The Golden Era of Dr.IR and Dr.SPB

[app_engine]

#228 போகுதே போகுதே என் பைங்கிளி வானிலே
(கடலோரக்கவிதைகள், 1986 )

From an adiyAL to villain to hero. That too, 'kAdhal pirivil sOgappAttu pAdum' hero

That was what Satyaraj -who did that menacing mottai, dark goggles terror figure in nooRAvadhu nAL - became in kadalOrakkavidhaikaL. And BR had that sadistic pleasure of making Sinnappa dAs cry for Jennifer. Rather than becoming a laughing stock & unintentional humor to public, the whole gimmick actually worked While the mileau set up by BR was one important reason for that, the more powerful factor was the combo of our thread nAyaks - IR & SPB! Me and a collegue too had fallen for the trickery by these masters and had our throats choked while watching the movie...this scene was quite moving (though the whole song wasn't on screen IIRC)

Well, we didn't exactly warm up to the whole movie that way (e.g. the climax scene wasn't goosebump stuff but still made tolerable by the BGM). The whole movie had terrific BGM apart from the manasaippizhiyum songs. kodiyilE & adi AththAdee took the top spots with SJ in terrific form (PJ & IR were excellent as well) but they also had phenomenal melody / orchestration and other techniques. Relatively less catchy melody and 'nothing-new-kind-of orchestration' was what got offered to the SPB song. But the capabilities of the singer came to the fore and it measured up to the expectations, creating the necessary emotional connect! No wonder we give SPB the top crown for versatility among all singers of TFM regardless of the time frame!

Like I mentioned in the IR-duet-songs thread spearheaded by V_S-ji, I always associate 'kadalOrakkavidhaikaL' with rainy Kerala. One of our associates those days used to identify Walayar this way : "Take a bus from Coimbatore to Palakkad and get down where it starts raining - that'll be Walayar"

It used to be such a marked difference from the rain-shadow area of Madukkarai / Podanur / Kuniyamuthur kind of places (worst cases, Palladam / Tiruppur) to move towards the west through the 'kaNavAy'...and the moment you hit the TN-Kerala border, the sudden change in weather during June is quite striking! With rain comes the small river that divides the states, the dam / reservoir that is visible from the highway overflowing with water, followed by the tall teak trees and the rocky terrain...very interesting and sudden landscape change there! Being a passway between hills, it used to be very windy during the monsoon as well (AdikkARRil ammiyum paRakkum levels).