(by Madan Mohan)
A Tamil film soundtrack of 1992 deeply influenced my tastes in music. But it’s not the one you’re thinking of!
I know Roja is supposed to be the earth-shattering album of 1992, the one that caused a seismic upheaval and paved the way for a new direction. I would even agree that it is in fact earth-shattering…today.
But I did not know this in 1992. In 1992, I was just seven years old. I had, I would later realize, a musical ear and certainly an inordinate (?) fondness for the activity of listening to music. But I wasn’t yet reading reviews or other views of music and formulating my own opinions about the music I listened to. I just liked something I heard and then heard it again and again and again.
In 1992, then, the album I was listening to again and again was…Singaravelan. And though I probably watched Bharatan too the same year, the Kamal-starrer is the earliest movie that I vividly remember watching in theatre. Specifically, Udhayam theatre. By some quirk of fate, I also watched Kadhalukku Mariyadhai and Friends at Udhayam. After coming out of Friends, my uncle remarked that it was hard to believe the music was composed by Ilayaraja as he couldn’t hum even a single tune (perhaps a harsh assessment but his view nevertheless).
This was assuredly not the case with Singaravelan. Sonnapadi Kellu with its animal-sounds was seen as a somewhat silly song by the adults but delighted little me. Years later, I would reflect on this song while listening to the Pink Floyd track Seamus. Similarly, if the Bum-chika-bum chorus of Pudhucheri Kacheri caught my attention then, it was the slightly tricky time signature between the melody lines in the pallavi that wowed me as an adult. The melodies of Innum Ennai Enna and Thoodhu Selva were gorgeous then and still are now. I probably wouldn’t say I find the arrangements (a word I will return to) of either too interesting now
My opinion of the other two tracks hasn’t changed much since then. Oranga Sriranga was a keeper then and is now. It’s not one particular thing. The groove is infectious, the music is fun with Raja rolling out musical comedy par excellence and SPB too revels in the mischief. I didn’t like Pottu Vaitha Kadhal as much as the other songs then. I do not now. Actually, learning about and deeply appreciating rock has only showed more clearly to me how cliched Raja’s choices are in this song. A trend that would continue unfortunately in some of his other work in this period (Kalaignan for example), but that’s another story. Suffice it to say that the only way you could possibly regard the music of this song as unbelievable, earth shattering or innovative would be if you don’t listen to Western music at all and project opinions about the latter based off what you hear in our film music.
I didn’t know then that Singaravelan, while regarded as a solid soundtrack, wasn’t exactly one of Raja’s classics even in that decade, let alone overall. I didn’t know because I had yet to compile and curate my favourites from the Raja ocean. You get to have this kind of instinctive experience only once in a lifetime, when you like something just because and not on account of reviews, recommendations or canonical compilations to help you navigate an artist’s back catalogue. Perhaps, given what was playing over in the tinseltown that starts with a B, I should be thankful the one I lapped up no questions asked wasn’t something like, um, Khiladi.
I also didn’t know this then, but this falling-in-love-with-Singaravelan was going to influence my tastes, my views about music in a big way. Throw in the music of Jungle Book, Beauty and the Beast or the Tom & Jerry cartoon Hollywood Bowl and I became fascinated in general with lots of instruments playing (or just lots of layers played with a smaller ensemble). The more technically appropriate word for what I was interested in would be the ‘arrangements’.
And, here I go again, I didn’t know then how much this was going to make me a misfit in terms of the direction the music scene was evolving towards. In today’s times, arrangements are seen as getting in the way of the music and people would much rather the recording had just the singer and his/her instrument of choice (be it keyboard or guitar). I am like, yeah sure, if you dress up a song for the sake of it, that’s both boring and too dense to get to grips with the melody. But are you saying there are no or there haven’t been skilled arrangers who can embellish a song without overwhelming it and can instead raise it to another level?
It was why I was so elated to hear Rahman do a lot of arranging on Taare Ginn. It seemingly came out of nowhere.
In a way, Taare Ginn completes the circle. Back in the 90s when the adults who presumably knew better were gently throwing shade at Raja by talking about how ‘uncluttered’ Roja was, ignorant, uninformed me embraced the ‘clutter’ wholeheartedly. I cannot say whether I liked the songs of Singaravelan because of the, er, clutter or Singaravelan got me hooked onto music that has a lot of arranging. But if today, I find myself unwittingly in touch with the zeitgeist as Taare Ginn broke the clutter of ‘intimate’ music with beautiful arrangements, it is, ironically, because in 1992 I was listening to Singaravelan.
H. Prasanna
October 24, 2020
Wow Annamalai was also in 1992! It was a big break for Deva, who turned out to be a prolific, important Tamil music director. @Madan Do you remember how you felt about him then? Laalaku Dole Dappi Ma was also 1992.
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Madan
October 24, 2020
H Prasanna: I don’t remember separating the Annamalai soundtrack as this different composer at that time because it was so Raja-lite. Similar views about Baasha though by then, I did know this was Deva and not Raja. Actually, Aasai stood out much more as a Deva product during that time. Likewise Kadhal Kottai.
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Naren
October 24, 2020
Really nice article. Listening to music for me is multi-dimensional and multi-faceted, be it Ilayaraja or Rahman.
Dimension 1
Facet 1 – Nostalgia – Anytime I listen to the oldies now, reminds me of the times of my life back then and the events surrounding me when I was listening to those songs for the first time as they were released.
Facet 2 – The Whole Package – Back then I wasn’t as discerning as I am today, either. So it was the raagam, the singing, the instrumental backing and lastly the lyrics [it always has been my last in the list] . . . all rolled into one and not streaming independently in my head. This package deal is still vaguely active in the back of my head.
Dimension 2
Facet 1 – Instrumentation
Case A – Urban – Songs where Illayaraja tries to sound urban wud have a ridiculous combination of westernised instruments mixed with relatively traditional tunes sung by a voice not suited for such an arrangement [if at all that].
Examples:-
a.Kattumarakkaran – Banana Banana
b.Kalaignan – Kokkarakko Kozhi [Misplaced overdrive pedal]
c.Singaravelan – Pottu Vaitha Kadhal [Misplaced overdrive pedal]
His percussive rhythms in any of the above cases struggles. His idea of localisation of western music doesn’t really work for him.
Case B – Carnatic – Any of his songs with carnatic tones [Straight/Over/Under] have the same problems with westernised instruments but works very well with Tabla and Mridangam.
Examples:-
a.Aathma – Kannaale Kadhal Kavithai [Suffocating synth drums interspersed with Tabla]
b.MMKR – Sundari Neeyum [Suffocating beats at the beginning only to move to Chende]
c.Raja Kaiya Vechcha – Mazhai Varuthu [The melody just might have saved this one but the juxtaposition still sticks out]
Case C – Rustic – This is the where he shines. He mostly sticks to his traditional simple and repetitive percussion base and somehow he manages to put everything in place above that.
