I examine Ilayaraja’s creative use of raagas like Subhapanthuvarali and Mayamalavagowlai in film scores. I discuss his unique adaptations of the Lalitha and Dhenuka scales, contrasting his prolific output with the works of MSV and other contemporaries.

This is the third of 15 articles titled Classical Ilayaraja appeared on Usenet in the 90s.\ I've added links to the songs, so you can listen as you read.\ You could also try my Tamil song search. Subhapanthuvarali is a 'bayangara soga' raagam. If you hear it you will cry; I will cry; 'saraa log' will cry. Given the conditional event of Rajiv Gandhi or Indira Gandhi's death occuring, Subhapanthuvarali played on the radio or TV by some 'thenga moodi' bhagavathar during the days of mourning will make even those music insensitive Indira Congress leaders shed at least 'crocodile tears'! Can you imagine this raagam being used in the cinema for a sexy scene like that in 'Hot Shots' in which the hero Charlie Sheen fries eggs on the heroine's umbilicus as though it was a bunzen burner?! Yes, there is a song in Subhapanthuvarali for a situation like the above said, in the movie Getti Melam. That was the first movie in which director Visu joined Ilayaraja, starring Karthik and Sasikala. Visu had tried some sexploitation in that song sequence by bringing Sasikala in swimsuit for few minutes, Karthik grazing over her all the time! The song is dhagamae undanathe, thindaaduthe manamae. That was pure Subhapanthuvarali. Maybe it evoked sexy mood. Maybe not! Neither the movie nor the song was a big hit. Perhaps the failure was only due to the ineptitude of the raaga selection. Visu never joined with Ilayaraja after that! Ilayaraja has used Subhapanthuvarali umpteen number of times for sad situations. His first Subhapanthuvarali came in vaigaraiyil vaigai karaiyil in Payanangal Mudivadhillai. S.P.B had done a wonderful job in that. The song was a big hit as were the other numbers in that movie. Ilayaraja and director R.Sundarajan reportedly had a physical fight about who was the main reason for the movie's hit! Childish fellows! After sometime, R.Sundarajan became a pal with Ilayaraja once again, reconciling to the fact that Ilayaraja was indispensable at that period of time when he was at his peak. Some of his other Subhapanthuvarali are madhavan azhakiraan in Rajni's Raghavendra, one song in Valli (enna enna kanavu kandayo). In Paadu Nilaave he used Subhapanthuvarali for one situation in which the hero and heroine enter into some sort of music competetion. That song is vaa veliyae intha kootai vittu. Mano and Chitra. Mano had shown his vocal gymnastic skills in the thara sthayi sancharas in that song. Subhapanthuvarali is the 45th melakartha raagam. One raaga before that, (i.e. 44th) we have Bavapriya raagam. Ilayaraja has composed one song in this scale. That is kandupudichchEn kandupudichchEn in Guru Sishyan. One of my friend said that some carnatic big shot (Sudha Raghunathan or someone) told in an interview in MTV that it was a good Bavapriya and that Ilayaraja had used this 'soga raagam' in that funny situation in which Prabhu humours Rajini about his new love affair with Gowthami. I would simply say that it was a good song in Bavapriya scale. Thats all! Similarly there is a good song in the suddha madhyama raaga scale of Subhapanthuvarali, that is, Dhenuka. It is the song in Thooral Ninnu Pochu: en sOga kathaiya kELu. Let us simply call this as set in Dhenuka scale (with few slips) and not as Dhenuka raagam. The sixth raaga from Subhapanthuvarali, i.e. 51st mela raagam, is Panthuvarali. Ilayaraja has conspicuously not produced any good number in Panthuvarali.The only one that I know is the re-recording in Raja Paarvai in which blind Kamal plays violin with the troup. I forgot the situation for that in the movie. Sa Pa Ma Ga Ri Sa Sa Ri Ni Sa... that is how the recording goes. Though it is usually quoted as good Panthuvarali, I did not like it very much. He had tried some fusion in that. Nothing can beat MSV's ezhu swarangalukul in Panthuvarali. It is like listening to a katcheri. Vani Jayaram's performance was terrific. Did she get national award for that song? Perhaps, it is because of this song that she always says that MSV is the best music director who gave carnatic music in pure form, forgetting about Ilayaraja's inRaikku yEn indha (Vaidhegi Kaathirundhaal) and other innumerable etceteras. Maybe, Ilayaraja stopped giving her chance to sing in his movies only because she praised MSV all the time! Ilayaraja was very prolific in the sudha madhyama counterpart of Panthuvarali, that is Mayamalavagowlai. Since Mayamalavagowlai is relatively very flexible, you can distinctly show the colour of the raaga just by traversing its notes alone. Not much of gamakam is needed. You can use this for all kinds of situation like sadness, happiness etc. Ilayaraja has completely exploited this raagam to the point of its fullest use, so that no other music director can bring out any better than him from this raaga. His first song in this scale probably came in Ponnu Ooruku Pudhusu (enna paattu paada enna thaaLam pOda!). His other Mayamalavagowlai are manjaL nilavukku inRu (Mudhal Iravu), andhi varum nEram (Mundhanai Mudichu), madhurai mari kozhundhu (Enga Ooru Paattukaaran), uyirE uyirE urugaadhE (Oruvar Vaazhum Aalayam), illam kaadhal veeNai (Vellai Pura Onru), raama naamam oru vEdhamE (Sri Raghavendra), maasaru ponnE varuga (Thevar Magan), en thayenum koyilai (Aranmanai Kili), kottu kali kottu (Chinnavar), poova eduththu vachchu (Amman Koil Kizhakaalae). There are so many songs, that quoting all would be cumbersome. Some of them have actually been tuned in tappanguthu situations. In Bharathiraja's Ennuyir Thozhan, there is a song machchi en mannaru. It is a pukka Mayamalavagowlai (even though it is tappanguthu). That song has the following lyrics: Machchi en mannaru mansukkula bejaru,\ Touch pannaru, takkara poanaru,\ Daavu oru daavu naan kaatum naerum...\ Sammunu sammunu vaasam sallunu sallunu veesum... Though I've not seen this movie, from the lyrics I guess that the song situation should be like this: The poor pettai rowdy hero buys a new autorickshaw and shows it to his lady love and sings a song! In the charanam of that song look what the heroine asks the hero to buy for her! Not jewelry! Not house or 'bahuth keemthi property'! Not new silk dresses! Just two tickets for matinee show to a Rajini's movie so that they both can go! Thats all! Also, in the charanam the hero says to the heroine 'kaavEri aaraattam odaathE nee mE... koovam thaan naamE..' Funny! Isn't it? It is as though these people are just talking in Madras language in that song. Good depiction of poor class life. Even though the thamizh kaavalargal purists might say that this song is a kuppai, I liked the lyrics very much. How else can you write for a situation in which 'pettai rowdi' sings a song? In kottu kali kottu (Chinnavar), he has extracted heavy vocal support from SPB and Chitra, making them go up and down the scale in beautiful array of swaras. You should have listened to it to appreciate it. One of his Mayamalavagowlai closely resembles one of MSV's song. It is enge naan kanbaen in A.S.Prakasam's Sadhanai. It is just like kallellaam maaNikka kallaagumaa (Aalayamani). He should have definitely got the idea for that song from MSV's above said song. Some MSV fans might call this as blatant plagiarism! Is it? I don't know. Considering the panchama varjaya raagam of Mayamalavagowlai, he was the only one who ever used it so far! That is the Lalitha raagam. It seems to be a recent attraction to him. The first Lalitha came in Unnal Mudiyum Thambi, when Kamal sings a duet with L.A.K.Malam, as the heroine Seetha calls herself (as shit!) derogatively in that movie! idhazhil kadhai ezhudhum is a great Lalitha. Ilayaraja should have definitely got the idea for this tune from Muthuswamy Dikshitar's heranmayim lakshmim. To me, the movements of both the song and keerthanai seem similar. But Dikshitar ingeniously starts the keerthanai in suddha daivatam. The continuity of the tune that Ilayaraja has maintained in idhazhil kadhai ezhudhum, the step by step progression from one swara to another, the development of superb sangathis, each and every bit in that tune is simply excellant. This song is like a milestone in Thamizh cine-music. Gangai Amaran's lyrics is unusually wonderful, matching his another brother paavalar Varadharajan's maNNil indha kaadhal (Keladi Kanmani). He proved himself a poet in this song! Subsequently, following the hit of his first Lalitha, Ilayaraja tried another shot of 'half-boiled Lalitha' in iLam kuyilE kuyil tharum isaiyE (Priyanka). The start of this song is like Ma Ma Ma Da Sa Ni Da Ma Ma Da Ma Da Sa Ni Ma Da Ga Ma Ri Ga Sa. A beautiful start indeed! But the tune gets spoiled in the charanam. I am told that there is another of his Lalitha trials in Veera too. I understand that it is like a small virutham (thirumagal un) sung by Arun Mozhi. I have not heard it so far. Lakshminarayanan Srirangam Ramakrishnan,\ Internal Medicine Department,\ Brackenridge Hospital,\ Austin, Tx 78701. Comments R.V. EASWAR 20 Dec 2006 12:00 pm: Dear Mr Ramakrishnan, I read with interest your learned article on some of the ragaas used by Ilayaraja. It was erudite and gave much insights to laymen like me in appreciating ragaa-based film songs. However, I do not think it is fair to compare one music director with another - each one was in a different era and there were very little common factors that can be used for comparison purposes. Actually, my humble opinion is to forget all comparisons and just enjoy the music, whoever has tuned the song. I look forward to more such articles. Yours sincerely, r.v.easwar (of MSV-Ilayaraja era) venkateshan.S 20 Dec 2006 12:00 pm: You hail from srirangam and you have a scanty respect for bhagavathas which is very disheartening. DS Hari 7 Jun 2009 3:37 am: What about using lalitha is Sengamalam Sirikkithu in Dhavani Kanavugal..massive use of violin in the second interlude..PLEASE COMMENT. narayanraj 13 Sep 2009 5:30 pm: excellent blog with lot of informations and tasty coomments,satire etc., madhura mari kozhundhu and kottu kali kottu are nadanama kriya .ok . narayanraj

Classical Ilayaraja 3


I examine how Ilayaraja masterfully integrated Raagam Kalyani into film scores without compromising its purity. I review tracks from Uthiri Pookal and Sindhu Bhairavi, contrasting his style with Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan’s classical-commercial approach in Thodi Raagam.

