Break the rules - II

It has been quite a big gap since my last blog. With the economic slowdown, my work load refuses to slow down!! But, being busy seems to be a good thing these days..So, I have no complaints.

In one of my previous posts, I have discussed how Raaja handled one of the most difficult raaga "Kanakangi" in the movie "Sindhu Bhairavi". "Sindhu Bhairavi" movie is a milestone with many experimentations that I will talk about in my future posts.

Today, I wanted to talk about other Melakartha Raaga and how Raaja handled it. Subhapanthuvarali raaga is 45th Mela Raaga and its scale goes like this: S R1 G2 M2 P D1 N3 S

This raaga has an inherent flavor of sorrow and grief. Have you heard "Vaigarayil Vaigai Karaiyil" from "Payanangal Mudivathillai"? Another classic example for the usage of this raaga is "Enna Enna Kanavu Kandaayo" from the movie Valli. As you can notice, this raaga brings the grief to the forefront. How does Nava Rasas get their due representation with these 7 swaras, I wonder sometimes?

S R1 G3 M1 P D1 N3 S denotes the peace to the forefront in the form of Mayamalavagowlai and S R1 G2 M2 P D1 N3 S in the form of Subhapanthuvarali brings sorrow and grief!! Huh!

In this Subhapanthuvarali scale, Raaja did an experiementation to score for a romantic and seducing number. Waraeh Wah!!

Here you go:


I will let you decide, if it was successful or not. But, sure.. he did break the rules.

Again, did you notice something interesting in the scale? Except for Ni3 (Sa and Pa, of course), all of the other keys are black keys!! Has it anything to do with the emotion that is hidden in the scale? I don't know..

Raaja and I

Thanks for tagging me and I apologize for responding late. This game is fun and let me try my bit.

The 5 things of me and Raaja that You May Not Know About(Please be as spontaneous as possible.. don't think too much..!! :-)

1) The moment that introduced you to Raaja..
Though I have heard several songs of Raaja in my 80s, I am not sure if I associated those songs with Raaja. Some of those songs that I used to repeatedly hear were "Om Namashivaaya" (Salangai Oli), "Ninnaye Rathi Yendru Ninaikkiraenadi" (Raghuman acted movie) etc. There was even one title song from the movie "Krishnan Vandhaan" that I used to repeatedly hear "Maadu Ezhuthaen Vandi Ellam". However, the album that I would really say that made me associate with Raaja was "Yejaman". As I had mentioned in my previous blog, my cousin gifted me this cassette and when I told that I liked the song "Nilave Mugam Kaattu", he replied "Mottai aala mattum thaan eppadi poda mudiyum".
I didn't realize what he said then. That certainly became the album that brought me and Raaja close.

2) Name one occassion where Raaja's music directly/ indirectly influenced your life.
Might sound silly to some of you. After I came back watching "Yejaman" from the theatre, I was plunged in some kind of sorrow for more than one day. I experienced the same grief after I watched "En Raasaving Manasile". I didn't realize then, it was the sheer power of his background music that directly touched my heart. If you want to understand what I mean, you must take a simple exercise. Take one of the above said movie and turn the Mute ON and watch the most serious sequence of the movie.

In general, but for Raaja, me and music would be a totally disjoint set. I now try playing keyboard; I try to identify raaga; I write this blog; I think music...It's all because of my Raaja.

3) Lets take Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi into account. Assuming that one of this is either your mother tongue or native language, name a favorite song in each of the other 4 languages that immediately comes to your mind

Telugu - All songs from Geethanjali

Malayalam - Aruna Kirana (Guru) & Thumbi Vaa

Kannada - Jeeva Hoovagidhe & Jothe yali

Hindi - (don't remember the song name - but the one that Yuvan lifted in his 'Theendi Theendi Theeyai') (Rim Jim Rim Jim?)

4) One song of Ilaiyaraaja that you consider rare and think a song that many people should have known but don't ..

Oru Kaaviyam Arangerum Neram (Aruvadai Naal)

Ennai Ketkum Kelviyai (Kasthuri Maan)

5) Lets keep the last one simple...Raaja's number that you are hearing right now/ most recently heard..?