Examples:-
a.Thirumathi Pazhanisamy – Paatha Kolusu
b.Chinna Gounder – Koondu Kulla
c.Kizhakku Vasal – Pachchamalai Poovu
d.Idhayam – Pottu Vaitha
e.Amma Koil Kizhakkaale – Un Paarvayil [Even the Lakshman Sruthi version in the movie “Kalloori” works very well]
Exceptions:-
a.Time – Muthu Nilave
b.Idhayam – April Mayile
c.Chembaruthi – Nila Kaayum
d.Guna – Paartha Vizhi
e.Oru Odai Nadhiyaagiradhu – Thalaiyai Kuniyum Thaamaryae
f.Kadhal Oviyam – Poovil Vandu
g.Mahanadi – Sri Ranga Nathan
h.Kalaignan – Endhan Nenjil [He almost got it thru but the rhythm base still bugs me]
i.Raasaiyya – Masthana Masthana
j.Pithamagan – Elankaaththu Veesudhe
k.Sathi Leelavathi – Maharajanodu
l.Bharathi – Ninnai Charanadaindhen
Facet 2 – Rhythm – The BPM in his westernised tracks r all over the place in many songs and hence completely disorientates the listener with the staggering tempo.
Examples:-
a.Kattumarakkaran – Banana Banana
b.Avatharam – Thendral Vandhu [Great Raagam but the rhythm base keeps bugging. The ’96 movie version is really good as they stick to just the tune]
Dimension 3
Songs that r inspired or straight up lifts from western songs immediately sounds alarms in my head and before I know it, I start making comparisons. Those r definitive bummers for me.
Examples:-
a.MMKR – Rum Bum Bum
b.Oru Kaidhiyin Diary – ABC Nee Vaasi
c.Murattukkaalai – Endha Poovilum Vaasam Undu
d. Japanil Kalyanaraman – Aahaa Vandhiruchu
Of course, both the examples and exceptions mentioned above r only a few and not the only ones. But no matter what, his songs have worked astoundingly well for the actor Mohan.
Rahman excels in filling the gaps mentioned above. His overall deliberate western overtones sets up the listener in a definitive path and hence both his original scores and his inspirations/lifts just work fine.
Examples:-
a.Gentleman – Chikku Bukku Raile
b.May Madham – Palakaattu Machchaan
c.Kadhalan – Urvasi
d.Thiruda Thiruda – Chandralekha, Kannu Kannum
It is his clear choice of deliberate western tones combined with the appropriate instruments that inspired Hollywood to use “Chaiyya Chaiyya” in “Inside Man”, “Thirakkadha Kaattukulla” in “Million Dollar Arm” etc.
When he deliberates on carnatic tones then he knows exactly what instruments wud resonate well with the audience and he does that exactly. Actually, his mash up of both worlds has worked very well too
Examples:-
a.Gentleman – En Veettu Thottaithil [Mridangam and goes above and beyond with Jalatharangam]
b.Duet – Mettu Podu [Drums and Mridangam symbiosis]
c.Duet – Naan Paadum Santham
The use of Kadri Gopal Nath’s Sax in the Duet album is nothing short of symmetrical mellifluous beauty.
Rahman always makes the right instrument choices and combinations be it electronic keys or actual instruments like Sax, Mridangam, Jalatharangam.
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Madan
October 24, 2020
Naren: Wonderful analysis. I don’t agree with everything you say but I really appreciate and enjoy reading/hearing somebody noticing these things.
In general, your examples of Raja (other than very few like ABC Nee Vaasi) are from the 90s. I think a lot of things started to go ‘off’ in the 90s for whatever reason. Whether it be a sense of boredom, simply trying to break out of existing patterns but forcing it and not being able to do it smoothly or delegating too much to Karthik Raja, there are lots and lots of songs where either the chosen rhythm pattern itself is odd (Kannalae Kadhal – the beat on the interludes is just too busy for that sort of song) or it is mixed too loud (Yendhan Nenjil…and the prototype for these songs was Anbe Nee Yenna from Pandian). Ila Nenje Vaa is another where the beat is too busy to the point of distraction. It’s completely inexplicable to me why he would do this to his own music but so it was.
OTOH I don’t have any such problems for the most part with his 80s work. Especially pre-late 80s, before he began to use drum machines overwhelmingly. The more he ‘synthesized’ the music, the more he struggled to maintain the organic blend of before. I don’t have any problems with the beats of songs like Neethane Endhan Ponvasantham or the overall instrumental palate as such.
There are two aspects on which I part ways with you.
1) BPMs. In general, analog era recordings are less precise on the BPM because quantizing wasn’t a thing then. Sure, quantizing wasn’t around in Rahman’s 90s songs but those songs – and I will return to this in point 2 – were less ambitious with less changes than the type of Raja songs where you might encounter BPM issues (say a Rojavai Thalatum Thendral). Youtuber and long time musician and producer Rick Beato had analysed the amount of BPM variations in a typical John Bonham drum rendition and it was all over the place by modern standards. But that looseness is kind of the point. Needless to say, I miss that in today’s music; a few artists (oddly, women like Fiona Apple and Lianne La Havas among them) are keeping it alive. But there is way too much emphasis today on punching every note with metronomic perfection that ultimately renders the performance robotic IMO. No wonder they overcompensate with vocals that very overtly attempt to sound casual/disarming (like Arijit’s mumbling) rather than the full throttle, wholesome singing of SPB or Yesudas. When it comes to those recordings where a metallic effect seems to have been added to the vocals to mimic the effect of autotune, it’s yuck yucky yuck for me.
Since I mentioned Lianne La Havas, this is a good example of how I like to hear music performed and produced:
2) So…when you say Rahman gets every instrument sound right, this is also a function of him generally making more conservative choices. Rahman tries something that he knows for sure will fit, either because it’s been tried before or because he has had the chance to re-run it over and over in the studio before releasing it. But from my perspective, I WANT to hear the experimentation and I don’t mind things going wrong sometimes in the process IF the experimentation leads to amazing and hitherto inconceivable things. This could also explain why, even though I love to listen to lots of instruments playing, I am not much of a classical (western) fan and am much more interested in jazz. Even though Raja is all staccato, the way he operates (at lightning speed and spur of the moment composition) is more jazz like in philosophy. And it shows. The recordings leave a lot to be desired and sometimes the instrument selection is questionable. But I’d rather have occasion to question it because the composer keeps trying to push the boundaries than have it worked out to perfection such that it doesn’t surprise me.
You used a word disorienting in relation to BPM. I don’t even see disorienting as a ‘bad’ quality in music unless it’s disorienting on account of the music being really bad (Raja’s own Raathiri Neram from Anjali is a prime candidate on this type of disorienting). I kind of want the music to be nasty and kickass, to throw me off a little or even a lot. I will meet its match as a listener…or at least try and fail. Chillout music has its place for sure but it’s not what I want 24/7.
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Anonymous Violin
October 25, 2020
@Naren
I always wondered what it was about Endhan Nenjil that slightly bugged me, but I think you put it into words.
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Ravi K
October 25, 2020
Madan, we must be about the same age. I was even thinking about incorporating “Singaravelan” into my own potential “Readers Write In” piece. I grew up in the US, so I heard “Singaravelan” on a visit in summer ’92. The songs must have been out for a few months. This is one of the more whimsical and dare I say unusual albums of IR’s late 80s/early 90s work.
