In simple words if I have to describe my relationship with Maestro Ilayaraja’s Music, I would say “I grew up with my mom and maestro’s music”. I was cursing myself when I could not attend the “andrum indrum endrum” – the first live show of Raaja a few years back but when this “Nothing But Wind” live orchestral concert was announced I was determined to go at any cost. Although he was not performing, it was organised by his daughter Bavatharini and I know she would not make a mockery of it.

At around 7.05 when I entered the auditorium, Maestro, Vaali and Uttam Singh were on stage to light the lamp and inaugurate the show. Bavatharini rendered the ever favourite Janani Janani to invoke the blessings of God. Originally, Nothing But Wind is an Indian – Western fusion album composed and orchestrated by Ilayaraja, the flute exclusively performed by Hari Prasad Chaurasia with an 100 piece orchestra. The album was released in 1988. There are 5 musical pieces in the album – Singing Self, Song of Soul, Composer’s Breath, Mozart I love you, and Nothing But Wind. Reproducing the genius of a music with a 30 piece orchestra and accompaniments is not a joke. I would say they gave a fitting tribute to the original.

Navin Iyer played what Hari Prasad Chaurasia took 7 days to record and reproducing the musical genius’ with with a few changes of flutes in a live performance – absolutely scintillating. He was overwhelmed when Raaja applauded and blessed him. Prabakar, who is conducting for Raaja for the past 30 years played the solo violin and managed the orchestra to perfection. It was amazing to hear that he wrote the whole set of notes by listening to the CD of the original as Bavatharini couldn’t find the original notes of Raaja. The 30 Piece orchestra played the perfect foil for Navin and Prabakar. After the completion of every piece there was a standing ovation from the crowd and when Nothing but wind ended, tears were waiting to break down from my eyes. I joined the 1000 odd fans in unison to applaud for the genius and the re-creators.

It was followed by a felicitation ceremony and the fans were treated with interesting anecdotes from Uttam Singh and Raaja. It seems initially Hari Prasad Chaurasia saw the musical notes and said it was simple. But when he met, Raaja explained the notes to him, he was reluctant to do it. Once he started playing for the recording, he fell in love with the notes and even said that he can’t play with a single flute. It took 7 days to record the 5 musical pieces for which Raaja took only half an hour per piece to write them. There was a sixth piece which didn’t make it to the original record and guess who got the opportunity to take it to his movie – Kamal Hassan and the song – wait till the end of the post.

Raaja felicitated each and every person who was responsible for the concert to happen. It was very heartening to see even sound engineers getting felicitated for the wonderful job. Then followed a few songs of Raaja rendered by young singers – Thenpandi Seemaiyile, Ennama Kannu, Gumm Summ Gumm, Oru Poongavanam but the lateral part of show was blown away by the rendering of Anjali Anjali by Yethishwar (Karthik Raja’s Son) and the mind blowing performance of Pop Shalini and Haricharan of Ithu oru Nila Kaalam from Tik Tik Tik.

The concert was soulful, perfect and magical in relative to innumerable crappy shows running all around. I just felt good sitting with a wonderful audience who were in pin-drop silence when the orchestra was performing except for a couple mobile ring-tones. As Baski said “Chennai proved that they intelligent audience of Cricket and Music alike”. And Baski along with Rohini played the perfect hosts. Baski with his own play of words and Rohini with her command in language looked perfect. It was Baski’s statement which drew the longest applause for him – ” if all the technologies and machines dies out today, there will be only Ilayaraja who can make music with only Harmonium” – Aye Baski ( if MSV can’t because of his health).

When everyone left the auditorium awed and vibrantly discussing about the concert, there was a voice “when is How to name it?” – ” Soon ” was the reply from Bavatharini – I said to myself – “the world is waiting”

P.S: The song that was taken by Kamal Hassan for his movie. Listen to it..Brilliance Personifed

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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.

This song is from the super duper combo of Jayachandran and Ilaiyaraja. In fact Jayachandran debuted in Tamil with Ilaiyaraja’s Vaidehi Kathirundhal. The movie is ” Pillai Nila” and the song is ” Raja Magal Roja Magal” .

