I hope you all liked my first post in the series. Thanks to everyone who supported the series, retweeted and also commented on it. Its all for you guys…
The Unknown Gem – 2
Can a song depict a mystery? Can it show some kind of strange eeriness which you don’t like to encounter? Can it make the mysterious beauty of a girl? Yes music can do anything and Ilaiyaraja can do it with master class.
There are a few classics in the famous Mohan- SPB – Ilaiyaraja combo. In fact the actor Mohan was known as “Mic Mohan” because of the consecutive hits as singer in the movies. It was only due to the wonderful combo of SPB and Ilaiyaraja.But for few songs, Ilaiyaraja used some of the very talented singers of that time like Jayachandran and later Mano.
It irks me when I see so many music composers claim that they are the best in music when their total number of movies doesn’t even cross the number of movies made by Ilaiyaraja in a year
Whenever some one speaks about Ilaiyaraja’s music, they start up their discussion with Mouna Raagam, Payanangal Mudivathillai, Agni Natchathiram or about his Thiruvasagam. Most of his famous songs are often repeated in FM stations and it has become so stereotypical. The genius of that man cannot be curtailed in to few famous albums. This series from me is to unearth some musical gems from not so famous albums of Ilaiyaraja but those which keeps running over and over in my iPhone.
The early Tamil movies had a right mix of movies. There were masala action as there were socio-political movies, there were fairy tales as there were historical fictions. I think one of the most entertaining of all were the stories based on Hindu Gods and mythical characters. Don’t rate the yesteryear mythical classics with the new age graphical so called “Godly” movies. The way the modern movie directors showing Gods is something they should be ashamed of.
Thiruvilayadal (1965)
The first movie that comes to any one’s mind when thinking about mythical movies is Thiruvilayadal. (more…)
Bala is a talented director. He has this wonderful talent of making movies with strong and raw emotions. The other thing I like about him is his faith in ilaiyaraja..
Naan Kadavul is his 4th movie. Till now I consider Sethu as his master piece because of the same raw emotion of love and a very poignant ending. Naan Kadavul should have been made with Ajith in the lead. I felt very happy about the combo, because I always feel Ajith has been under used in most of his movies. But Bala’s eventual spat and his arrogant approach in Ajith’s issue left a bad taste in me. Anyways it’s unfortunate that they could not be together.
Now for the music album of Naan Kadavul. You can definitely find that proof why Ilaiyaraja is a Genius. It technically has 6 tracks.
1. Om Shiva Om – the best track of the album. Although I am a non- believer, I love Raaja’s devotional tracks like “Janan”. This one is of that cadre. It gets in to your heart and takes you to a different world. The genuinity of the track is so overwhelming.
2.Pitchai Pathiram – The song is from Rajavin Ramana Maalai- a must have for all Raaja Fans. But it has a freshness due to the voice of Madhu Balakrishnan
3. Amma Un Kovilil- Another rendering from Raajavin Ramana Maalai. I dunno how Sadhana Sargam could sing so good in Tamil when she sings for Raaja alone. A definite candidate for her next national award. A very poignant rendering with strong lyrics. A sure shot tear jerker.
4. Madha Un Kovilil – by Madhumitha is a short different version of the previous track
5 6 – Kannil Parvai Kaatril Alayum -Shreya Ghoshal is the modern day Janaki for Raaja. A sure addition to all his albums from her first song with Raaja. I think these two songs should be the sad love montages between the lead characters. Don’t miss Raaja’s voice in Katril Alayum.
A master piece from Raaja. Of course it’s the BGMs where he is going to take our hearts away. Waiting for Nandalala too with Myskkin.
I dunno whether Aham Brammahasmi ( I am God) suits the movie or Bala, but it definitely suits Ilaiyaraja, because he is the God of Music.
P.S. Why don’t producers sell the original soundtrack of Raaja BGMs like the way they do it for Hollywood Movies?
I did my engineering in one of those engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu (Currently it has crossed 300), by the name Anjalai Ammal. We used to travel by train daily. Its a 25 KM distance and we used to go in a passenger train. If you need a better understanding of that train and stations, you should either watch Oru Thalai Raagam or Sethu.
Train obviously gives you a lot of room for adventure, happiness, fun and frolic. In the first year,it was the place for ragging and as i am a decent singer i had to sing a lot of songs to please my seniors. One day i had even sung one song each for all the 5 compartments in between 4 stations (excluding ladies compartment). I used to sing all sad, melancholic love songs in order to impress my seniors and every time they used to think about their love, they left me alone.
I think it was a in third year, we had almost lost steam, interest in studying and we used to sleep in the trains (both onwards and backwards). Sometimes we used to sing songs, while coming back just to enjoy our evening. Most of the times, the trains used to be empty and very less of occasional commuters.
That day, we had a couple in our compartment. They both had a rural look, like from a village and the lady was so afraid of us that she was holding the shirt of her husband. The age difference was also pretty high and it was evident. He had a big moustache and they were speaking Telegu to each other.
We kept on singing on some songs. I used to sing mostly maestro songs as i love his compositions. Suddenly the guy asked in broken tamil “yenaku oru pattu padalama”. What he meant was whether i will be able to sing a song for him. I asked “yenna pattu” (‘What song?’). He said “ Yenaku per thellinthi. Tune theriyum” ( “I dunno the name of the song but i know the tune”). I said “Solunga Parpom” ( ‘tell me, i will try’). “Na Nana Na, Na nana Na, Nanana Na”, he started singing the tune.