“Pottu Vaitha Kaadhal” gets repetitive, but initially it’s unique synth beats are catchy. Normally I’m not a huge fan of Kamal’s singing, but here his sustained high pitch singing gives the a unique, otherworldly quality. But I agree about the fall-off of IR’s westernized sounds in this era. In the 80s his funky, western pop kind of songs were pretty damn cool, and hold up better than his attempts from the 90s. I don’t know if he didn’t anything great in that vein after “Agni Natchatram.”
“Sundari Neeyum” works because the beats are so slow and sparse. It’s a gentle percussive bed for the otherwise Carnatic-infused tune, with subtle synth flourishes. The obvious thing to do here would be to go for heavy Carnatic/Malayali instrumentation, but I thought the approach of the Indian element being confined to brief touches of chenda here and there was unexpected and well-executed.
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Madan
October 25, 2020
“I don’t know if he did anything great in that vein after Agni Natchatram” – Oh, lots. Aboorva Sagotharargal itself has Raja Kaiya Vachcha and then Vazhavaikkum which has a monster groove. Thendral Than off Keladi Kanmani – that beat was getting old but this one had brilliant orchestration otherwise. Silence off Pannakaaran is a sleeper hit – has nice modal interchanges and is more interesting than the ‘template’ suggests. I don’t like the beat of Thatom Thalangu so much (it anticipates the noisy 90s beats he would use) but the bass and Fender Rhodes combo is monstrous again.
But overall, did any single album ever rise up to Agni standards again? Nope. Agni was monstrous. Was discussing with friends the other day and we said it might even be the very best he did. It’s close at any rate along side Nizhalgal, Ninaivellam Nithya or Mouna Ragam. Agni has less of a kaleidoscopic range of emotions because of the song situations themselves but every song is a keeper and especially Oru Poongavanam-Thoongatha-Ninnu Korri-Rojapoo. Just imagine a soundtrack where a song as amazing as Vaa Vaa Anbe Anbe gets a tad overshadowed. It was like his Thriller – every song going straight to the greatest hits. He couldn’t top it again probably because such albums happen only once in a lifetime, even for Raja.
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Anonymous Violin
October 25, 2020
@Madan:
I think Raja did eventually get back to the more organic beats of yore (except in even higher quality by the time of Neethane En Ponvasantham and Megha. If I listen to Kaatrai Konjam or Mugilo Megamo it sounds pretty much like actual drums vs drum machines (though I could be wrong about this). And whatever it is, thank God for it. I’m always delighted by it when I listen to these.
Side Note:
I feel like the album Megha gets barely a mention besides Putham Pudhu Kaalai. Mugilo Megamo/Kalvane/Chellam Konjam are beautiful songs.
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Anonymous Violin
October 25, 2020
*as opposed to drum machines
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brangan
October 25, 2020
Raja’s greatest “western” phase was when he was freaking out with bass guitars (not just as counterpoint tunes) and wah pedals. “Paruva kaalangalin kanavu” and “Paattengae rapapa” and all that stuff. There is something so free-flowing and organic about his pre-85 songs.
The “beats” phase is one I don’t care for. He tried to keep creating new beats and percussive patterns (eg. “Endhan nenjil” and “Ada raakozhi koovum naeram” and all) — and they really hinder the melodic flow of the songs. It’s a combination of bad balancing and also intrusiveness, as Madan said.
I have heard many people say that once Raja really turned to spiritualism, his music changed, too. I tend towards this theory — if not spirituality, then something changed internally.
The number of different instruments per interlude came down. (The delightful veena or piano bits, for instance). The “symphonic” tone became dominant.
Of course, even as this “lesse” (IMO) level, there were still so many amazing songs and BG scores. But I would love to know the reason for the transformation.
The post-90s transformation is easier to understand: dwindling budgets meant fewer live players, plus probably the decision to embrace the new-gen synth mood (but without the programmers and technicians that sound needed)…
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Naren
October 25, 2020
Madan, from what I understand from your response u r very much into jazz but ur penchant for experimentation and challenge as a listener suggests u r also into Psychedelic Rock and a little bit of Punk Rock as well. I’m well into all those genres, ergo, I’d love the experimentation and the challenge as well. That’s not where my problem lies. As individual streams they do work well for me but it’s somewhere in Raja’s arrangement and instrumentation that actually annoys me rather than challenge. Kamal’s vocal range and timbre is more operatic and somewhere in the range between contralto and mezzo-soprano. Kokkarako Kozhi required more of a gruffy voice being pushed further. His voice opens up with ease to those vocal ranges and when that is combined with the guitar riffs and an over-emphasized pop-rhythmic percussive base . . . just bugs me. Sometimes his western percussive rhythms remind me of the beats from Goundamani comedy with the tribal ritual in Suriyan. Also, I never understood Raja’s choices of vibrato in many of his songs. I always felt he used it in the most odd places or misplaced genres. His carnatic tones have lesser vibrato than his western ones. Even his rustic ones have vibrato sneaking in every now and then. All of these come off as unintentional. On the other hand take for example “Kadal – Adiye” . . . not conservative but definitely challenging and well constructed. Even “Taj Mahal – Eetchi Elumichi” is a bit out there.
Agni is a good album no doubt but what really caught my attention was the funk track in the background of Disco Shanthi sequence.
LZ’s psychedelic experimentation wasn’t just with Bonham’s percussion but riffs and even the keyboard. So when Bonham’s rhythms seem to b all over the place, it’s well backed by Page’s dinosaur 12-string riffs in the mid ground and Plant’s screechy vocals in the foreground. The interplay is well-timed and spaced out.
Few Examples:-
1.Whole Lotta Love
2.Ten Years Gone
Not just LZ but . . .
3.Deep Purple – Child in Time
4.Iron Butterfly – In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
I don’t need a metronomic “perfection” but I do need it to b “variably” metronomic. None of these songs disorient me but they definitely do have that quality.
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Madan
October 25, 2020
“The symphonic tone became dominant” – Wurd. I call it the ‘Classical Delusion’. It was never his command over arranging an orchestra (which, whilst incredible by Indian standards, was only slightly more than competent by Western standards) that made him unique. It was his sheer audaciousness and eclecticism. The more he toned down that – fun -side of his music, the more dense sounding his music became.
@Anonymous Violin: Oh yeah, that is my next favourite phase after the 80s. The early to mid 2010s. Dhoni sowed the seeds but the film didn’t offer him much width to unleash the live sound in its full splendour which he finally did on NEPV and Megha. And this carried over into the wonderful Abbhayitho Ammayi (Telugu) even without the BSO or recording it abroad. The ‘vintage’ balance was back albeit with more contemporary sounds. I was not aware actually that Megha doesn’t get mentions. On the Raja forums, we loved it, especially Kalvane which would be a masterpiece in any era of Raja.
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vijay
October 25, 2020
MDs tend to evolve. If IR did music the same wayin late 80s, like he did in the late 70’s- which is his “melodic” phase(not that he did’nt compose melodies later on but the emphasis was more here)- then we would not have gotten an Agni Natchathiram. The “sounds” in Agni were so different as compared to what he did just 3-4 years earlier which was again different compared to what he did in say 1979.