This is the fourth of 15 articles titled Classical Ilayaraja appeared on Usenet in the 90s.\ I've added links to the songs, so you can listen as you read.\ You could also try my Tamil song search. Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan is a very popular carnatic violinist. He is one of the successful rebels in the field. His katcheris are a mixture of classical and commercial blend. In his classical concert he will play kallum muLLum kaalukku meththai (Iyyappa song) and in the end say 'samiyae saranam Iyyappa' in his violin. If you go to his house he will say 'vaanga saar vaanga, enna sappidaringa? Kaappiya, teaya?' in madhyama sthayi in his violin. If you say tea then he will turn inside and signal his wife in the kitchen 'adiyae... saarukku oru cup tea konda' in thara sthayi, of course, in his violin! He doesn't talk much, you know.... Only his violin....! Kunnakudi produced one family movie. It was a true family movie in the sense that he produced that movie, his son-in-law Mr. Ramakrishnan directed that movie (hope it is correct), and maybe, a couple of his other relatives were employed as the light-boys in the production of that movie. Unfortunately,the movie became an example of a perfect family movie in another sense too, that is, only Kunnakudi's family saw that movie! I was one poor soul who got to see that movie Thodi Raagam by the quirk of wicked fate! The hero was T.N.Seshagopalan. His lovely heroine was Nalini! Kunnakudi had tried to make some typical cinema story like, Seshagopalan, a famed musician pledging Thodi raagam to the villain, and finally redeeming it in the last scene. I forgot if there was any heroic stunt sequences in the last scene, when Seshagopalan redeems his Thodi back by befelling a dozen villains in a single punch with his fist! In this materialistic world who can escape 'sabalam'? Seshagopalan probably thought that the movie would be a big hit like Shakunthala starring G.N.Balasubramaniam and M.Subulakshmi, and that he could become super hero like Rajini and make lot of money! Anyway, coming to the point, there was a good song in that movie in the raagam Kalyani. It was vaa vaa thalaivaa vaa. As I vaguely remember, it was a good Kalyani. But, because of the dismal fate of that movie, that song did not become a hit. Even if the film had been a success, I doubt whether the song would have been received favourably by the common rasika. Because, the song is like a mini-katcheri! It is unlikely that a duet in which the hero and heroine exchange their love in a katcheri format will be liked by the common audience of the present day cinema world. So, you have no other go other than cinematizing a raaga so that it is appealing. You may have to compromise in loosing some purity of the raagam. Considering this tight situation that music directors face in handling a raagam in cinema, I really wonder how Ilayaraja could give the same Kalyani as in Kunnakudi's vaa vaa thalaivaa without even an iota of compromise in the purity, and yet be very appealing to the common rasika. Oh God! How many Kalyanis he has to his credit! The single most common melakartha raagam that he used was Kalyani. He should have scored at least 25 songs in Kalyani. This 65th melakartha raagam, is neither too much gamaka oriented nor very light. It is this quality of Kalyani that made him use it left and right! You don't have to employ violent shakes of the swaras to show the colour of Kalyani! Simple swara phrases would suffice, to establish the raaga identity. Since not much of gamaka is needed, you wouldn't be violating the so called cinema melody. Probably his first Kalyani came in Uthiri Pookal. It was a fantastic movie, directed by the avant garde director Mahendran. Aswini and Vijayan are husband and wife. Vijayan is hero cum villain. Aswini's younger sister (I forgot who it was) is a jolly type teen female. She is the one who sings that Kalyani song naan paada varuvaayO in that movie. She sits in a small sand crest in the middle of a river and sings that song. S.Janaki had done a real good job making all sorts of 'konashtai' in that song! This female is later raped by Vijayan, and that becomes the key knot in that movie. Uthiri pookal was a much talked about movie. After that, how many Kalyanis followed like train of programmed events from the recording theatre of Ilayaraja! jananI jananI in the movie Thai Mookaambigai was a terrific hit song. It was an excellant classical piece sung by Ilayaraja, Deepan Chakravarthy & Co. (He had the arrogance to push better singers to the back row, you know!). That song was rich in lyrics too. He has taken extra care to pronounce Sanskrit words in that song like 'shakthi peetamum nee, sarva mokshamum nee' as Sanskrit sounding. Good job! Look at the 'dhamathoondu' version of Adi Sankarachariyar's advaitha philosophy in that song. 'Janani janani, Jagam nee agam nee'. He said the same thing, right? Then came his superb Kalyani in director Maniratnam's first movie Pagal Nilavu. That is vaidEgi raaman kai sErum nEram. S.Janaki again. Radhika dances for this song. The rhythm in this song is wonderful. A blend of guitar and mridangam. He gave some of his Kalyanis in lighter form like those in the songs thEvan thandha veeNai (Unnai Naan Sandhithen) and veLLai puraa onRu Engudhu (Pudhu Kavidhai) etc. thEvan thandha veeNai has one speciality to it. It was a song written by Kaviarasu Kannadasan and it was posthumously used in the cinema. Look at Kannadasan's opening lines in that song: thEvan thandha veeNai, adhil dhEvi seydha gaanam, thEdum kaigaL theeNdinaal adhil raagam inRi pOgumO? Yes, anybody could have a veenai, but to get a raagam out of it only some fingers can do it! In the movie Sindhu Bhairavi he tried to do some technical innovation in Kalyani raagam. That is, in the song kalaivaaNiyE, it was widely publicised by K.Balachandar & Co, (who were literally at the mercy of Ilayaraja for the success of the movie), that that song was composed in aarohanam alone. Okay, what if a song is set in aarohanam alone, does the rasika get a special kind of melody? It was just an ordinary song. But a good piece of Kalyani. The song in Uyarnda Ullam, vandhaaL mahaalakshmiyE was a fantastic Kalyani. The situation for that song was funny. Kamal Hassan, a derilict, who loses all his money sings that song in praise of Ambika's entry into his house (of course, she sets him right and stands a great support to him). S.P.Balu had made all sorts of 'konashtai' in that song. This is one good example for how to popularize classical music. It is pure 24 carat Kalyani. In Soorasamharam he has given another form of 24 carat Kalyani (naan enbadhu nee allavO). He introduced his troup's flautist Arunmozhi as singer in that song. In the charanam, when they sing paadinEn paN padinEn, it is beatiful combination of swaras Ni Ri Ga Ma Pa. It is simply superb. A similar song is malayoram mayilae in the movie Oruvar Vazhum Aalayam. Almost each of the lines in this song, he renders in two sangathis, like for example vilayaattai solli thandhadhaaru first in Pa Pa Pa Pa Ma Ga Ri Sa Sa Ga Ri GA Sa. Then later, the same line is given in Pa Pa Pa Pa Ma Ga Ri Sa Sa Ri Ga Ma Pa Ma Ga Ri SA. Great Kalyani! I think his latest Kalyani is ammaavenRazhaikkaatha uyirillaiyE (Rajni's Mannan). In Thalapadhi also there is one good Kalyani: yamunai aatrilE... Some north indian singer (Mithali) sang that song. Amir Kalyani is a janyam of Kalyani. Though it is Amir Kalyani, it is 'garib' in its scope. Not much, you see...! The key phrase in it is Ma2 Pa Da Ma1 using both the madhyamams. Viswanathan/Ramamurthy made an indelible mark in this in their 'ennuyir thozhi' in karnan. Then, V.S.Narasimhan established his classical heritage (I heard his father is some carnatic big shot) in the song manasukkuL ukkaanrdhu maMiyadiththaay in Kalyana Agadhigal. At last came Ilayaraja's Amir Kalyani, in veeNai Endhum vaaNiyE (Vietnam Colony). I heard that Bombay Jayashree has sung this song. It is a good Amir Kalyani. Let us see if Bombay Jayashree attains eminance like Unnikrishnan in cinema music. More 'dabbu' in cinema, man! Saranga is another Kalyani janyam. A beautiful, vakra raagam, again with double madhyamam. (Why Kalyani has many double madhyama janyams?) MSV has scored an excellant Saranga in konjum nEram ennai maranthen. TMS voice is honey in this song. Ilayaraja gave one pure Saranga in kanniyar paarvai thanai in the movie Parvathi Ennai Paradi. It is the title song. When the title song was in such pure Saranga, I was lead to beleive that the subsequent songs might be in classical raagas too. But, alas, a big disappointment! You can never try to speculate what you will get from Ilayaraja at all. He has composed a fantastic song in one of Vijayakanth's latest movie with Kasthuri. That song is kunkumam manjalukku inRu thaan nalla naaL. In that song he has used all the swaras in Kalyani other than daivatam. I don't know whether any such raagam exists with Sa Ri2 Ga3 Ma2 Pa Ni3 Sa aarohanam and avarohanam. If so what is its nomenclature? Lakshminarayanan Srirangam Ramakrishnan,\ Internal Medicine Department,\ Brackenridge Hospital,\ Austin, Tx 78701. Comments Anonymous 8 Jan 2007 9:17 am: To me that song sounds like kedharam ... not sure though radha 28 Sep 2011 12:47 pm: In Janani song if his diction sounded perfect... that is because he learnt sanskrit. So, theres nothing to wonder about his pronunciation. krishna 9 Apr 2014 4:48 pm: devan thandha veenai is just a beautiful song with such a wonderful lyrics

Classical Ilayaraja 4


I explore Ilayaraja’s mastery of the Kedaram and Nalinakanthi ragas, highlighting Vairamuthu’s debut in "Pon Maalai Pozhudhu." I also compare these classical applications to A.R. Rahman’s "Ennavale Ennavale" and discuss the evolving dynamic between music directors and lyricists.

