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Malaysian Deepavali Show - RAJANNA RAJA THAAN - From Annakkili to Azhagi

Topic started by Manisekaran (@ 202.156.2.8) on Sun Nov 7 05:23:27 EST 2004.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

Last year I did a show on Ilayaraja for Deepavali. IT was so great a hit that the ASTRO Private TV Station is repeating on 9 NOvember at 4.00 pm Malaysian time. This is called RAJANNA RAJATHAAN- covering 25 years of Raja's music contribution. From Annakkili to Azhagi. A great hit. If you can, pls do catch it. You can post your comments on the show here, and I'll respond to them.
Thanks.

Archive of the older songs: http://forumhub.lunarpages.com/hub/f13.html .
If you want to post comments on older songs, pls go to this archive. There you'll find the previous songs/episodes indexed as separate threads. Post your comments on the appropriate thread.

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Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: vijay (@ 68.51.134.219) on: Wed Dec 1 22:49:38 EST 2004
  
  GA is a decent lyricist but as he often mentioned he was invited to write mostly for dappanguthu and club dance songs by IR. Oorambo-apart from the controversy it created its a very ordinary composition IMO
  
  
• From: Venkatesh (@ 212.72.11.68) on: Wed Dec 1 23:12:01 EST 2004
  
  Prabhudas,
  That lyrics was not from any song. It was just created by IR to illustrate the musical effect of counterpoint. I am surprised how he created it spontaneously on the stage.
  
  
• From: selva (@ 195.10.45.138) on: Thu Dec 2 05:19:39 EST 2004
  
  Moody, meloncholy, nostalgia or an undertone of sadness, call it whatever - I am convinced that music is capable of stimulating emotions through the neurochemicals in the brain centers for emotions. Dissertations have been done on this topic.
  
  When my son was 4 months old, he used to have a 'thathumbal' during the prelude (strings section after the initial Sax) for 'april mayile'. His face would automatically change expression, his eyes would moisten and his lips will contort as though he was going to cry. It was not like a wail that babies of that age do, but a very quiet inner unknown experience of sadness. This expression would automatically change into joy, smile and giggles when the tempo in the prelude picked up and vocals started. He used to sit on my lap while i played the song on my PC. I have recorded this with my webcam. My wife and i were surprised, disturbed by this phenomena - the effect of music on the emotions of babies and were caught in two minds as to whether to expose him or not to meloncholic music.
  
  I wonder what you guys think of the prelude in that song, but I think it is pure magic, cannot figure out how he thought about a prelude of that nature for a song that was meant to be a jolly song. Anyway, my son is now three years old and comes to me for a cuddle when I play 'ooru sanam' and jumps around shouting 'this is my favourite song' when I play 'Sa Re Ga Me' from Boys.
  
  Sorry for continuing on the digression by eden, kiru, prabhudas about 'mood creation'...
  
  
• From: mythila (@ 156.153.255.134) on: Thu Dec 2 07:47:35 EST 2004
  
  Easily "solai kuyile" is the bst song from "Ponnu oorukku pudhusu". This song , set to Madhyamavathi/Brindhavana Saranga captures the beauty of dawn . The opening humming, mridhangam percussion, SPS's flawless rendition, flute ,violin , guitar interplayed in the interludes, a harmonium like piece in the first bgm[IR's late 70's rural songs had that kind of usage ] and not to forget the apt lyrics( who is the lyricist, btw?) all these factors make this song unforgettable till date.
  I don't mind IR doing Ramarajan or rajkiran village movies if he promises to give a song like "solai kuyile" or "senthoorapoove".
  It is ages since I listened to this and it would be nice if anybody could provide a link to this number
  
  
• From: RR (@ 218.212.113.206) on: Thu Dec 2 08:24:09 EST 2004
  
  eden: saamakozhi - http://newtfmpage.com/cgi-bin/song.pl?id=mani-8.2
  mythila: solaikuyile - http://newtfmpage.com/cgi-bin/song.pl?id=mani-8.3
  
