Illayaraja's Italy Concert

I was so ecstatic when I accidentally found the video CD of Illayaraja’s Italy Live in Concert in Landmark. It is released by Best Audios. Earlier Agi Music released an audio CD of the same concert. But after watching the video I was extremely disappointed and the reasons are many. Best Audios has done a worst job in making this VCD.

The VCD doesn’t have the entire concert. They have edited out the Mood Kapi (Instrumental Version of Sangathil Paadatha Kavithai), Ilangathu Veesuthae, Aasaya Kaathula, Janani Janani songs. In the audio CD released earlier we heard two versions of 3 in 1 piece, one the vocal version sung by Illayaraja and the other one is the orchestral version. Here in an attempt to try something different, they have edited the video in such a way that after Illayaraja sings each line of the melody, the orchestral version of the same line is shown and it terribly hams the flow of the beautiful piece. The highlight of the concert, the performance of vocal jathis and the rhythm patterns at the end of the ‘Veetukku Vetukku’ song end in a halfway. I guess the coverage itself was poorly done with limited number of cameras and that explains the poor video quality. The only consolation is the instrumental version of ‘Azhaghu Malar Aada’ song which was beautifully orchestrated and performed. But I don’t know why this piece wasn’t there in the audio CD released by Agi Music.

The person who cut the VCD sure have seen a lot of international concert videos, so he intermittently cuts to the behind the scene footages, as the concert is going on. But it is done in such a poor and stupid way that the question, ‘Why this happens to everything that comes with the name Illayaraja?’ Why the hell they didn’t include all those other pieces, at least 30 minutes of the concert is missing in the VCD. From what I see, there was a lot of additional video material of that of the rehearsal sessions in Chennai, Illayaraja’s travel in Italy, were available.

They could have easily made a high quality DVD with the complete concert, and could have added special behind the features and interviews of the performers and it would have become a sort of a collector’s edition. Does Illayaraja really know that this kind of a poor VCD of the concert is going to be released? I still don’t understand why Illayaraja is so bad in promoting and pushing his music to reach much more people. We still don’t know what stops any audio company from getting the audio rights of Illayaraja’s Jaya TV concert and releasing it as a DVD. Why Raaja is so undervalued when it comes to commercial viability?

Poo

It is easy to find whether a soundtrack is really worth listening after you listen to it once. I casually listened to ‘Poo’ soundtrack few times while at work and I really didn’t pay much attention to the music, it was just playing on my ears. But a week after I found myself humming the melody of ‘Avaram Poo’ and ofcourse one cannot forget the instantly catchy ‘Cho Cho maari’ so easily after listening once. That is how good music gets into our mind even if we don’t really take any effort to concentrate and listen.

S.S.Kumaran’s debut effort is folk solid and promising. When it comes to composing songs for kids, I admire Vishal Bharadwaj a lot; S.S.Kumaran comes close of Vishal in ‘Cho Cho maari’. I think after Illayaraja’s ‘Damakku Damakku’ from Azhaghi, we have a real kiddie’s song. The immensely likeable hook line and a brilliant rendition of the kids should make this song an instant favourite of anyone who listens to it.

It is so refreshing to listen to Harini in a folksy romantic melody. She has rendered ‘Mamaan Yengirukka’ with right diction, emotion and openness in her voice. And Harini is the highpoint of this song and it is a very clever choice by the composer. While ‘Dheena’ has loud percussive male portions sung with right zing by Shankar Mahadevan and a soft and soothing female portions aptly accompanied by rustic flute.

By the time we reach ‘Dheena’ song, we get to understand the composer’s style and approach towards orchestrating a song. S.S.Kumaran does tend to provide a very dense orchestration with lot of instruments and layers though these beautiful melodies would definitely have worked even with minimal orchestration. But I should admit, that these aesthetically added layers of instruments indeed add a lot of colour, energy and aural richness to the songs.

Chinmayi’s serene vocal opens ‘Avaram Poo’ and as the melody unfolds in her expressive cum voice it goes on to prove a point that after A.R.Rahman it is S.S.Kumaran who has used Chinmayi’s voice aptly well. ‘Paasa Mozhi’ inspite of being a very nice melody suffers hugely because of S.S.Kuraman’s singing. Periya Karuppu Thevar’s ‘Sivagasi Rathiyae’ starts with a nice punch and sustains it throughout. It is a neat folksy kuthu number.

