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!!

Unsung SPB - II

Couple of months back, I had presented to you all a song sung by SPB, unsung by him in the actual movie !! Click here to hear "Poongaatru Thirumbuma" sung by SPB - http://7swara.blogspot.com/2008/05/unsung-spb.html

This is the clip of "Raasathi Unna" from "Vaidhehi Kaathirunthaal". Originally, this song was sung by Jeyachandran and this version of it is sung by SPB. Once we have heard a song sung in a way by someone, it is not that easy to outscore by other person. But, somehow, I feel SPB's pronounciation and crystal clear rendering is simply superb and he makes me think twice !

SPB's Version:




Original Version:

Sandi Raniye

Take a guess of number of movies where the heroine is rich, arrogant and well-edcuated and the hero is a poor little chap, but brings the heroine on-track in the second half. Without thinking much, I can bet, there are more than 100 movies with this proven formula. P.Vasu's Mannan was one such movie and Vijayshanthi suited the role so aptly that her body language didn't miss an inch from the role throughout. Ofcourse, our Rajini did the rest.

I always remember this movie for 2 things:

>> Rajini gave his voice to one of the song - "Adikithu Kuliru". It was really funny to hear Rajini trying to blabber and counter-melody the tune. He tried hard. Trust me.

>> Combo of Koundamani & Rajini - in my mind, one of the hilarious moments.

Anyways, I wanted to write a bit about other song in the movie that in a sense forms the theme of the movie. The overall theme of this movie is how the Rajini brings back Vijayshanthi to the senses (read as 'Tamil Kalaachaaram'). The song is: "Sandi Raniye Enakku Kappam Kattu Nee".

The song starts with heavy brass section and percussions and a voice bursts with arrogance filled with male-chavinism with around 10,000 W power!! Who else can do that other than SP.Balasubramaniam?

"En Sudhandhirathil Ennaalum Pen Magal Jeyithathillai" - A "muzhakkam" and crystal clear rendering & no "kozhayal"

"Enna aachu Engu Pochu Sandi Raani Un Saahasam" - A "Nakkal" "Aanava" sirippu!!



Towards the end, you could notice the power of percussion. A short piece but, conveys enough and sets the tempo for the situation.

Raja Rocks!!

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.

Raaja Vazhi Thani Vazhi

Having come up with a tune like “Siriya Paravai Siragai” (Movie – Andha Oru Nimidam), it would have been very easy to satisfy Kamal and the director. And for the caliber of Illayaraja, he doesn’t even have to go through the phase of “Convincing” the director. He could have completed the song recording, the traditional way and walked off. Composer had other thoughts!

This song is special for its uniqueness. Traditionally, film songs have a set structure:

· Pallavi,
· Anupallavi
· 1st Interlude
· 1st Charanam
· Pallavi
· 2nd Interlude
· 2nd Charanam
· Pallavi
· Anupallavi
· Mostly, Pallavi again

Firstly, composer decided to have 3 charanam in place of the conventional two. OK, so what? That would have only stretched the song more and helped the dancing angels to get few more bucks ;) Nope. 1st Charanam is backed with complete Western orchestration. After the 1st Charanam ends, the composer had other thoughts. He changed the tune, the raga completely for the 2nd Charanam and took a dramatic U turn. Few swara sangadhis and the orchestration completely changes to typical classical with the able help of Mridangam. The rhythmic meter and the pace complemented the tune for the 2nd charanam to be livelier. This song is very special for this “Visha Parikshai” that not many composers would be willing to take.