This is the 5th of 15 articles titled Classical Ilayaraja appeared on Usenet in the 90s.\ I've added links to the songs, so you can listen as you read.\ You could also try my Tamil song search. In cinema music, starting from the period of Ilayaraja, the lyricists got into a pact of servitude with the music directors. They were dictated by the mighty music directors. Since the selling of audio cassette and the success of the movie were only depended upon 'how catchy' the tunes were, and not on the quality of the lyrics, it became the unquestioned 'rajyam' of the music directors like Ilayaraja. He would come early in the morning to the Prasath recording theatre. Probably by that time the lyricist would be waiting there already. Maybe they even routinely prostrated before him as he entered into the theatre like the God incarnate himself! Then he would fill the theatre with his tunes in the 'thanthana thaana thathana thaana thaana nanana' form. The lyricist had to get this into his intellect and rack his brain to get words that would replace the 'thaana thathana' junk! What a pity! If Subramania Bharathiar had been alive he would've shed blood tears at the sordid state of Thamizh in cinema! Ilayaraja was definitely one important reasons for this abyssmal degenerancy in the state of 'kanni' Thamizh! (Maybe the LTTE/DMK/DK combo have Ilayaraja in their murder hit list for causing this change to their beloved Thamizh!). There is one guy who repeatedly proved that he could stand upto the pressure of Ilayaraja. He gave new form to cinema songs. After the period of Kannadasan (even though Vaali and the lot were giving some good meaningful songs), on an average, Vairamuthu gave much much better cinema songs. Some of his cinema songs even had splashes of supreme 'kavithuvam'. The song in which he made his debut was a feast both in music and lyrics. That song came in the movie Nizhalgal. The situation is that, hero Rajasekhar (a ganja case in that movie) returns back to his home in an elated mood. It was not shown whether he has a puff of ganja before that song! If you were the music director, what tune (to our discussion, what raaga) would you want to score in this situation? The points that director Bharatiraja gives you regarding this situation is: 'evening time/hero/ganja case/very happy/sings.' Thats all. Isn't your mind fully blank about what raagam to choose? Okay, if you were the lyricist (that too, making your entry into the cine-world in this song), what would you write? Ilayaraja chose to use the all time pleasantry of Kedaram in this situation! Vairamuthu decided to write pon maalai pozhudhu. Kedaram is a fantastic raagam. It is one of the innumerable janyams of the 29th melakartha Sankarabharanam. It has got a small U turn in its arohanam (vakram!). Sa Ma Ga Ma Pa Ni Sa. Avarohanam is Sa Ni Pa Ma Ga Ri Sa. Though this looks simple, there is a specific phrase in its avarohanam to make the raaga identity clear. That is, Pa Ma Ga Ri Sa is not just the same when you sing, you have to sing/play like Pa Ma Ga.... Ri Sa Ga Ri Sa. The temporal duration (kaarvai) of gandaram is more. This is what gives beauty to this raagam. Before Ilayaraja used, I know of only one song which is in Kedaram. That is, raamasaami thoodhan naanadaa in Sampoorna Ramayanam. Lord Anjeneya sings this song to Ravanan! Ilayaraja's use of Kedaram is splendid. He uses the key phrase of Kedaram in the opening of that song itself like 'Sa Ni Pa, Pa Ma Ga, Ga Ri Sa, Sa Ni Pa' travelling from madhyama sthayi upper shadjam to manthra sthayi panchamam in a single stretch. At the time when the movie was released, I was amused by the chirping of birds in the prelude. How could they catch many birds and bring it to the recording theatre and make them chirp according to their will and wish and record it? Now that I'm a little older, and know that you can make birds chirp, lions roar, kuyils 'koovufy', just by pressing a single button even in your $ 30 casio, I'm more amused by the use of Kedaram in the song. The use of accordion in the first interlude 'Sa Ni Pa Ni Pa Sa Ni Sa Ni Pa, Ga Ma Pa' is excellant. In the second interlude he suddenly introduces a meloncholy with a solo violin piece well within the scope of kedaram. I don't know why he did it. Why that sudden sadness in the tune? The intellectual, poem writing part of Vairamuthu's neuro-circuitry reached the boundaries of imagination in that song. He writes: Idhu oru pon maalai pozhudhu\ vaana magal naanugiraal\ vaeru udai poonugiraal Oh God! What a 'karpanai'! He personifies the evening sky as a girl and says: she is changing clothes from evening to night, and blushes out of shyness because everybody is seeing her! Can anybody refer to redness in sky during dusk any better than this? There might be light scattering and such kind of hi-tech physical events that might cause this phenomenon! But, look, what the poet has to say about this from his point of view! In the charanam, he goes a step further and starts characterising the normal events occuring during dusk in a poetic way. He says: Aayiram nirangal jaalamidum\ raathiri vaasalil kolamidum\ vaanam iravukku paalamidum\ paadum paravaigal thalamidum\ poomarangal saamarangal... Proper translation would be: Birds would sing and clap welcoming the night; evening sky would establish the bridge for the coming of the night; all the trees would sway hither and thither and produce gentle breeze welcoming the night; the appearance of thousands of colourful lights all over the world would be magical; it would be like a 'kolam' in the gates of night! The second Kedaram from the theatre of Ilayaraja came in Kamal's Michael Madana Kaamarajan. sundhari neeyum is a fantastic song. It is not as pure as pon maalai, but it is a good Kedaram. Though, it was MSV who discovered Kamal's singing capabilities (nyayiru oLi mazhaiyil thingaL kuLikka vandhaan; was it Kamal's first song?), it was Ilayaraja who gave him chance to sing repeatedly in his movies. In fact, in one non-Kamal movie he made him sing for some other hero (ponmaanE theduthE, en veeNai paaduthE: O Maane Maane). Kamal and Janaki have done a wonderful job in sundhari neeyum. Ilayaraja has given the required weightage to manthra sthayi Pa Ni Sa sancharas in this song too. In the charanam, during 'kannana kannae en sontham allo' he uses, Sa Ga Pa Ga Pa Ni, Pa Ni Sa Pa Ni Ri which is definitely unbecoming of kedaram. But, I guess we have to forgive this, because this is cinema music and not a katcheri! The second interlude flute pieces are exceptionally good. A.R.Rahman's ennavaLE ennavaLE in Kaadhalan is very frequently alluded by some as Kedaram. Reportedly 'thatha' Suppudu also commented about this song in some interview as 'Kedarathuku sedharam', meaning damage to Kedaram. Personally, I am not able to place this song under any raagam. It starts like Sa Sa Ni Pa Ma Pa Pa Ni Pa Ma Ga, Sa Sa Ga Ma Pa Ga Ma Pa...later it deviates with liberal usage of chatusrathi daivatham, chatusrathi rishabam, with one flash of shatsruthi rishabam too (kaadalinaal varum avasthai enru kandu kondaen). But it is a very good song, establishing A.R.Rahman's typical marks throughout the song. Unnikrishnan has done a good job. But unfortunately, Vairamuthu has made lot of 'paethals' in that song. Time and again, Thamizh 'pudhu kavignars' have written (to emphasise the dramatic impact of love on the lovers) 'after seeing you, and falling in love, I've even forgotten my name'! Vairamuthu has gone a step ahead and tries to characterize why the hero lost his speech (literally) after seeing the heroine: Vaai mozhiyum enthan thai mozhiyum\ vasappada villayadi.\ Vayitturkum thondaikum naduvinil oru\ uruvam illatha urundayum uruludhadi. Poets frequently indulge in abstract thinking trying to define inexplicable ideas. In another song he says, 'pookal pookum osaigal kaadhil ketpadhilai' (engE en jeevanE in Kamal's Uyarntha Ullam), when he writes about the onset of love. That is, as the sounds of flower blooming cannot be heard, the onset of love is indiscernable! That is a good abstraction. But in the above said song he has grossly failed in his abstraction, trying to explain the effect of love on an individual. In the charanam of this song his 'paethals' continue: Unthan koondalil meen pidipaen, Un viral sodduku edupaen... and so on. Luckily he did not go to say 'Oh, my love, when you shout from the toilet, I will bring the tissue paper'! Nalinakanthi is another Sankarabaranam janyam. Structurally, it is closely related to Kedaram. It has got a sharper U turn (vakram!) in its arohanam. Sa Ga Ri Ma Pa Ni Sa. The avarohanam is Sa Ni Pa Ma Ga Ri Sa. So kedaram differs from Nalinaganthi in only in the arohanam. Of course, you can sing the avarohanam of Nalinakanthi as it is, while in Kedaram, you have to add some special dealings of the swaras. Ilayaraja has one good Nalinakanthi in Kamal's Kalaignan. It came as a surprise in that movie because all the other songs were 'kuppai'. endhan nenjil neengaadha has been sung by Yesudoss and Janaki. Ilayaraja captures the essence of the raaga in the start of the song: Sa Ga Ri Ma Ga Ri Sa Ni Sa Ga Ri Ma GA...There is no deviation in that song at all. In the second interlude there is a short thara sthayi swara alapana too. He should have avoided that alapana, and that person too, in that song! (I think it is he who has rendered that short piece!). It seems like he has used gottu vadyam in that song. Lakshminarayanan Srirangam Ramakrishnan,\ Internal Medicine Department,\ Brackenridge Hospital,\ Austin, Tx 78701. Comments raj 21 Jan 2007 9:49 pm: u'r posts not ony praise vairamuthu butoffends other lyricists.. abuubakkar 22 Dec 2006 12:00 pm: egshdte lu v xmhjs xnsmd jimmy 22 Dec 2006 12:00 pm: Great analysis. Thought only I was crazy about these sort of analysis and good to know there is company. Learnt a lot from here. Thanks

Classical Ilayaraja 5


I explore the beauty of Prathi Madhyamam and Ilayaraja’s mastery of the Hamsanadham raga in Tamil cinema. I analyze his unique song starts and classical compositions in films like Thenrale Ennai Thodu and Geetanjali.

This is the 6th of 15 articles titled Classical Ilayaraja appeared on Usenet in the 90s.\ I've added links to the songs, so you can listen as you read.\ You could also try my Tamil song search. In carnatic music, while we have three kinds of rishabham, gandharam, daivatham, and nishadham each, the madhyamams are only two kind. They are the suddha and prathi madhyamam. If only the madhyamams had life, they are certain to demand reservation for the reason that the other more populous swarams like the rishabhams are dominating the music scene, not giving enough space for the madhyamams to come up in life! However, any species that is less in population become precious in due course. That is the general law of the nature. That is true for the madhyamams too. They are wonderful precious swarams. The prathi madhyamam is the second madhyamam. In the perceptual scale the distance between any two adjacent notes in the harmonium is the same, irrespective of whether the notes are in the manthra sthayi, madhyama sthayi or the thara sthayi. (This is in contrast to the physical scale, where the frequency difference between any two adjacent notes in the harmonium keeps on increasing as you go to the right). In other words, the perceived tonal difference between any two swarams is the same. Thus the transition between Sa and Ri1, Ri1 and Ri2, Ri2 and Ri3, Ri3 and Ga3, Ga3 and Ma1, Ma1 and Ma2, Ma2 and Pa, Pa and Da1, Da1 and Da2, Da2 and Da3, Da3 and Ni3, and Ni3 and Sa will all be perceived as the same by our mind. However when you sing with the Sa-Pa-Sa shruthi vibrating from the thamboora, the 'aadhara' swarams for the shruthi, ie., the shadjam and the panchamam will have a pulling effect on their immediate adjacent swarams. It is this phenomenon that gives the beauty to the prathi madhyamam. It is for the same reason that the gap between Ri2 and Ga2 appears wide while that between Ma2 and Pa appears so narrow, giving an illusion that these notes are extremely close to each other. The beauty of the prathi madhyamam can be well appreciated in raagas like Hamsanadham. There has been quite a good discussion about this raagam for a while in rec.music.indian.classical (rmic). It will become hackneyed to recapitulate it once again. Just to present the gist of the material: Originally a Neethimathi janyam and hence using Sa Ri2 Ma2 Pa Da3 Ni3 Sa (and the converse as avarohanam), it later became reduced to a pentatonic raagam when singers practically preferred to eschew the usage of shatsruthi daivatham (Da3). Thus, the Hamsanadham that we hear nowadays seem to be a janyam of Kalyani, instead of the 60th melakartha Neethimathi. Ilayaraja was the only music director who tried Hamsanadham in cinema. His first Hamsanadham came in Sridhar's 'Harry Met Sally' kind of movie, Thenrale Ennai Thodu. It was a typical 'Mills and Boons' plot, the heroine first fighting with the hero and later developing love, while the hero first develops love and later fighting with the heroine. 'Moadhal/oodal/kaadhal' sequence finally culminating in love signal from both the sides! Ah Ha! This type of plots seem to be like a never ending amudhasurabhi, giving the cinema directors innumerable situations, song sequences, and help them make lot of money. Rarely, such plots give us songs like thenRal vandhu ennai thodum in superb Hamsanadham. Sridhar who was almost dead at that time could make a comeback in the cinema world, because of the richness of the songs in that movie. Also, he introduced Veenai S.Balachandar's sister's grand-daughter Jayashree (who is also a cousin of the actress Sukanya) as the heroine in that movie. Ilayaraja starts his first Hamsanadham like Ma Pa Ma Pa Ri Ma Ri Ni Sa.... An excellant start! An ingenious start considering from the scientific aspect of music, because this is the first and the last song that I have heard with a start in prathi madhyamam. When you are bred in a society wherein there are certain established styles, you would automatically imbibe them and then start manifesting them. Saint Thyagaraja starts the pallavi of his 'pantu reethi kolu' (Hamsanadham) in panchamam. In this raagam, anybody would be tempted to make a start in Pa or Sa. If somebody started in Ma2, then it is an abnormal behaviour. If he doesn't deviate from the classical style even a teeny-weeny bit, and is able to sell it to the public and make a mega hit song, then it only means that he is brilliant! Ilayaraja did it! He has shown this kind of non-traditional start of his songs (from the point of view of the trinity's approach to raagas) in many songs. Another example would be the kakali nishadha start in jananI jananI' and ammaavenRazhaikkaatha in Kalyani. The background rhythm in thenRal vanthu is a fantastic monotonous tabla beat, not exhibiting change for every line in the song. This is in sharp contrast to the newer Rahman style, wherein there is lot of high tech scientific manipulations of the rhythm, with a change for each line of the song. As usual, our cinema kavigner (Vaali?), has made lot of 'paethals' in lyrics in such a wonderful raaga based song. Thendral vandhu ennai thodum\ aaha saththam inri mutham idum\ pagalae poi vidu; iravae pai kodu\ nilavae, panneerai thoovi oaivedu! Look at the audacity of the poet, asking the 'night' to give a mat, moon to sprinkle scented water, so that the hero and heroine could indulge in carnal love! Literally, he is trying to drive the 'daytime' away so that night time could come! The second Hamsanadham that Ilayaraja gave was Om namahaa in Maniratnam's Geetanjali. It was a good one too. The third number came in his brother Gangai Amaran's Ooru Vittu Ooru Vanthu. The song was sorgamE enRaalum. Our village hero 'touser payyan' Ramarajan and Gowthami go to some foreign country and become nostalgic about Tamizhnadu and then sing that song. That song was one first-class example of how to popularize carnatic music. From the pallavi 'hei thanthana thanthana thantha' to the very end of the song, it is absolutely classical. In such a short piece, he has brought out the full essence of Hamsanadham. Of course there are few slips, like the usage of Da2 when he sings 'namnaadu poalaguma', and the use of Ma1 when he sings 'paaka oru vazhi illayae' in charanam. He could have avoided these, and rendered a ultra pure Hamsanadham. But, what to say, cinema music directors seem to have all the right in the world to do anthing to any raagam! He has daringly ventured to test his vocal skills in that song with S.Janaki. There are real fast sancharas covering one entire octave in such short span of time. Somehow he has done a good job! Perhaps, he thought that Ramarajan does not deserve any better voice than his! The lyrics of that song is also funny. I think he himself (or Gangai Amaran) has written that song. It goes on to narrate how village life in Tamizhnadu is much superior to that in other foreign countries. Maadugalai meika, adhu maeyuradha paarka\ mandhaiveli angu illayae hei! In the short story collection of Fredrick Forsyth's 'No come backs' the hero happens to go to Tamizhnadu. He takes note with disgust, how people urinate in public places, defecate in streets, in Tamizhnadu. Ilayaraja could have written that in his song. Avasarama onnuku vandha sattunu\ oru oarama onnuku adikka\ nalla roadu illayae.... If the DMK succeeded in getting a seperate country 'Thamizhnadu', as they demanded the centre in early 1960s (beleive me, they had the arrogance and foolishness to do that, while Thamizhnadu didn't even have basic necessities like water of its own!), it would definitely make this song as the national anthem! Perhaps, LTTE Prabhakaran has already made a note of this song as the national anthem for his Thamizh Eazham! Lakshminarayanan Srirangam Ramakrishnan,\ Internal Medicine Department,\ Brackenridge Hospital,\ Austin, Tx 78701. Comments Arch 27 Dec 2006 9:32 am: The songs that u have stated are lovely. To jus quote some bloody songs , "Loose penne" and "chumma oru thali kattu da" in the recent times, i feel Illayaraja should have given a thot bot suiicide ..Whadya say!! ragu 2 Feb 2010 1:42 pm: mani ratnam film is right,, but that om namaha song is from the movie idhayathai thirudathey,. Ananth 7 Feb 2010 7:19 am: Vidyasagar has used Hamsanadam too in Anbe Sivam, in the song - Poovasam. rs ramaswamy 6 Jun 2022 10:54 pm: Very interesting series. I could read upto part-6 but then 'the related posts' broke. I will have to hunt for the remaining nine parts soon. I am learning a lot from what i have read so far. Thank you. May I suggest that you provide an index page for the series and place the link to the index in every part ?