S.S.Kumaran’s Poo is a fresh fragrant bouquet of melodies.

Illayaraja with CBSO

I saw the Sonu Nigam’s breathtaking concert ‘An Evening in London – Rafi Resurrected’ on Sony TV. Mohammed Rafi’s classics were performed with the backing of City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. More about the concert later but while watching it, I thought how it would be if Raaja’s songs were performed with the backing of such a symphony orchestra. For Sonu Nigam’s concert they had to arrange the songs differently for the orchestra but for Raaja’s song, one need not add or remove anything from the song, it is enough it they just play the song in the way Raaja has arranged it. I believe there must be many songs eligible for such a concert and everybody would have their own list of songs but here is the list of songs that came to my mind immediately (not considering ‘Music Messiah’, ‘How to Name it’, ‘Nothing but Wind’ and ‘Thirvasakam’ here)

1. Sundari Kannal (Thalapathi)
2. Adi Rakkamma (Thalapathi)
3. Maalayil yaaro (Chathriyan)
4. Thendral Vandhu (Avathaaram)
5. Oru Naal Antha Oru Naal (Devadai)
6. Sangeetha Megam (Udhaya Geetham)
7. Ram Hey ram (Hey Ram)
8. Sempoovae Poovae (Sirai Chaalai)
9. Poonkathave thaal thiravai (Nizhalgal)
10. Captain Prabhakaran Title Score (we need a separate concert for his background scores)

The exhilaration I had when I was sitting in the middle of 10000+ crowd clapping after the orchestra finished playing the second interlude of the ‘Sundari’ song from Thalapthi in Illayaraja’s ‘Andrum Indrum Endrum’ concert is one of those unforgettable moments of my life. Be blessed by watching this video if you are cursed of not being one among those 10000+.

Raaja Experience

Vicky tagged me with five questions on ‘Raaja and Me’ and here are my answers

The moment that introduced you to Raaja

I don’t remember exactly. But as far as memory goes, it is while watching the movie ‘Chinna Thambi’. The local cable network use to illegally play newly released movies and on day they played ‘Chinna Thambi’. I instantly got hooked to ‘Thooliyilae Aada vantha vaanaththu min vizhakkae’ from ‘Chinna Thambi’. ‘Chinna thambi’ was one of the most favorite soundtracks during my childhood days.

One moment where Raaja’s music directly/indirectly influenced my life

When I read the actual verses of the poem ‘Nirpadhuvae Nadappadhuvae’ of Bharathiyar after listening Raaja’s musical interpretation of the same.

Other language favorites

Not listened many of his songs in other languages. Ones that instantly comes to mind are

Tamil – Sundari Kannal Oru sethi (Thalapthi)
Telugu – Chirugaali (Mallepuvvu)
Malayalam – Poo kunguma poo (Rasathanthram)
Kannada – Aah Dinagalu Theme music

One rare song of IR that one shouldn’t miss

Yele – Karuvelam Pookal

Currently humming

Raasavae Unnai vidamaattaen (Aranmanai Kili)

And herewith I am tagging Karthik, Zero, Guru, Kumar

Rahman's Thunder again

Takes me back to 'Thiruda Thiruda' days of exhilaration.

Vaaranam Aayiram

Harris Jeyaraj indeed reserves his best for Gautam Menon. Harris + Gautam Menon + Thamarai have another big winner in “Vaaranam Aayiram”.

A Journey with Illayaraja

My journey with Illayaraja has been very uneven unlike that of with A.R.Rahman. I followed Rahman’s music from his very first soundtrack and I have heard and listened to 90% of what Rahman has composed so far, but I am sure that though I have heard 80% of Raaja’s works, I have listened to only 20% of them. No one told me that Rahman’s music is great; I heard it first and I myself found it great. I was always told that Raaja’s music is great, even before I could listen and understand them to form an opinion myself. So, the goodness of Raaja’s music was taken for granted and more attention was paid only to the ear shattering and ground breaking soundtracks that Rahman kept dishing out one after the other. Rahman stormed into my life and I searched for and found all possible ways to get a listen to newly releasing Rahman soundtrack, but this kind of an urge and a mad following wasn’t there in me for Illayaraja’s music.

