Thursday, September 4, 2008

Thanthaen Thanthaen

Of several actors who managed to stay in the stardom with the grace of Raaja's music, Ramaraajan would stay top in the list. 'Villupattukaaran' is one such movie and there is a situation in the movie where the heroine challenges the hero to sing a song where the lips never touch !! Meaning, never use Pa, Ma, Va etc.

A challenging situation for a lyricist, ofcourse!! I think this song was written by Gangai Amaran. Hear the song and you will find that never lip touches in the whole song.


8 comments:

ramesh sadasivam said...

Hi emjay, I've written an article on Ilayaraja. Because your a great fan of maestro I thought I must share it with you. I hope you'll like it. :)visit the following link.

http://thirumbiparkiraen.blogspot.com/2008/09/blog-post.html

Saraks said...

They say the genius is not hampered by the constraints(the constraints of classical music) but rather kindled by it. I can see how this specific scenario got the best out of the maestro. An absolutely out of the world tune and MVD does complete justice to it. How he sings those lines "desathai thruthida than" !!!

All you have to do is give thalaivar is an out of the ordinary scenario and you have a gem in hand. Thanks to you to bring a gem to my notice.

Emjay said...

Well said, Saraks.

CRV said...

emjay, I have read somewhere that this song is set to raga Niroshta which also is 'udhadu ottadha' ragam, i.e. it doesn't have ma and pa. I dont know if this is true.

Emjay said...

Hi CRV,

Thanks for the info. I found something similar here: http://rasikas.org/viewprintable.php?id=534

Vijay Venkatraman Janarthanan said...

Dear MJ,

Nice to see this song remembered and information on this rare gem disseminated to all! Just wanted to add: This song's lyric was written by Kavignar Vaali (as shown in the titles) whereas Gangai Amaran wrote the lyrics for all other songs in the movie. However, let me confirm again and get back to you.

Yours Always Musically,
Vijay.

Vignesh Subramanian said...

Dear EmJay/ CRV:
While the lyrics of "Thandhane Thandhane" doesn't require the lips to touch, the similarity with Niroshta ends there. Because "Nisroshta" is ma and pa varja raaga in Sankarabharanam (sa ri ga dha ni sa and the same in Avarohanam); But the melody of "Thandhane" clearly employs Ma and Pa all over.. even as early as in the first line (such as "ga ma pa" in the words "Kaala kaalangal" and chinna Ni in the word "Kizhiye").
However this is a great folkish song (like "Summa nee", "Naan Sonnal kelama" etc.,) and can be enjoyed as such with no strings attached :-)

With Love
Vicky

PS: Thanks for the link on the rasika.org. I downloaded a thillana in Niroshta from there and I am very very surprised to experience a feel in this raaga similar to Maandu (or is it only me..) although the arohanams of both Raaga have little in common. Very intriguing indeed..

Emjay said...

Thanks Vijay for the info. Those days, all these marketing hype wasn't there and such new experimentations went unnoticed like many of gems of Raaja.

Thanks Vignesh for your comments. I agree that lyrics of the song could be set in such a way that lips don't touch, however, their underlying raaga might employ ma and pa liberally!!