The Golden Era of Dr.IR and Dr.SPB

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#332 அடி ராக்கம்மா கையத்தட்டு
(தளபதி, 1991, ஸ்வர்ணலதாவுடன்)

'adi rAkkammA kaiyaththattu' from thaLabathi, with Swarnalatha

No intro needed for this all-time-biggie from a Rajinikanth movie that also had Mammootty & Shobana, under MR's direction

This is the first Swarnalatha song that we're posting about, in this series here. I didn't know the fact that she was from Palakkad during the time I lived there. She got introduced to TFM by another Palakkadan, MSV (well, he wasn't from that town but from that district). A singer with a very different voice and excellent singing capabilities...alas , passed away so young

The top part of the song, to me, is the prelude and one gets a full course meal with just that and gets a 'vayiRu neRanja' feeling even before SPB starts singing SPB does a great job as well and the interludes are exquisite too. Lot of creativity, brilliance & hard work had gone into this superb number, without any doubt. Like I mentioned earlier somewhere, if I'm asked to pick just one thing to look forward to from IR in TFM for the future, it will undoubtedly be an album with MR (feature / non-feature / docu doesn't matter).

The movie was great - possibly the first to get a two-theater-release in that Keralite town (though for only a few days and then reduced to one), with huge crowds chocking the narrow street. I had both this & Guna cassettes much before the arrival of the movies, enjoyed them and watched this movie with my wife in "Aroma" theater.

The Rajini-Shobana / Rajini-Mammootty / Rajini-Banupriya-Child portions were quite enjoyable but others were so-so. Overall, there was some dissatisfaction when I watched the first time, mainly because I couldn't place the setting in any TN locality That geography was the main problem for this movie (thootthukkudi fits the violence perfectly but the otherwise setting doesn't suggest that...Nellai is another possibility but that's not a water-starved town...Ramnad? Could be but I've never been there and can't say). Subsequent viewings on TV were more enjoyable (because of the FF / pick & choose / focus on BGM kind of aspects).

One of the best performances of Rajini, without doubt. May be second only to MM.