Kaadhalukku Mariyaathai

I had just given my 10th standard board exams and my parents took me to one of our relatives (quite wealthy) house and the first sound I heard as we entered the house was the ‘Kolusu’ sound in ‘Ennai Thalaatta Varuvaala’ song from ‘Kaadhalukku Mariyaathai’ (KM). They had a very high quality sound system and I hadn’t seen or heard music from such high quality audio system till then. The vivid sound and the serene melody completely blew my mind. I found myself transported to a different world (I get goose bumps even know as I think of that moment). That was the day when I became conscious that here is the great Illayaraja’s musical storm hitting me

But soon I had forgotten about the song and much later I again stumbled upon the song, when my uncle rented a VCR player and video cassette of ‘Kaadhalukku Mariyaathai’ and played it in our house. I instantly liked all the songs of the movie. I still remember how I kept switching TV channels on every Friday evening to listen to at least one song from ‘Kaadhalukku Mariyaathai’. ‘Kaadhalukku Mariyaathai’ is the very first Raaja soundtrack, which came out with lot of synth in its orchestration, and the very first one that instantly appealed and attracted a generation that was totally immersed in Rahman.

Till now I have seen ‘Kaadhalukku Mariyaathai’ at least 25 times. 5 times for the movie as a whole, 10 times for Illayaraja’s songs and 10 times for Illayaraja’s background score. I remember reading Kumudam Weekly’s review on ‘Kaadhalukku Mariyaathai’ and the reviewer had mentioned that Raaja’s background score with three big percussion strokes conveyed the complete shock and surprise of all characters in the climax scene. Those lines of the reviewer introduced me to what it being called ‘Background Score’ in movies. And I wanted to check the movie once again to see what actually those three master percussion strokes of Raaja have done to the visuals. But it wasn’t so easy to catch a movie at our will then, so I had almost forgotten about it.

In Sun TV there was a program called ‘Climax’, in which they show only the climax scene from the movies. In that show, I again saw the climax of ‘Kaadhalukku Mariyaathai’ and that is when all that enlightening about background score happened and I understood how music can elevate the emotional impact of the scene and how big a master our maestro is in this business. And that lead me all the way to become a crazy fan of background scores and also to this.

Kaadhal Kavithai

That was the first phase of my journey with Raaja’s music but then after that I returned to Rahman again. One day I saw a movie’s trailer on TV in which a romantic piano piece was playing in the background as the camera moved along the sparkling lights of oil lamps in a temple. And at the end of the trailer I found that it is the trailer of the yet to be released movie ‘Kaadhal Kavithai’. By that time, I had my own Philips tape recorder and decided to buy the cassette, just to listen to that romantic Piano piece once again. ‘Kaadhal Kavithai’ is the first soundtrack of Illayaraja that I owned and so it is easily the soundtrack of Raaja that I heard the most number of times in my life.

‘Kaadhal Kavithai’ is so close to my heart because it was the first Raaja soundtrack that I had complete access for listening at my will. ‘Kadhal Kavithai’ was truly a mind blowing soundtrack and even now I remember each and every word of the lyrics of all the songs, each and every interlude of the song. ‘Thakthom’ was something I never expected from Raaja, a path breaking sensuous number. ‘Diana Diana’ is a calm soother that gives me Goosebumps even now. Hariharan (a favourite of Raaja in those times) was at his soothing best in the song. But my all time personal favourite from the soundtrack is cute little ‘Alai Meethu’. Exquisite vocal harmonies, string section, the serene melody and innocent voice of Bhavatharini - ‘Alai Meethu’ could well be a separate chapter in the textbook of melody making and orchestration. To sum it up, ‘Kaadhal Kavithai’ is one of those Raaja’s complete soundtracks and a stunning one at that which aggravated my interest and drew me closer to Raaja’s earlier works. (I have been having a great time listening to this soundtrack again repeatedly for past one week as if it has released just now.)

