tamil-film-songs on S Anand

Classical Ilayaraja 6

Sun, 24 Dec 2006 12:00:00 +0000

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 2

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 12:00:00 +0000

This is the second 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.

There are very few instances in which the identity of a rare raaga in a cinema song is so well handled and shown (to the extent that) we could even use these songs as good a reference as keerthanas for those respective raagas. To quote a few, K.V.Mahadevan’s paattum naanE (Thiruvilayaadal) in the raagam Gowrimanohari, M.K.Thiagaraja Bhagavathar’s soppana vaazhvil magizhndhu in the raagam Vijayanaagari. These are uncommonly sung raagas. It is true that there are excellant keerthanais like gurulekha (Gowrimanohari) in these raagas. But to a common rasika, it could be gone ahead and suggested paattum naanE to understand Gowrimanohari, because KVM has handled it in splendid form. The way T.M.S starts the song in thara sthayi rishabham with his perfect voice and renders it, it is like eating a ’nila pournami’ feast in the banks of kaveri. That song has become an absolute reference for Gowrimanohari. The question is: Has Ilayaraja any such ‘reference’ songs to his credit? Yes. Many!

Bhaavani is the 41st melakartha raaga. It is the 2nd raaga to the right from Jalavarali! It has the following arohanam and avarohanam: Sa Ri1 Ga1 Ma2 Pa Da2 Ni3 Sa, and Sa Ni3 Da2 Pa Ma2 Ga1 Ri1 Sa. I have never heard any keerthanai in this raaga. How did Ilayaraja get the sudden idea of scoring a tune in this complex vivaadi raaga? Would it be a hit with all its vivaadi swaras? Did he or Kamalhaasan have any apprehension? If they had had, maybe we would’t have got this wonderful song paarththa vizhi paarththa padi in Guna. It is a perfect song suiting the situation in which Kamal (a nut case) sees the heroine in a temple and falls in instant love with her. That heroine, Roshni (or something) was a delight to see in that movie. The song starts like this Sa Pa Pa Pa Ma Ga Ri Sa Da Sa Ri Ga… Before the song there is a virutham like piece sung by the chorus. He has handled the beauty of the vivaadhi swaras in that raaga very very nicely. When you hear the words ‘charanam charanam’ set in the swaras, Sa Sa Ga Ri Sa it sends a thrill in your perceptual apparatus. Since the uttaranga swaras of this raaga consist of chatusruthi daivatham and kaakali nishadam, it has a quality like that of Kalyani (with a pradhi madhyamam). In the interlude of this song the chorus traverse in the melodious regions of the raaga (Pa Da Ni Sa). Unfortunately I don’t remember the words. Maybe the lyrics is good too. Yesudoss has done a fantastic job. Even though the recording scale of this song is only around ‘oru kattai’, how is that it sounds as though he is reaching big heights when he sings the same pallavi in the thara sthayi? It sounds so pleasant to hear! This song is a very good good referance for Bhaavani raagam.

Guna has another fantastic ’light’ song kaNmaNi anbOdu. Maybe, neo-rasikas will go ahead and call this song as Sankarabaranam!

Are there any cinema songs in raagam Hemavathi? It was a good surprise recently when I came to know that Ilayaraja has ventured into this raagam also for first time (maybe, in thamizh film song history). That song is in the movie Pudhupatti Ponnuthayee starring Radhika. manam pOla maangalyam is a good example of Hemavathi. S.Janaki (the best vocal support he ever got) has sung this song. This movie is like some modern Thillana Mohanaambaal. Some big shot has given accompaniment in nadhaswaram in this song. He has started the pallavi in thara sthayi gandaaram. Ga Ri Sa Sa Ni Sa NI Sa Ni Da… That is how the song goes. It is really good and pure!