Classical Ilayaraja 6


I explore Ilayaraja’s masterful use of the first and last melakartha raagas, Kanakangi and Rasikapriya, plus the melodic Sudha Saveri. I highlight how he navigates difficult vivadhi swarams to create emotionally resonant and technically brilliant film songs.

This is the 7th of 15 articles titled Classical Ilayaraja appeared on Usenet in the 90s.\ I've added links to the songs, so you can listen as you read.\ You could also try my Tamil song search. Kanakangi is the first melakartha raagam. It is also called as Kanakaambari (what a wonderful name!). While man's aesthetic sense gave birth to raagas like Mohanam, Sudha Saveri etc, his increasing scientific knowledge about the structure of music over a period of many centuries gave birth to raagas such as Kanakangi. In the days of yore, when man began exploring the music world, there was no Kanakangi. All he knew were those tunes or raagas that were immediately appealing to his mind. No wonder, simple pentatonic raagas like Mohanam made their genesis during that early period of man's irresistable pursuit for melody. Later, as is usual, science took over the aesthetic sense. The dominance of MOOD, which often served the purpose of being the mighty commander of raaga creation, was pulled down by the even mightier science. That the central theorm governing the whole of music was only simple mathematics became evident. The tip of the iceberg eventually lead to the unearthing of the whole of the rest! String instruments like the veenai and gottu vadyam etc., helped the 'music thirsty' thathas of yesteryears apply some good logic and figure out the progenitor raagas of the already existing raagas and narrow it down to the 72 melakartha system. It became a relatively simple task like filling in the unknown elements in the periodic table once you knew the general structure of the atom in various elments! The first melakartha became christened as Kanakangi. There are not many keerthanais in Kanakangi. There is a Thyagaraja keerthanai on lord Ganesha (who seems to have decided to rock the whole hindu community by resurrecting from his idolhood to drink vitamin D fortified milk!) in Kanakangi. Thats all. I know of no other Kanakangi keerthanais. There are few short pieces like the one in M.Subulakshmi's cassette in all the melakartha raagas. If you want to listen to pure Kanakangi in cinema go to KB's Sindhu Bhairavi movie. Ilayaraja scored a marvellous Kanakangi in that movie. The situation is: Sivakumar (called as JKB in that movie) is a famous vocal musician. His wife Sulakshana is a carnatic music ag-gnani. Hence, to quench his music thirst at home too, Sivakumar falls in love with Suhasini, who is a great gnani in carnatic music! This dual love creates problems in his public performance. He tries to forget Suhasini, but not able to do so. He is haunted by her thoughts all the time. In that situation he sings a song mOgam ennum theeyil en manam vendhu vendhu urugum. It is this song that gave the first and last Kanakangi to Thamizh cinema music. Kanakangi is a difficult raagam to handle properly. The reason is that it has got vivadhi swarams at two levels. Sa Ri1 Ga1 and Pa Da1 Ni1. The transition from one note to its immediate adjacent note is discernable by human ear. But when you get such transitions consecutively like in Sa Ri1 Ga1 and Pa Da1 Ni1, it becomes jarring to the mind! Often, to score background music to eerie situations, cine-musicians press immediately adjacent keys in the harmonium in a row, say, Sa Ri1 Ga1 Ga2 Ga3 Ma1; or if the music director doesn't have any knowledge about musical grammer or a taste for melody, he may even press all the above said keys together to startle the audience by his unpleasant music, than by the situation per se! So, that's the only use for raagas like Kanakangi in cinema! But, Ilayaraja made a fantastic song out of this raaga. The tonal quality of that song appropriately suits that situation. He has handled that raaga in a very intelligent way. Nowhere in that song does he travels the entire octave. Because if you travel like that, it will be very jarring and unmelodious. He has divided the raaga into bits, delivering sancharas around Sa Ri Ga first, and then going over to Pa Da Ni later, carefully avoiding the sancharas of both the vivadhi levels in the same stretch! Only at the very end, while he goes to the climactic thara sthayi panchamam, he travels from madhyama sthayi panchamam in a single stretch, covering all the notes in between. K.J.Yesudoss has sung that in a wonderful manner. Nobody else could have sung that song as he did, because it needs lot of 'akara' practice. One should be a carnatic musician himself and be well versed with such vivadhi sancharas to do justice to the raagam. Kanakangi is one example that proves the old saying 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder'. The concept of a raagam and mood is only in the mind of the beholder! Because, look what happens to Kanakangi, when you change the reference shruthi from Sa-Pa-Sa to Ri-Da-Ri. This jarring, inharmonious vivadhi raaga becomes Panthuvarali, a superb meloncholy! The same vivadhi swaras exist in Panthuvarali too, but because of the change in reference shruthi the quality of the mood changes! Similarly, if you knock off the Ri and Da in Kanakangi, you get Sudha Saveri, a superb melody! These are all wonders in our perceptual system, the beholder's mind! Ilayaraja has got many songs in Sudha Saveri, a very melodious, 'desiya' raagam (Sa Ri2 Ma1 Pa Da2 Sa). His first Sudha Saveri probably came in Bharithiraja's Kizhake Pogum Rail. kOvil maNi Osai thannai has been sung by Jayachandran and Janaki. His other Sudha Saveri are maanaada kodi in Mudhal Vasantham, kaadhal mayakkam (AVMin Pudhumai Penn), raadhaa raadhaa (Meendum Kokila), maNamagaLE maNamagaLE (Thevar Magan). In maNamagaLE, he has given a sad quality to Sudha Saveri. The shanai interlude evokes a gloomy mood. Ilayaraja's latest Sudha Saveri came in Prathap Pothan's recent movie (Aathma). That song has been sung by T.N.Seshagopalan. The song is innaruL tharum annapooraNi. Even this song has wonderful shanai interlude. T.N.Seshagopalan has done a good job in this song (his first song with Ilayaraja). However, the best of TNS's voice has not been brought out. Perhaps just ordinary cinema vocalists would have been enough for this song! I am sure Ilayaraja has got a lot more numbers in Sudha Saveri. Only thing is my senescent mememory seems to be failing! Rasikapriya is the last melakartha raagam. Hence, Sa Ri3 Ga3 Ma2 Pa Da3 Ni3 Sa. I don't know of any keerthanai in Rasikapriya. Ilayaraja has tried this raaga in his early days. It seems like a daring venture at that time. The first and last Rasikapriya in cinema came in Kovil Pura. The three songs in that movie became very famous even before the movie was released. The movie starred 'Oru Thalai Raagam' Shanker as the hero and Saritha as the heroine. But, alas! Despite the wonderful songs, the movie was a big flop. The Rasikapriya song was sangeethamE en jeevanE. I vaguely remember the tune of that song. It has been sung by Janaki. It starts like Pa Da Ni Sa; Sa Ri Sa Ni Sa and so on. The tune in the charanam is fantastic. Unlike the first melakartha, the last melakartha sounds melodious to me. Ilayaraja himself had told in one of his early interviews that he expected national award for this song. But, he did not get it. Lakshminarayanan Srirangam Ramakrishnan,\ Internal Medicine Department,\ Brackenridge Hospital,\ Austin, Tx 78701. Comments joey 28 Dec 2006 10:07 pm: happy new year mate. was going thru ur movies wishlist. something that stood out was that you have not seen a few classic charlie chaplin movies eg. gold rush, great dictator, modern times. is it by choice or accident? S Anand 29 Dec 2006 7:07 pm: Entirely accident. Had seen it when I was a kid, but I'm not counting that, of course... Natarajan R 13 Oct 2008 2:33 pm: The song 'Koyil mani oosai' has been sung by Shri Malasia Vasudevan and Smt S Janaki, and not by Jayachandran. However the article with songs by Raja sir on 'Sudha Saveri' is worth reading and wonderful hearing (songs). Thank you MBJ Pancras 16 Sep 2012 5:53 pm: The Musical Magic Of His Genius (This verse was written as a tribute to the soul blessed with musical genius, and the person of the soul is Maestro Ilaiyaraja, one of the greatest composers of soulful music , born in India, on the event of the release of the movie ‘Thou art my Golden Spring.’ It was the advent of the dawn with the lullaby, Sung by the children of Nature with impeccable notes, The chirruping stretching its magical flute thro’ little birds, The leaves rustled thro’ soft breeze making melodies, The screeches ‘neath the logs ‘midst the woods turned notes, Waters amidst Nature with ebbs and tides chiming ‘cross the horizon, Roars and grunts played thro’ wind pipes fantasizing, Thunders and lightning stood meditating in serene atmosphere, Tiny species, a wonder of Nature, forbid their sleep, And stood awake in wonder listening to those melodies. Violins spoke the breath of his music with all reverence, Each of their strings penetrated the souls spell-bound, The magic of the flutes was his mellifluous notes sailed ‘cross, Cellos played with his thoughts chimed thro’ rains and mists, Pianos waded with the watery waves of his music soothing every soul, Guitars jingled ‘midst chirping and chimes speaking his mind, Rhythmic percussions with their muffled orchestral magic, Each of their beats proclaimed the way of his breathing, A lyre in its solo orchestral utterance was seen reading his mind, Trumpets blew with their notes of majesty, stood in bow at him, It was a synchronizing symphony married to the breath of folks, The blend of serenity and silence was seen in the showers of his songs. It was the day that Nature awaited with all expectations, And it was the day that the Emperor of Music stood with crown, The crown decked with genius and the magic of panacea. His golden era was musically proclaimed with its sacred numbers, Each of his moments with ineffable depiction of melody was a rebirth. It was an anecdote telling the new generation of his magical composition, The composition of wind and music in their perfect and ideal notations. He has transformed wind to music, giving life to each sound, And every atom has learnt his mellifluous notes and is still in chimes. The moon is seen lying beside the breath of his music, The sun with its radiance has stepped itself down into gentleness, Stars are with their twinkling eyes seen with standing ovation, The waters abroad, the inlands, all stood in awe and wonder, For his genius has awakened the souls sleeping to rise sprightly. Old trees sang their nostalgic experiences with his musical journey, Young plants hummed his inborn and innate genius, The ovation was not for his person, but for his genius And for the soul who transforms wind unto the music of soul. It was the day celebrated for his genius that transforms melancholy to joy, And it was on the day which leads his musical journey with his novel creation Which proclaimed his impeccable traits thro’ ‘Thou art my Golden spring.’ The magic of his music reigned in ‘Thou art my Golden Spring’ Whose father and mother is a man of making stories of romance, And the maker of stories honoured the sage of music, Whose saga has no ending till the last soul is transformed into eternity. My heart is lifted when his soulful notes pierce my inward eye, And it’s my living tribute rendered unto the genius in him, And my verse hath soul and life drenched in the rain of his soulful notes. Begun at 8.33 p.m. and ended at 9.18 p.m. (The programme was telecast by TV Channel on 16th September 2012)

Classical Ilayaraja 7


I compare how film composers use the Bhairavi raaga family. While Ilayaraja dominates the Nadabhairavi-based C minor scale, I find his lack of pure Bhairavi compositions surprising, contrastingly highlighting effective uses of Ananda Bhairavi in modern cinema.

