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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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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Romantic Comedies are a rarity in Tamil Cinema. I believe a perfect Romantic Comedy should have the right proportions of both. How many Tamil movies you have seen with both of these coming in right proportions. I have decided to showcase two romantic comedies in the 40s-70s era which were trend setters for the future. Theses two movies have been diligently (shamelessly) reproduced by some of the later directors with some changes and still became superhits.

Rom Coms can be made in two different ways – one which will have only two lead characters, the story traverses through them and the situations they encounter. And the other type of story, depict more than one couple, their problems and the inter twining of situations etc. The first movie which I am going to show case is of the first genre.

Anbe Vaa (1966)

Anbe Vaa was the start of all those romantic movies where the boy meets girl. They start fighting. Fall in love but never want to express. Relationship ends with a rift. Atlast they reconcile and love triumphs.

I am not kidding but i think 99% of the love stories in Tamil Cinema followed this trend and most of them succeeded. The latest one being Siva Manasula Sakthi, which was a hit too.

Anbe Vaa was loosely based on 1961 Hollywood Comedy “Come September”. JB (MGR) is a very successful businessman fed up and stressed out with his monotonous life wants to take a break in his summer bungalow in Shimla. When he arrives, he finds that his manager’s brother in law (Nagesh) had made the place in to a summer resort and making Money from tourists. He meets Latha (Saroja Devi) and finds her attractive so he joins the band of tourists for a rent in his house. Only his manager’s daughter (Manorama) knows that he is the owner but he silences her to have fun. JB acts as a Balu, a normal salaried guy.

JB and Latha gets in to small cat fights each trying to pull others leg with practical jokes. They eventually fall in love but never want to express each other. Latha thinks even JB’s love is a practical joke. Enters Asokan, a Pilot, Maternal uncle of Latha and a long time friend of JB. He alsi joins the bandwagon of JB’s acting. Tired of JBs practical jokes, Latha decides to marry her uncle. But he finds the love between her and JB, unites them. When JB reveals his true identity before the marriage, Latha thinks it’s yet another practical joke from JB but all end’s well in the climax.

The cast includes MG Ramachandran, Saroja Devi, Asokan, Nagesh, Manorama, TR Ramachandran and so on. The movie was directed by AC Thirulogachander, produced by AVM and music by MS Viswanathan.

What’s so special about the Movie?

1. The story in itself. Nobody even thought of having a 3 Hr movie with only two lead characters fighting at each other would make a good screen play. The screen play was so wonderful that it never lagged a bit.

2. The music – I think this movie’s album was one of the best ever to come in Tamil Cinema. The dream combo of MS Viswanathan – Vaali was nothing short of greatness. Pudhiya Vaanam Pudhiya Bhoomi, Rajavin Paarvai, Love Birds Love Birds, Anbe Vaa, a western based Nadodi (was it a copy?), Once a papa met a Mama (Baila) and above all Naan Parthathile Aval Oruthiyaithan Were memorable hits. (Actually once when I sang Naan Parthathile in my college, I had a roaring applause at the start of the song – that’s the level it had reached even in the hearts of younger generation)

3. MGR was a action hero and he was known for his complete masala entertainers. He was courageous enough to take such a role and the producers were brave enough to cast him.

Why it is in the list?

1. Simply because it was a trend setter. Nobody can count the number of movies inspired by Anbe Vaa. It gave the directors and producers the confidence that rom coms can make money too (Not just money but big money)

2. For the music, screen play and MGRs acting. Anyways the producers did compromise something for MGR, they had to add a fight sequence as they didn’t want to take MGR movie without a fight. They were prudent enough because few producers had lost quite some money by not compromising for MGRs star power.

Trivia

1. AVM had this wonderful team of in house script writers who can turn any language movie in to a Tamil script. As Anbe Vaa was a rehash of Come September, the other movies from their production house were mostly based on other language movies. Jaavert Seetharaman was considered to be a expert in converting scripts to suit the Tamil audiences.

2. Anbe Vaa was the first script made by AVM to suit a star actor. They usually choose the actor based on the script made.

3. Although the story takes place in Shimla, 95% of the movie was shot in Ooty. Only the introductory song of MGR was shot in Shimla to authenticate that the movie takes place in Shimla.

4.Anbe Vaa was the first complete color movie produced by AVM

5.Naan Parthathile was one of the few songs shot in outdoor with MGR as he avoids the public shooting due to the huge fan following he had and he never used to learn dance in front of the public in order to maintain his image.

6. During those days, the release of the lyrics as a book was popular. AVM released the Anbe Vaa lyric book like a LB Record, which was even sold in black for higher prices.

7. Anbe Vaa ran for 23 weeks and it’s one of the biggest blockbusters for AVM. MGR demanded a salary of 3.25 Lakhs for the movie ( do your inflation calculations)

PS: All the trivia about AVM are credited to the book by M.Saravanan, “AVM 60 Cinema”

– Post From My iPhone

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