Monday, July 5, 2010

Beyond Time

Today I am going to discuss 2 songs from a same movie which got released in 1999.

It was time when trend changed but this man (since being a trend setter) didn't change. He didn't use those fancy sounds which ate up lyrics and feel. He kept composing those simple and soul touching melodies.

Only we classify his compositions as 70s, 80s, 90s etc. But his compositions are beyond our perception of time.

The 2 songs 'Kadhal Neethana' and 'Thavikkiren' from the movie 'Time' which I am going to discuss can be put in "I think I have heard these songs" category

Kadhal Neethana

In the earlier paras, I told his compositions as simple. It is simple only for ears of lay-man like me. But the amount of complexities that have gone behind each song will be known only to Raaja's close associates and few expert audiences.

This lay-man ears can sense some rhythm pattern magic in this song but couldn't explain what it is. One could sense that in the prelude itself.

Unnikrishnan is known for carnatic based or 'tough to sing' melodies with high range of pitch. But he needed a music director named Ilayaraaja to show case just the melody in his voice without gimmicks. Sujatha is known for her soothing voice.

The Q&A kind of charanam with these romantic voices... Awesome.. Especially the lines like

"Enna Kanavu kandai" in higher half of octave

and

"Nee Vandhai Mutham thandhaai" in the lower half of octave. Raaja's touch! 

Next song from the same movie is a peppy melody

Thavikkiren

This time its Bhavatharini with her unique voice and Hariharan with his evergreen voice.

The prelude will no way appear like approaching the tune of pallavi but raaja (and only raaja) can do a fast and smooth transition in just 1 or 2 bars. Briliant!

We could get some jazzy feel in 1st interlude. The 2nd half of 2nd interlude is so interesting to hear. No rhtyhm. Harmonium and bass guitar doing all the job. Intelligent!

In 2nd charanam, there is a line

"காலமே காலமே காலத்தால் அழியா வாழ்வு கொடு"

The lyricist might have prayed to Time that the songs of IR should last long. But he is not aware that Ilayaraja already got the boon of composing songs which will last for milleniums.

Today I am posting about these songs.

Even after 100 years, there would be a guy writing about this is in some form in some medium. Yes after 100 years, everything might have changed. Blogpost,  Orkut, Internet, the way we type, the medium through which we hear.. Everything... But there will be comething constant. It is those gifted group of people hearing the compositions of our isaignani.

Because, his compsotions are beyond Time.

Download link

Kaadhal Neethana

http://music.cooltoad.com/music/song.php?id=464274

Thavikkiren

http://music.cooltoad.com/music/song.php?id=464279

2 comments:

Sugeeth said...

Hi Karthik, just stumbled across your blog. Felt sorry for you missing the bus.. :(

Was just rumbling through the bgm thread of the community and saw that you wanted to have a collection of 90% of raja's bgm. 90% of raja > 900 movies??? Would be some achievement if you do that. :) I can burn you a DVD copy of my bgm collection, if you wish. Most of them would have been posted on the blog, but some arent. Also, it can save you download time of the clips from the blog. Let me know, if your interested. You can also request me for any particular clip, i can check and if i have, i can get it for you. You live in bangalore , by any chance?

Karthik.R said...

@Sugeeth

So nice of you!

Yeah, I live in Bangalore. You too living in Bangalore?