  
• From: kiru (@ 192.138.150.249) on: Thu Dec 2 13:25:56 EST 2004
  
  Young children are very observant and much smarter than we think they are. My son is also 3years old, his favorite song is 'bam chiku bam chiku' he also likes un kuthama (he tries to sing this), does not like aasai adhigam vechu (i have to fwd this one) and prefers the next one - nalladhOr veenai seidhE.
  His other music observations -
  *) Western classic music on radio in the car - 'appa idhu cartoon music' (WCM used as bgm in the cartoons he watches mostly)
  
  *) Theme music is his most watched 'Trucks' DVD - 'yEnpa..intha music THIRUPPI THIRUPPI varudhu'
  
  Okay..over to Mani.
  
  
• From: Manisekaran (@ 61.6.39.139) on: Fri Dec 3 01:04:30 EST 2004
  
  Dear Udanpirappukkale,
  
  Thanks for the immense response and enthusiasm. I am no more at the giving end. I now stand on thereceiving end. I have gained so much from the knowledgeable people around.
  
  I have some interesting piece to share. However my PC is down. I am using my colleague's PC. The story is in my own PC. Should everything go fine, I should post by this evening.
  
  Manisekaran
  
  
• From: mythila (@ 156.153.255.134) on: Fri Dec 3 05:23:45 EST 2004
  
  RR, can't thank u enuff for the "solai kuyile" link -:)
  
  
• From: Roshan (@ 220.247.247.52) on: Fri Dec 3 08:10:39 EST 2004
  
  This seems to be a nice place to talk about some nice IR songs. But I have no idea about these Raagas :(.
  
  RR,
  
  Thanks for those two songs of SPS. I listened to it after a long time. Beautiful numbers.
  
  
• From: senthilv.com (@ 68.88.72.7) on: Fri Dec 3 08:26:06 EST 2004
  
  A lot to catch up!
  
  Kiru & Prabhudas:
  
  Thanks for the comments and encouragement. Sorry, I got very busy with some work and moreover, I don’t know the situation of “En Kanmani” song. So I’m totally handicapped.
  
  Here’s a commentary of “Sevvanthi poo mudichu chinnakka..”
  
  I get ecstatic and receive goose bumps when I reverse engineer (decompose...lol) Raaja’s songs. Coz, it gives an idea to understand Raaja’s working brain. This song makes easy for anyone to understand the indisputable connection between the film situation and song format.
  
  Sorry for another retrograde move from me.
  http://newtfmpage.com/songs/mani/16-sev.rm
  http://newtfmpage.com/forum/18239.9670.05.23.27.html
  
  SEVVANTHI POO MUDICHU CHINNAKKA
  
  Situation: Physically handicapped Rajagopalan (Kamal) *slaps* a male chauvinist doctor for calling him “Chappani” (derogatory term for handicapped). He tells the incident to Mayil (Sridevi) –-one time girl friend of the doctor. She perceives this as revenge on the doctor for dumping her. Also it was she who told Rajagopalan to slap anyone who calls him “Chappani”. She pesters him questioning “how did you slap him?” and eventually makes Rajagopalan to slap her. (Two slaps in total) After the slap, she very happy to know, how her ex-boy friend would have felt the slap. She laughs, cherishes the slap and it takes her to a different *emotional plane*. This event also takes Kamal from Chappani to Rajagopalan. He’s on a different *emotional plane* too, since no one in the village will dare to call him Chappani ever again! It is time to *Celebrate* David’s victory over Goliath.
  
  Raaja’s composing/orchestration choice.
  
  Theme: Jubilant Celebration!
  Sub-theme: Growth to different emotional plane.
  