Considering the sudha madhyamam of Hemavathi, the raaga giant ‘Karaharapriya’, Ilayaraja has few pure numbers in it. Of course nothing can beat M.S.Viswanathan’s maadhavi pon mayilaal. Probably Ilayaraja first tried Karaharapriya in pure form in poo malarndhida in the movie Tik Tik Tik. The interlude violin pieces and K.J.Yesudoss’s swara alapana in that song are fantastic. For such a good tune, the lyrics was very bad. I distinctly remember how the triple x filled words in the charanam like ‘padukayil…’ got more famous than the tune in our school! Ilayaraja should have paid more attention to the lyrics at least when his tunes were purely carnatic. Mmmmm…. Who cared? It was all money for him! His other pure karnatic Karaharapriya are aanandham pongida pongida (Sirai Paravai), thaanaa vandha sandhanamE (Ooru Vittu Ooru Vandhu). In aanandham pongida pongida, the upper sancharas are excellant, like Ga Ga Ri Sa Ri Ga Ma Ga… Again,the song has been sung by Yesudoss. His voice is superb for this kind of songs. thaanaa vandha sandhanamE came as a pleasant surprise in his brother Gangai Amaran directed movie. This song was not a big hit. Probably all the attention went to sorgamE enRaalum in the same movie in raagam Hamsanadam (but for few slips). In ’thaana’ (SPB), he has handled some wonderful nuances of Karaharapriya, like Ga Ri Ni Da Ni… There are few more of his semi-classical tries in Karaharapriya, like maappillaikku (Netrikann) etc. Even his first song, machchana parthingala is in the Karaharapriya scale. He liked this scale a lot. Maybe, neo-rasikas would call all of them as pure Karaharapriya.

Probably the purest of his Karaharapriya came in Unnaal Mudiyum Thambi. The situation is Kamal and Gemini fight over something. The quarrel gets very intense. At this point Gemini’s dumb son (Kamal’s brother), takes his nadhaswaram and starts playing loudly, to stop his kin from quarreling further. You know what raaga Ilayaraja selected for this situation? Karaharapriya! That scene was a musical feast in that movie. The raaga was appropriately used. K.J.Yesudoss gave a charming vocal support to Ilayaraja (singing for both Kamal and Gemini). It was like a duet between Yesudoss and the the nadhaswaram! K.Balachander used this situation to show how music was a common enjoyment in Gemini’s house and how it could abate the heat of the quarell between the son and the father.

Talking about the panchama varjaya raagam of Karahapriya, that is, Sriranjani, probably Ilayaraja was the best music director to use this wonderful raaga. His first Sriranjani came as a tail bit in veLLi chalangaigaL (Kaadhal Oviyam). It was a very fast bit sang by the chorus ’thannanthanimaiyil iru vizhi’. Even though veLLi chalangaigaL was tuned in Chandrakounse raagam, I don’t know what made him give the tail bit to Sriranjani (a very strange guy, you know!) The second Sriranjani attempt came in naadhavinOdhangal in Salangai Oli. Even in this song he tuned the pallavi alone in Sriranjani, with charanam in Hamsaanandi. This is what I dislike in cinema music directors. Why can’t they adhere to a single raaga? Why do they have to change from pallavi to charanam? Ilayaraja was the one who did best justice to carnatic music among modern music directors. But even he fell a prey to such deviations (from purist point of view) like changing the raaga for each line in few songs. His best Sriranjani came in naadham ezhundhadhadi in Gopura Vaasalile. Again, Yesudoss! It was really fantastic. Karthik had given a comic act in that song. Probably that song toppled M.S.V’s best Sriranjani naadham enum kOvililE. Dit it? I would say yes.

Lakshminarayanan Srirangam Ramakrishnan,
Internal Medicine Department,
Brackenridge Hospital,
Austin, Tx 78701.