Considering how prolific he was, I would say he evolved actually slowly. You need to look at no. of soundtracks and not the number of years. Because 2-3 years seems like a small time-frame now, but in those days it could mean 120-140 soundtracks for IR. Naturally he might get bored ad would want to try something else.
I did not even mind a lot of his songs in the early half of the 90s, even the orchestration part included, because he had a mini-revival of sort with the tunes and on more than one occasion there were stunners like Ennulle ennulle which had the “symphonic” touch but it was all-out great. I think that was just natural evolution for him, esp. considering his symphony attempt in 1993. Siraichaalai, Avathaaram, etc all had this touch with Guru(Malayalam) being the zenith of this style.. Guru was to IR what Delhi-6 is to Rahman. After this he could have hung up his boots and spent more time on Thiruvasagam type efforts. But he chugged along and turned out some of the worst soundtracks of his career with very few exceptions(like Hey Ram).
(BTW, I remember commenting in this space here back in 2009, that Delhi 6 could be Rahman’s swansong considering the range of songs and the freshness/innovation/appeal. 11 years later, I feel I was almost right. Although some soundtracks have come close or have had a couple of astounding songs it has been mostly downhill for him since then )
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vijay
October 25, 2020
Naren, I agree with presentation being off for western type songs in early 90s. The typical IRish tune sometimes did not sit well with the interludes and arrangements where the intent was revealed.Take kurangy kayyil maala from Mumbai express. The arrangement reveal the intent, a foray into Jazz, but the melody is ridiculous and as a stand alone stripped of the interludes it says anything but Jazz. I think Day by Day from Honest Raj(for which somebody here posted the link) came close to a full fledged effort, rest was a bit hotch-potch for me.
I don’t mind Kamal as a singer, as he is not used often which makes his songs a tad fresher, plus he can belt out those high notes like in Pottu vaiththa(this was sort of a mini hit in hostel at that time), but IR’s tryst with male singers, especially the ones he introduced, always spelt disaster. He never had much luck with his new male singers.
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vijay
October 25, 2020
IMO, where IR REALLY lost it compared to his earlier phase was in the rhythm section followed by the tunes. Every second or third song in the 1987-1994 phase, especially for rustic films had the same tabla, which by itself wouldn’t have been a problem, except that the rhythm pattern, were same as well. His tabla players ended up being used as human metronomes with the pattern being established very early in the song and then being left unchanged through the rest of the stanzas. Many popular songs such as enge en jeevane, sorgathin vaasapadi,idhayam oru kovil,mandhira punnagaiyo etc. etc. had this same beaten-to-death SD Burman-era 3/4 tabla beats(or what they call thisra nadai) or the even more common 4/4. Part of the problem was his melodies themselves started getting more structured and was not free flowing. As a result, Rhythm(or nadai) being a function of it, became straitjacketed as well.
Take Adi penne from Mullum malarum, and notice the xylophones, tablas, mirudhangams and the free flowing patterns from start to finish. The tunes in the stanzas themselves feel like as if they were meant to skip and dance rather than march in a straight line and naturally the thaala nadais followed suit. IR had worked with some talented drummers during the late 70s like Noel Grant and so on who also pushed him. I think in the late 80s he got too comfortable with his composing. Occasionally for Mani Ratnam or KB he will push himself and reinvent a template. For others it was all templated stuff most of the time.
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vijay
October 25, 2020
“I have heard many people say that once Raja really turned to spiritualism, his music changed, too”
The more logical explanation is that his interests/styles evolved. Different people relate to different mini-eras of IR based on their own preferences/tastes. For me 1980 was the year that defined him, the year of seminal works. And 1980-1983 is my preferred phase. But I have a lot of favorites from 1976-1979 and 1990-1993 as well.
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Madan
October 25, 2020
“suggests u are also into psychedelic rock and some punk rock as well” – More than psychedelic, I would say progressive rock. And R&B/soul/funk, metal, some blues rock (the greats like SRV or Gary Moore), bunch of hip hop as well. It’s easier to list what I don’t like, which would be plain-reggae as well as country (unless it’s just country/rockabilly guitar like Albert Lee or the incomparable Danny Gatton; it’s the vocal stuff I find terribly boring). I actually find plain punk rock boring as hell, how far can you get anyway with just four chords and barely in tune vocals. It was nice as a resistance movement at best but not a sustainable musical idea. I prefer post-punk, especially Siouxsie and the Banshees who did a nice blend of New Wave and post-punk on the Juju album.
But as for your examples, again, there seems to be a stream of judging his general approach to arrangements by his 90s work alone in your comments (the fact that you only offered a vague opinion about Agni also strengthens this notion for me) and I think it is obvious enough that songs like Kokarrako don’t define his approach in the 80s at all. My problems with Kokarrako are legion but start with the melody itself – it’s really bland and does need a lot of then ‘trendy’ sounding orchestration to mask how banal the song is. Throughout Kalaignan, it felt like Raja trying too hard to keep up with these new youthful sounds that seemed to have caught him unawares. It’s not surprising that the song that worked best – and the one nobody seems to talk about – is the garba-tinged Dilbaru Jaane. This defined a lot of that period for me. Whenever he went back to the vintage sound, he was AOK. But he seemed to realize that going back to the well too often would only make him more and more unfashionably and was trying, admirably, to stay abreast but not very successfully.
Coming to Kadal’s Adiye. You say not conservative and I say tamaato. I think a song written in 2012 that is so slavishly faithful to soul must-haves is nothing if not conservative to the core. Sounds like Maybe Your Baby crossed with Ain’t Nobody But Me to me. And I would much rather have even Rick Davies’ vocals (even Hodgson’s goat bleat for that matter) over Sid’s over earnest delivery on that song.
I could carry on with this but this is a case where we notice the same things but place different values to them so we are not going to see eye to eye. With Rahman too, I love the audaciousness of his work on an album Minsara Kanavu. It’s like his own Agni – dazzling, virtual greatest compilation song after song and so much variety. I can’t help find Adiye very staid in comparison. You could say Taare Ginn is staid too but there is actually some intricate arranging going on there, including some gentle counterpoint on the piano and a beautiful key change that achieves the money note effect without it actually being an archetypal money note at all. I don’t get that on Adiye and couldn’t see even at the time of its release what the fuss was about. But I guess if people want to hear straight up, then it works well for them. I actually heard this again just to see if there was something I missed all these years and I think not, not for my tastes. And the vocal delivery….kolluthu ya, so lothu lothu, no energy at all. This is fucking soul man, stop sounding so precious and commit.
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brangan
October 25, 2020
Madan: It was his sheer audaciousness and eclecticism.
Absolutely. You hear that funky folk-violin burst out of nowhere in the interlude in “Vaanam keezhey’ — it’s such a brilliant fuck-you to the “stateliness” of the rest of the song, like a clown turning cartwheels in the middle of a performance of OTHELLO (and the amazing thing is that it WORKS!!!)