  Opening (Prelude):
  
  1) The violin piece (?) concentrates on elevating the characters and also the listener to a different emotional plane. This achieves extremely good transition and mood setting for the rest of the song.
  2) SLAP --- Listen how Raaja uses *slap* as a *slap* and then follows it with a *slap* as a CLAP!!! Clap in the sense of celebration!!! Wonderful irony here-- the same slap sound but two different meaning. This is ingenious. The only difference between slap and clap is the time interval. Does it stop there? Nope. The clap is not only used as the start of the celebration but it also used as sound motif to call the villagers to join the celebration. This slap/clap sound motif is repeated throughout the song and exploited to the maximum effect. There’s more! There are exactly two slaps and two claps, reflecting of the underlying song situation. (one slap for the bigot and the other for sridevi) This is not only innovative sound design but also superb storytelling!
  3) The ascending lady voice --- The voice ascension expresses the spreading of the slap incident around the village and eventual conquest of it. It not only declares the supremacy but it also announces the arrival for Mayil (Sridevi) and Rajagopalan (Kamal) to the Villagers. The ascending voice actually sound like a siren announcement :)
  4) Following the lady voice is a village drum beat plus bell sound exactly mimicking the earlier slap, clap idea. But here it means getting ready for the party in a musical way, setting up the instruments and musical ground for full blown celebration. A subtle difference but nevertheless brilliant!
  5) Hoi chorus – Hoi! Hoi! It is worth noting that the simple chorus is again a musical variation of the slap/clap. This song is a good study of sound motif from film situation weaved into a song effortlessly and brilliantly.
  6) Silence--- Special mention goes to silence. Raaja uses the silence to build tension, as a musical interval, create suspense and even as a reversal of the clap sound motif in the second stanza. The silence creates different meaning every time it is employed in the song.
  
  
  Interlude 1: Clap motif again, if you listen carefully you’ll catch the double clap start of the village drum beat :) Rest of the interlude celebrates the celebration intensely and asserts more supremacy.
  
  Interlude 2: The song returns to accentuate and assert the emotional growth of the characters with the violin piece. It certainly possible to take this piece as an elevation from ground to space. An ascension same as the voice ascension employed throughout the song.
  
  Second stanza: In the middle of the stanza Raaja sets up silence, creates suspense in sync with the lyrics, but added to that he also makes the listener expect another clap sound. Cleverly, he breaks the expectation, reverses the motif and does not employ the clap sound. This is pretty fundamental for any art. Set-up a pattern (regularity) and break it (irregular). In other word you can only break rules and add variety to piece if you set-up some regularity.
  
  CLAP-CLAP for Raaja?
  
  
• From: G.Ragavan (@ 210.210.93.101) on: Fri Dec 3 08:57:05 EST 2004
  
  "Ponnu Ooruku Puthu" movie has wonderful songs and all of them are my favourite. Especially "Unakenna thaane Innerama", "Chamak kozhi" and "Solai Kuyile". One of the best alumbs by IR.
  
  "Orambo" song is also good. but a teasing song. even though it is good, it stands behind other songs of the same movie.
  
  >>Many of the MDs, Produces, Directors, Financiers and Lyricists too did not give open
  >>support to Ilayaraja. Most of them thought Raja was just one of those new comers who would not
  >>last too long. The common word they all collectively used then was that Ilayaraja would
  >>be side washed- “Oram Poividuvaan”
  
  Manisekharan, I dont think other MDs of those period had green eye on IR. Because I have a read an interview by IR in some magazine. late 80s, I think. It was a question about other MDs. And IR has high regards on them. He was pointing out an incident with MSV. It was after the release of Annakili, and IR was in AVM recording theatre for some other movie. MSV who came to the same studio for different recording theatre heard IR's presence (music director of annakilli). He went to the recording theatre where IR was recording some song immediately and wished him, it seems. I always have a feeling that IR has high respect and regards for MSV. Even he took the Simphony cassette to MSV first, I heard. I dont remember IR talking about any other MDs.
  
  But one more common thing I have found. Whenever some MD enters music industry, these kind of "oram pyiduvaan" talk doesnt arise. But when the trend setting MD enters in to the scenario, these kind of talks comes out.
  
  
  

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