Maestro Ilaiyaraja New Albums 2011 - Hello Jaihind / Sri Rama Rajyam

[jaiganes]

ஹரிஹரன் தமிழை சில சமயம் கடிச்சுத்துப்புற மாதிரி, கார்த்திக் மலையாளத்தைக்கடிச்சுத்துப்பி இருக்காரு (களித்தடம் for e.g.).

இந்தக்"கிணத்துக்குள்ள இருந்து பாடும்" ஆளை விட்டா வேற ஆளே கிடைக்கலையா? அதுவும் மலையாளத்தில்?

அருமையான தாளலயம், அழகான இடை இசைகள் உள்ள ஒரு பாட்டை வதம் செய்திருக்கிறார்கள்

I've started liking the mazha mEgham song more than the other two now, thanks to excellent singing by both! Just watch out for how Vijay renders the மான் மிழி when the pallavi is sung between saraNams. He has the flow of yesteryear singers! One wishes that IR used orchestration like the one for ArO pAdunnu for this song also.

ArO is good, though the vocals do not stand out that well in that (I think there's some "hear-from-far-away-effectu", but it gets on my nerves)

I think Jayaram is acting as a thamizh auto driver in the movie - isnt he?

[Sureshs65]

app,

I too think that probably M G Sreekumar could have sung the 'kizhakkumala' song. MGS does a good job of such songs, 'thevaram', 'marakudaiyal' etc. Maybe Raja wanted a change but for this song someone with a stronger voice would have probably worked better.

I too hold the same views wrt Hariharan's singing. He is far better suited for Rahman and Harris songs. This is not to say he is a bad singer but his style seems to suit others better than Raja. Anyway, he has done a decent job in 'aaro', but as you say, not something which is a standout.

'mazhamega' has the best choice of singers, both Shweta and Vijay doing a fine job. Yup, as I wrote in my review, I too wish Raja had orchestrated this song also like the 'aaro' song. The synth effects in a few places could have been avoided is my feeling.

The 'Bhagyadevatha' hangover exists in the picturisation. The songs seem to be played in very similar situations like Bhagyadevatha.

Overall, it is very nice to hear a fully melody dominated film soundtrack. Been hearing this continuously for some time now. All three songs have their own charm.

[Sureshs65]

As a foreign critic, asked to review a IR CD(possibly by our own irir123) said something to the tune of he is disturbed by the straddling across multiple genres in 30-45 seconds, I feel I am failing to keep pace with the thought process of Raja. Maybe, exposure to modern indian film music has left me unable to process the complexity in Raja's composition. Maybe, I'd prefer the plainer Bhagya devata where there was more of sticking to the genre and style of the song throughout. Maybe thats the effect of constant exposure to hook-based modern indian film music!

It is, perhaps, no surprise, then, that Kizhakku mala is the song that has appealed most to me from this album.

Joesph Brodsky, the noble prize winning poet, once gave a speech on why he considered poetry to be better than prose. He ended up by saying that if you are addicted to prose, it is still OK. "As addictions go, it is not bad." Same way, if you are still hooked to 'Bhagyadevatha' it is not bad

In a way what you say is right. Raja is definitely exploring the jazz genre a lot nowadays. I had earlier written about this when I summarized Raja's output of 2009. Vicky makes the same point in his excellent blog post here:

http://raagadevan.blogspot.com/

The jazz usage is evident in 'aaro'. It is not so much in the other two songs. (One reason why rajaalltheway felt the 'Paa' effect I guess.) As you rightly say, he is straddling multiple genres here.

[raagas]

In 'mazhamega', a certain part of synth percussion is little loud(for my ears). usually, IR's percussions, be it real or synth, dont hurt ears and they are easy-listening, even if the beats go real wild. But in this song, I feel my ears are being punched. The last I felt the same was "Vasantha Nilaave" from "Sooriyan". I wondered what happened to IR, for such an assault on us. Firstly, that song had a brilliant tune & melody and those synth loops were unnecessary. Secondly, they were loud enough to kill the whole beauty.
Mazha Megha has nice melody and interesting synthsizer arrangements too. But my ears!!!!!! aargh!

[rajaalltheway]

Saw 'Katha thudarunnu' yesterday.Crowd was moderate,maybe 60% occupancy.Wonder why Sathyan makes movies one after another .Mamtha mohandas a hindu,very rich and a medico falls for a rather poor muslim keyboard player,marries him and a baby girl is born.Tragedy strikes and mamtha is a young widow not knowing what to do next.She cant pay rent and sleeps "on the railway playform"...no friends or doorathu sonthams to provide even a shelter .Good samaritan Jayaram and his motley crew of angels saves the two and even provides Mamtha with a medical degree..Ayya simply goes through the routine..

[rajaalltheway]

Saw 'Katha thudarunnu' yesterday.Crowd was moderate,maybe 60% occupancy.Wonder why Sathyan makes movies one after another .Mamtha mohandas a hindu,very rich and a medico falls for a rather poor muslim keyboard player,marries him and a baby girl is born.Tragedy strikes and mamtha is a young widow not knowing what to do next.She cant pay rent and sleeps "on the railway playform"...no friends or doorathu sonthams to provide even a shelter .Good samaritan Jayaram and his motley crew of angels saves the two and even provides Mamtha with a medical degree..Ayya simply goes through the routine..

[Sureshs65]

Hmmm. Looks like a typical Sathyan movie. I think Malayalam is the only bastion left of Raja. His music is still dew fresh for the Malayalam movies. Hopefully he will get some good movies with good directors.

[Sureshs65]

Still listening to the songs of 'katha tudarunnu' on a daily basis and still enamoured with 'aaro padunnu doore'.

As I wrote in another thread, nowadays Raja does a lot of complex orchestration and tuning but makes it look very simple, giving people an impression that he is not experimenting. Let us take 'aaro padunnu'. The prelude itself is charming with the violins playing counter to the keyboard and the keyboard continue providing the rhythm before the drums step in. The lines are also of different length, with the second line of the pallavi starting a beat earlier. Observe how the drumming stops and only the keyboard accompanies Chitra when she sings the line of pallavi. There is a very minute pause before the first interlude starts. And what an interlude that is. First the guitar, then the keyboard and then the violin with bass as the constant accompaniment. In the charanam, Raja gives a lot of space. The vocals end with two beats remaining which are filled in by the drums. I also love the way the charanam ends. While the first interlude waits briefly before starting, the second interlude just flows, with some lovely keyboard and violin work. Everything is done with a modern outlook but the soul remains intact. A gem of a song.

[app_engine]

For records' sake, there's an IR movie in Thamizh, possibly the first in 2010 :

http://www.dailythanthi.com/article....date=5/20/2010

[Sureshs65]

Looks like 'Padithurai' could be the only film we can look forward to this year in Tamil. Don't know when that will release. Otherwise the scene is not too bright, in Tamil or in other languages. Let's hope something works out from his Mumbai trip. Wish they would release SRK.