It was a song by Maestro Ilaiyaraja from the movie ‘Vaithehi Kathirunthal’. It had Vijayakanth (in a very different role) and Revathi in the lead. The song was rendered by Jayachandran. It was his first song and it fetched him a National Award. The song goes like this “rasathi unnai kanatha nenju”. Its sung by a lover after losing his lady love to his mistake. I think the lyrics is by Vaali ( I am not sure)
When i was singing, the guy started enjoying it as if he was singing. He was shaking his head to the tune, eyes closed and taking the music in to him. He would not have understood most of the words but he could enjoy the tune to the fullest extent. After i finished the song, he said he was very happy to hear the song and i could see a sense of completeness in his face, a sense of satisfaction. It was one of the happiest moment in his life and his wife was smiling at her husband’s happiness. I dunno where they came from nor their names but that piece of music made us came together at that wonderful moment. A sense of achievement came in to my heart. How precious is to make a man smile…
That moment i realised why people say there is no language for music.
I have not got a single prize in my life time for my singing abilities ( as i was just ok and not so great), but his thanks is one of the biggest awards i could ever get in my life.
How many of you have fallen in love? How many of you have expressed it to the person you love?
Tell me honestly, how many days it took to express it to the person? Was it easy? Was it hard? Was it nervous? Were you tense? Was it painful?
I think the biggest pain for those who fall in love will be the fear of rejection. It haunts everybody who fall in love. The big threat after falling in to a realtionship is the fear of losing. And we end up not loving but just live in fear for ever.
Why such a relationship gyaan in a music related post? When i hear this particular music, i get all these emotions in my heart and it just haunts you. It takes me to that stage when i felt those painful moments in my life. The piece is so haunting that you forget everything in this world and then take you that moment where happiness and sadness come together. Where you can smile and cry at the same time. Where you feel glee and the pain at the same moment.
This has become a regular piece of music in my I-Tunes and I dunno why i continue to hear it although it makes me sad sometimes…Am i so happy to be sad?
P.S: ‘I don’t see her daily. But i yearn to see her daily. May be a small glimpse, a little cute smile or just a wave of hand. Am i getting attracted to her?’
I was thinking of this kind of series in the blog for a long time now. Today when i was travelling in the bus, Hello FM was playing a string of Maestro Ilaiyaraja’s songs. I decided that today should be the day for starting this series.
Initially i thought i should write this series in Tamil, but i think almost every Tamilian would know who is Ilaiyaraja and his geniusness. This series for those who have not heard this music’s music and also for those millions of people who felt the same thoughts while listening to his songs.
This is not a musical article. I am not that great to analyse the nuances of ragas and nitty gritty of swaras. I am just a normal human being, who listens his songs and i am going to write how it felt practically for the few (many) songs which i love.
Any day, the first song which comes to my mind is Pottu Vaitha Oru Vatta Nila from Idhayam. Idhayam is a love story of a very introvert person (medical college student) and his classmate. The whole story runs on one premise, how and when the guy will propose the girl. The lead actors are Murali (he was a eternal college student after this movie for a decade) and Heera (one of the most beautiful heroines but was spoilt).
The Particular song was written by Vaali and sung by K.J.Yesudas. The mastery of this composition is the minimal use of instruments. The scene goes like this. The hero and his friend go for a cultural festival. There is no one from their college to participate. So hero’s friend get the hero on stage for a song. The girl ( that day is her birthday), she comes in and hero starts with the song…Pottu vaitha oru vatta Nila ( a round moon with the bindi)…
Every time i hear this song i get reminded of my first crush in school. She had a round face. I was the most introvert person in the whole batch and i was from a boys school. I used to see her only during tuitions. In fact, i would say she was the first girl who i thought was beautiful. She used to wear glasses and she had an excellent dressing sense. Mind you we both were studying 10th Standard. Until then i used to wear gaudy outdated dresses, once i started seeing her i slowly moved on to little bit acceptable clothes.
It was just bliss. Thats the first time i felt so happy and i thought she also had some thoughts about me (Ignorance. Ignorance is bliss). Eventually, like most of other school crushes,this also got crushed (I think thats why its called a crush). I got to know that she is having friendship with one of my classmates, so on and so forth. When i heard that news, i had a small tear coming out of my eyes and falling down on my palm ( cinematic)…but it happened. Actually one of my friends saw it too…
Even after the crush was crushed, every time i hear that song her face comes like a breeze and flies away. I was so introverted that i never talked to her in those 2 years of crush period. I never tried it also. Whenever i see her, my heart used to beat so fast that i thought its going to stop forever. the guy in the movie has the same feeling…
The other reason i love this song so much is that, this was the first song i sang on a stage for a competition. Although i didn’t win, it actually gave me the confidence that i can stand on a stage and perform in front of a huge audience.
The song is so sober, sad and melancholic that it seeps even in to a stone hearted guy. Whenever you hear it you will definitely think of your unfinished love and you just think that “if it was so, i would have….” Thats why this song so highly rated in my heart. Its not about the complexity of the composition but the impact it makes in your heart.
P.S., That girl on who i had crush on is married and i dunno where she is now. May be she is reading this. When i see her next time, i like to ask only one question “Did you know that i had a crush on you?”
Next article – The BGM score of Idhayam and how it is still haunting my heart…
What if a Music director gets bed ridden in midst of composing for a movie?
And the producer has taken all his people, director, a super star to Ooty for an outdoor and waiting for the music director to compose the music and finish the song so that he can finish the shoot in Ooty itself.
The producer comes back to Chennai, hearing that the music director is bed ridden and says that he will pack up things and later he can take the song…
The Music director was not able speak as he had a operation in stomach and the doctor adviced him not to talk until the stitches are taken away.
So what did the music director do?
He recorded the tune for the song in a tape recorder through whistiling…!#@
He askedhis assistants to come the next day…asked them to make notations. He corrected through whistle and his assistants recorded the song…