Or that synth-pop beat in the prelude of ‘Sandha kavigal…’ Or the way he builds the interlude with chorus voices in ‘Rasaave unna naan’… Or the way the folksy ‘yelo yelo’ beginnings transform into what sounds like a college rock-competition song in ‘Tholin mele’….
Maybe it’s inhuman to expect any creator to work at this level forever — and as Vijay says, even 2-3 years for Raja is a whole truckload of albums.
Still, given his wildly inventive, funky early phase, I’m surprised that after the mid-80s, he “settled down” with the symphonic form, like a bohemian bachelor become “responsible” after marriage.
Though, needless to say, I love a huge bunch of songs even from his other phases…
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Naren
October 25, 2020
I mostly stuck to the 90s because u titled it as ” . . . 1992″, that’s all and that’s the reason why I didn’t expand on Agni either. I’d love to put his entire résumé under the microscope. I also have this slight nudge that BR is growing weary of my rigmaroles in the comments sections of various posts 😉
Yeah, u put it right, we r noticing same things but placing different values. I wudn’t want it any other way. Weighted perspectives help with my approach.
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Madan
October 25, 2020
“Or the way the folksy ‘yelo yelo’ beginnings transform into what sounds like a college rock-competition song in Tholin Mele” – I think such juxtapositions never completely stopped. You would never guess how Illuthu Pothina is going to develop from the very rustic sounding intro.
I mean, Tamil rural like synth-nadhaswaram going into a reggae beat straight out of a Police album (any one of them, take your pick 😉 ), who thinks up stuff like that? But it was probably almost information overload. Even after audience had had their sumptuous fill, the goodies kept coming. It’s like you can’t have even Diwali sweets without limit. So even when these songs came along, they no longer seemed to get the attention of listeners in quite the same way as before. At least I don’t remember listening to THIS one from the film for a long time. Katuren Katuren was the big hit from Honest Raj. Combine that with the things that seemed to go wrong in the 90s and overall there was a souring of the mood when it came to new Raja soundtracks. Albeit, even as late as 94, I recall Nil Nil Nil being a big hit. So the other issue was simply the drying up of new projects for Raja and this had to do with the number of guys he had done dishoom-dishoom with and the availability of plentiful alternatives as far as delivering hits goes.
All that said, yes, the funk seemed to go cold in the late 80s/90s. Wasted some of the nice grooves he did write. Like this one in Athadi Allikodi. The groove is just brilliant, brilliant. But from the charanam onwards, the song simply falls flat. Don’t know what happened there.
My Dear Marthandan may have been one of the last groove-heavy albums and it was…OK. There was also a creeping filmi-ness in his melodies/choruses at this point. Where Ilayaraja and Anand Milind seemed to blend to alarming proportions. Like that chum-chum chorus in Sattam Varamal, hate that.
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Honest Raj
October 25, 2020
Singaravelan had an entertaining soundtrack. Pandiyan had a perfect one for a star-vehicle. But my favourite IR album of the year is Aavarampoo. The choice of singers (SPB, SJ, KJY, Krishnachander & IR himself) was great. The background score, too, is fabulous.
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Jeeva Pitchaimani
October 25, 2020
@Everyone, whenever Ilayaraja is being discussed, am I the only one who thinks that the ‘Mohan’ phase of his career is being glaringly ignored? Weren’t the Mohan-genre films the only ones where almost all of Raja’s songs were chartbusters and people went to theatres solely to listen to some melodies on screen? The stories of these films were just functional – they just served as placeholders for Raja’s songs and Raja literally revelled in this new-found freedom.
I am not much of a music-analyzer but I often feel that Mohan’s songs are not discussed and dissected as much as Raja’s Kamal-Mani Ratnam associations. Not to mention the fact that Mohan’s entire career was the only one that was built solely on Raja’s prowess and he was the one who had the best strike rate among Tamil Cinema’s stars beating even the likes of Kamal and Rajni (Strike Rate- the most number of blockbusters divided by the total number of films acted). And if you travel in electric trains and move with the lower and lower-middle classes, Mohan’s songs are the ones that are the most popular (next to MGR and slightly overtaking the SA Rajkumar-Sirpi oeuvre).
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brangan
October 25, 2020
Madan: That ‘Iluthu pothina’ synth-driven ‘sound’ is the one Raja sound I cannot stand.
Honest Raj:Oh, that was a marvellous soundtrack. If asked to make an all-time-great album for 1992 for Raja out of all the Tamil songs he composed, it’d be like this 🙂
SIDE A
1 Oru maalai chandiran
2 Naan yerikarai (Yesudas, Swarnalatha version)
3 Oru kanam oru yugamaga
SIDE B
1 Kannamma kaadhalennum kavidhai
2 Saami kitta solli vachu
3 Ennai thottu alli konda
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Madan
October 25, 2020
Jeeva: For sure, Mike Mohan-Raja combo is like just take for granted and listen because there will be goodies along the way. Maybe Paadu Nilave was one of the few that was a little weak otherwise Payanangal, Naan Paadum Paadal, Kunguma Chimizh, Udhaya Geetham, Idhaya Kovil, Mella Thirandhadhu Kadhavu and December Pookal, it’s a long list. Even Ninaikka Therindha Manam has Kannukkum Kannukkum Modhal. I didn’t even include Mouna Ragam and Rettai Vaal Kuruvi yet. It could be that because Mohan has kept a low profile after his reign came to an abrupt end, he lacks people to plug his work. For that matter, Raja had a very prolific association with Karthik as well and who talks about that. It’s like Raja began and ended with Mani Ratnam even though Raja had done 200 films by the time Mani worked with him for the first time.
Since you mentioned local trains, I have noticed something else on those lines. Drivers in Chennai are often, though not always, Raja fans and I remember one in particular who had tracked down many forgotbusters from the 90s and played them. I guess this could be because working class doesn’t think in terms of what is or isn’t fashionable and simply listens to what they like. It seems like in upper middle class in Chennai, camp-ism is very strong so everything you listen to immediately explains a thousand things about where you stand. They have their Jacques Derrida all sorted out even without reading him.
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Madan
October 25, 2020
My favourite 1992 is going to be a lot more ‘mainstream’. Here’s a top 10.
O Butterfly – Meera
Chinna Killi Vantha Killi – Chinna Gounder
Oranga Sriranga – Singaravelan
Chinna Chinna Thooral Enna – Sentamizh Paatu
Kanna Karunguyile – Pandithurai
Valli Valli Enna Vantha – Deiva Vaaku
Naan Erikarai – Chinna Thayee
Thanga Nilavukkul – Rickshaw Mama
Adukku Malli – Avarampoo
All The Time – Nadodi Thendral
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Jeeva Pitchaimani
October 25, 2020
Madan- “I guess this could be because working class doesn’t think in terms of what is or isn’t fashionable and simply listens to what they like”
Another gem of a comment from you. When it comes to music, I think I belong there. When the whole world was swaying to Yuvan in the early 2000s, I was a keen Vidyasagar fan. I still like his work instinctively and when I went back to Arjun films of mid 1990s where I liked a lot of songs, I was astonished to see Vidyasagar’s name there. It is not that I don’t like Rahman/Harris/Yuvan, something in me gravitates to Vidyasagar. This is how most low/middle class people are and you still can easily bet on your dollar on “Nandri Solla unaku Vaarthai Illai enaku” playing somewhere out there. It is this kind of unpretentiousness that everyone who belongs to the upper-middle classes need to possess whose lack only reflects how insecure these people are. The hollowness of their choices come out when you ask, “You like Mani Ratnam’s films, alright. Can you explain why” and they have nothing unique to say other than “Mani is class, acting is superb, cinematography is great”.
