The Golden Era of Dr.IR and Dr.SPB

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#147 வாலிபம் வாழ்க, வையகம் வாழ்க
(தேவி ஸ்ரீதேவி , 1984 , ஜானகியுடன்)

IR had typically provided something special to GA directed movies. GA being a musician / poet had great ears possibly. Or, he had more liberty than others in demanding from IR. And it's possible that IR too wanted to do something special to his thambi.

I would rate kOzhi koovuthu as one of the all-time-great-albums-ever-in-IFM. (May be I'm telling this repeatedly but can't help it). The other noteworthy ones being grAmarAjanned enga oo p & karagam.

In any case, DSD is not one of those specials. However, it had two nice numbers. This sweet SPB-SJ number and the 'dasarathanin' sweetie. Our thanjai sponsored TDK had these numbers which were frequently getting played in the hostel. These songs also had a decent amount of radio time even though can't be called phenomenal hits (as in teakkadai, bus, thiruvizha, functions).

As mentioned before in another thread, the same friend tortured us by dragging to Trichy Maris Rock theater to watch this movie where possibly we were the only audience (It was an AVM Rajan + his daughter show which failed to evoke any public response).

I love the rhythm arrangement for the pallavi - IR special there and also the switch to tabla in saraNam - another IR signature!

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Finally, after quite sometime, I'll have a 'maRRa' song for Friday tomorrow.

That too for a biggie. Which is quite appropriate after these three smallies this week

Let's welcome the girl of "April 18" who was only 18 then

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We are now entering a period where perhaps one of the years will have 100 SPB songs for IR. Good luck, app, covering all of them

Interestingly, it looks to me like 1984 will have a smaller # of SPB-IR hits than 1983

Possibly SPB started getting extremely busy outside the IR-TFM-domain by this time.

In any case, let's visit the count of 1984 at the "year end".

From rAsA's debut year 1976 to 1983, that we've covered so far, 1983 tops with 38 agmark hits

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Ofcourse, Plum, we're only dealing with Thamizh numbers in this thread. It's very much possible that IR had similar number (or bigger number) with SPB in other languages, especially Telungu. In TFM, he seems to have diversified quite a bit with a variety of male singers (KJY / PJ / MV / IR himself & some odd ones) but it wouldn't have been the case in TeFM.

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Finally, after quite sometime, I'll have a 'maRRa' song for Friday tomorrow.

That too for a biggie. Which is quite appropriate after these three smallies this week

Let's welcome the girl of "April 18" who was only 18 then

After couple of visits to google, I figured who you are talking about. But there is no "Friday" song from EO? Megam Kottatum is the special song from this movie, but that does not fall in Friday category.

And you seem to have unfair bias for கேரள நாட்டிளம் பெண்கள். IIRC, my mom or dad said this girl from Padmini's family looked like "முருங்கைக்காய்க்கு கையும் காலும் முளைச்ச மாதிரி இருக்கு".

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#148 முத்தம் போதாதே சத்தம் போடதே
(எனக்குள் ஒருவன், 1984 , ஜானகியுடன்)

Though this maRupiRavikkadhai with two Kamals flopped and got forgotten in the streams of time - despite Kamal taking the pain of changing his face to look like "asian" for one of the roles - the music continues to mesmerize. We have two SPB solos coming up in the next two days (and one of them is phenomenal, evergreen). This "kiss" song got chosen to be hosted first because of the friday connection Actually there is not much of "maRRa" stuff (i.e. on the surface, there could be slEdai biz) except the first word, which had been associated with Kamal in the TF more than any other artist, thanks to the media.

Way back at the time of 'sattam en kaiyil', there was huge hype in newspapers like dhinathanthi and weeklies like kumudam about a foreign actress and Kamal's idhazh to idhazh with her. I think from that point, there is always some news or other about KH & his ummA to some latest arrival. (It continues to this day, if one goes by a recent charchchai in the TF section in one of the KH threads, with a few HCKHFs chasing NOV )

So are the references to muththam in KH songs ("kannaththil muththaththin eeram adhu kAyavillaiyE" has the word, 'ponmEni uruguthE / nilA kAyudhE' kind of songs have the saththams related to muththams etc). With that background and boys still not out of the SKV effect even after many months, one can guess what was the reaction to this song in the hostel.

The panasonic stereo was playing this often in the hostel and I had additional headphone sessions as well. What a sweetie! A fantastic tabla delight with great recording, nice string sections, iLamaiththuLLal singing by SPB and konjal singing by SJ!

I think this one is Vairamuthu - 'pudavai-puthaiyal-unakkE-padaiyal' - how words play around in this man's pen! He also does some mild politics stuff by recalling 'thamizh nAttil eppOdhO madhu vilakku'. Did I say limited "maRRa" stuff? Well, upon seeing the whole lyric, I take it back. The first line of second saraNam is material in a film song.

It was interesting those days to see the big eyed niece of Padmini in the ads. I didn't know during student days that her aunty was from Kerala but years later I could recognize her face to be a typical south Kerala one. There was a very similar looking next-door neighbor in Palakkad who was in love with the boy at the opposite house for decades (i.e. since childhood) and finally married him against the wishes of her dad. Me & wife used to pity seeing her for a couple of years (trying to get ok from the stubborn dad) - before happily attending their reception where her dad was absent.

Shobhana, with her nice dancing skills, could portray a variety of expressions with ease (check out veLLanakaLude nAdu or thEnmAvin kombaththu or maNichitraththAzh or dhaLapathi), started in both Malayalam & Thamizh in the same 1984 when she was 18, per wiki. April 18 was the Malayalam film and EO the Thamizh one. Though EO didn't give her the required strong start, she had a hit with KBR in idhu namma ALu and survived...

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And you seem to have unfair bias for கேரள நாட்டிளம் பெண்கள்.

Too much feeding of "subbaNNA" material during school days, perhaps

[Plum]

April 18 has another smallie(in app's words) connection to TF.
Unishe April in Bengali and Debashree Roy in that - brought to Tamil as Chintamani by pandiarajan. Manaivi Ready was it?

Enakkul Oruvan - from the YGM as lead comedian phase of Kamal. Enough said. Forgive. Forget. Flush from Memory. But then indha rasiayan engE maRakka vudaRAn. Indha padathai ellAm memory-la firmA implant paNNidaRAn

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Indha padathai ellAm memory-la firmA implant paNNidaRAn

After all these years, there came a movie in new millennium with the title 'saththam pOdAthE'

[balaji]

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Just a thought: When you and your friends are enjoying the Illayaraja's hits, was there in any specific song in that time period 81/84, that stuck a chord with your out-of-state friends(above the Vindhiysas)?

Just curious? Can't imagine, unless one is stone deaf, you are not getting swayed by at least some of his songs

Bala