Neethane En Ponvasantham | Yeto Vellipoyindhi Manasu | Assi Nabbe Poorey Sau

[Bala (Karthik)]

Raghavendran
Very happy to read your post and reaction

[KV]

KV
Disagreement on Satru Munbu. The tune is Raaja, especially the charan.

Innum konjam vilakkunga, Bala, any specific characteristics? Me still thinks this song is kinda un-IRish.

[groucho070]

What??? The vocal/tune is an integral part and almost equal partner in the song's success

antha singing style-a sonnen. First listening, vocal a bit hard on my ears, my reaction, "pleasant". Second listening onwards, ignore vocal quality and it became "awesomified". But I got no problem with the vocals now, as in I accept it because its surrounded by total awesomeness that they too ....like poovodu naaru thingy.

I guess I missed the word, "quality" in that post. Thousand apologies.

[groucho070]

un-IRish.

I am getting a mental picture of him in a pub downing a stout.

[sakaLAKALAKAlaa Vallavar]

முந்தாநாள் வரைக்கும் முக்குல நின்னுட்டு, முனகினா கூட நியூஸ் போட்ட தட்ஸ்தமிழ் காரன், இப்ப பாட்டே ரிலீஸ் ஆகி பட்டைய கிளப்பும்போது படு சைலென்ட்! எந்த இணையதள, ப்ரிண்டி மீடியாவிலும் இந்த படத்தின் இசை பற்றி செய்தி வந்ததாக தெரியவில்லை. யாரு என்ன சூனியம் வெச்சாங்க?!?

ராஜா, கமல் போன்ற பெருங்கலைஞர்கள் பெற்றுவந்த வரம் இது

[KV]

I'm still eagerly waiting for GVM to release the 'demo' versions sung by Raaja. That should be something special.

That apart, I was trying to think of some of the other singers who could've featured in the album:
saindhu - sriram parthsarth/vijay prakash and shreya
mudhal murai - shreya? usha uthup?
vaanam mella - shreya/swetha mohan
pengal endral - vijay prakash
satru munbu - shreya/chitra

('arandavan kannukku kandadhu ellaam pEi' maadhiri, I see shreya everywhere )

[San_K]

nallaa paaruga SKV, they have come up with an article. Or you want a review from them? oru mannum vendam, avanunga Jaganmohinikku potta reviewve 100 varusathukku pothum

[raghavendran]

Raghavendran
Very happy to read your post and reaction

Bala

[Gregorysab]

Thumburu, this is precisely the reason why I think this soundtrack is such a colossal one - the mind-boggling variety.

The first time I listened to the whole album, my mind automatically 'selected' saindhu, kaatrai konjam, ennOdu va, vaanam mella and pudikkala maam, for these immediately had a 'frequency match' with the theevira IR rasigan in me.

The other 3 songs - mudhal murai, pengal endraal, satru munbu - left me scratching my head as I couldn't 'connect' to these. "Now, what is IR trying to do here? Where is 'my Raaja' or 'the-Raaja-I-know' in these songs?" I asked myself. The singing felt 'alien' within the 'Raaja territory', thanks to the heavy anglicized style (which one can safely generalize as a trademark of sorts of any contemporary melody). The tuning and structuring of these songs too felt quite unfamiliar. My immediate response was the similar to yours – “Can’t arr/gvp/harris/thaman/joshua/ysr do something like this? Why is Raaja even ‘required’ for these songs?”.

Then, after some more listening and ‘building acquaintance’ with them, the ideas appear to start taking shape. Yes, this is very much ‘contemporary’ in musical style, but it doesn’t end there. Raaja elevates these songs through his authority over orchestration, incorporating a score, which in my books, nobody other than him can possibly conceive. It’s like Raaja saying to the younger MDs “yeah, this is what you guys do, right? Now let me show you my way of doing the same.” For Raaja, this might simply be another step in his constant evolution as a composer (though personally I see it as a ‘leap’!). Although there is absolutely no ‘necessity’ for him to ‘answer’ anyone criticizing him as ‘out-dated/can’t keep up with trends’, the very urge and ability to re-invent and re-construct himself as a composer, automatically becomes a ‘response’ of sorts to the skeptics. Yes, Raaja old-timers like some of us here will take time to warm-up to this and accept the fact that Raaja is (either deliberately or unintentionally) wearing the hat of a contemporary composer (which, by the way, is imperative here because of the film, its maker and the target audience – the youth crowd). But, importantly, in doing this, Raaja has not killed the ‘classic’ composer in him, which is why we still have songs like kaatrai konjam and vaanam mella or saidhu saidhu. The end result is this mammoth of an album, one half of which is vintage Raaja and the other, a very atypical Raaja (like I'd said earlier - covering all bases).

You have exactly highlighted my take on the philosophy Raaja incorporated in this album. In my review, for these very specific songs, I wrote:

1. Mudhal murai: The tune sounds more international to me.
2. Satru Munbu: An operatic melody, this is another surprise that Ilaiyaraaja throws at us.
3. Pengal endraal: Another non-typical Ilaiyaraaja song. I have never seen him put in this much of into-the-face (metallic) rock quotient in any of his songs and it indeed shows that Ilaiyaraaja is genre agnostic. This song is perhaps Ilaiyaraaja's tribute to Mahavishnu Orchestra and the likes.

I too felt that it is such a eclectic album where he gets to do everything (impress his fans with his 'known and celebrated genius elements' and experiment with new stuff that we did not expect him to - which is something I love about this album). Its easy to fall in love with kaatre konjam, saindhu, vaanam mella and yennodu. Very easy. Though those songs have their own complex arrangements - their hummability quotient is high. But it is these 3 songs that you highlighted above - which actually prove that Raaja defied himself.

[raghavendran]

how does the Man decide how many instruments he needs for a particualr song..how does he come to a conclusion?..this question was asked my GM in the interview..appodhan thonichu..
idha inga vaasicha magic create agumnu epdi thonudho,for example the beginning music in vaanam mella..in Awe..