Maestro Ilaiyaraja New Albums 2011 - Hello Jaihind / Sri Rama Rajyam

[Sureshs65]

While I do love his 80s songs as any other Raja fan, I can confidently say that I will give away a few of the top 80s song for a couple of songs in 'Thandavakone'.

I am amazed by 'neeraal udal kazhuvi'. When I first heard it, it did not sound like a Raja song. The orchestration was so very different, seemingly random that I was wondering where was the 'Raja touch'. I listened to it multiple times and slowly the reassuring hand of Raja emerged in the song. While the orchestration at one level seems random, it very tightly controlled and the whole orchestration creates a different mood altogether. Then the reciting of the poem itself. There you can clearly see Raja's hold. The way he has structured the tune, not letting any emotion go overboard, the way a tight leash is kept on the singer, the way he touches Punnaagavarali but never gets fully into the carnatic mode. Fantastic Raja.

People may wonder as to why I am so enamored with this song. I see this as something new and also something very difficult to achieve. The merger of say violins and flute for this would have been natural. But to come out with a new age synth based orchestration is quite challenging. I mean, for many such poems I have heard other music directors use synth based backing, but someone I never felt they gelled well. In this case it makes perfect sense. To give an analogy, it is like asking Raja Ravi Varma to paint a beautiful maiden and then asking Picasso or M F Hussain to do the background. You can imagine how that would. If you do that and yet make the picture seem as a single whole, then you would have achieved what Raja has achieved in this song.

To me, after a few more listening today, this is the standout album of this year.