Next Installment of Songs

youtube and raaga.com serve as great stress busters.

The first sone i'm going to mention this time around is "Baala kanakamaya" composed by Tyaagaraja and set to aThANA raagam. The song had KamalaHaasan and Manju Bhargavi dancing in Salangai Oli: http://youtube.com/watch?v=OV5tOWZs4yk. ManjuBhargavi obviously comes out better :-) You can't help appreciating Kamal being reasonably good at BharatanAtyam as well. But it's S.Janaki's voice that stands head and shoulders above the rest. I have listened to Madurai Mani Iyer and Maharajapuram Santhanam sing this song. But S.Janaki is just way ahead of the pack. What a voice!! That effortless ease. Esp. while singing "Ela nI dayarAdu parAku jEsE vELa samayamu gAdu" meaning " Lord! How ("ela") will you ("nee") not ("raadu") shower your grace ("daya") ! This is not ("gaadu") the time ("samayamu") to be careless ("paraaku jese") and forget me! ". Another strange thing about this song is that it is usually sung with the anupallavi (Baala kanakamaya) to start with then going on to the pallavi (Ela nI), that is if you know what i mean!!

I'm going to pick "Manasunilpa Shakthi Leka Pothe" next. Again a Tyaagaraja kriti , set to aabhOgi. A mild digression -> There is a superb Tamil film song set to aabhOgi and sung by Balamurali Krishna namely "Thanga Radham Vandhadhu". Mom sings this at times and ends with “Enna oru Paattu”!! Coming back to Manasunilpa, i have heard it being rendered by various artists. No one does it better than Maharajapuram. I don't know for whatever reasons there are lot of Telugu words in this song which i find strange and kinda keep circling in the head for a long time for .e.g, "sOmidamma sogasugANDa kOritE sOmayAji svargArhuDaunO" meaning "If the wife of a sOmayAji desires a beau, will the husband (performing sOma sacrifice) be eligible for heaven?" Tyaagaraja trying at his hand at sarcasm!!

The last song in this installment is "rAma rAma guNasImA", composed by Swati ThirunaaL and set to the majestic Simhendra Madhyamam. MS popularised this song by singing it in Carnegie Hall. It will be available in any music shop worth its name. In fact, this album of hers "M. S. Subbulakshmi - Live at Carnegie Hall " is one of the her best selling albums, next only perhaps to her live recording at the United Nations. The Niraval with "muni mAnasa dhAma mrgamada " and reaching a crescendo with "hEmAmbarAri", well, you need to listen. BTW, one interesting sidelight is Swati ThirunaaL, king of Travancore, lived only for 34 years.

Some Good Songs

Amidst some hectic work. But i listen to lot of songs in youtube all the same. I thought i would share some of them with you:

A Tamil song and its equivalent from Malayalam caught my attention this evening. It's from an obscure movie by name Auto Raja starring Vijayakanth and one-could-never-recall-how-much-ever-one-tries type actress. Illayaraja combines brilliantly with Janaki. The song is "Sangathil Paadaadha Kavithai Thamizh Sandhathil Yaar Thandhadhu" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEQa7c4UAx4 And then i listened to its Malayalam equivalent titled "Thumbi Vaa". In this Janaki is on her own. Turns out even better. In the Tamil version as usual Illayaraja ends up messing with his rather unusual voice. The only consolation is that the Tamil number came out first:-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fL-zqByB2E

Rahat Fateh Ali Khan (Nephew of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan) is a damn good voice to contend with. He has sung some good stuff of late.
Bhol na halke halke from Jhoom Barabar Jhoom. He along Mahalakshmi Iyer spin magic. Gulzar is seriously good with his Urudu. Composed by Shankar Loy Ehsaan. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcNhhvoZhBY. Mom too likes this song. She loves Mahalakshmi Iyer's voice.