Comments

sujatha 28 Feb 2007 8:55 am: is there any hidden meaning in the song panivizhum malarvanam
Anil Goud 19 Dec 2006 12:00 pm: Pls send me some old Illayarajs songs to my mail id. i like very much of Illayaraja songs i am requesting u that pls send old songs of Illayaraja songs. form Anil GOud
Ramkumar 12 Nov 2008 1:29 am: Can i get the raaga based songs of Raja sir? i am bajan singer and would like to get the some of the rare raagas composed by raja sir
Jimmy 15 Mar 2009 8:15 am: Poo Malaradhita to me so special and love that song. Best of Raja in Karaharapriya. There was an MSV song in Karaharpriya - “I will sing for you” - its the same arrangement as Poo Malardhita in the same raga- Does anyone know where I can get a copy of this song. Given that I almost listen to Poo Maladhita at least once a week - I want the potential source of inspiration for this song. thanks in advance.
Jimmy 15 Mar 2009 8:16 am: I will sing for you … was from a movie called Manidhanum deivamahalam - Sivaji in guest role - probably one of the worst movies of all times - with the dopey AVM Rajan in it.
Nagarajan Anantharaman 30 Jan 2010 6:10 pm: I guess “Ponmagal Vanthal” in “Sorgam” is Karaharapriya
Bala 11 Nov 2011 11:36 am: “i will sing for you” is a song from ‘Manidharil Manickam’ and not ‘Manidahnu Deivamagalam’
nish 14 Mar 2012 1:11 pm: on wat raga s d song nee partha paarvai ? s it nata bhairavi?
Keshav 24 Apr 2012 9:47 pm: Isnt ‘Pavani’ the name of the raga. I am not disputing that some people say names of ragas little different. However, when names determine the Melakarta identity per Katapayadi sankhya system, ‘Bhaavani’ would mean the ragam is Melakarta (34/44 based on whether you pronounce that as Ba or Bha). Just curious. Or is that insignificant?
Sakthi 11 Dec 2015 7:13 pm: Sorry, Mr.Lakshmi Narayanan, naadham enum kOvililE still stands best

Film songs by Bombay Jayshree

Mon, 31 Oct 2005 12:00:00 +0000

Film songs by Bombay Jayshree. Vaseegara, Narumugaye and Ondra Renda being my favourites.

Try this: search for any song and listen online.

Comments

Arun 3 Nov 2005 3:34 am: Vaseegara is heaven. :-)
Graffiti 1 Dec 2005 7:13 am: I plan to sing that for a competition here…:)
anu 18 Apr 2010 5:26 pm: vaseegara,narumagaye,ondra renda(kakaka) wer awesome ;) i love those songs sung by Jayasree ;)
Krishna 15 Apr 2010 8:39 am: Vaseegara….truely amazing.
kumaran 29 Sep 2010 4:13 am: realy superb voice of bombay jayshree mam..i rely impress wit her voice. manam manam engilum etho ganam ganam,,thinam thinam unpaadalthaan vanthu sugam sugam thanthathe………………..
Kannan 11 Aug 2010 5:41 am: Wow! What a voice… Really I admire her voice a lot and lot.. Very nice.. Beautiful voice is given to her by God… She has sung vaseegara song… But really avanga voice vaseegaramathan iruku (tamil)
madhan 7 Oct 2010 10:29 am: excellent voice mam. i like your voice. my work , family all of tention relaxe only your voice mam. bombay jayasree = singing god. daily your sing the song.
madhan erode 13 Nov 2010 8:51 am: mam your voice amzzing. your voice places of the heaven to god. narumugaya excellent voice. The word singing " Thiru magana" wov,. your all information i get my friend geetha mam. specially Thanks geetha., my Train friends thanks your profile detail collect.
madhan erode 9 Nov 2010 8:35 am: mam.i am waiting for your voice singing illyaraja music album (sai baba).your lot of singing song of the 2010. why 2010 super female play back singer you winner.i will drems god of the gift of the your voice.
madhan erode 9 Nov 2010 8:40 am: mam partha muthal nalay song very excellent. really the first word of you sing (partha ) excellent. voice excellent sound very nice.
madhan erode 29 Jan 2011 4:44 am: mam, lot of sing songs to the year 2011. you most of the song singing to the year my wishes not lot of audiences wishes include me.
madhan erode 29 Jan 2011 4:48 am: mam, you fist singing song illayaraja film viyatnam colany " kailyil veenai yandhum “very nice. include m s v sir film singing. A R razhuman film 1000 gingals ( back round voice )you singing songs very nice
madhan erode 29 Jan 2011 4:55 am: sorry mam, you fist singing song thampathikal film M S V MUSIC you singing songs . next you singing film viyatnam colony illayaraja film. next A R RAHUMAN film irruvar next harris jayaraj film minnala vasikara.next lot of singing harris sir music thanks harris sir…..
raman 18 Nov 2011 7:04 pm: madam i love ur voice its very beautiful, i love ur all songs especially cheli manohar song madam
nisha 20 Jan 2013 3:59 pm: i really impressed… i love u jayashree… my ever green favt song vaseegara…

Tamil film songs and their raagas

Thu, 19 Jul 2001 12:00:00 +0000

I saw this page 5 years ago, and thought I’d lost it since then. It’s a list of tamil film songs and their raagas.

Try this: search for a song and listen online.