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brangan
October 25, 2020
Jeeva Pitchaimani: This is how most low/middle class people are and you still can easily bet on your dollar on “Nandri Solla unaku Vaarthai Illai enaku” playing somewhere out there.
It is this kind of unpretentiousness that everyone who belongs to the upper-middle classes need to possess whose lack only reflects how insecure these people are.
Again:
“everyone who belongs to the upper-middle classes”… Seriously? 🙂
This is an uncharacteristically un-nuanced statement, coming from a writer like you.
I would say it’s not so much about ‘pretentiousness’ as what qualities draw you to a song, and the reason you listen to music, and how you were brought up with music and the music you grew around.
For all of these reasons, I like songs that are “musically interesting” — in the way they use tunes and instruments and especially words.
For these reasons, I find ‘Nandri sollave unakku’ pleasant but generic. I don’t mind it playing once in a while. But it’s musically not very interesting. Similarly, there are many Mohan-Raja songs I love. There are many I don’t care for.
By the same coin, if you say ‘Nandri sollave unakku’ is a great song, should I sneer at your ‘lack of musical taste’? Of course not.
Because what we like comes not from what’s ‘fashionable’ but from how we are wired. And if this song gives you great joy, who can come in the way of that?
I find the logic in your statement baffling. Instead of saying ‘ to each his/her own’, why judge people on the basis of their music/movie preferences?
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Madan
October 25, 2020
BR: I hear what you’re saying but from my cousin’s experiences and how his tastes changed dramatically depending on which school he was now attending, I can safely say there is a lot of campism in Chennai and more so in the upper middle class. I don’t know why that should be but for eg, while he was in Chetinad, it was immensely uncool to listen to Raja but when he shifted to another school which attracted a different crowd, there there were lots of Raja fans. I used to watch this with amusement because somehow I didn’t seem to have had these problems.
I have also encountered this campism online. Yappa, so much categorisation of Raja fans – are you mafia, are you neetral or are you a secret Rahmaniac? Too much thalavali. Uh, it’s not that important.
I apologize for judging Chennai but then, it’s in Chennai, not in Kolkata, not in Delhi, not in Buffalo, not in DC, that I have been judged for where I come from. Once by a momentary lapse of reason I echa-fied the prasadam in Vedanta Desikar temple and a smarty pants uncle who noticed this and (rightly) reprimanded me for it asked me if I was from Mumbai and when I said yes, he said, Adhan, Western culture (um, Westerners don’t eat with her hands but nevermind). I was like, saare ungalluku ivlo vizhiyam Mumbai patti ebdi theriyum.
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Jeeva Pitchaimani
October 25, 2020
@Rangan Sir
I must apologize. I must not have generalized. This is extremely subjective. I wrote it from my own experiences. I have a lot of friends who are ‘judged’ based on whom they like and till college I too have done that. I have looked down on some people whom I consider ‘low-brow’ and I have been meted out that treatment a lot of times till college. But with time some people with more exposure to art have grown up and some have not. And my statement was specific to those in the latter.
Being an upper-middle class guy myself, I think some people (certainly not everyone) in my circle say they like Nolan’s films/Mani films/ARR music only to pass off as those with refined tastes. From how much I have spoken to them and known them, they haven’t proved to me convincingly why they are big fans of these artists. As you say, art is subjective and there are people who might gravitate to these artists for reasons they cannot adequately describe, but I think these people don’t belong to that category. They like these artists to ensure they are considered ‘refined’. And these people have tended to judge me based on my choices. Whenever I talk to them or hear them speaking I get reminded of Woody Allen in Annie Hall who while standing in a queue is forced to listen to a guy who bashes Allen’s favourites like Fellini and McLuhan. Allen gets incensed and finally pulls McLuhan into the scene breaking the fourth wall and asks that guy to talk to McLuhan.
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Rahini David
October 25, 2020
GWaugh: Very articulate people don’t understand how very difficult it is to … well …articulate.
Liking maniratnam and being unable to explain why is not proof of pretentiousness. It is much simpler and straight forward than that. They don’t know to explain why.
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Madan
October 25, 2020
“Liking maniratnam and being unable to explain why is not proof of pretentiousness” – Sure but if you ARE going to snob over someone because you like Mani, THEN you better be able to explain what is so great about him.
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Anonymous Violin
October 25, 2020
@Madan:
An interesting fact:
Back when my dad was going to those IR-Gangai Amaran concerts in the early 90s, he ended up going to an, in retrospect, very special one. That day, IR said he just finished composing a song prior to the concert and decided to unveil it to the audience.
That song was Pudhu Cheri Katcheri from Singaravelan.
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Madan
October 26, 2020
Anonymous Violin: Wow, thanks for sharing, had no idea IR even did these sort of reveals.
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Enigma
October 26, 2020
@Madan, I am glad that you chose to write about ‘Singaravelan’ – such an underrated album. I used to love ‘Puducheri Kutcheri’ back then. In relation to your top ten, I am surprised that ‘Inji Iduppu azhaga’ or any other number from the album ‘Thevar Magan’ is not there. Of course, this is your top ten, your choice. But I think Thevar Magan was Raja’s biggest hit that year.
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Madan
October 26, 2020
Enigma: Thanks. Re Thevar Magan, yeah, somehow I didn’t really get into that album. I will join the others in saying I am not a huge fan of Kamal singing. It’s ok once in a while but this was a period, again, where it was getting rather more frequent – Raja Kaiya Vachcha/Sundari Neeyum/Kanmani Anbodu/Sonnapadi Kellu & Pottu Vaitha/Kokarakko. It had come to the point where Kamal singing at least one song in his films (at least the ones scored by Raja) seemed to have become mandatory. And I don’t want to hear Kamal THAT often at the mic, once in a while is ok. If I did somewhat like a song off that album, it was Santhu Pottu.
In fact, looking at the films Raja and Kamal worked on after Thevar Magan/Kalaignan, it does seem like he was singing at least one song every time. Ramaranalum on Hey Ram, three songs on Virumaandi, Kurangu Kaiyil on Mumbai Xpress. Of course, to echo what vijay said, maybe it was better for Raja to work with Kamal than give it to totally the wrong male singer and make the song unsahikable.
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Shankar
October 27, 2020
“Of course, even as this “lesse” (IMO) level, there were still so many amazing songs and BG scores. But I would love to know the reason for the transformation.”
BR, there is a way to know this….ask him! (Hint, hint) 🙂
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KayKay
October 28, 2020
Madan, as always your musings on music is mellifluous!