Look at the beautiful “muthu muthaana” lyrics by Vairamuthu:

manramae thamizhin manjamae pudhiya sandhamae sindhinaen
anbanae ilaiya kambanae kavidhai nanbanae nambinaen
swarnamae arasa annamae idhazhin yudhdhamae muththamae
netriyil viyarvai sottumae kaigal ottumae patrumae
soazha kuyil paadugaiyil soalaikkuyil oayvedukkum
mellinangal paadu kannae vallinangal vaayvalikkum
sondhamae inbam thandhadhu gangaiyae ingu vandhadhu
thenralae indru nindradhu nanrudhaan sandham enradhu
kanrugal rendu indru poal enrum vendru vaazhginradhu
vazhgavae vazhgavae

I can’t even imagine any singer other than SPB and Janaki who could have done justice to the lyrics and tune. The improvisation by SPB is a trademark. Vairamuthu has displayed his proficiency in the choice of words with a very rhythmic ‘sandam’. Absolutely stunning team effort.

Back to Raaja. After the experimentation with the second charanam (in a completely different tune & raga), he returns back to the same tune he used in 1st charanam for the 3rd one and back to Western Orchestration. When you hear the whole song, the scale, tune and style of orchestration change is so seamless that you only end up speechless. Let’s not forget to mention the chorus backing the higher octaves like “Vaazhgave Vaazhgave”, “Ezhudave Ezhudave” etc.

Super Special

We all hear music during different times of the day under different circumstances and in different moods. Also, different people appreciate different aspects of the music because good music contains different layers built into it. One may merely say the song is good. Other may appreciate the significant lyrics behind it and a techie might talk about techniques employed in the song like counterpoints, Trill etc.

I have heard "Thamthana Thamthana" innumerable number of times in my lifetime and have always said "Good..Great song". Never tried to explore it beyond that. Once I start to get to the detail, it is absolutely stunning and I was floored because it had so many things special in it.

I sincerely request you to just prose-read the lyrics, especially the charanam.

thandhana thamdhana thaaLam varum pudhu raagam varum
pudhu bhavam varum adhil sandhana malligai vaasam varum
manamaalai varum subhavaeLai varum
mananaaL thirunaaL pudhunaaL unai azhaiththadhu

sillena melliya thenralum vandhisai solliyadhu
suvai aLLiyadhu manam nillena solliyum thuLLiyadhu
peNmanam poovilum melliyadhu thavikkum ninaivoa enaik kiLLiyadhu
malligai mullaiyil panjaNaiyoa mannavan thandhanan nenjanaiyoa
minniya minnalum kanniyin ennangaLoa ini kanavugaL thodarndhida


1) The lyrics is of great quality and neat. It was written by the same lyricist who wrote the most famous "Vaadi En Kappa Kizhange". (Kappa Kizhangu= Heroine - Whoe cares the logic ?). So, here are people who can write what you want. You want garbage, they can produce tonnes. You want Good Quality stuff, they can produce tonnes. Just that sometimes it takes more time to give quality stuff as they are used to giving garbage more. In this case, it is said that Gangai Amaran took 4 solid days to come up with this lyrics. Hats off.

2) Look at the charanam one more time. The chandam used in the lyrics (meter) is brilliant and it is rhythmic and uniform throughout the song. But, it poses a great challenge to the composer. When you start composing a tune for this, you might end up like a tune for chanting some Mantra.

3) Apparently, I read somewhere that the director and the assistant director (Manobala) gave a reference (baseline?) song for this situation:

Ayi Girinandini Nanditamedini Visvavinodini Nandinuthae
Girivaravindhya Shirodhinivasini Vishnuvilasini Jisnunuthae
Bhagavati He Shitikanthakutumbini Bhoorikutumbini Bhoorikruthae J
aya Jaya Hae Mahishasuramardhini Ramyakapardhini Shailasuthae

Can you imagine how Illayaraja has brilliantly transformed the baseline into a beautiful romantic melody?

4) Humming has always been a special weapon of Maestro's magic work. In this song, the humming is all over the song (backing even in the charanam), but without sounding jarring. The counterpoint technique has been brilliantly handled by Raaja.

5) The pallavi and the charanam due to its very nature needs the singer to have a better breath control during rendering.

6) On the lighter side, this song was also one among the firsts to have bunch of white-dressed Devathais dancing meaninglessly for a private affair of love-making of hero and heroine. Later, we got a chance to see many such devathais even in colors :)

Despite all these specialities, I read somewhere that Raaja was not satisified with the output especially the singing. He wanted a better output, it seems. My God!! As SPB always says, Raaja is a "Raakshasan".

