VJ or Asha B / Latha M) could have done justice to most of them. Songs like sheNbagamE, EdhEdhO eNNam vaLarthEn, nAnoru sindhu etc. are equally moving.

However, songs where SJ is incomparable are her duets with SPB! None can come anywhere closer to this combo!

Ofcourse, there are some solo's as well where the basic composition is just above average but not sublime, SJ took them to greater heights. Examples : dEvan kOvil, deepam ondRu in nAn pAdum pAdal... or puththam pudhukkAlai in alaigal Oyvadhillai...

[Oldposts]

However, I have to admit that Johny is a landmark album for IR and `kAtRil endhan geetham' a landmark song!

'mAdha un kOvilil' is a nice melody (another song that comes to my mind of similar nature is the `kadavuL uLLamE Or karuNai illamE' of anbuLLa Rajinikanth which gives me goose pimples...BTW, who sang that? It's another proof that for a soul-stirring melody, any decent singer, even unknowns, can do justice)

[Oldposts]

kadavuL uLLamE (anbuLLa rajnikAnth) is sung by Latha Rajnikanth & chorus

[Oldposts]

Mani Sir ,
Thanks alot for the Madha Kovik song .......These are just gems !!!!

[Oldposts]

``Thenil Aadum roja
Poonthendral Aadakkandeyn...``

Another great song by Ilayaraja. Any idea about the movie?

[Oldposts]

Manisekaran:

Great info! The first charanam of 'maadha un kovilil' pierces your heart like a no steel rod can do. No wonder that the musicians stopped playing their instruments

KATRIL ENTHAN GEETHAM and PAADAVAA UN PPADALAI were my favorites since my childhood! That’s before I consciously started to listen to music in very late 80’s

The mood and the feeling that comes out of IR-SJ combo are really amazing to me. Probably, they understand each other's musical acumen better.

Earlier someone (Prabhudas?) in this thread asked about “mysterious” ability by Raaja to invoke a certain mood and feeling in his songs. Well, I came across couple of notes which might give an idea or throw some insight into this “mysterious” phenomenon.

------
Denis Diderot is a French philosopher, writer, encyclopedist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Diderot
(The links are just for reference, the actual notes are taken from a different source)

Notes on his music theory: “Diderot deduced the theory that compositional principles in vocal, and later in instrumetal music derived from the basic intonations of living emotional speech (as well as from sound phenomena perceived by our ancestors in surrounding nature)”

Another note is from Nikolaus Forkel. He is a music theorist and I think he made Sebastian Bach well known and famous.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Nikolaus_Forkel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Sebastian_Bach

Forkel on Bach:

“He (Bach) considered his voices as if they were persons who conversed together like a select company. If there were three, each could sometimes be silent and listen to others till it again has something to the purpose to say”
------

We all know Bach is Raaja’s favorite composer and his music also reflects some of Bach’s ideas.

An observation from these notes is human emotions (originally) give birth to music and great music is not derived from other music or musical forms. It has to come within the composer the emotional realm. So when we(listeners) listen to these songs we are consuming those emotions crystallized in a musical form. When you feel something in Raaja’s songs, you’re probably feeling the “feeling” felt by Raaja or S. Janaki when they did the song. No wonder everyone feels like they know them

[Oldposts]

How come Deva doesn't have one

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilayaraja

[Oldposts]

I can see why IR liked "maatha un kovilil" a lot. He just had to rehash the tune a little to give "Maniyosai kettu ezhundhu" a couple of years later )

[Oldposts]

Ras and Kumar,

Thank you your opinions on Pon Vaanam Panneer Thoovuthu Inneram. I agree that this song is great in its own way, but the songs that drew wider attention from Raja's fans were the three I had mentioned.

The song that I wanted to highlight is actually Maadha Un Kovilil, as there is an unprecedented incident behind the song . Then I felt Kaatril Enthan Geetham adn Paadava En Paadalai also need to be mentioned 'in passing" all based on the popularity.

You can see other readers are choosing some other songs of S. Janaki.

Perhaps the song Pon Vaanam is a matter of personal taste, though it cannot be ruled out that the song is indeed haunting. The orchestration is great too.

Manisekaran