After ‘KK’, again for sometime, I didn’t meet Raaja, by which I don’t mean that we never met; we met but parted after exchanging few formal pleasantries. Most of the movies telecasted on TV then, had Raaja’s music, so we were always in touch, just that I wasn’t as crazy as I was with KM or KK soundtrack. Even if I was, I had no access to all those 70’s and 80’s songs which I fell in love with by repeatedly watching them on TV.

Rhythm Boss

The next big meeting with Raaja happened after I moved to Trichy. It was when I visited the ‘Rhythm Boss’ music shop in Trichy, which was in Chathiram Bus stand then (now it is near Central bus stand). ‘Rhythm Boss’ does music recording service. They had a huge music collection and a very well maintained catalogue, listing all the soundtracks available for recording (I was searching one such shop in Salem but there were none). Immediately, I listed down Raaja’s songs that I badly wanted to own for a very long time, to record them in a T60 cassette. As I was having a cassette player, I always felt very lazy to fast forward the songs, so I decided to record the songs that I would never ever want to fast forward while listening to the cassette.

I still remember the songs I recorded in that cassette (which I have lost a longtime back). ‘Kanmani Anbodu Kaadhalan’, ‘Paadariyaen padippariyaen’, ‘Manathil urudhi vendum (Sindhu Bhairavi)’, ‘Oh Butterfly’, ‘Nalam vaazha ennalum’, ‘Ellorum sollum paattu’, ‘Amma endralaikkatha’, ‘Ithu oru ponmaalai pozhudhu’, ‘Enna Saththam intha neram’ and ‘Yetheytho ennam valarthaen’. Even now when I listen to ‘Paadariyaen’ song, at the end of the song I involuntarily start singing ‘Manathil Uruthi vendum’ as it was the song recorded next to ‘Paadariyaen’ in that cassette. I was listening to the recorded cassette and realised how much I love and always have loved Raaja’s music even without being aware of it. Except for ‘Manathil Uruthi vendum’, I don’t remember when I first heard the other songs and when I started liking them and I cannot pinpoint the moment when exactly those songs became my all time favorites, my choices came from some part of my brain in which these songs have been kept safe for a very long time.

How to Name it

In Jaya TV, there is a program called ‘Kaalai Malar’ telecasted from 7-9 A.M. In the end credits of that show, they always play one instrumental music piece (I guess, still they play it) which I liked so much. Once when I visited ‘Rhythm Boss’ the same track was playing there also. I asked them which movie this music is from. They told that it is from Illayaraja’s non-film album ‘How to Name it’. I can’t really explain in words about how much the ‘How to Name it’ album enhanced my music sensibilities and broadened my music tastes. It made me a sucker for orchestral music and I guess that even reflects in the music in me. It sounded totally new. It gave me an experience that I never had before. I didn’t understand any technicalities of it, didn’t know who is Bach or how great the fusion that Raaja has attempted in the album. To me it was the simple beauty of the melody and the harmony that did something to me which I couldn’t decipher then. I listened, I listened, I listened and I am still listening. It just sounded so magical and transported me to a different world.

Then much later I bought ‘Nothing but Wind’ also and got mesmerized by it. Both these albums opened doors to a whole new musical universe called ‘Western Classical’. With ‘I met Bach in his house’ and ‘I love you Mozart’, I came to know that Mozart and Bach are western classical music composers who lived and composed music centuries ago. (But in Trichy I couldn’t find any western classical recordings. Much later after getting a job and moving to Chennai, the first ever CD I bought is Mozart’s symphony 25, 28, 29 and 35. And my journey with Western classical music started then).

Bharathi

Bharathi is another masterstroke of Raaja that engulfed me and brought me back to Raaja’s music. The ‘Nirpadhuvae’ and ‘Mayil Pola’ songs that were playing repeatedly on all TV channels initially attracted me. Long after movie left the theatres, I went and bought ‘Bharathi’ cassette. It was also the time when I got my own Walkman. (When I was in Trichy, every weekend I use to travel to Salem by Bus and the travel time was so boring. So, I bought a Walkman to listen to music while traveling in the bus). I still remember that one night, in which I listened to ‘Bharathi’ repeatedly for complete 3.5 hours of journey from Salem to Trichy. I loved the simplicity of the melodies in the songs. The divine ‘Ninai Charanadainthen’ and the exhilarating ‘Ethilum Ingu’ – I thought “Ah! Ennama Potirukkanya!” I still wonder why Raaja didn’t get National award for his music in this movie, especially when the movie itself had fetched awards in many other categories.

