Raja's Gems - the latest one you heard...Part 3

[Sureshs65]

I probably am not as harsh on Mano as others. I like some of his songs and don't like some renditions. (As an aside and answer to Venki: You can blame Raja for bad selection but if Mano sings badly, you can only blame Mano for that rendition ) Anyway, my feeling is that Mano got more brickbats because his voice resembles SPB and hence the constant comparison.

Contrast this to Arunmozhi's singing. I have been hearing quite a few which he has sung and his voice lacks any sort of emotion. app_eng once said that Bhava was like a karoke singer. I feel the same with Arunmozhi. He delivers what is given to him from the notes perspective but I find the emotion lacking. This is accentuated when he sings duets. Against the likes of Janaki, Swarnalatha and even Minmini, Arunmozhi's lack of emotion is clearly seen. Yet he escapes any criticism from most of Raja fans, who reserve their choicest words for Mano.

Given a choice I would anyday pick Mano over someone like Arunmozhi.

[raagas]

I agree with Suresh. Mano, i feel, is actually not a bad singer. Yes, he is unlucky in the sense that his voice resembles SPB but he cant complain because he started out as a track singer for SPB (from what I heard). But otherwise, I usually feel that his renditions are good enough, (some exceptions like Geetanjali in tamil). But that could be because of bad selection. I mean, it is understandable that they tried Mano's voice but when the output is visibly bad, why retain it.
I somehow never liked Arun Mozhi's voice. I always felt that his voice is some incomplete version of a typical Jayachandran/madhu balakrishnan's voice. Cant point out exactly what is lacking but something definitely is.

[app_engine]

Given a choice I would anyday pick Mano over someone like Arunmozhi.

Definitely!

I'm not an expert to pick on incorrect notes / quality of voice / timbre / pitch control / breath control and such pure musical-technical aspects but can decently evaluate on pronunciation / language & emotions as any TN layman can do.

Going by my bias :
AM - almost all the instrumental music coming from IR's troop have better emotions than his singing
Mano - "praying" is the only emotion he can nail correctly and it may also work at times for love, longing, thAlAttu etc but often a misfit creating irritability
SPB - AhA, let me not do this nonsense of including him in the same post that discusses the likes of AM / Mano

[AravindMano]

AM - almost all the instrumental music coming from IR's troop have better emotions than his singing

Ha ha ha! [Sigh, can't just put a smiley ]

[KV]

Listening to ‘Unna nenachu urugum’ from Rasiah currently. I’m a sucker for this beauty of a melody. The lady’s singing is so fluid, her voice just beautifully glides into every space, twist and turn the tune takes. Mano, going by his standard, does a not-bad job. But the poor guy, however hard he tries, the emotional dynamics just don’t come out right in his voice. He should actually be called Mono. Every time he sings the lower notes in the song, his voice has just one tone/expression/sound… like that of a plain bass guitar note 'dharrrrrrr'

[Sureshs65]

app,

The irony is that one of the instruments which portrayed myriad emotions in Raja's music, the flute, is actually played by Arunmozhi (aka Napolean) !!!!

Listen to this lovely song from "Dharmaseelan'. Arunmozhi and Minmini. What a gentle and lovely song. As raagas says Arunmozhi is like a poor man's Jeyachandran. Minimini does a nice job in this song while Arunmozhi's rendition lacks emotion. The song would have gained a lot had Jeyachandran sung it.

[Plum]

Reg arunmozhi, his voice is the right fit for the likes of unnai kaanaamal naan edhu
Otherwise, he is quite ordinary.
But I like his version of nenje gurunadharin to the more accomplished mg sreekumar'sa. Again because his voice suits the emotion.
He doesn't get criticised as much because he chewed a lot less than mano did.

[app_engine]

'idhu oru nilAkkAlam' on repeat in the car.

I think no other song will be needed for some more days

[AravindMano]

mAnin iru kangaL koNda mAnE mAnE - mAppiLLai

Such joy oozes out from this song. Second interlude is very imaginative, as usual. 80's masala potboilers owe so much to Raja!

[Sureshs65]

Plum,

Agree with you on the 'nenje gurunadharin' song. I was surprised to note that Arunmozhi has actually sung lot more songs than I thought he had !!!

To be kind to Arunmozhi, here is a lovely song, where he plays the flute beautifully (I am guessing it is him. For he is Raja's aasthana flautist.) The voice echoes the flute wonderfully.

http://www.thiraipaadal.com/tpplayer...7'&lang=en