The Golden Era of Dr.IR and Dr.SPB

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#51 மடை திறந்து தாவும் நதியலை நான்
மனம் திறந்து கூவும் சிறு குயில் நான்
(நிழல்கள், 1980 , கவிஞர் வாலி எழுதியது )

Kavingar Vali is known for his lavish praises on others. This often gets reflected in his movie songs as well. His eulogizing of MGR is legendary in TN. Here he got an opportunity to shower praises on Raja and IR's friend BR went one step ahead - showed the man himself on screen! Perhaps the only occasion where IR's screen appearance had the pinnaNi voice of another individual - ofcourse the thuLLal Balu! One of the songs where IR poured all his youthful energy and SPB excelled in bringing the exact emotions - at times showing exclamation and even sarcasm (rasikarkaL rAjjhiyam had his inimitable iLakkAra sirippu).

The song situation (some aspiring youngster, struggling, gets a chance to compose a song for film producer) should have been a motivation for Raja to come up with such wonderful interludes, knowing that he is writing his personal biography! Every time I hear the strings in the second interlude, it's mei silirppu and the chorus humming after that is AkAyaththil paRappu! I pity BR & Chandrasekar - it was almost forewritten that they can't do justice on screen to such a grand composition! I'd have been shocked had they matched it on screen even 50%. I consider these interludes as certainly beyond picturization!

These are to be felt closing one's eyes!

The AIR time this song had was relatively less compared to the other two biggies from the same movie. However, whenever it was on radio, I felt like jumping and running around - what a feeling (that's what Chandrasekar does on screen BTW)! The guitar that goes along the 'pa-pa-pa-pAppA' of first interlude used to make all the veins getting pumped up!

This came around the time when Trichy AIR intro'd the 1-2 PM "new songs transmission" on Sundays (in addition to their morning film song time of about 40 minutes - i.e. after the AkAshvANi Hindi & English news - each for 10 min starting at 8 AM). I used to get tense if there was anything else coming up between 1 & 2 on Sundays - especially the powercuts in the village (still the valve radio at home). Ofcourse, AIR used to often irritate me by excluding my favourites but that didn't curb the enthu / feverish anticipation for that 1PM program! Obviously IOKS did a lot better with nizhalgaL songs

By now, it was very common to discuss each second & sound of IR songs - every bass guitar note, each cymbal crash was a big point of discussion! This cassette was a regular at the local tea stall too - but I could never have enough of the songs - not even now as these often go on repeat mode!

nizhalgaL - undoubtedly among the top few from IR!

[KV]

Ah! Nizhalgal! This surely is bound to throw open the flood gates... ini isai pEralai dhaan! Tsunami la summinga poda ellarum readya irunga pa!
LAUAE! (gotta rush now, more later)

[Nerd]

As mentioned earlier, a bigger hit with general public than uRavenum. There was this legend that the tap-tap-tap sound was generated by hand-tapping-on-the-thigh (and not a musical instrument), don't know whether true, but there was strong blah-blah and belief among classmates about this. I don't know whether some mag talked about it or not but I've never read anywhere myself.

Oh, its all over the internet. Just do a search for 'paruvame thigh'. I have seen SPB saying it in some TV show (Klgr TV vaanampaadi?) and have read this many times in the internet.

my most fav is that first line of saraNam ("பூந்தோட்டத்தில் ஹோய் காதல் கண்ணம்மா" / "தேனாடும் முல்லை நெஞ்சில் என்னமோ").

+1.

Madai thiRanthu is not a TV/FM favorite as well. And thanks to yogi b, this song became extremely popular among non-IR fans, even a LOT of non-thamizhs. And every one of them (the ones I know) loved the original more.

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There are some more interesting things (The rAsA on screen is pretty well-known):
1. Prior to the start of the track, there's a harmonium + singing on screen and the voice is IR's
2. The drummer, flautist & the guitarist - were they part of IR's team of the time by any chance? (I love the drums sounds in this song BTW)
3. Is that 'kuyil' IR's? Someone can clarify...

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The Yogi B / Natchatra rap version that Nerd talked about (most of us would have checked this out at one point of time or other):

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Interestingly the audience includes celebrities - SPB (not showing any feelings) & Prabhu / Kushboo- serious...only the actress Sangeetha (pithAmagan) seems to have a taste for the rap...

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[venkkiram]

Very nice... may be we can create a seperate thread in TFM section and try to collect all these treasures.

[V_S]

KV, I have always amazed by your comments. That bonnet and dicki comment

BTW that was a horrible remix of madai thiranthu. Totally spoiled my mood Apart from the rap part what different they did in the song to be called a remix. If you ask me one single thing which you hate the most in the world, it is undoubtedly the 'RAP'. Reminds me of Vaanam second line of first song sung by Simbu. That is what I would do if I see Yogi B.

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Some strange associations occur in one's mind between certain things and TFM. For example, like I posted earlier in one of the hub threads, whenever I had a disturbed (or inadequate) sleep, at the time of pal thEyppu the next morning invariably the song 'chellakkiLikaLAm paLLiyilE' gets played in the mind.

Same way, quite often when madai thiRandhu is played, my mind brings back images of Kapil dev thoroughly thrashing Richard Hadlee in the semis of WCC down under Despite the Kapil knock occuring a few years later than this song - may be at the time of our celebration in the hostel this song got played or simply the adi-dhadi of first interlude brings to mind the cracking shots of Kapil - some strange but sweet-memories-relationship