IR New Albums - Old responses (5 Aug 2006)

Hi Guys,

I attended this function yesterday.

It was a facilitation to V-R and hence IR gifted golden rings to the duo.

IR was little emotional in his speech and said "what ever I have achieved is only by picchai from V-R. He also repeated and included ARR (who has been internationaly acclaimed ) that what we achieved is only by Picchai & Echil of music given by the DUO.

At the fag end of the function ARR was given the mike and he confirmed IR's Statement that V-R are dictionaries and IR drew a line from them, out of which he could draw a small line .

Any how it was indeed a very great gathering of Musical starwars Viz., V-R, TMS., PBS., P.Susheela, SPB,IR, Dakshinamurthy swami, DR.Bala Murali Shyam, etc.

jagannn

I envy you. I am stuck in USA. I am begging my wife to allow me to go to TIS release as well, but you know how it works once you get married. At times I feel like coming back to Chennai, atleast for attending these. Hmm...

"Ok, let's put it this way. Has there been a better female chorus than "Kili thattu" (AOKK), a better male solo than "Kattu vazhi"(AOKK), or a better light classical than "Katril Varum" (ONOK) in the last many months? In Malayalam, have there been better back-to-back duets than "Shwaasathin thaalam" and "Oru chiri kandaal" or a better female solo than Chitra's "Enthu paranjalum"? I can't think of any in a LONG distance."


Suresh, the last few months have been marked by Rahman's absence and the other MDs arent in the same class as him. I wouldnt compare IR's recent songs with that of YSR or Dhina and feel better about it. For one, I know what he is capable of and judge his songs against his own standards that he set. If the competition is inferior, then it is easy to create a song or two that is better than your rival, especially in this era where melodies are'nt the order of the day. That by itself, doesnt make the song great.

Secondly, IR's songs like Kaatu vazhi belong to a different era/genre and cannot be compared easily with current chart-toppers like say songs of arindhum ariyaamalum that have been composed with the youngsters in mind and belong to a different genre(pop/hiphop etc.) and have been composed with a different set of requirements. Thats why I compare IR's songs to his own recent best from MFM where his quality has been higher. But still,in 2003/04 I can list a lot of solos/duets that were as good if not better than IR's best numbers, even from MDs other than ARR.

Also,even taking into account the songs you mentioned we get just about 1 good(but not great) song/album on an average from IR these days, like a teaser. But eventually as an album, they disappoint(and dont come anywhere close to say a Kochu kochu santhoshangaL or yaathramozhi, leave alone Guru) . Kaatril varum geethame is a good light classical but didnt blow me away.Same with Kaatu vazhi. Before I could start fully appreciating the song, it ended. It had some promising interludes which were'nt fully developed. To answer your question, ONOK might have that 1 song that is good and has glimpses of brilliance, but as an album overall, I wouldnt place it higher than Anniyan. Not enough variety in ONOK. Almost 3 or 4 songs sung by Sonu/HH all have the same intruments(predominantly synth), seem to belong to the same style/genre, giving a feeling of repetition while listening. And that ponnu pudichirukku song is forgattble, we have heard too many songs in TFM in that genre with the same dappanguthu rhythm thanks to the likes of VS/Dhina etc.
Interestingly the 3 songs that you have listed as examples, kaatuvazhi/poo pothadhu/kaatril varum geethame/kiLithattu all have more usage of natural instruments and less synth. So it seems like although we disagree, our expectations of IR are more or less the same.

vj I agree with u - but how abt Khajuraho song..its really good..I also think the kaatril varum geetham sung by IR is far ahead then sung by all the others (pavatharani and co)..just eagerly waiting for our thalai the great ARR to be back...

http://thatstamil.indiainfo.com/spec...w/orunaal.html review for ONOK

Jagann, Shyam means old Mal MD Shyam? (a Sporadic Genius, but a genius indeed.)