This is the 8th of 15 articles titled Classical Ilayaraja appeared on Usenet in the 90s.\ I've added links to the songs, so you can listen as you read.\ You could also try my Tamil song search. South Indian classical music has got an excellent treasure of superb names. Most of the raaga names seem to be Sanskrit derivatives. Even though there are some Thamizh equivalent names for raagas such as Sankarabharanam, nobody uses them. Ki.Veeramani is probably very sad about this. Maybe, Vairamuthu has some plans like translating all the raaga names into Thamizh as he tried translating Thyagaraja's 'nee dhayaradha' in Sindhu Bhairavi movie as un dhayavillaiyaa (if only Ki.Veeramani was ready to fund the project, from the 5 lakh rupees that he got for perpetrating the deeds of thandhai Ee.Vae.Ra. Periyar, from Selvi Jayalalitha). Alternatively, Ki.Veeramani may get somewhat sensible and appreciate the high-level idiocy in trying to translate the proper nouns in raaga names. And he may rather to encourage a lower level of idiocy by goading his clan to replace all the Sanskrit sounding sounds like 'ksha', 'jha' etc in all the raagas to their Thamizh equivalents and then accept the raaga names. Then, Shanmukhapriya would be called as Dhanmukapriya (as Vibhishanan in Valmiki Ramayanam became Vibidanan in Kamba Ramayanam)! Some raagas seem to follow the first, middle and last name system! The only difference is, you don't give a space between the first and last name. For example, Kalyani has a first name (which is commonly omited), and that is, 'mesa'. This mesa helps in identifying the number and position that it occupies in the melakartha scale. While there is no dearth of names, for some unknown reason, there is lot of repetition in naming the raagas. Thus you have Mohanakalyani, Amirkalyani, Yamunakalyani and so on. In this case, the above said raagas are all 'DNA' testified offsprings of Kalyani. But there are some other unrelated raagas that have common last names. For example, the Ranjani group of raagas. We have Ranjani, Janaranjani, Mararanjani, Megaranjani, Sivaranjani, Karnaranjani and so on. Of these, Mararanjani is the 25th mela raagam. Ranjani, Janaranjani, Sivaranjani, Karnaranjani are janyams of the 59th, 29th, 22nd and 22nd melams respectively. See, how unrelated they are! Unlike the Ranjani group, some of the Bhairavi raagams are indeed genitically related. In this group we have Nadabhairavi, Bhairavi, Sindhu Bhairavi, Ananda Bhairavi, Salakabhairavi and so on. Of course, there are other few Bhairavis like Ahir Bhairavi (the Hindustani equivalent of Chakravaagam) which are not related to the above said Bhairavi group. Nadabhairavi is the 20th melakartha raagam. While it is such an important raaga in the western music (the C minor scale), its importance is completely undermined in our music. The fecundity of Nadabhairavi has been fully exploited in carnatic music to get innumerable janya raagams which are commonly sung, while the parent raagam has become totally ignored. There are not very many keerthanais in Nadabhairavi. But in cinema music this C minor scale is the supreme king. Probably one third of all the cinema songs are set in Nadabhairavi scale. Ilayaraja has scored countless songs in this scale. None of them is classical. So, even though one might know thousands of these songs, he might not be able to identify the Nadabhairavi raagam when sung in the classical sadas! Some examples for the songs in this scale would be kannE kalaimaanE (Moonram Pirai), kalyaaNa maalai (Pudhu Pudhu Arthangal), engirundhO iLamkuyilin (Brahma), raakku muththu raakku (Yejamaan), ennulE ennulE (Valli - what a song!), then thenpaandi seemaiyilE (Nayagan) etc.... A.R.Rahman's chandralEkhaa (Thiruda Thiruda) is another fantastic example of the C minor scale. In many of these songs, the music directors tend to present a hybrid by incorporating Da2, and Ni3 usages. Ilayaraja, who is known for his very minimal deviation from the chosen scale, also seems to enjoy presenting an (expected) vagary of occasional Da2 and Ni3 usage in these songs. Bhairavi is a major 'gana' raagam. It is a sarwaswara bashangam. Thus the aroganam is that of Karaharapriya and the avarohanam - Nadabhairavi! Hence you could call it as the janyam of either Karaharapriya or Nadabhairavi. However, since it is more closely related to Karaharapriya (sanchara-wise), it might be appropriate to call it a janyam of Karaharapriya, with a reduced daivatham in the avarohanam (from Da2 to Da1). The movements of Bhairavi have got a very powerful quality to evoke a gloomy mood. It is much worse than Subhapanthuvarali (the raaga which is oft used in the cinema for sad situations - a very 'light' one when compared to Bhairavi). For a guy who daringly ventures into the bermuda triangle of classical music, that is, the rare vivadhi raagas such as Kanakangi, Bhaavani etc, it is a kind of surprise why Ilayaraja so far did not bother to touch upon the greatest of all the janya raagas, Bhairavi, in at least one of his songs. Even in his classical music albums like the 'how to name it', I don't remember there is any Bhairavi piece. On the contrast, MSV has tried Bhairavi twice (as far as I know) in cine-music. Both of them are excellent. They are 'oru puram parthal midhilayin mydhili' (the second charanam in the song adhisaiya raagam in the movie Aboorva Raagam. MSV says that the rest of the song is set in some vague raagam called as mahathi); The second Bhairavi that MSV gave was thiruppaarkadalil paLLikondaayE (Swamy Iyyappan). What a lovely song! What an unbelievable classical presentation of the essence of Bhairavi! What a marvelous rendition by K.J.Yesudoss! You have to enjoy this song atom by atom (anu anuvai rasikanum!) There is no doubt that the ultimate classicism in carnatic music lies with few raagas like Bhairavi, Thodi, Sankarabharanam, Begada, Karaharapriya and Kalyani etc. The ascendency in the scale of knowledge and performance of even the classical musicians would be evaluated by the critics according to the mastery and proficiency that they show in handling these raagas. Such is the weightage that a raagam like Bhairavi deems from the purely classical people. Ilayaraja miserably failed in this aspect. There was a wonderful opportunity recently for him to handle Bhairavi. That is, in the movie Moga Mull. The author of that book Thi.Janakiraman, writes pages about this great raagam. In the novel, he actually writes few paragraphs of just Bhairavi swaras alone, and about the beauty of those swaras. This he writes in the context when the hero Babu and his friend Rajam sit in the Kumbakonam public park and listen to the Bhairavi raagam broadcasted in the park radio. Since so much emphasis was given to this raagam in the story, I was lead to believe that the director Gnana might have told Ilayaraja and got a superb Bhairavi song. But, alas! There was just a small piece of re-recording in Bhairavi alone, that too, Bhairavi varnam, when Babu's music master Ranganna teaches music to his disciples. Thats all. Mukhari and Husseni are raagas very closely related to Bhairavi. Though it is generally said that Mukhari is the apt raagam for gloomy mood, perhaps Bhairavi suits more to such a situation than the former. Cinema musicians have preferred to use Sivaranjani or Subhapanthuvarali for sad situations than Bhairavi or Mukhari, probably because of the terrific gamakam involved in these raagas. Too much of gamakam and cinema music don't go together! However, MSV has taken a shot at Mukhari too, in two songs: vaadaa malarE thamizh thEnE (Ambikapathy), pOgaadhE pOgaadhE (Veera Pandiya Kattabomman). I have not heard both these songs. But have heard people say that they are very good Mukharis. Ananda Bhairavi is a fantastic raagam. It is a sharp contrast to Bhairavi. As the name indicates, Ananda Bhairavi does not have a sad quality like Bhairavi. It brings 'aanandam' to the listener. It is traditionally used in real 'mangalakaramana' situations. During the celebration of marriage occasion, when the bride and the groom sit in a swing and play 'oonjal', there is a kalyana sampradhaya song. That is 'ponnoonjal aadinaalae'! The raagam is Ananda Bhairavi! You should have listened to that song, to appreciate how pleasant it is, particularly when a group of 'maamis' sing this song in an early morning muhoortha schedule! It will even make the father of of the bride who is performing a 'dowri' kalyanam, lacrimate due to aanandam, forgetting all the sufferings he had to go through to perform the marriage. Ilayaraja has given two Ananda Bhairavis so far. The first one came in Rajni's Raghavendra. The situation is: Manorama sings this song humouring Lakshmi, who develops an affair with the Raghavendra (future swamy). That song starts like: parthalae theriyadho naeku, adiyae sarasu... The second Ananda Bhairavi that Ilayaraja gave came in Sridhar's Iniya Uravu Poothadhu. The situation is: the heroine (Nadhia) or somebody gets pregnant and the 'thozhiyar' crowd sings this song (during valaikapu?). The song starts like chittu pOlE mottu pOlE piLLai vara pOraan kattil mElE. Both those Ananda Bhairavis were good ones. Look, he has used the raagam to suit happy occasion in both the instances! Mangalakaramana situations! Ananda Bhairavi is one unique raagam in carnatic music. It defies the general grammer that regulate the structure of all raagas! We know that there are 12 (normally) definable swaras in an octave (from lower to upper Sa). They are Sa, Ri1, Ri2 (Ga1), Ri3 (Ga2), Ga3, Ma1, Ma2, Pa, Da1, Da2 (Ni1), Da3 (Ni2) and Ni3. If you count in terms of the number of individual swaras considering each of them seperately (like Ri1, Ri2, Ri3, Ga1, Ga2, Ga3 and so on), then you would say that there are 16 swaras in an octave. Of these 12 swaras, we use almost all the swaras in Ananda Bhairavi. The 'namkevastha' arohanam and avarohanam of this raagam is Sa Ga2 Ri2 Ga2 Ma Pa Da2 Pa Sa; Sa Ni2 Da2 Pa Ma1 Ga2 Ri2 Sa. But there is much much more than this arohanam and avarohanam. You have Ga3, Da1 and Ni3 proyogams in this raagam. You can use Pa Ni2 Sa prayogam. With so much of bashangam, it looks as if it is very ungrammatical. Yet, it follows perfect grammer of its own, that define its raaga-lakshanam. Ga3 and Da1 is mostly used in making Ga3 Ma1 Pa Da1 Pa sancharam. Ni3 is used in making Da2 Ni3 Sa Ga2 Ri2 Ga2 Sa sancharam. In short Ananda Bhairavi typifies the purely aesthetic hallmark achievement of carnatic music. Recently, Thamizh cinema music has got two more Ananda Bhairavi additions, from the now very famous Deva and Rahman. Deva's one is konja naaL poru thalaivaa in the movie Aasai. Hariharan has sung this song. It is a great piece. Superb job by Hariharan. Look at the way the gamakam of gandaram is used in this song. Katcheri type of gamakam in a cinema song! Yet, it seems that this song has become a big hit! A welcomable change in Thamizh cinema music! In this song the lyricist (Vaali?) says 'thEnaara paalaara paanja en kaNNukuLLa' to indicate what a visual delight the heroine's beauty is! Look how he is crossing the gustatory (taste) and visual sensory modalities! How can honey flowing into the eye give any pleasant sensation? Perhaps we should not look at a poetic usage from the scientific stand point of view! Then he says 'dhEsiya kodi pOlE poththi vachchEn nenjukkuLLE'! What an atypical analogy to indicate the preciousness of the heroine to the hero! Rahman's Ananda Bhairavi is the song mettu pOdu in the movie Duet. Prabhu and Ramesh Aravind sing this in a light music concert. It is a fantastic song. Rahman has used this raagam in a very intelligent manner. The song starts like Sa Sa Sa Ri2, Sa Sa Sa Ri2, Ri2 Ma1 Ga3 Sa, Ri2 Ma1 Ga3 Sa, Sa Sa Ri2 Sa. Look at the way he uses Ga3 in the begining of the song itself! Classically when you sing Ananda Bhairavi, when you descend like Pa Ma1 Ga3, there is a caveat right at the Ga3 "don't go any further down"! But Rahman goes further down to Sa from Ga3! In this poor grammatically ungrammatic raagam, what can you say about this usage? When you listen to the song it is so illusory and sounds perfectly Ananda Bhairavish! Intelligent musicians can re-define raaga lakshana! Perhaps this is one instance. I don't know if classicists will agree with the way the raagam has been used in this song. Vairamuthu's lyrics is just wonderful in this song. He advises the janatha to achieve success like the tender roots of a germinating seed inside a hard rock (paaraikkul vErai pOlE vetri koLga)! What a powerful analogy to boost one's confidence to achieve success! Maybe, I could add 'dinosaurai pOlE tholvi adayaadheer' (don't attain failure like the dinosaurs)! One of the theories for the extinction of the dinosaur family is that the females could not bear the weight of the males during mating! What a stupid reason for such a mammoth species to perish and become extinct! Shame, Shame, Shame...! Lakshminarayanan Srirangam Ramakrishnan,\ Internal Medicine Department,\ Brackenridge Hospital,\ Austin, Tx 78701. Comments Anonymous 8 Jan 2007 9:05 am: Kalamaadu onnu karavai maadu moonu- Magalir mattum is also ananda bairavi ramesh viswanathan 29 Dec 2006 12:00 pm: Hello Sir, This was an excellent piece of information about carnatic raagams. I would like to know more about 1. Abheri. 2. Shanmukhapriya. 3. Devagandiri. 4. karnataka Devagandiri 5. reethigowla. there are many more, if you let me know something on the similarl lines will be thankful to you. Rgds Ramesh A.R.VISHNU VARDHAN 29 Dec 2006 12:00 pm: Hai every body, Any one can send me all songs of MOGA MULL. dayanandhan 19 Sep 2008 7:38 am: informative post.. hats off..\ one clarification:\ the song vaadaa malarey thamizh theney from ambikapathy and pogaadhey pogaadhey from VP -Kattabomman are the compostions of Isai Maedhai G Ramanathan.. and not MSV..\ pls clarify.. Sai Magesh 18 Mar 2009 9:49 am: Thanks Anand. Nice piece of information. I don't know carnatic music but I listen. I was listening to "Paluke Bangaramayena" from yesterday and the songs from duet and aasai were coming to my mind. I came here and confirmed that they are of same raaga. augustine 2 Mar 2010 5:42 am: well done and keep it up your wonderful task in music world

