Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Hava Nagila - II

Most (read as all?) of Prathap Pothan’s movies were inspired from English novels and movies. For eg: My Dear Marthandan was inspired from “Coming to America”, I learnt. Like many directors of that era, Prathap always walked out of Prasad Studio with super hit tunes for all his movies.

My Dear Marthandan was one such movie with all super hit songs and the usage of today’s most (ab)used synth sounds were aptly used 18 years ago. The genre of the songs in this film was quite different from any of the typical Illayaraja songs. The usage of percussions and synthesizer made the songs sound different in those days. However, the specialty with his songs is that the melody doesn’t get lost despite all these innovations.

Anyways, my post today is about the song “Uttalakkadi Pattanakodi Mottanakiliye” from this movie. The lyricist must have been so confident that he could give any junk filler and still Raaja would make it a hit. Many a times, the tune is inspired by music directors with a pre-set meter. In this example, this song is inspired from a simple meter with the words “Hava Nagila”.

Hava Nagila Hava Nagila Hava Nagila Hoi
Hava Nagila Hava Nagila Hava Nagila Hoi

1   2    1    2     1     2    1

Utta lakkadi Patta Nakodi Motta anaki liyee
Machana thoda acharam thara summa nikki riyee

Hava Nagila must have influenced Raaja so much that he derived two songs out of one, both sounding entirely different! Only SPB can make even dumb sounding lyrics so interesting and sing very involved even for mediocre lyrics.

Hava Nagila, now.

8 comments:

Balakrishna Chennupati said...

Hi. Thanks for your comment on my blog. I see that you more than concur with what I was saying in my post with your post "Why Only Illayaraja?" Keep up the analysis, I'll be dropping by.

ramesh sadasivam said...

Hi, This is wonderful blog... I Like Ilayaraaja very much... I don't know much music... but i knew he was the best.. much better than any other.. keep doing this great job...Great Masters like Ilayaraja...have to be appreciated appropriately... Instead of a lame man in music talking about that.. it is nice to see people with music knowledge explaining technically how good he is... I liked the sence of humor in which you gave three reasons, for why you are concentrating only on Ilayaraja..

Emjay said...

Welcome Balakrishna and Sadasivam.

I beg to differ with you on one thing. I am also a layman with no knowledge in music, however, I love Raaja so much that I just started to learn about music and how much he has achieved.

In the process of appreciating Raaja, we can gain a lot, IMHO.

Vinith said...

I haven't heard this Uttanakodi song. Don't know if its melody or kuthu number. But lyrics say that its a kuthu no.

I am able to replace "Hava nagila" words with "Mazhai Varudhu"

Hava Nagila Hava Nagila Hava Nagila Hoi
Mazhai varuthu mazhai varudhu kudai kondy vaa!!!

:) :)

Emjay said...

Vinith,

Please send me your email id. I will send you the song - UTTALAKKADI.

Emjay said...

Vinith,

Please send me your email id. I will send you the song - UTTALAKKADI.

Vinith said...

visionofvinith@gmail.com

Saro said...

Hi., Some how the song "thenne marathula thendral adikkuthu nandhavana kiliye.., adiye unna ninakaiyile..." come to my mind when I hear this uttalakadi. Does this also fall in to this hava nagila ?