Why doesn't G.varajan show up for these functions, He lives in Madras only>

--Digression---
Arjuna

"Kandu kandu" is such a mundane number, and Deepak Dev and Jassie in my opinion are just as good as Dhina and Srikanth Deva. Ok, marginally better. I had high expectations from M Jayachandran, given his consummate performance in Kairali's "Raagotsavam", but he seems to be struggling to strike a balance between the demands of classisicm and commerce. I consider only "Mizhirandilum" and "Vadakkumnathan" as good quality in the recent past, and that too perhaps influenced in part by my fondness for the late Raveendran. To answer your specific query, I do listen to a lot of MFM, Malayalam being my mother tongue. To say the quality of films and music there has plummeted is an understatement IMO.

---end digression, apologies ------

Vijay

You're right on that one - our expectations from IR are indeed the same. But, where I have reconciled to a certain 'minimum guarantee' output, you seem to have not. That explains why I like 4 songs in ONOK and 3 in AOKK, and indeed why I think that "Kaatril varum" is a great one :) C'mon mate, if Bhavatharini can sound this sweet, you must credit the father for some magic?

Comparing his output in MFM to TFM would not be fair or relevant given the variance in contexts and the marked difference in aesthetic sensibilities between the two.

Rahman's absence - absolutely a significant factor. If you take him out of the picture, an IR performing at 25% creativity and intensity is more than a match for the rest. Yet, even at his 'below par' level, 2005 has been a good year for an avid IR listener like me.

On a diff. note - I know you think YSR wouldn't know melody even if it were to slap him on his face, but when you've the time, listen to "Saami kitta" (Dass) and let me know what you think.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by vijayr

... ONOK might have that 1 song that is good and has glimpses of brilliance, but as an album overall, I wouldnt place it higher than Anniyan. Not enough variety in ONOK. Almost 3 or 4 songs sung by Sonu/HH all have the same intruments(predominantly synth), seem to belong to the same style/genre, giving a feeling of repetition

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That was preposterous :(
If 'Anniyan is better than ONOK' is what your musical taste tells then... GOD help you.
Regarding Variety. Is it the requisite of a Film director or Music director to decide upon that?? If shankar needs a dappankuthu, two classical based nos. and two poppish nos. there is HJ to provide it. And If Fazil needs the mood of the to be carried over in the same manner IR gives songs belonging to same style/genre. and if BM decides to have one scintillating no. one pathos one dappanguthu and two melodies IR delivers it in AOKK. You cant blame it on a MD that a movie doesnt have a variety of songs. Its with the Director to decide what he needs.

"But, where I have reconciled to a certain 'minimum guarantee' output, you seem to have not."

Maybe, I am just being greedy :-) Its just that I feel that when a guy still has creative juices to attempt something like TIS at 60+ years of age he can probably do a little bit better in TFM. He can probably throw a sprinkling of some of the natural instruments he has used in TIS, in TFM songs.
And since he is doing 5 films/year like Rahman these days, expectations are a tad higher.
If his synth-based songs arent finding a market commercially, chances are that his songs laden with natural instruments would'nt do all that worse. Atleast the regular IR fan will be pleased and buy the cassette.
Sometimes I doubt whether that whole orchestra that IR had with him in the 80s has been disbanded and everyone has gone their way :-( The trend-conscious industry doesnt allow an artiste to be himself. Its a shame.

Really looking forward to TIS - collector's edition. Hope its success revives the era of orchestration in TFM.

(Havent listened to Daas- "ninaithu ninaithu paarthen" from 7GRC seemed to be the song of choice on TV sometime back for YSR's melodies)

rajasaranam, not just variety, even in terms of interludes they were'nt all that creative/appealing and a few others too have mentioned only 1 or 2 songs as good from the entire ONOK album and have complained about the plastic interludes in general. IR's interludes earlier used to be hummable and were mini-songs by themselves. These days the interludes dont stay in mind and have to be listened to several times(like Rahman songs) Compare this with say, Varusham 16. No formula situations there like in Anniyan, yet the songs have variety and sparkle with creativity.