Pillai Nila is a movie about a girl who has unrequited love on Mohan and commits suicide. She comes back as a spirit inside the body of his child.  So the movie is shrouded with mystery and eeriness. Radhika as the lover and Shalini ( Yes Shalini Ajith as Baby Shalini) as the child were excellent.

This particular song is the one where the Hero Mohan describes the girl (Radhika), her characterization, beauty and the uniqueness. Radhika is kind of complex, irresistible and stubborn kind of a girl and the lyric depicts every aspect of the girl. The song starts with the male voice and a piano rendering, joined by Flute and violin in a wonderful harmony. The best part of the song is the female hum from S.Janaki in both the interludes. It supplies the strangeness and eeriness to the song. When you see the song in the movie, you are bound to the think that, there is some mystery to the girl in question.

The whole two saranams is made with minimalistic orchestrations and simple repetitive beats. Its the voice of Jayachandran that mesmerizes you in the whole song and of course the richness of poetic lyric ( I think Vairmuthu.Am not sure).

“Panneerayum Veneerayum Unnodu Naan parkiren
Poovenbentha Pen Enbatha Nenjoduthan Kerkiren
Mulloduthan Kalloduthan Rojakkalum Pookkalam
Ammadi Naan athoduthan un perayum serkalam”

I am told by the Ilayaragam Page that the song is made in Rishivani Raaga. A very rarely used one by the Film Music directors but extensively used by Maestro. Thanks to some people in Internet. You get these gems in YouTube. Hear it and savour it…

Maestro has this fantastic habit of changing few swaras and give a different rendition of the same tune. The girl comes as a small child and sings the same song in the later part of the movie. S.Janaki, the eternal baby voice of those times adds up the sadness to the already eerie tune. The other version for you to find the subtle differences between two tunes and maestro’s brilliance.

Why I love this Song?

This is a song you like to sing to your girl friend. And if you really meet some one like that, wohoah you are in for a ride man.  Apart from that, the song is a very simplistic musical rendition,with wonderful lyrics and fabulous singing. How many songs you see in such a calibre – a rarity in the current Tamil film music. Only once i have heard this in a FM Radio, that too in the mid-night and I can see this in TV only when Raj Digital shows the movie.

So did I sang this to my Girl Friend???

P.S: Nice Trivia for you. The movie was directed by Manobala ( Yes the same guy who comes in “yeppadi iruntha naan, ippadi aayiten” joke with Vivek.

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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.

Disclaimers:

1. I am not a music person. I dunno how the ragas are made, how western notes play, I am clueless about C sharps… So don’t expect me to diagnose the music in to raagas and notes. I would write what I love in that song. I always believe that the success of the song relies on the feeling it gives you when you hear it. If you like to know more about the musical genius of the man, visit his official fans group in Yahoo – I bet you are in for a treat if you understand music.

2. All the songs chosen here are my personal favorites. So it’s absolutely biased and i hope you feel the same.

The Unknown Gem – 1

Parthiban is one of the most intelligent film makers I have ever seen. But he sometimes wades of his usual ways to make movies like Ullae Veliye etc. Only he knows why. He is a ardent fan ( fan is a understatement, devotee is a better word) of Ilaiyaraja. He once famously put in a title card like this “Music Alias Ilaiyaraja”.

Incidentally his first movie’s (Pudhiya Paadhai) music was not by Maestro but he joined hands for the second movie “Pondatti Thevai”. One of the most beautiful songs from that movie is going to be our first song.

To understand the beauty of the song, you should understand the situation. The hero (Parthiban) is a bus conductor , an orphan falls in love with a Brahmin girl who travels regularly in his ladies special bus. He loves his mother but he doesn’t have a picture of her to see. He even tries to take a picture of his mother in her death-bed but she dies. So he always yearns for a motherly love and he expects his wife to be his second mother ( most of us do) . Once his lady love comes to his house, tries to cook non-veg for him etc. He gives her the saree his mother had bought for her daughter in law. She sings this song as he asks for it.

The song starts with a female hum and a simple piano rendering. And it moves on to the flute and the Pallavi follows. The song continues with a usual Tabla base entwined with piano and violin intersperses. Both the interludes are made of delightful interactions between violin, piano and flute. The whole song has a lullaby effect attached to it. Ilayaragam, the geocities page of Ilaiyaraja says that song was made in Natabhairavi Raaga. It is said to be a raaga of grandeur and pomp. A lullaby in that raaga – only Raaja can do it.