Classical Ilayaraja 8


I curated this 1990s series analyzing Ilayaraja's use of Carnatic ragas in Tamil cinema. I explore his handling of Chakravaagam, Sindhu Bhairavi, and Kaappi in films like Chembaruthi, providing links to listen as you read.

This is the first of 15 articles titled Classical Ilayaraja appeared on Usenet in the 90s.\ I've added links to the songs, so you can listen as you read.\ You could also try my Tamil song search. Recently, I watched the movie Chembaruthi on video. One of those unethical, "kuppai" screen printed video cassette, you know, that gives you a vision like that of a "soda-butti" watching TV without his spectacles! Ilayaraja has done a fantastic job in that movie. Though I had heared all those songs many times while I was in India, watching that movie created a reminiscent train of thoughts in my mind, about Ilayaraja, his music, the dramatic change he brought about in Thamizh cinema. I thought that it would be worthwhile to discuss his music, particularly the CLASSICAL aspect! I am aware that it is not possible to write about all his carnatic oriented songs, about how he has handled those raagas, how he has deviated from the classical style etc. But it would definitely be interesting to pour out our ideas once in a while in a random order of the raagas covered by him. In Chembaruthi there are six songs, out of which 4 are carnatic based. All the songs were "sooper hits". To a guy who knows carnatic music, the raagas are explicit, and to a non-classical rasika, they are just great tunes! This was one of his specialities, to give the raaga in almost good shape and also make a good cinema tune out of it. And of course, the rhythm should give scope for good dance movements so that the hero and heroine could share their love by dancing! Maybe, many of his tunes have to be branded as semi-classical or light music (even though the raaga form might be pure) only because of this rhythm factor. Chalakku Chalakku Selai is one good number in Chakravaagam. There is no impurity in the tune (like any anniya swaram). He has confined to classical 16th, Sa Ri1 Ga3 Ma1 Pa Da2 Ni2 Sa. Of course, not to mention, that the lyrics are very bad, fighting to degrade the song from semi-classical to light music. In the charanam the heroine says kalyaaNam aagaama paay pOda vENaam, ennaala aagaadhu aamaam. You know, some good heroines with morality do say such deterrant, anti pre-marital sex things to the always advancing heroes! Ilayaraja has only few Chakravaagams in his account. In the janya raagas of Chakravaagam, he has excellent numbers. Like, Malayamaarutham.... Sa Ri1 Ga3 Pa Da2 Ni2 Sa, Sa Ni2 Da2 Pa Ga3 Ri1 Sa. His first malayamarutham came as a pleasant surprise in Sridhar's movie (for whom he always had a soft corner) Thenralae ennai thodu. I distinctly remember how the 'Ananda Vikatan' magazine wrote in glowing terms about kannmani nee vara kathirunthen song in Malayamaarutham. Yesudoss and Uma Ramanan had done a wonderful job in that song. Ga Pa Da Sa Ni Da Pa Da Pa Ga, Ga Pa Ga Sa Sa Ri. What a wonderful start! The sharp rishabam gave a beautiful colour to this song. Maybe Ilayaraja's first Malayamaarutham was poojaikkaaga vaazhum in Kaadhal Oviyam. That was a good song too. Deepan Chakravarthi had struggled to keep in pace with that tune (like some violinists get into trouble with Seshagopalan's pace!). Then came thenRal vandhu muthamittathu in Malayamaarutham in Oru Odai Nadhiyaagiradhu (another Sridhar's movie). Gosh! That was a fast song too. Krishnachandar and S.P.Shailaja tried their best, but probably spoiled it. Particularly, S.P.Shailaja has sung like the shrill sound you hear when you apply the breaks on a car that you bought for $500! There are two other songs in which he has deleted both Ni and Ma in Chakravaagam. I don't think that such a raaga exists in carnatic music with any known name. Those two songs are amudhE thamizhae (Kovil Pura), and nila kuyilae (Magudi). They are simply excellent. One should be an artist and play those songs to know their quality. amudhE thamizhae starts like Sa Ri Ga, Sa Ri Ga, Sa Ri Ga Pa Ga Ri Sa, Sa Ri Sa Da Sa... Pulamai Pithan's lyrics glorified that song. In the charanam he says, if you listen to and speak Thamizh, oon mezhugai urugum, athil ulagam karainthu pogum, such is the beauty of this language! One cannot write any better, about the greatness of Thamizh language. (Those people like Thamizh Vendhan & co, who have no other job other than inundating the S.C.T with meaningless news about Thamizh Ezham, now, have a point!). I vaguely remember a song "naan irrukka bayam etharkku" (Kuva Kuva Vaathukkal?) At that time, when I had primitive carnatic music knowledge, I had diagnosed that song as "Valaji" (Rishabam deleted in Malayamarutham, Sa Ga Pa Da Ni Sa, Sa Ni Da Pa Ga Sa, you can say that it is a janyam of Chakravaagam too, even though theorists might say 'janyam of Harikambodi'). Maybe, that song is indeed Valaji. Ilayaraja has few songs in Revathi, another 16 Janyam. Perhaps the best onces are sangitha jaathi mullai (Kaadhal Oviyam) and kanavu onru thonruthe (Oru Odai Nadhiyaagiradhu). But I personally feel that MSV's melodious use of Revathi is unparalleled in the song manthira punnagai (Manal Kayiru). So much about Chakravaagam and its janyams and Ilayaraja. In Chembaruthi, two of the 4 carnatic songs, are in Sindhu Bhairavi raagam. They are kaadhalilE ezhumbura alaigaLai and "kadalile thanimaiyil". Ilayaraja himself has sung the former (thso, thso rendition) and Nagoor Hanifa the latter. Both these songs are excellent Sindhu Bhairavi's. One in three of all cinema songs are in Sindhu Bhairavi scale (one of the commonest cinema melodies, like the 20th mela Natabhairavi). Ilayaraja has innumerable songs in Sindhu Bhairavi, a variegated population from valai osai kalakala ena to shenbagame shenbagame etc. One cannot list all of them. But, probably MSV's Unnakenna Mele Ninrai (Simla Special) is the best of Sindhu Bhairavi. In kaadhalilE ezhumbura the lyrics is unusually good. Probably, Muthulingam or whoever was the lyricist, had a strong tea before writing that song! That song goes to tell the pathetic life of fishermen. The lyrisict says in pallavi kadal thaneer karikudu kaaranam irukkudu, meenavar vidugira viyarvaikal kadalile kalakudu... (Sea water is saline because of fishermen's sweat). Good idea, ain't it? Lastly,there is one song in Kaappi raaam in Chembaruthi: chembaruththi poovu (after decades, Banumathi Ramakrishna sang a tail piece of this song). His other Kaappi are ada maappiLLai (Siva), hei paadal onru (priya). As far as I know Ilayaraja is the only one who used Kaappi in cinema. All of them are good. He starts ada maappiLLai like, Ma Ga3 Ga3 Ma Pa, Pa Ma Ga3 Ma Ni2 Pa Ga2 Ri Sa Ni3 Sa Sa. Wonderful start! To start Kaappi in madhyamam and use its key phrase 'Ga3 Ma Ni2 Pa Ga2 Ri Sa Ni3' at the very beginning is an excellent approach to the tune. This is one of the instance in which his classical 'vidwat' was manifest. Even in chembaruthi poovu he uses the bashangam of Kaappi, in the very beginning, like, 'Pa NI2 Ma Pa Ni3 Sa'. Why did he choose to score tune in Kaappi for both these above situations in which the bride and the groom are humoured by the 'thozhan' and 'thozhiyar' on the occasion of their betrothal. Is their any definite pattern that he follows in scoring tunes for situation? Maybe. Lakshminarayanan Srirangam Ramakrishnan,\ Internal Medicine Department,\ Brackenridge Hospital,\ Austin, Tx 78701. Comments A .somaskanda 11 Dec 2006 8:37 pm: I loved your erudite commentaries on IR's music.I wonder if you could identify for me the raga in the popular tamil bhajan by Swami Haridas,"prabho ganapathey", popularised again by o.s.arun in one of his recent bhajan album.thank you. S Anand 17 Dec 2006 6:28 pm: This article is not mine, I'm afraid. It's by Ramki (Lakshminarayanan Srirangam Ramakrishnan), written in the 90s, and is the first in a series of 15. I plan to put in links to the rest over the next few days. Sorry about the bhajan -- I know little of carnatic music. Siva 18 Dec 2006 1:03 pm: I love only Hip Hops and Hard Rocks, I never listerned to old tamil songs. After reading this article and listrening to such songs, i was actually moved. Really they are Precious and yet to be preserved. Those hard rocks cannot sustain in peoples mind for a long time, these classical songs they have a longer life cycle. Rajendra Kumar 5 Feb 2007 12:08 pm: The article is well written and it is obvious that the author has a sound knowledge of Carnatic Music.However, I must add that there are some factual errors. 1.Thendrale ennai thodu was released in 1985 and Kaadhal Oviyum in 1982.Therefore, it is wrong to say that his first Malayamarutham was in Thendrale Ennai thodu.But a little known fact is that Raja had indeed composed a song in Malayamarutham in 1980 for the film Nenjil adum Poo onru and the song is Kodi inbam ...sung by SPB and Janaki.It is a pure Malayamaruthum and an excellent composition.Unfortunately the film was never released .. 2.The female voice in Thendral ennaimuthamittthu is Sasirekha's and not Shailaja's. 3.Amudhe Thamizhe is based on raga Rasika Ranjani-Raja's own creation. 4.Finally, though the author is entitled to have his opinion, I do not agree with him when he says that Manthira punnagai-from Manal Kayiru is the best Revathi.I feel that Kanavu Onru Thondruthe from Oru Odai Nadhiyagirathu is the best Revathi I have ever heard in fim music because of the way it is composed and the way it is rendered...What a superb orchestration! Same is the case with Sindhu Bhairavi-a raga used by Raja very often.Valai osai, Attama therottama(Captain Prabhakaran),Enna Satham indha neram, Muthu mani malai..Mani osai kettu ezhundhu....the list is endless..Can these be matched by any other composer?I have my doubts... AKILANDESWARI 17 Dec 2006 12:00 pm: One small request sir, I need the song lyrics (in words) from the film "Enn Rasavin Manasalae" the song which Act by Meena as "Kuyil Pattu oh" Please kindly send me the lyrics for this song From I Akila. Sai Magesh 18 Mar 2009 12:19 pm: Chembarthui has a beautiful melody(may be best among other songs from the same film) "nila kaayum neram saranam". Why didn't the author mention about that? Is it not based on any Raaga? jeyamohan.in » Blog Archive » இசை, கடிதங்கள் 28 Mar 2009 7:09 pm (pingback): [...] இங்கே காணக்கிடைக்கின்றன. http://www.s-anand.net/blog/classical-ilayaraja/ பயனுள்ளதாக இருக்கும் என [...] usha 24 Jul 2010 7:00 am: nilawe nee ware vendhum, Oooo.... taniyeh unn tunai vendhum, Oooo.... Vaan tedhuthey unnai than odiwa..Ooo Ooo Ooo (Ilayaraja paadiya, intha paadal entha padathil endre teriyuma? Terinjal ennake solunggal...pleaseeee balasoupramanien 18 Mar 2011 4:01 pm: Friends, he is not a young raja (Illaiyaraja) Big Big Raja! he is unreachable and not comparable . I never bored with his songs. He is a big big treasurer of every music learners (Coordination of Instruments, Chorus, Mood of the situation, vocal modulations, Experiments in music, language(s)). So, Pl keep listen, enjoy and learn music easily. Thappa sollalanu nenaikiren!!!! any comment please! MBJ Pancras 26 Nov 2011 5:33 pm: Nothing But Wind Music the world