Jag Soona Soona Lage from Om Shanti Om. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXzQ1wPTGmE&feature=related. Composed by Vishal Shekar. Richa Sharma is excellent in this song. The initial pitch kinda suits her voice perfectly. Javed Akthar comes out brilliant with his penning

Maula Mere Maula Mere from the movie Anwar is another good number. Sung by Roop Kumar Rathod. That bit "Maula Mere Maula Mere" is haunting. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcKhEXJfMIA

Khwaja Mere Khwaja from the movie Jodhaa Akbar. Rahman composes and sings. The song is on Khwaja Mohinudin Chisti. Turns out Rahman worships Khwaja Mohinudin Chisti. You can get that faith coming out in his voice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0smj7l-nlaA

I kinda kept avoiding Coldplay, trying to rubbish them as one of those new age today-star-tomorrow-nowhere bands. How wrong i turned out to be. Trouble and Yellow from them are seriously good numbers. However, I simply don't understand what they are to imply in that song "Yellow" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI8I6qcxWyU which turns out to be their best. The piano in the background in Trouble is worth the trouble http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LolJmyDjRsQ

I have been listening to lots of Led Zeppelin for sometime now. The reason i like them is because there is this unmistakable angst and suppressed rage in their songs. It's that feeling that you get when everything that could potentially go wrong does so and you couldn't care less for civility. The song I'm going to name is "Trampled Underfoot". Please don't go through its lyrics:-) It doesn't have the dominant emotion found in other songs. The reason I'm mentioning this song is for that beautiful background music which keeps coming throughout the song. You can't help tapping your feet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNjv-9YA3U4 ta ta ta ta da da da tan...ta ta ta ta da da da dan.....

Kangal Irandal

My Take
Mez back in UK, a week ago. Will be around for sometime. Staying on Songs, man this song "Kangal Irandal" in the movie "Subramanyapuram" is probably the best i have heard in Tamil for a long time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CApQcVAYWHs. Set to the raagam "Reethi Gowlai" it's just magical. And it's composed by ex-TV presenter James Vasanthan. I though remember him as an irritating pedantic presenter.

I saw some of the movie clips in youtube and also the movie crew being interviewed by Anu Haasan in "Coffe with Anu season 2" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jennMPmTo6c. They have managed to create 80s Madurai in a beautiful way in this song-> Kudirai Vandi (Horse cart), Kammaa Karai (Pond Bank), Jigunaa Sattai (Fluorescent Shirts), Cycle, Naai (Dog), Pavaadai Dhavani potta vekka padara Ponnu (Refreshingly shy girl who is clad in half sari),

Saami urvalam (Procession of the gods in cars), Dhinathandhi (Dhinathandhi Newspaper), Thennai Maram (Coconut trees), Cinema Poster, Lungi, Oottu Vidu ...
I think this girl Swathi has a big future. Some good lines on this song that i read in the web

Quoted Article
For every season there is one particular love song that Tamil Cinema assures which would become a welcome hit among all divisions of public. Kangal Irandal from Subramaniapuram is definitely making waves. Everything about this song would strike one in the first hearing itself. The open voices of the singers Belly Raj and Deepa Miriam(hav they sung any other songs?) The lyrics by Thamarai. She is too good. Right from her big break 'Vassegara', she has never failed to impress. Many of her famous numbers being under Gautham's direction. Engineer by education, writer by passion! 'Pesa enni sila naal arigil varuven, pinbu paarvai podhum ena naan, ninaithen nagardheney... maatri'. And the rhythm to this rhyme is given by 'James Vasanthan'(remember the anchor in sun tv...?) It seems he was a music teacher in Kodaikanal and the director of the movie 'Sasi Kumar' was his student. He had promised to give James a chance if he becomes a director. The worthy part of his music is the importance he gives to vocals. The flute is used whenever there is a pause in the vocal. This song is based on some classical raga(no idea what..?) but has a western peppy beat throughout the song. The beat snowballs when it reaches Kangal Irandal...the touch! And hey the video of the song is also good. But I wonder why the heroine blushes so much...?:)