The music of ‘Bharathi’ got me into Bharathiyar’s poems. Bought a pocket book of Bharathiyar Poems and first thing I did was reading ‘Nirpathuvae’ song. I read the poem and I was bewildered and stunned by the way Raaja had composed a beautiful melody for a poem, which on paper looks to be not having a pinch of musicality in it. And Bharathiyaar’s poems and Raaja’s music made me a composer, not that I sat before a keyboard writing notes under each word of the poem, but at least I could fit each song into a rhythm and I could think of a melody for the words – it was more like a ‘Vaipattu’ which people instantly sing in villages. Sang them and recorded in a cassette (god knows where that cassette is now), but those melodies are still fresh in my mind which I guess may never see the sound of the day. Following that the soundtracks of Raaja that I heard most are ‘July Ganapathy’, ‘Vishwa Thulasi’ and ‘Virumaandi’.

After buying a Philips 5-in-1 player, I burnt an mp3 CD in ‘Rhythm Boss’ with 20 complete soundtracks of Raaja. And finally Raaja stayed with me and he was always there, ready for me to meet whenever I wanted to. That CD with 20 Raaja soundtracks is one of most played and most wanted in my room. As my classmates gather in my hostel room to prepare for the cycle tests or semester exams, Raaja served a pleasant background score throughout the night from that CD. One of the main things that my college friends still recollect when I meet them now is listening to Raaja’s songs all the night in my room.

Thiruvasakam in Symphony

And ‘Thiruvasakam in Symphony’ and the final crescendo in ‘Polla Vinayaen’ hard nailed one of the most important truths in my mind and the truth is that ‘Raaja’s music takes its listeners very close to Divinity’. I still remember the kind of an electric shock or something that started passing through all my nerves in the body for a split second, and the tears that welled out of my eyes as ‘Hail Hail’ choir slips into ‘Namachivaaya Vazhgha’ in that final crescendo. No more words on ‘Thiruvasakam’, because after listening to it, I sincerely thought and still think ‘I am just Man, Imperfect lowly, How can I write on, something holy’ and that too as holy as this one.

Then there was a phase in which I expected only great music from Illayaraja. Anything less than great was considered as bad by me and so outright rejected and as a result ended up missing many good songs and soundtracks of Raaja that came after that. My thoughts on ‘Maayakannadi’ and ‘Athu Oru Kanaa Kaalam’ soundtrack would explain about my expectations better. Though both of them definitely had lot of goods in its music, just because it didn’t match up to the greats of Raaja’s music, I got disappointed. Now this year after ‘Kangalum Kavipaduthey’, ‘Uliyin Oosai’ and ‘Dhanam’, my passion for Raaja’s music has resurrected again and I have begun to realize all that I have missed by expecting sky high from each and every soundtrack of Raaja. Now I am starting again, starting with the soundtracks of Raaja from 2001 to 2008 and I have covered only 10% of them. God knows whether I will be able to listen to the complete works of Raaja in this lifetime.

And there are many other incidents like this and small episodes in my journey with Raaja which I have missed here due to my laziness.

Like every other Raaja fan, even I have something to say about what Raaja should do from now on

1. He should work more on non-film instrumental albums and less on movies. If at all he works on movies, he should make sure that the movie’s script and the director is worthy of his music.
2. It is high time he starts working on a compilation of his background scores.
3. Should hire a better sound engineer to mix his songs. It is surprising to see such an inconsistent sound quality in Raaja’s soundtracks. (Listen a song from Dhanam and from Cheeni Kum or Mumbai Express one after the other)
4. Should release his first symphony that he recorded with London Royal Philharmonic orchestra and compose and release more such works.
5. I want to see Raaja recording a symphony in Chennai with Rahman’s yet to be started K.M Symphony orchestra and if possible wish to see a live performance of the same too.