The lyrics forms a very integral part of the song. The first half the lover says why she will not equal his mother and explains her love with a sweet tinge of desire.

In the second half, the guy says what he wants from her and shows his love with the usual metaphorical words attached with poetry.

The song was sung by Chitra and Arun Mozhi (who is also flautist in Ilaiyaraja’s orchestra). The lyric was written by Vaali.

Why I love this song?

Have you ever spent a day with your love in your home alone, with none around, distancing yourself from the outside world? Just cook together, eat together even though you are not hungry, with sweet kisses… Have you ever slept in her bosom like you sleep in your mother’s? You will understand the real beauty of this song when you experience it…

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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. Thiruvilayadal is an excerpt of 4 stories from the 64 stories, which tells the greatness of the Hindu God Shiva. Lord Shiva according to South Indian beliefs has two sons, Vinayagar ( Ganesh in North India) and Muruga (lesser known in the North with the name Karthik). Murugan fights with his parents as they give the divine fruit to the clever elder son and Murugan goes to the Palani Hills relinquishing all his virtues and luxuries. Different people try to convince him and atlast his mother Parvathy explains the various godly miracles of his father Lord Shiva.

The four episodes include the encounter with Nakkeeran, the poet in the Pandya Kingdom, the rift between Patvathi and Sivan – Parvathi being born as a fisher woman. The story of the over-proud singer and Sivan teaching him a lesson as a wood cutter.

Sivaji Ganesan, Savithri, Muthuraman, Nagesh, Manorama, TS Balaiah were few of the huge star cast it had. The music was composed by the legendary KV Mahadevan and the movie was directed by AP Nagarajan.

Why it’s so special?

I think this is the best mythical movie ever to be made in Tamil. I don’t think somebody could make a better one than this. Even AP Nagarajan tried to emulate it and never succeeded in the process.

The movie had everything to make it as the best myth movie. The grandeur, scintillating music, perfect portrayals of actors (right casting) and the choice of the episodes.

The dharumi character of Nagesh, his encounter with Sivaji Ganesan as Lord Shiva is arguably one of the best comic scenes to be made in Tamil Cinema. I never understood the fact of how all the mythical characters and historical characters suit Sivaji so well. He fits in to the role of Lord Siva lika a perfect T.

The most important reason for the success of the movie was the music. Pazham Neeyappa by KB Sundarambal, Oru Naal Pothuma by Balamurali Krishna, Isai Tamil nee Seitha Arut Sadanai and Paatum Naane by TM Soundarajan are fantastic renderings still ringing in the ears of music buffs. The flawless screen play by AP Nagarajan makes this movie a must watch.

Why it makes to the list?

1.Myth is the part and parcel of life in India. Movies are not an exception. I could not think a better movie than this to list in this genre.

2.Do I need one more reason?

Trivia

1. The Dharumi character was not present in the movie originally. Nagesh was so very popular in those years that it was a crime not having in the movie. The director had to create a character to accomodate Nagesh in to the movie. It was said that the Dharumi character was based on a person called Krishnaswamy iyer.  It seems he was found in the banks of Mylapore Tank repenting about his poverty.

2. Krishnangoyal Venkatachalam Bhagavathar Mahadevan aka KV Mahadevan was born in Nagarcoil in 1917. He was working with HMV for few years and later turned towards music composing. His first movie was Avan Amaran and he was one of the most sought after music directors in his prime. His famous hits include Sankarabharanam, Konjum Salangai, Vasantha Maligai along with Thiruvilayadal. He had composed more than 600 movies in different Indian. A legendary music director. How can we forget Singaravelane Vaarai and Yaarukaga…

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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?

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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.

Enjoy the song and Ilaiyaraja’s beauty…

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The BGM of Idhayam

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?’

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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…

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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 asked  his assistants to come the next day…asked them to make notations. He corrected through whistle and his assistants recorded the song…

Producer: Panju Arunachalam

Movie: Thambiku Yentha Ooru

Starring: Rajinikanth and Madhavi

Music Director: Music alias Ilayaraja

And the song is

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru2f5aXo-7k] 

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