filled with, And is God-breathed the melody in it. Music moves the world around on its way, And it’s wind in music dwells. Muse of Music! Let me imbibe thy notes For sans thee my voice lies half-dead When my heart is to sing That NOTHING BUT WIND is music. My soul enters the sylvan woodlands- The abode of musical birds, And in quest of music haunts every nest. It’s music that birds chirp, And I lay my soul on a pasture, And the chirping of birds does caress my soul: The cuckoo sings with twain quick notes, The nightingale babbles with nectarous notes, The sparrow squeaks with mumbling thoughts, The throttle bubbles with drizzling thoughts, All sail into, my soul cherished When wind turned to music through birds. Crickets join the orchestra with their wings rubbed the air, And music flows when their wings flap. My soul journeys along the bank of musical stream, Where bamboos rustle when wind penetrates them: It’s “Bamboo” music breathed thro’ flute, I learnt the love for music born thro’ bamboo Perfected with beautiful melodies. Dwelling on pastures music grows personified: Harps reverberate at the hands of the shepherds, Green music born of pastoral spirit join the bleating of lambs: The lambs bleat and music is breathed, And the whole of the pastures flutter with joy. Into deep woods my soul moves, And lions roar I hear, elephants trumpet, And ravens voice hoarse notes When “bamboo” music is tried by machines: Harp turned to Guitar, bamboo turned to piano, And music now flows thro’ science - Science that survives with computers. When engine whistles I hear music And train follows it with “friction” music, Rhythmic beats perfected on rails. ”Friction” music turned to “roar” music When air-plane has been invented. My soul speeds up - speeding up And hears jet engines launch musical roar Yet perfected by computer technology - An impeccable rhythm thro’ jets. My soul runs atop the mountain peak Where rockets zoom into the sky with “rocket” notes Blasting off for the stars, Measured with “light year wavelength”. Stars roll down with noise and roar, The universe being filled with “lightning” sound. Seeks solace the world shrouded with machines… ………seeking solace thro’ divinity With mantras chanted; Yet “disco vogue” lingers on earthly pleasures, And man is belittled by his social excusable sins, And his society turns to animalism. Down from the mountain peak my soul rolls down… The peak that showed me fleeting moments of life. An inevitable holocaust shrouds the earth, And a victim with wounds and bruises am I. Back into the sylvan woodlands my soul runs now- Into the sylvan woodlands, the abode of musical birds, And haunts every nest in quest of music. To breathe “bamboo” music I run, For I learnt the love for music born thro’ bamboo. Forlorn! Bamboos are found nowhere. My soul longs for “bamboo” music, Yet learns a truth that music is NOTHING BUT WIND. And my soul is convinced that Wind is Music, and Music is Wind. Longing for silent music at the threshold of woodlands My soul now lies. Muse of Music! My heart sang a truth That NOTHING BUT WIND is MUSIC. And it’s my garland of thoughts presented unto thee. This verse is penned as the versifier (I) has been inspired by the musical album of Ilayaraja, the first Asian who composed symphony at Royal Philharmonic Orchestra England, whose real genius has not been understood by many. The musical album is NOTHING BUT WIND. He is an Indian. MBJ Pancras 26 Nov 2011 5:38 pm: Ilayaraja (Haiku) music genius born in Indian soil living in ragas. Sita vishwanathan 12 Mar 2011 3:03 am: @somaskandan........prabho ganapathe seems like raga tilang to me. இசையோவியம் 1 – அமுதே தமிழே « இசையெனும் இன்பவெள்ளம் 15 Sep 2011 6:16 pm (pingback): [...] http://www.s-anand.net/blog/classical-ilayaraja/ has more on the technical aspects of the song. [...] Ravichandran.N. 23 May 2013 9:38 am: Could you please tell me how do you identify ragas? I used to hear classical songs but am unable to identify ragas. Could you suggest means to get it? (Dont say I need to go for classes). However, you are a WONDERFUL person. I see MSV/TKR, ILAYARAJA, KVM as GODS. Sudha 4 May 2018 5:25 am: In Sindhu Bhairavi ragam, we have IR's "Maadha un Kovilil", "Naanoru sindhu", "Keladi kanmani paadagan sangathi", "Poongatru pudhidhaanadhu", "Mani osai kettu ezhundhu" etc...... all of which are as good as MSV's Unakkenna mele nindrai. For different emotions, there are "Vanithamani vannamogini", "Muthu mani maalai", Oru naalum unai maravaadha", "Ram ram hey Hey ram ram" etc.....Lyrics are bad in "chalakku chalakku selai" because it was a coming-of-age kind of love story and it could also depend on the director / producer's wish. S.P.Sailaja's voice is a different one and IR has only used it perfectly. "Thendral vandhu muthamitadhu" is an excellent number. Maybe the male voice could have been KJY though I cannot put Krishna Chander's voice factor down. There is a group of people that bashes IR for not giving enough chances to "newcomers" and then there is another group which bashes IR if the songs by the newcomers (or not the regular set like SPB/KJY/SJ/Mano/Chitra/PS) voices "spoil" the song! Intriguing! It is weird when people talk about the use of carnatic raga & grammar in film music and then complain about deleting from/adding something to it. Also, when the lyrics are bad, IR gets the whiplash while the tune is forgotten and when both the tune & lyrics are terrific, the lyricist gets the cake????? vignesh 9 Jan 2018 7:53 am: Our favorite Ilaiyaraaja songs are compiled on his official mobile app. Get Maestro’s Music now for android and iOS on https://u3su2.app.goo.gl/VZeB

Classical Ilayaraja


I explore the potential shift of video games toward episodic megaserials. I’d prefer shorter, half-hour scenarios over long sessions like Age of Kings to better fit a busy schedule, mirroring the digestible format of television shows.

Are video games going the TV show route? Will we have game mega serials? Is this the next wave? Personally it would be a welcome relief. I don't often have the time to complete a full session of Age of Kings these days. Chunks of half-hour scenarios would be great.

Computer games as megaserials


I identified how two logical policies—offering many CV choices and locking submitted candidates—unintentionally paralyzed a firm's staffing process. By locking 75% of the bench in "limbo," these rules created artificial resource scarcity.

A software services firm once asked us, "How come we are not able to staff projects quickly, even though we have a lot of people on the bench?" There were a bunch of reasons, but among those, we found something interesting. They were implementing two policies that were logical on their own, but disastrous together. (The bench is where programmers sit when they are not on a project.) Here's how they work. When a project starts, the project manager requests resources (people) for the project. HR passes on matching CVs to the project manager, who approves or rejects them, in consultation with the client. They had two principles. Firtly, all matching CVs that are available are sent to the project manager. This is a good policy because it gives the project manager and the client a lot of options. Secondly, while a PM is considering a CV, it is not double-submitted to someone else. Again, sensible, because you don't want two clients asking for the same person at the same time. But together, these policies killed staffing. Every CV that is proposed is effectively "out of circulation" until it is accepted or rejected. Yet, the person is still on the bench, and very much "in circulation". So he can't be staffed, even though he's available. On average, 2.4 CVs were sent for every request. On average, a manager would hold the CV for 10 days. So, every request enforces 24 person-days of compulsary bench-time. On a typical day, 75% of CVs were locked up this way. For example, on 22 Dec 2003, 291 CVs out of 384 were proposed for resumes. So a new request would have less than a quarter of the available bench to pick from. No wonder they were complaining they couldn't staff quickly enough, even though they had a large bench. Comments Madhu 24 Mar 2006 9:43 am: How did u solve this problem? S Anand 24 Mar 2006 3:41 pm: We told them to reduce the number of days a manager could keep the CV down to 5 days. And we changed the rules of CV selection in fairly deep ways -- the net impact being that fewer CVs were submitted per request. In all, about two-thirds of these blocked CVs would have been freed. Jayant 30 Mar 2006 2:18 pm: How about approaching the problem by eliminating the role of HR manager? Let it be webbased. So employees put their skills on web. Managers look at that and pitch it to clients. Once in project, it is removed from database. Also, the hiring manager's cost centre picks up cost once removed from database S Anand 30 Mar 2006 3:47 pm: The HR manager IS required -- to prevent managers from hoarding good people (they don't mark them as available at the end of the project.) The risk of not having a resource is higher than losing a bit of margin, since skills are scarce. Also, the HR manager is someone the employee can pester if they're not staffed. Gives the employee some visibility into what's happening to them. I've seen a few places were this "market-based" system is implemented. It requires a lot of habits to be embedded in the managers and employees for it to work well. I wouldn't have recommended it to this client. Jayant 1 Apr 2006 2:01 am: Thanks Anand. Point on margins vs. cost of not having inventory is important. Krishnan 6 Jul 2006 11:45 am: Any thoughts on allowing CVs to get socialised with multiple clients with an explicit disclaimer to that effect. That might put pressure on clients to lock CVs faster to avoid losing them and thereby reduce bench time (change management will be critical here to avoid losing clients) Saurabh 30 Mar 2007 11:21 am: You need HR manager to push for freshers' CVs Pradeep Atraya 23 Mar 2006 12:00 pm: I would probably handle things a little differently here. I would ask the HR manager to group CV's into two categories-- 1) High Skills (Something that most PM's love on their team) and 2) Low Skills (People whom the company hired but has difficulty placing). The High skill CV's would follow the same procedure as before,i.e the CV gets blocked once a PM chooses it. The low skill CV can be given to 4-5 PM's at the same time. When the PM and client interview for a position or couple positions they get to choose a couple (or 4) candidates, one of whom would get placed. Chances are that a High skill person is chosen and placed first and low skill CV's get greater exposure as they are with multiple PM's. The advantage of this approach is that PM's get greater choice, spend less time interviewing (as they don't need to narrow the search to just one candidate) and low skill CV's, the ones which the staffing firm has maximum trouble placing get greater exposure and would need to spend less time on the bench. The disadvantage is that PM may not always get the person for the job if the PM falls in love with a low skilled CV's. The probability of this happening is small as the HR manager would know his job.

