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

[Plum]

Yeah, fair points raagas and KillAdi VAdhyAr( KV)

Actually, the ludes. I feel the magic in the ludes is not there anymore. Anyone else?
What I mean is at his peak, the ludes had some surprise hidden at one place - and when a new song releases, finding this is a pleasuresome activiy.
Examples:
The violin surge in the first interlude just after Kamal's playful bite of Amala's bhujams, and her kottu on his head from the same position, in Valaiyosai. That is the peak point of the song - the magical portion of the song, as it were.

First interlude starting in Saamikitta solli vechu with the synth flutes

The synth flute in the second interlude at the beginning - nee dhaane endhan pon vasantham with the guitars responding

These are special portions even in those special songs.

Leaving that aside, even functional interludes like Azhagiya Kanne's have high musical magic value.

Comparitively, ludes these days seem to be merely functional

[Sureshs65]

Plum,

I need to write that long pending article about Raja's musical changes and my understanding of his methods soon. In my mind but not getting time to hand on keyboard. Will do so soon.

[Sureshs65]

Regarding two versions I think it is more to do with space filling in the CD. One would have been the track version and the other the actual version. I don't think film makers are so concerned about us that they want us to analyze how different each one has sung. They just want to fill up the CD hoping that they can fill their coffers.

[KV]

vAdhyArE! Inna ibdi sollteenga? Magic in ludes and all (in vadivel's terms) is 'grine' matter'nga. While it is true that the aging brain peeps in during the songs/ludes every now and then, it's also amazing to see how he can pull off some absolute blinders. Listing some from the top of my head - Paa (udi udi, gum sum gum - whattay innovation, whattay musicality), Naan Kadavul (Om ShivOham, Kannil pArvai – running riot in the devotional area). Some days back, on the way to office, Oru Chiri KandAl played randomly from the playlist. My mind had classified this song under the ‘nice melody, no great shakes’. But then came the Veenai interlude… lovely piece, completely unexpected.
(Shameless plug: I’d made a list of ‘Interlude/prelude/postlude of the year’ in this post written couple of years back.)

To summarize, while the gray matter might not be in its purple patch anymore, it surely does show streaks of bright purple quite often. Bonus, gladly accepted.

[AravindMano]

Suresh ji & Querida -

[MumbaiRamki]

Happi -
http://www.rediff.com/movies/slide-s...r/20110920.htm

Pick the three best movies of each other
"Shahid: It is very difficult to choose with him. I would go with Maqbool. There was a television series, Neem Ka Ped, which aired on DD Lucknow. There is a film of his, Happi, which is releasing soon. I have seen 10 minutes of the film and he is just stunning in it."

Konjam ethir paarkalaam

[raagas]

Happi is held up for Mausam. Once Mausam is through, I am sure Happi will release.

On the other hand, the one film (or album) that deserves to be brought out of cans is SRK. How can that heartless producer allow it to rot in cans, when he has a rare combination - Ilaiyaraaja & Gulzar!! and both going strong that too!

[irir123]

our desi producer/distributor fraternity is a bunch of 'ajaamadams' - remember what happened to Ayngaran's Nandalala ?? every other idli, dosai, vadai films of Ayngaran were being released and NL was in the cans for more than a year!

[V_S]

Aavanithumbi thamaraithumbi - Shreya Ghoshal

For the past two days, I was going to bed listening to Sneha Veedu. Very pleasant and soothing moments. Before I could finish listening to whole album, I am already asleep. But Aavanithumbi has been ringing my ears during my dreams and it was somehow also leading me to one of the best IR numbers of 70's. Especially the anu-pallavi lines, 'maarathum tholathum chaannidaathe, oh maayakaaran nee kanmunnil manyadindhe'. I could remember intermittently during night about that 70's song, but when I wake up in the morning and try to recollect, it was evading me, how hard I try. All through the day I was singing Aavanithumbi to get that connection but no success.

Suddenly today evening while driving home, I got hold of that exquisite gem from Kavikkuyil (1977) by P Susheela.

maanodum paadhaiyile vaLLi thaanodip pogayile
vandhaanam kandhan, thandhaanaam sontham inbam ange oraayiram

Does anyone see any similarity here.?

Somehow these two songs seems to me as sisters, but they have not seen each other, but they think of each other all the time. One born and brought up in a village, while another in some other city of different culture, yet they are desperate to see each other. I believe Maestro is taking Aavanithumbi, through to that village to have an opportunity to meet her sister and we are to witness their ever-loving and never-ending relationship.

Fabulous and forever-love-bonded composition by Maestro!

[Sureshs65]

V_S,

'Aavanithumbi' is just the tip of the iceberg!! The more I hear every song the more I am amazed at the experimentations that Raja has tried. Unfortunately he has wrapped them up so well that people think this is just a melody sound track. I tried finding out the rhythm pattern in Chitra's song. It is amazing complex. Same way one of my friends called up from Chennai to ask what I thought was the ragam for 'Chandrabimbathin'. I still can't figure it out though we had discussions on twitter deciding it was Bahudari. My friend claims it is Sriranjani and another hears shades of Bageshree. So total confusion. Overall it has been enjoyable and I will very soon declare that this is the best Sathyan - Raja track till now