All songs from Dhanam and Ulyin Osai

Unborn Babies

Whenever I hear "Putham Puthu Poo Poothatho" from Thalapathi, I wonder how Mani Ratnam missed to pictuarize this song in the movie. It must definitely have been a tough choice for him to exclude one among all gems.

But, still, I would have traded-in a fight sequence for this song. Melting melody and no wonder Illayaraja recycled the same song as "Pirayae Pirayae" in Pithamagan.
I can think of some songs that never featured similarly -

1) "Aadi Pattam Thedi Chennal Vedha Pottu" - Michael Madana Kama Rajan"

2) Ammava Naan Kaala Thottu Kumbudanum" - Apoorva Sagodharargal"

3) Annalakshmi Kanna asacha" - Virumaandi

4) "Nethiyile Pottu Veyyu" - Virumaandi

5) "Kodi Yethi Veipom" - Pithamagan

I am sure there are many more! Would love to hear back from my blog readers!

Lyric writing for Dummies

No offence guys!

I came across a webpage about how predictable our lyrics are and found it very funny and thought of sharing with you all.

http://www.indolink.com/tamil/cinema/Features/Misc/algorithm/algorithm.htm

I do love some of Vairamuthu's works, but, I agree that some of his lyrics do not make any sense to me whatsover. For instance, "Devathai Kulitha Thuligalai Alli Theertham Endre Naan Kudippaen" is the height of hallicination.

யாம் பெற்ற இன்பம் பெருக இவ்வையகம் - II

Quite a month back, I had posted a clip from the recording of a yet to be released movie "Mayilu". This page has become the most popular page with most number of hits in 7Swara blog. And few of my blog readers have requested the downloadable version of the clip and I am providng a link for those who requested the clip.

Click here to download the clip from the movie "Mayilu" (Velli Manal).

Illayaraja Photos

Several folks have sent me emails regarding the photographs of Illayaraja. I have zipped all of them and please click here to download in the zip format.

Courtesy: Ilaiyaraja Yahoo Group, Raajangahm

Divya Prabhandham by Illayaraja?

Do we have another treat like 'Thiruvaasakam in Symphony' awaiting for us?

Source: Dinathanthi & Illayaraja Yahoo Groups

Break the rules - I

'Nayakan' was a milestone for in Tamil film industry for several reasons. It changed the perception of people who believed in the commercial formula for a success of the movie. From the music standpoint, it was a feast for music lovers and 'Thenpandi Seemayile' will be remembered forever as an icon and symbol of grief and sorrow.

I read from multiple sources that originally Illayaraja had played the tune of "Nila Adhu Vaanathu Mele" for the situation of "Thenpaandi Seemayile". Though Mani Ratnam liked the tune, he asked Raaja to use the tune for a "item number" dance by Kuyili and extracted another gem of the tune "Thenpaandi Seemayile"! No doubt, Mani Ratnam has good ears for music.

Still, I have a different perspective here. No doubt, a Raaga and the underlying melody and tune brings the mood to forefront. But, Illayaraja has sometimes overpowered this characterstics of Raaga/tune with his weapon - orchestration.

To give you an example - take the Melakartha Raaga - 'Bhavapriya'. It is considered as a Raaga that brings the sorrowness to forefront. (The scale goes like this - S R1 G2 M2 P D1 N2 S (i.e.) C C# D# F# A# B#) Did you notice what is interesting about this raaga? You have ALL black keys (sharp variations) - of course except Sa and Pa as they don't have variations. Is this the reason why the Raaga brings out the color of sorrowness? I don't know !! Perhaps, an expert can explain.

Anyways, Raaja used 'Bhavapriya' raaga to come up with a song for a comical situation in the movie 'Guru Shishyan'. The song is "Kandupudichaen Kandupudichaen". He did succeed in overpowering the challenge that the raaga posed!

So, my argument here is even if Raaja had chosen "Nila Adhu Vaanathu Mele" tune for "Thenpaandi Seemayile" he would have succeeded with his sheer brilliance in orchestration, because he is always Raaja :-) There is one more person who comes to my mind who can change the texture and color of the song and that is SPB with his brilliance in his voice and modulation. Only he could make, even a "Dabba" song a hit!!