Conflicting policies


I found a collection of "abused" Amazon images showing creative and unintended uses of the platform's product photo system. These examples highlight the early web's quirks and how users subverted standard e-commerce visuals for humor.

Cool abused amazon images.

Cool abused amazon images


I can quickly create Google Calendar events by sending an SMS to 48368 (GVENT) in the US. Using natural language like 'dinner tomorrow 7pm' allows for instant scheduling via text without needing web access.

Create Google calendar events via SMS. Just SMS 48368 (in the US) with a message like "dinner tomorrow 7pm". 48368? GVENT?

Create Google calendar events via SMS


I demonstrate how to create variwide charts in Excel by repurposing X-Y scatter plots. My video tutorial walks through the specific steps needed to visualize data where both column width and height represent different variables.

I mentioned that it's possible to create variwides using X-Y scatter plots. The video below shows how. Comments sathya 22 Sep 2006 4:08 pm: I can see the video. I use BSNL broadband. Howver Ihave th problm that i cant hear th audio. this is the case even with youtube. looks like BSNL does not allow streaming audio. S Anand 22 Sep 2006 4:40 pm: That's a pity. Well, at least the video's OK, and good that I've enabled captions. (Hope you can see those?) Ashwin 6 Jan 2007 1:50 pm: Yes Really useful sumesh 6 Apr 2007 10:42 am: i cant see the video

Creating variwide charts in Excel


I argue that tools like cut-and-paste and bookmarks create an illusion of knowledge that prevents true understanding. I suggest avoiding these crutches to force yourself to engage deeply and learn in the moment.

Cut and paste has become easier. So we make less effort to understand. We don't need to. Like when we pay less attention if we're recording a lecture. Solution? I suggest the Tunnel in the Sky strategy. Rod Walker is going for survival training on an alien planet, and asks his sister, Captain Walker... "Uh, Sis, what sort of gun should I carry?" "Huh? Why the deuce do you want a gun?" "Why, for things I might run into of course." "Your only purpose is to stay alive. Not to be brave, not to fight. One time in a hundred a gun might save your life; the other ninety-nine it will tempt you into folly." "Did you take a gun on your solo test?" "I did. And I lost it the first day. Which saved my life. I know how good a gun makes you feel. You're ready for anything and hoping you'll find it. Which is exactly what is dangerous about it - because you aren't anything of that sort." So, don't take a gun. Don't record lectures. Don't give yourself the illusion of perfect memory. Don't bookmark for future reading. You won't read it later. Don't cut and paste. You don't understand it now. You won't understand it later. Comments Sai 26 Jun 2006 11:36 pm: Good stuff..makes lots of sense... Rajagopalan 26 Feb 2007 1:23 pm: that is why make sense software is becoming popular Anonymous 15 Mar 2007 6:56 am: Brilliant :)

Cut-and-paste is not understanding


I solved the final Google Da Vinci Code Quest challenge in five minutes, earning a physical cryptex prize. Here is the solution walkthrough and photos of the reward sent to the top 10,000 successful participants.

Dan cracked the final challenge of the Google Da Vinci Code Quest in 5 minutes. The top 10,000 get a cryptex to solve. (Photos)

Da Vinci Code Quest cracked in 5 minutes


I highlight specific examples of data visualization that successfully condense large amounts of information into intuitive, visually obvious charts, focusing on clarity and effective communication techniques for complex datasets.

Data visualization. Examples of charts that convey a lot of information in a visually obvious way.

Data visualization


I analyzed bank demand draft profitability, assuming float income from large drafts would offset lower fees. I discovered float income is non-linear because recipients cash large drafts faster, proving that traditional fee structures are often more robust than "innovative" theories.

Once, we were looking at whether banks made money on demand drafts (DDs). DDs are costly. 90% of a bank's costs are people-related, and it takes a fair bit of time (hence people) to process DDs. If you pay for DDs in cash, it costs even more because the teller has to count the notes. To recover this cost, banks charge a fee. The fee increases with the size of the DD. A DD for Rs 10,000 may cost Rs 50, while one for Rs 100,000 may cost Rs 200. But apart from the fee, banks also earn float on the DD. Let's say you go to a bank, pay Rs 100,000, and take a DD. You mail the DD to someone, who cashes the DD three days later. The bank has your Rs 100,000 for 3 days, and earns the overnight interest rate at around 5%, netting Rs 41 in the process. This float is significant for large DDs. Our client bank was making a small loss on DDs. Every DD less than Rs 50,000 caused a loss (even after including float). And 3 out of every DDs was smaller than Rs 50,000. Then we had this bright idea: let's lower fee for large DDs, attract of them, and get more float income. DDs above Rs 50,000 are profitable. So big DDs are worth going after. 80% of the float income comes from the top 22% of DDs. So surely, the big DDs are worth going after. Float income increases forever, whereas fee income is capped. So big DDs could absolutely be terrific. We were thrilled. Here was a revolutionary counter-intuitive idea: have lower charges for DDs to get more money. We kept talking about it to our client. But at the end, we didn't suggest it. It got left behind the conventional idea of increasing the fee for small DDs. We were a bit disappointed, and kept cursing the conservatism of public sector banks. Goes to show how the bright young consultants can be naive. For, as it later turned out, the bulk of DD revenues is really fee income (88%), not float income. Had we lowered the fee income, there's would've been no chance for the float income to make up for it. Why did we miss that? A couple of reasons. The simple one was, though the float income increases forever, doesn't beat fee income until the DD is about Rs 2 crores. DDs typically stay with you for a few days, and you can't earn much interest on that. The other reason was subtler. We had assumed that the float income for a DD of Rs 100,000 is 100 times that of the DD income for Rs 1,000. But the float income does not increase linearly! Someone who gets a DD for Rs 1,000 doesn't mind waiting a bit to present it, but someone who gets a DD for a lakh would walk to the bank the very same day. The chart below shows how long customers wait to cash DDs. The X-axis is the size of the DD. The Y-axis is the number of days they wait. It shows a clear diminishing trend. Plot of DDs by value on X-axis and number of days to clear on Y-axis Lesson: Conservative bankers might make more money not listening to hotshot consultants. Comments Shreyas 27 Mar 2006 10:22 am: Very insightful case study! But did increasing the fees for smaller DDs help boost the profits? Did it not reduce the number of customers taking DDs? S Anand 27 Mar 2006 12:08 pm: We didn't measure that. But even if it reduced the number of customers it would have (in the long run) increased profits, since they were losing money on every small DD sold! They would be able to shift someone from the DD section elsewhere, and avoid having to recruit a new person. ronnie 21 Mar 2006 12:00 pm: Hello i like to join and i wish to be a member of demand draft so mail me pls Walter Atkinson 21 Mar 2006 12:00 pm: I was looking to this information and was helpful...ok Best Regards Walter http://www.surveynew.com Premier Paid Survey Company. ritu raj 17 Nov 2008 7:32 am: what doc need to be presented to the bank for the dd of 375000 to be paid in cash? uss 8 Jul 2011 6:42 pm: but there is no dd charges for current account in private bank.ll it cost loss to the bank Vignesh 23 Oct 2012 9:22 am: Beautifully written. I liked your articulation. pradeep kumar 16 Jun 2015 3:29 am: This article is very nice and informative. Came here while searching for something related and found it very informative. Thank you very much. Donga Satyanarayana 28 Feb 2017 8:20 am: Some private banks are fee DD charges allowed with simple amount deposit. But our Bank is world wise national Bank . This Bank is some lakhs of crores rotining services. Better to allow free DD charges atleast a limited amount. Thanking you

Demand draft fees


I used Microsoft adCenter Labs' demographics prediction tool to compare male and female interests in different body parts. My results showed strong female leanings for 'hair' and 'eyes,' while men surprisingly dominated searches related to 'toes.'

Microsoft adCenter Labs has a demographics prediction engine . Based on a person's search queries and web sites visited, it can predict their gender and age. So I tried that on parts of the body, to see what men were interested in vs women. topic male female hair 25% 75% eyes 33% 67% cheek 33% 67% hands 33% 67% lips 36% 64% ears 39% 61% fingers 40% 60% forehead 42% 58% nose 43% 57% neck 46% 54% beard 55% 45% moustache 58% 42% leg 60% 40% palm 61% 39% toe 64% 36% While I can understand men being more interested in beards and moustaches (perhaps even legs), why are they far more interested in toes than women? Comments Dhar 28 Jun 2006 2:10 am: Hey Anand, a quick question.\ Are you using Google Spreadsheets? Yesterday, I realized that after the initial enthu, I have not visited the site. This makes me wonder if Google Spreadsheets in itself is a powerful enough solution to attract the masses. Dhar 28 Jun 2006 2:12 am: As pointed out by someone on Slashdot, try using the URL http://www.google.com/ as the input and you will get "Female Oriented with following Confidence: Female 1.00, Male 0.00" S Anand 28 Jun 2006 2:45 pm: I do use Google spreadsheets. Just see my next post.

Demographics prediction from online behaviour


Use Google Image search to quickly determine if an unfamiliar name is typically male or female. This visual heuristic provides instant context for gender-ambiguous names, though it may fail for common unisex names.

Determine a sex by name. If you don't know if a name is male or female, just search for the name on Google images. (e.g. "Priti") Comments Umasuthan 18 Apr 2006 5:36 pm: That is not always true. Try 'Kiran' S Anand 18 Apr 2006 10:17 pm: You're right. The article does warn of unisex names!

Determine a sex by name


I found this impressive mechanical realization of Charles Babbage's Difference Engine No. 2 built entirely from Lego Technic. It calculates mathematical tables using finite differences, successfully mirroring the complexity of the original 19th-century design.

Charles Babbage's Difference Engine implemented in Lego.

Difference Engine on Lego


Analyze Google Trends patterns to distinguish between expected and unexpected events. Known occurrences like Christmas show a steady rise and sharp drop, while sudden events like tsunamis exhibit a sharp spike followed by a gradual decline.

Philipp Lenssen analysis different kinds of events in the post Different types of Google trends. He graphs (using Google Trends) the search popularity of different types of keywords over time, and observes how known events have a steady rise and sharp drop (e.g. Christmas) while unknown events have a sharp rise and steady drop (e.g. tsunami). And so forth.

Different types of Google trends