Ey Aa O !

Bought the DVD of the cultural show called ‘Ey Aa o’ – a show by Paul and Vel. The DVD was recently released by A.R.Rahman. It is a very unique show (conducted all over China) in which the diversity of Indian culture was exhibited through the different forms of Indian music like carnatic and Hindustani classical, bangla, Rajasthani and Tamil folk. The highlight of the show is the item they did with Tamil folk instrument ‘Parai’. The synergy, enthusiasm and the electrifying energy with which they performed should be seen to be believed. The song composed for famous verses of ‘Thirukkural’ covering multiple genres of music is another novel attempt and this song ended the colorful show on a good high note. Even other items were good but were too long to sustain the interest of a listener. There is a lot of intercuts to behind the scenes footage in the video with the music from the concert continuing to play in the background. They could have avoided such cuts as it was very distracting after a point. The audio and video quality of the DVD is very good.

Going by the statistics at least 60 unique visitors have listened to all the interludes but only 3 gave answers. I don’t know what to infer from this.

Waiting to grab the CD of S.S.Kuraman’s ‘Poo’ Soundtrack. Is there any website where we can pay (in INR) and legally download the new Tamil soundtracks?

‘Agam’ – one of the six winning bands of Rahman’s ‘Ooh La La La’ show, has posted 6 of their soothing numbers in their blog. I like all of them.

Finally A.R.Rahman has decided to release his next private album 11 years after ‘Vande Mataram’. And as always my expectations are sky high.

I just can’t believe the glorifying reviews of ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. I liked Vikas Swarup’s Q&A but there was too much bollywood masala in it, especially towards the end. I am sure that they would have changed a lot of things for the movie. Going by the praises in all the reviews, it seems that Rahman’s score for this movie has hit the bull’s eye. Here is another soundtrack to the long list of Rahman soundtracks (Yuvaraj, Ghajini, Delhi 6, Sultan, and Chennayil Oru Mazhaikaalam) to lookout for.

‘Vidathu Karuppu’ is now available for online viewing and downloading and a zillion thanks to Rajshri pictures. ‘Vidhathu Karuppu’ is light years ahead of anything that Indian Television or at least Tamil television has seen till date. The genius of Indira Soundarajan (writer) and Naga (director) in ‘Vidathu Karuppu’ is unparalleled. The series with its concept and philosophy had a huge impact on me and so was one of the prime reasons for me being an agnostic now. I am also eagerly waiting for ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ series being directed by Naga for Kalaignar TV which is still under production.

Airtel Super Singer 2008 is little dull overall. But I enjoyed last week’s grooming sessions; especially Sriram Parthasarathy’s composition was beautiful and it was interesting to see him enthusiastically teaching the nuances of the song to the contestants. ‘Ungalil Yaar Aduththa Prabhudeva’ hits a new low in Star Vijay TV’s series of reality shows.

Listening to ‘Thiruvasakam in Symphony’ (finding extremely difficult to get out of it), How to Name it, Nothing but Wind and Wall-E Original Soundtrack (Thomas Newman). After listening to the samples, I decided to stay away from Raaja’s ‘Manikantan Geet Mala’.

Ludes - Answers

These ludes are from

1 - Athu Oru Kanaa Kaalam - Kili thattu
2 - Cheeni Kum - Baatein Hawa
3 - En Mana Vaanil - Muthu Muthu Penukkoru
4 - Kaathal Saathi - Manasae Manasae
5 - Kamarajar - Senthamizh Naadennum
6 - Madhu - Kaetkavillayo
7 - Pithamagan - Kodi Yethi veipom
8 - Solla Marantha Kathai - Kattula thalai aattura
9 - Twinkle Twinkle Little Star - Salasalakkum kaatrae
10 - Vishwa Thulasi - En Manamae

Ludes of Illayaraja

A quiz on Ludes of Illayaraja. Guess the songs. To make it easier or rather tougher (based on how seriously one follows Illayaraja’s music), all the songs are from movies released on or after year 2001.

1 -

2 -

3 -

4 -

5 -

6 -

7 -

8 -

9 -

10 -

Answers will be posted on 13-09-2008