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

[rajasaranam]

Sikkichu - pleasant song. Synth work sits pretty decently and isn't jarring. The resemblance of the starting lines to Deva’s Annamalai Annamali is a bit too blaring, no?

It can also be Attributed to 'Pathakolusu Pattu Paadi Varum' of 'Thirumathi Palanisamy' Both AM &TP Having been released in 1992 I sincerely hope TP released earlier to AM

[venkkiram]

Call me biased, but a certain Shreya Ghoshal could've made these two far more interesting.

yes sir. I am calling you biased. This is like saying " a certain balu could have made kaadhal oviyam paadum kaaviyam song far more interesting. Let me know where Rita lacks? Pitching, tonal quality, bhavam, diction?

[KV]

AM, RS, yes, Paadha golusu also comes close, but Annamalai feels closer due to its sandham similarity.

Venki, I aint saying Rita’s bad; she’s fairly adequate, but her singing seems (in peter tongue) uni-dimensional to me (in fluid theory/reality-singing-judge terminology, ‘dynamics kammi').
As to why I think Shreya could’ve made it better, I think it’s that ‘adhayum thaandi punidhamaanadhu’ thing in her voice and singing.

[Sureshs65]

KV,

Somehow I am not convinced that Shreya singing would have made it any better. I love her voice but is it the voice for such type of songs? I am not sure. I would say that this song calls for Swarnalatha or Chitra more than Shreya. To be fair to Rita, though she struggles a bit in a couple of places, she is able to convey the emotion of the song quite well.

[Sureshs65]

My take on this album: I like it This is no pathbreaking album but a typical Raja album of the 90s. I guess everyone agrees to that. I would compare this album with 'Azhagar Malai' which was released in 2010. I find this album better than "Azhagar Malai'. That album was a bit inconsistent while this album is more consistent in its sound. Ofcourse for old timers, this album would have a 'heard before' feel and I guess that is what the director would have wanted or that is what the story needed. I am just guessing here.

'sikkikichu' is a nice Mohanam based number. The interludes are done very well without the synth intruding any way. 'en usuru' sees Raja continuing his 'Kannukkule' experiment of giving a WCM touch to a native song. Listen to 'naan pirandha nerama' from 'Kannukkulle' and you will see the similarity between these two songs. 'kaathiruppen kaathiruppen', inspite of its tabla driven melody being very 'typical' Raja, is the pick of the lot for me. I love the way Raja slowly goes into Sivaranjani towards the end of the pallavi. A very emotional song and nice orchestration. Tiruvizha song is nice but very short and generic while everyone would agree that the older 'oram po' was better.

When I heard this album for the first time I thought there would three types of reactions to it: One would be the old Raja fan who is happy that Raja is sounding familiar to him . Second would be the old Raja fan who is unhappy that Raja is sounding familiar to him The third would ofcourse be those who think Raja is an old man who uses only tabla. They would be a happy lot since they can now point to this album and say, "I told you so."

All said and done, I am loving this album. It breaks new ground like 'Ponnar Shankar' did but to be honest I have been playing 'kathiruppen kaathiruppen' at the cost of 'Ponnar Shankar' for the past few days !!!

[KV]

Agree on that Suresh, Swarnalatha or Chitra would've suited better. Swarna has been snatched away from us cruelly and IR seems to pick Chitra very selectively. My automatic choice from rest of the crop is Shreya.(maybe its the effect of Ponnar Shankar; such lovely rendition in the earthy eduthu eduthu varum and malar villile, the spell from which I'm yet to recover). For the record, I'm quite a fan of Rita's Unnai patri sonnal.

[Plum]

ponnar sankar sila pAttukkaL kEttEn...so so (by IR Standards - I am not used to applying any other standards.)
kaNNai padaiththEn - yes the odathandil feel is there but somehow, when it comes to Malayalam, everything comes together perfectly - in tamil, in general, the tunes seem to be ones he himself previously rejected - stock clearance-la pazhaiya stocklAm cheap price-la sale paNdrA mAdhiri, indha mAdhiri padangaLai use paNNikarArOnnu thONudhu.
Not much else to say. The other 2 songs(bhavani varugiRA and the adi peNNE reminder - see I dont even remember the words.) are nice to hear when they are running but dont feel anything special otherwise.

[KV]

Plum, Ponnar Shankar is quite a strange brew (my initial response was - sumaara oru alavukku romba nallave irrukku). I'm not that big a fan of the two melodies in it (Kannai pidithen, Thedi vandha). But the other three songs (Annamar kadhai, Bhavani varugira and Malar villilae), though interspersed with some synth/pop stuff, have some great folk elements that make them click for me; some very delicious bits of thavil, urumi, horns, etc. (Idhukku melayum naan Shreya patthi pesa virumbala).

[app_engine]

P-S:

'aNNamAru kathaiya' is the pick for me, Madhu B notwithstanding. Raja always excels in this "story-telling" genre (katha kELu katha kELu of MMKR). This song also has "udukkai" and some other country drum sounds which are beautifully placed.

Also, this is a kind of song which is IR-only-possible at this point of time. The folk bits that appear here and there are enjoyable, though the lyricist seemed to have absolutely no imagination, wholeheartedly agree it needed VM or equivalent

'bhavani varugira' is quite interesting (village worship song made in church style) and could be difficult for other composers of today to attempt.

'malar villilE' is sweet, quite tough for today's MDs (may be Vidyasagar can attempt and do a job after inspirations from works of earlier MDs).

Thanks to their thorough study of "prior-era-IR-templates" and also having adapted reasonably well, the remaining 3 songs can be done by any MD of today. And, theirs may even sound better

[AravindMano]

The folk bits that appear here and there are enjoyable, though the lyricist seemed to have absolutely no imagination, wholeheartedly agree it needed VM or equivalent

Lyrics ezhudhinadhu yArO prabala isaiyamaippALar nu kELvi