Singara Velan holds some special memories for me. It was the last Raja album I purchased on cassette as I left for further studies to Australia where Tamil audio cassettes were a little harder to come by and the Indian convenience stores that did stock Indian music did it via CDs which were a little out of the price range of an undergraduate student who was holding down 2 part time jobs to pay for his living expenses.
There was one shop in the main bus terminal in KL selling Tamil soundtracks. At that point my cousin and I, rabid Raja fans pretty much bought as many of his albums as possible and with a Kamal and Rajini film, made it a point to purchase the soundtrack and listen to it as many times as possible before watching the movie.
“Sonnapadi Kelu” was blasting out from the shop’s speakers and we walked it and blind-bought the album (which was the norm for any Raja album composed for a Kamal or Rajini film) .
I won’t say it’s my all time fav Kamal-Raja album but it’s an immensely enjoyable one. The tracks that work, work wonderfully. Sonnapadi Kelu is fun and the dreamy “Innum Ennai Enna Seyya Pogirai” is such a delight with SPB in full on sensual mode (is it any wonder the prelude to the song is Khushboo dry humping Kamal atop a stretcher?). But the absolute scorcher is “Pudhu Cheri Katcheri”. Everything great about the legendary SPB is contained within this exuberant delight. The “Bum Chikku Bum Chikku” start, the Pallavi where the Great Man exudes the warmth of a genial uncle playing with kids to the Charanam where he morphs into the Wise Father dispensing wisdom. He’s playful yet solemn, happy yet reflective. Seriously, for a happy number, it brings a lump to my throat when I listen to it now.
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KayKay
October 28, 2020
“I will join the others in saying I am not a huge fan of Kamal singing.”
I second that! There are some like Sundari Neeyum where he just belts it out of the park and owns it, others a little jarring in a soundtrack where SPB (still THE singing voice for Kamal as far as I’m concerned) also renders numbers. Can’t they keep it consistent? Imagine if post-interval, the voice dubbing for an actor changed to someone who sounded completely different!
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KayKay
October 28, 2020
Jeeva, in principle I agree with you. I listen to music purely for pleasure so if a gorgeous melody gets it’s hooks into me, that’s sufficient. I haven’t built up sufficient knowledge or one could say exposure to myriad styles of music to dissect an “experimental” or interesting piece purely for the fun of breaking down it’s components to see how they fit.
But I am puzzled by this statement:
“I think some people (certainly not everyone) in my circle say they like Nolan’s films/Mani films/ARR music only to pass off as those with refined tastes”
These are odd choices to flash as your calling card into some “elite” club of connoisseurs. Because speaking from my particular circle of friends (and there are some oddballs in the lot) someone who watches and loves Nolan movies is considered very mainstream. Sure, there’s the inevitable joke prior to a new Nolan along the lines of “How many times do I need to see it to get it” but he is an A-List blockbuster film-maker who makes tentpoles catering to the widest possible audience. To qualify as someone with “refined” taste you’d need to be one of my friends who claims Wes Anderson is a “truer auteur voice than Tarantino (sic) and The Life Aquatic Of Steve Zissou and The Darjeeling Limited are underrated masterpieces”
Ditto ARR. Sure there are “experimental” tracks but this is a composer operating at the zenith of mainstream appeal.
To truly get eyeballs rolling, you need to say you wish Mickey J Meyer composed in Tamil or lament that Phillip Jerry never gave another banger album like Thotta Chinungi 🙂
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Madan
October 28, 2020
KayKay: Yup, I would compare Pudhucheri Kacheri to the even more underrated Iniya Gaanam or the eternal favourite Ilamai Idho Idho as songs that offer a veritable greatest-hits of SPB. A very wide portion of his repertoire is covered just in these songs by themselves.
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Honest Raj
October 29, 2020
“Izhuthu Pothina” sounds somewhat similar to “Katti Pudikkattuma” (perhaps, I shouldn’t complain given the “gilmaish” nature of the whole soundtrack). I saw the film recently on TV and discovered “Vaanil Vidivelli”, which is a bit of an outlier in the album.
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Madan
October 29, 2020
Vaanil Vidivelli is like Enthan Vaazhkayin from Chinna Kannamma. Feels like it belongs in a different film. Another example is Sinthiya Venmani from Poonthota Kavalkaran which has the 90s Raja like En Uyire Vaa and Paramal Partha Nenjam.
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Madan
October 29, 2020
Tribe, what are your thoughts on this song? I think this is about as far as I can go with Raja’s music as far as drum machines go.
Since the pattern is not very busy-sounding, the thrust remains on the chords which is how I, for one, prefer it to be. In the 90s, the drums getting busy also drowned out whatever was going on on bass or keyboards. And it’s just tough for a listener in general to concentrate on all three moving parts at the same time – it can be melody and harmony or melody and rhythm but melody, harmony, rhythm all at the same time becomes confusing. Jazz drumming tends to be minimalist, relative to the music, so that you can hear what the instruments are playing.
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(Original) venkatesh
October 31, 2020
Folks,
I learn so much from these threads. I can barely distinguish between charanam and whatever else follows it , however what I get is a great list of songs and thats enough for me 🙂
Thank you.
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Anonymous Violin
October 31, 2020
@Madan: I’d agree that any more rhythm, and it’d mess up the song (which is already quite rhythmic and accented in its lyrics)
I don’t know if anyone else feels this way, but I think Jagada Jagada could’ve been used as a better version of the Vikram title track. That song has similar percussion too
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Madan
October 31, 2020
Anonymous Violin: Perfect comparison. The drum sound is the same. I don’t know that I agree that it would have been a better version of Vikram. Vikram sounds a little dated today because of the bad rap many 80s music sounds get but at that time, it was a pretty cutting edge adaptation of Kraftwerk crossed with early rap (again, a cutting edge choice). I agree in another sense though that this was a case of Raja initiating an experiment in ’86 and perfecting the sound by ’89 (Jagada Jagada). He did that often.
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Madan
October 31, 2020
Vikram is like Kraftwerk while Jagada Jagada cuts out the voice box electronic effects and sounds more like Michael Jackson’s Baby Be Mine.
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sai16vicky
November 2, 2020
Speaking of Raja’s 90s soundtracks, I am surprised Veetla Visheshanga doesn’t get a mention. Be it the instrumental version of ‘Malare thendral’ that begins the movie (like an overture) or the stunning string interludes in ‘Konjam Sangeetham’, the old tiger Raja showed that while legacy composers may have only few teeth left, the ones that remain are very very sharp!
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Madan
November 2, 2020
sai16vicky: More than those songs, the one I love and which reminds me of tiger Raja is Yae Jinda Jinnukuthan. Brilliantly sung too by the late Swarnalatha.
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Anonymous Violin
November 3, 2020
Does anyone know if Raja’s introduction happened with as much chatter and excitement as Rahman with Roja? I wasn’t even around during Rahman’s intro, let alone Raja’s, and I’ve been kinda curious about this.
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Madan
November 3, 2020
Anonymous Violin: Asked my mother about this since she was a Chennaiite in the 1970s and through to the mid 80s.