Survival of the fittest

The most common complaint I hear about Illayaraja is that he persisted with ONLY SPB and Janaki and lots of talented singers went unnoticed during the period 1976 – 1995. Before I proceed with my viewpoint, let us get the record straight.

It is very clear that though SPB and Janaki dominated that era, there were so many other singers (Jesudas, Mano, Jeyachandran, Malaysia Vasudevan, Deepan Chakravarthi, Chitra, Swarnalatha, Susheela, Uma Ramanan, Vani Jayaram, Jency, Sasirekha to name a few) who sang under him. (I will come up with detailed statistics a little later)

I cannot buy the theory of “persisting with SPB/Janaki” and “talented singers went unnoticed”. It is one of the allegations with no logic, whatsoever. My argument is twofold:

Firstly, opportunities are not given. It must be grabbed. A talented singer will grab an opportunity instead of having a composer notice him/her. No one person elevated A.R.Rahman. With his shear talent, he rose to the new heights when Raaja was already at his peak.

Secondly, if you were to come up with a roles & responsibilities of a music director, it would look something like this, IMO:

Must give apt and good music for the movie

Must give ALL Hit numbers (from the crew standpoint)

Must have re-recording that elevates the movie and carries it well

PERIOD

I don’t think introducing new singers is a said responsibility of a composer. He/She might choose to do it, if needed. Composer understands the emotions needed for his/her composition better than anyone else. By now, every one of us know Raaja’s throughput. He was able to score for over 50 movies a year and if SPB and Janaki could match his throughput with the best quality, why should and why would he have to go out of the way and start looking for new singers? How many songs did SPB or Janaki mess up with, anyways?

With the dearth of tunes, quality lyrics and innovation, new singers are the only solace to the current music directors. Anyways, in the name of introducing new singers the current crop of music directors have made a mockery of things. Singers (I hate to call them that way) who cannot even sing in proper Shruthi, who cannot pronounce the language properly end up singing several albums L All they have to do is do basic rendering with some stylish mispronunciations. Thanks to the sound engineers. Sad state of affairs! And after 5-10 albums they are thrown in the dust and they end up being models, looking for acting chances and what not! There were at least 200-250 new singers introduced in the last 10 years. How many of them have stood out the time and test? With just one or two success under their belt, they already are on the top of the world. Thanks to the hysteria in the media! What is the whole point in having plethora of singers who have sung only 2-3 songs are never used again?

Illayaraja has a no non-sense approach to this. We all know that he is a perfectionist and a strict disciplinarian. He has a score sheet and track ready when a singer comes to the recording studio. He doesn’t like to settle for anything less than what he had envisioned. Almost every singer has acknowledged that it is a great learning experience and you must be really talented to sing under him. That isn’t a fault of him, huh!

Thank God. The reformists have not started demanding reservation in this industry.

Rather, I have a poser to Raaja. Why the hell (with all respect) you stopped giving chances to SPB, whose voice is only getting better as his age progresses?

Unsung SPB

Despite singing over 35,000 songs spanning more than 3 decades, this man's thirst for singing the unsung numbers doesn't end!

'Poongaatru Thirumbuma' is a signature Raaja's folk song and it is also very famous for Vairamuthu's lyrics, especially - "Methai Vaanginaen Thookkatha Vaangala". This song is originally sung by Malasia Vasudevan and S.Janaki. Flute has been used brilliantly to give the feel. Enjoy the same song sung by SPB in one of the events/concert.

"Thaalaatta" is rendered by SPB as "Thaaa aaaaa laaa aaa ttaeee" as a 'Thaalattu' by itself. Crystal clear rendering. After hearing SPB's version, I feel more and more immersed into this version of the song. Is it just my prejudice? May be.

Please enjoy the both the versions of song now.


Original Version:


SPB Version: