Playlist 2008

Aada Vandha nokkam (Uliyin Oosai)
Aagayam Kaanamal (Sadhu Miranda)
Aavaram Poo (Poo)
Aavaram Poovukkum (Arai En 305il Kadavul)
Aazhiyilae (Dhaam Dhoom)
Adiyae En Vannakili (Thozha)
Adiyae Kolluthey (Vaaranam Aayiram)
Aganthayil (Uliyin Oosai)
Anal Mele (Vaaranam Aayiram)
Anbe en Anbe (Dhaam Dhoom)
Anjala (Vaaranam aayiram)
Dheena (Poo)
Dost Badaa Dost (Saroja)
En Kadhalae (Pudichirukku)
Idayathai Kaanom (Chakravyuham)
Ippavae Ippavae (Raaman Thedia Seethai)
Kaadhal Siluvayil (Subramaniyapuram)
Kallai Irundhaen (Uliyin Oosai)
Kallai Mattum Kandal (Dasavatharam)
Kanavilae (Nepali)
Kandaen Kandaen (Pirivom Santhipom)
Kangal Irandaal (Subramaniyapuram)
Kannanukku yenna vaendum (Dhanam)
Kannil Vandhadhum (Vazhthukkal)
Kathala Kannalae (Anjathey)
Kattilikku Mattumdhaana (Dhanam)
Maaman Yengirukkan (Poo)
Manasukkul (Anjathey)
Marudhaani (Sakkarakatti)
Mazhai Nindra Pinbum (Raaman Thedia Seethai)
Mukunda (Dasavatharam)
Mundhinam (Vaaranam Aayiram)
Naan Varainthu Vaitha (Jayamkondan)
Needhaana Needhaana (Sadhu Miranda)
Nenjukkul pidhidum (Vaaranam Aayiram)
Pulargindra Pozhudhu (Uilyin Oosai)
Saaral (Kuselan)
Solladi (Kaadhalil Vizhundhaen)
Taxi Taxi (Sakkarakatti)
Thaen Thaen (Kuruvi)
Thendralukku nee (Arai En 305il Kadavul)
Thozhiya (Kaadhalil Vizhundhaen)
Ummela aasapattu (Vazhthukkal)
Uyirilae (Vellithirai)
Vallamai Tharayo (Vallamai Tharayo)
Venmegam (Yaaradi nee mohini)
Yele (Sakkarakatti)
Yen Anbae (Sathyam)
Yen unnidam (Chakravyuham)
Yengeyo paartha (Yaaradi nee mohini)

Naan Kadavul Music

Om Raaja Om, Om Raaja Om
Raaja Naamam Bhaje hum, Bhaje hum

Listened to ‘Naan Kadavul’ songs atleast 50 times and still Listening.

YMMA 2008 Goes To

After so much contemplation and about how to pick the winners, here is presenting the YMMA 2008

Nominees in Best Soundtrack and Composer Category are

Uliyin Oosai - Illayaraja
Vaaranam Aayiram – Harris Jeyaraj
Subramaniyapuram – James Vasanthan
Poo – S.S.Kumaran
Chakravyuham – Karthik Raja

And YMMA for Best Soundtrack and Composer goes to

.::$ Uliyin Oosai – Illayaraja AND Vaaranam Aayiram – Harris Jeyaraj $::.

Nominees in Best Singer (Male) Category are

Sriram Parthasarathy (Aganthayil Aaduvatha - Uliyin Oosai)
Shankar Mahadevan (Kaadhal Siluvayil - Subramaniyapuram)
Hariharan (Venmegam – Yaaradi Nee Mohini)
Haricharan (Kannil Vandhadhum - Vazhthukkal)
Naresh Iyer (Uyirilae – Vellithirai)
Tippu (Solladi – Kaadhalil Vizhunthaen)

And YMMA for Best Singer (Male) goes to

.::$ Sriram Parthasarathy (Aganthayil Aaduvathaa – Uliyin Oosai) $::.

Nominees in Best Singer (Female) Category are

Sudha Ragunathan (Anal Mele – Vaaranam Aayiram)
Sainthavi (Yen Unnidam – Chakra Vyuham)
Chinmayi (Aavaram Poo – Poo)
Kalyani (Mazhai Nindra Pinbum – Raaman Thedia Seethai)
Sadhana Sargam (Mukunda – Dasavathaaram)
Shreya Ghosal (Aavaram Poovukkum - Arai En 305il Kadavul)

And YMMA for Best Singer (Female) goes to

.::$ Chinmayi (Aavaram Poo – Poo) $::.

Nominees in Best Background Score Category are

Uliyin Oosai - Illayaraja
Subramaniyapuram – James Vasanthan
Saroja – Yuvan Shankar Raja
Anjathey – Sundar C.Babu

And YMMA for Best Background Score goes to

.::$ Sundar C.Babu (Anjathey) $::.

Nominees in Best Lyrics Category are

Na.Muthukumar (Aavaram Poo - Poo)
Thamarai (Vaaranam Aayiram)
Vaali (Kallai Mattum Kandaal, Mukunda – Dasavathaaram)
Mu.Metha (Pulargindra Pozhudhu – Uliyin Oosai)
Yugabharathi (Kandaen Kandaen – Pirivom Santhipom)

And YMMA for Best Lyrics goes to

.::$ Thamarai (Vaaranam Aaayiram) $::.

YMMA 2008

Part - 1

After watching so many singing talent hunt shows on Television, I have a fair idea about how to choose the best among the given singers. It is the diction, expression and perfection, voice quality and the uniqueness that the voice adds to the songs are those that matter when it comes to singing. And with this in mind, I picked those final nominees but from among those nominees, picking one is again a tough job.

Sriram Parthasarathy for his Uliyin Oosai song is an obvious choice who exactly fulfills all the above mentioned criteria. Singing a song which was originally sung by S.P.B and excelling in his own style is no child’s play and Hariharan has done exactly that with his calming and soothing rendition of the romantic lullaby in ‘Venmegam’ song. Shankar Mahadevan has this ability to beautifully bring out the intended emotions in all ranges and he does it so perfectly in ‘Kaadhal Siluvayil’ song. Listen to him being mellow and subdued as he sings ‘Avaludaiya karpanayai’ and scream and cry as he burst out with ‘Uyir urugum podhu’. Though each singer would be able to fulfill all the criteria I mentioned above, it is the dynamics in the singing and the little touches they add to make the song their own, makes all the difference. It is for this dynamics I chose Haricharan (for Kannil Vanthadhum) and Naresh Iyer (for Uyirilae). Haricharan’s voice culture naturally suits for such somber numbers and he carries the minimally orchestrated ‘Kannil vandhadhum’ song with just his voice. Naresh Iyer’s Uyirilae is much better than Chitra’s ‘Vizhiyilae’, the vulnerability in his voice adds to the longing feel in the song. Tippu is one of the most expressive singers we have today and he oozes romanticism in ‘Solladi’.

Sudha Raghunathan surprised me with her amazing ease and control in singing ‘Anal Mele’ in non-carnatic style. Chinmayi beautifully captures Maari’s longing in her sweet voice for ‘Avaram Poo’ song. Sainthavi has the cutest of voices among the current lot. Her rendition of ‘Yen Unnidam’ song adds to the breeziness of the song. Kalyani has a unique sweetness in her voice and style of singing which is beautifully used in the song ‘Mazhai Nindra’. I also love her Tamil diction. Sadhana Sargam has come a long way from her ‘Snehithanae’ days in Tamil diction and though it is not yet perfect, her rendition made ‘Mukunda’ melody sound sweeter and lighter. And I always get mesmerized when I listen Shreya Ghosal exquisitely crooning the lines ‘Kamatchi kovil munnae’ or ‘Mundhaanai kadhavukullae’ in ‘Aavaram poovukkum’.

A background score piece may be musically good but it will stick to one’s mind and its impact will last only if the visual material is worthy of the background score piece. Uliyin Oosai has some beautiful background score pieces and I heard them while watching the video clips from the movie on YouTube. Yuvan Shankar Raja’s background score for Saroja is just right and neat. Anjathey had a very impressive background score throughout the movie, though there were some moments where the Good Vs Evil theme was overused. But overall a very intriguing background score by Sundar C.Babu. I am surprised by James Vasanthan’s understanding of the use of background score in movies. The recurrent themes are used aptly in the movie, though there were some melodramatic cues towards the end of the movie.

The toughest category for me is Lyrics. According to me, for song lyrics to register in the minds of a listener it should have something special in it and that something may be beautiful stream of meaningful lines falling one after the other in rhyme, simple words conveying deep thoughts, an innovative word play, or an innovative analogy. There is a mix of all these qualities in the nominees I picked for this category. So, I am highly confused.

YMMA 2008 Winners will be announced tomorrow.

.::Wish you all a peaceful New Year::.

YMMA 2008

I always have wondered about how a jury after short listing the nominees in each category, picks just one particular nominee as the winner. To me, all those that made it to the final nominations are winners and deserve the award equally. So, to understand how, I decided to give away the award myself for Tamil Film Music in 2008, where I am the only jury. I named it YMMA – Your Musically Music Awards. I picked the nominations. And how I arrived at these final nominations is a separate highly debatable story. But for now, let us just concentrate on my thought process behind picking the final winners from these nominees. To be honest, 1 week after posting the nominations in this blog, I am still not sure about whom should I pick as the final winner and on what basis should I pick.

I also have this big confusion about how a jury picks one movie as the best movie of the year and director of some other movie as the best director. And similarly according to me, while I pick a soundtrack as best of the year, I can’t pick composer of some other soundtrack as the best composer. That is why Best Soundtrack and Composer are clubbed as a single category in YMMA.

If one looks at the list of composers who have won the Best Music Director national award, most of the time, they would have won for the soundtracks that has classical based songs that reflects the culture and tradition of the country(ofcourse A.R.Rahman who has won the maximum so far is an exception here). So, those who think classical music as the best form of music and consider only those who are able to create good classical numbers as the best composers, they would pick ‘Uliyin Oosai’ as the winner.

If I have to go in for a long journey in a car, and if I was left with just these 5 soundtracks CD’s, the first one I would pick to listen is definitely ‘Vaaranam Aayiram’. It is so easy and light on ears, simple breezy melodies with no complex sounds or rhythms. If a jury wants the songs to be simple, instantly catchy and reach to a wide range of audience in today’s times where the attention span of a person on anything is too short, then ‘Vaaranam Aayiram’ soundtrack would be his choice.

If you read carefully, the category is named Best “Soundtrack” which implies that it is music for a movie and not a private music album. A soundtrack is meant to serve a purpose in the movie, take the story forward and ofcourse it should sound good. The music should exactly match with the situations in the script. A good movie soundtrack is one which you want to listen to immediately after watching the movie to relive the moments from the movie. The one soundtrack among the nominees that would fit this description perfectly is ‘Subramaniyapuram’.

Then sometimes a new comer, who shows immense potential to make it big, is chosen as a winner, to encourage him to do more such good work. If a jury decides that as the criteria, then award would easily go to S.S.Kumaran for ‘Poo’.

Also, sometimes award is given to an Unsung, who maintained a high quality work almost throughout his career, but somehow hasn’t got due recognition yet. In that case, award would go to Karthik Raja for composing an eclectic mix of songs with right punch for ‘Chakravyuham’ soundtrack.

To be continued…

YMMA 2008 Nomination

Best Soundtrack and Composer

Uliyin Oosai - Illayaraja
Vaaranam Aayiram – Harris Jeyaraj
Subramaniyapuram – James Vasanthan
Poo – S.S.Kumaran
Chakra Vyuham – Karthik Raja

Best Singer (Male)

Sriram Parthasarathy (Aganthayil Aaduvatha - Uliyin Oosai)
Shankar Mahadevan (Kaadhal Siluvayil - Subramaniyapuram)
Hariharan (Venmegam – Yaaradi Nee Mohini)
Haricharan (Kannil Vandhadhum - Vazhthukkal)
Naresh Iyer (Uyirilae – Vellithirai)
Tippu (Solladi – Kaadhalil Vizhunthaen)

Best Singer (Female)

Sudha Ragunathan (Anal Mele – Vaaranam Aayiram)
Sainthavi (Yen Unnidam – Chakra Vyuham)
Chinmayi (Aavaram Poo – Poo)
Kalyani (Mazhai Nindra Pinbum – Raaman Thedia Seethai)
Sadhana Sargam (Mukunda – Dasavathaaram)
Shreya Ghosal (Aavaram Poovukkum - Arai En 305il Kadavul)

Best Background Score

Uliyin Oosai - Illayaraja
Subramaniyapuram – James Vasanthan
Saroja – Yuvan Shankar Raja
Anjathey – Sundar C.Babu

Best Lyrics

Na.Muthukumar (Aavaram Poo - Poo)
Thamarai (Vaaranam Aayiram)
Vaali (Kallai Mattum Kandaal, Mukunda – Dasavathaaram)
Mu.Metha (Pulargindra Pozhudhu – Uliyin Oosai)
Yugabharathi (Kandaen Kandaen – Pirivom Santhipom)

* From Soundtracks of the movies released in 2008.

Rahman on music Piracy

Can't Agree More

Airtel Super Singer 2008 - Stephen Devassy

The dull ‘Airtel Super singer 2008’ bounced back with this week’s Unplugged round. The singers sang melodies with the backing of Piano, performed by Stephen Devassy. What an amazing musician. He is the man behind the orchestration of most of recent Vidhyasagar songs. Listen to the beautiful instrumental album ‘Romanz A’ composed by Stephen Devassy. Stephen’s piano with some amazing vocal performance by the contestants was really goose bumpy to watch. The judges Srinivas, Sujatha and Unnikrishnan also gave beautiful performances with Stephen.

Coming to the elimination this week, it is disappointing to see Arvind being eliminated. I like Arvind’s singing and voice; he has always been a neat performer who doesn’t mess up with the musicality in the name of performing. But that exactly turned out to be his disadvantage. And ofcourse, he isn’t versatile like others. But when singers like Aruna (worst in the present lot according to me) who performed so badly in this round, can stay, why not Arvind? And just because she won some other contest, and she is a good classical singer, how long they are going to retain Ragini Sree, even though she lacks every single quality that a film music singer should have.

Prasanna is a wholesome entertainer, give him any song, he tries to do complete justice to it, though it still has to be seen if he can pull some classical songs that has lot of musical intricacies. Prasanna is one who will sail through the final round. Rohit, a Raajamaniac has a different and deep voice and he sang ‘Kaalai Nera Kaatrae’ beautifully in unplugged round. His best performance so far definitely is the ‘Vathikuchi’ song. Renu definitely has a beautiful voice, but she strains a lot to sing in higher pitches and there is breath control problem also. I didn’t actually like her ‘Munbe Vaa’ performance. Vijay, a Rahmaniac, is versatility personified. He is able to sing all styles of songs with complete conviction, but don’t know how will he approach a pure classical number. I saw him struggling to get the notes right in the grooming session with Sriram Parthasarathy. Anyway, I couldn’t predict how far he could go.

Santosh has cleverly managed with his choice of songs to reach till this round; there is nothing special about his voice or singing according to me. He managed to maintain the emotions of ‘Oh Vannila’ song in unplugged round but musically it was a below par performance. Ranjani is very confident in whatever she sings and she is definitely on my top 3 list. ‘Kannalanae’ rendition in Unplugged round with lot of improvisations was very good but her ‘Muthu Mani maalai’ performance in the duet round is her best so far, according to me. She has a great voice presence and she easily sings in all ranges. If she chooses the right songs; she definitely can reach the top 3. Ajeesh, an ardent Hariharan fan, which is evident from his singing, is a technically sound singer and is versatile enough. His ‘Thoda Thoda’ rendition was superb though he couldn’t match up to SPB’s emotions in the original. He is surely on my Top 3. And Ravi’s ‘Thendrale’ performance was overtly expressive in unplugged round, though he hit every note right. And as I already told, Ravi has that extra edge and professionalism in his singing and most probably he is going to be the winner.

Slumdog Millionaire Soundtrack

Slumdog Millionaire Soundtrack

Airtel Super Singer 2008 - Ravi

It is very clear that Ravi is going to win Airtel Super Singer 2008 Title. His performance in the medley round was simply mind blowing. From the very beginning of the contest, when he sang ‘Pen ondru Kandaen’ song along with Prasanna, I was pretty sure about Ravi winning the title and his yesterday’s performance reassures it again and the judge Srinivas himself told that openly in yesterday’s episode.

Ravi already has won the SS Music Launch Pad singing contest and I still remember Ravi’s brilliant rendition of ‘Veyilodu Vilayadi’ song in the finals of that contest. Ravi’s voice in Yuvan’s music will be an interesting combination. Let us wait and watch.

Airtel Super singer 2008 is not so interesting this time mainly because there is no any competition and we know who is going to be the winner. All the other contestants though have very good voice quality, is not as consistent in their performances as Ravi. But Deepshika’s exit was surprising. I was expecting Ragini Sri to leave. Though Ragini Sri has classical music knowledge and training, none of her performances so far was at par.