According to her, you didn’t have the media machinery of the 90s to create a buzz and hype about the music. But tea stalls all around apparently played the title track of Annakilli and also Machana Paatingala all the time. Annakilli also became a favourite at wedding ceremonies and other functions. She said they heard these songs more often through such sources than on their own radio sets (that is, they didn’t have to look for them on the radio).
She also wondered if maybe the appeal of Annakilli was broader because of its rural settings where Roja was more suited to a young and urban audience’s taste. There is something to that though this is set off by the pan India appeal of the Hindi version of Roja songs.
Interestingly, my cousins living in the US, who barely understand any Hindi or Tamil, prefer the Tamil versions of the Roja tracks. I think even they can make out that the meter fitment doesn’t work out completely from Tamil to Hindi or that the gamakam infused phrases sound a little odd in Hindi (IF you are previously exposed to the Tamil version).
For my part (since I didn’t talk about why Roja passed me by in 1992), those songs weren’t particularly on the radar of either my parents or my Tamil friends in Kalyan outside Mumbai. Actually, the Roja Hindi versions seemed to catch on with a lag. By 94, you couldn’t host I-Day or Annual Day functions without Bharat Humko Jaan Se Pyaara Hai. But that didn’t happen in 92. Mid 93 when songs like Chikku Bukku Rayile caught on is when the Rahman mania really began for me. The Prabhudeva choreography made all the Rahman-Prabhudeva combos a craze whether it was that Gentleman track or the entire Kadhalan or Romeo soundtracks.
But that also brings me to another forgot-buster of that period – Raasaiya. Especially Mastana Mastana. Nobody would believe you today if you said Mastana was a big hit but it was and more so for the choreography than the song which was alright (maybe would have been better without Bhavatha singing it). That lying down with legs folded and dancing step of Prabhudeva was insane and all of us wanted to imitate it. That was the only thing that mattered. I think from our perspective, it was with Bombay and Duet that we started to regard Rahman as a separate other composer (apart from the man who composed these fun Prabhudeva songs). I guess the adults would have appreciated Karuthamma songs but it was not for us.
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Tambi Dude
November 3, 2020
“But tea stalls all around apparently played the title track of Annakilli and also Machana Paatingala all the time.”
Can confirm this as a notary officer based on my summer holiday in Chennai in 1976.
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Anonymous Violin
November 3, 2020
@Madan:
Thanks so much for the info. It’s amazing how some works just enter the public consciousness so quickly, even without much hype.
And I can definitely relate to the thing about Prabhu Deva making his songs popular. As kids, I guess we all just want to hear some upbeat/dance numbers.
Apparently as a toddler, I pestered my dad to play Ela Machi (Anbe Sivam) all the time.
I wonder sometimes if I missed another Tamil music revolution (occurring every 20 years or so by my calculation) in the early 2010s. It seems so interesting to live through defining moments like that. Guess we’ll find out if Anirudh/Santhosh Narayanan/Ghibran make the cut.
And I suppose about the Vikram title track, I could give it some slack for sounding dated now. At least if not anything else, you can definitely say it’s a fun track, with Raja applying gimmicky synths and effects.
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vijay
November 3, 2020
what set apart Raja’s early 90s songs even from his late 80s songs were the tunes, especially for a lot of rural subjects. They were fresh and flowing even if the singers and tabla occasionally let the song down. You can sense when a composer is in form not by what he delivered for the top-tier films/actors, but by what he did for those second-tier films/actors. When IR was in good form like he was in the early 90s, even those middling films which nobody remembers now often got really good tunes. Imagine a song like vanna chindu vandhu vilayaadum from Kovil kaalai being rendered by SPB and Chitra/swarnalatha instead of the chosen singers. It would have been an instant classic, atleast for me. Mano brings it down a few notches all by himself. Same with the delectable maargazhi maasam from Vietnam Colony, even though I still like the song because of Swarnalatha who was the best thing to happen to TFM in the early 90s. But when he got the singers right, like in naan yerikarai melirundhu or saami kitta solli vechcu the results were different. S Janaki should have been retired around this time. But then just like how MSV clung on to LRE, IR did the same here.
Talking of Devar magan, Potri paadadi ponne, with the male trio singing all through is an all time favourite. Rustic flavor in all its glory. I think because of how it was picturized it is bound to be a youtube favorite for a long time as well. The first interlude, even if you had not seen the song, the image that comes to mind is that of cows and greenery. This ability to evoke visual imagery was what slowly lost in IR’s songs over time. The mood-setting preludes(like in kaadhalenum kovil or uravenum pudhiya vaanil from the quintessential IR era), the wild detours that he often undertook in the 2nd BGMs of a song, these are the things that you missed. I am not a big fan of IR singing all those sentimental/amma songs which he overdid in the late 80s/early 90s. But an exception was Chinna Jameen’s “naan yaaru enakke theriyalaiye”, with a solitary fiddle adding a lot of poignancy to the song. The other song from this film “oru mandhaara poo” became a bit more popular I guess.
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Madan
November 5, 2020
vijay: Regarding IR’s rural juggernaut in the 90s, yes, I do agree that the quality over those few years starting with Karagatakaran coming up to even 94 or so was exceptional. Any idea what propelled this sudden juggernaut? Just lots of producers deciding that rural films with Raja soundtracks would be successful? You could make a long, long list just of the well known films (and I confess I must have missed some of the also rans because that’s always a problem with the volume of music Raja generated):
Ramarajan – Enga Ooru Paatukaaran, Karagatakaaran, Pongi Varum Kaveri, Ooru Vittu Ooru Vandhu
Karthik – Kizhakku Vaasal, Paandi Naatu Thangam, Periya Veetu Pannaikaaran, Deiva Vaaku, Chinna Zameen, Varusham 16
Prabhu – Chinna Thambi, Chinnavar, Paandithurai, Sentamizh Paatu
Vijaykanth – Chinna Gounder
Rajkiran – En Rasavin Manasule, Aranmanai Killi, Ellame En Raasa Than
And this excludes a film like Chinna Thayee.
You could make up a list of 100 good-to-great songs just from these films.
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Madan
November 11, 2020
Meant to ask this here and then forgot because I have been really tied up and then there was the US election and Scam 1992 eating up my free time.
Favourite Raja album of the 90s? Mine, however much I try to tell myself that it feels like an odd choice, is Paatu Paadava. The ambition of that album, especially Iniya Gaanam, Poongatrile, Nil Nil Nil is incredible. And SPB is in top form with Iniya, Vazhi Vidu, Chinna Kanmanikulle all being straight up his alley. There aren’t many songs better than Iniya Gaanam to showcase his versatility.
If I compare this to some of the other top albums of his of that period, I can do without Ellorukkum Sollum Paatu in Marubadiyum, Yamuna Aatrile/Putham Puthu Poo (good song but somewhat strained vocals esp Janaki) in Dhalapathi, Nee Yenge Naan Yenge in Chinna Thambi, Konji Konji in Veera.
MMKR holds up well in comparison to Paatu Paadava and many would probably be inclined to go with it for sheer box office draw quality. With Paatu Paadava, you have to take in a song like Poongatrile a few times before you start to comprehend it while MMKR is just instantly catchy like a true vintage Raja hit soundtrack.
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