Top ludes - I mean Mt.Everest level preludes / interludes / postludes - of IR

Vicks, Baatein hawa is quite good, I agree. My biggest disappointment among the new age Balki tunes has been 'Cheeni kum' which, besides lacking the delicate tension of the original, also had spectacularly unimpressive lyrics compared to Mandram vandha where Vaali really outdid himself.  "dhire dhire haule haule dur dur hogee problem" really? That's pretty stiff competition for Diamond's "50 kg taj mahal" and "Olive ennai poosi". 

balki is on a misguided mission anyway. Ir's Tamil originals are too complex for the typical bolly flavour. If he had let ir compose originals for cheeni kum he would have done something more apt. Kalvane interludes were far better than cheeni kum or jaane do na, it's balki's loss.

I have a view that is different from fring or CK. I dont care about lyrics.  In fact, I paid attention to Jyotheyale only after hearing Jaane Do Naa. I rate Cheeni Kum as one of Raja's best BGMs. I have heard the sax melody and the end credit score at least 500 times and do not get bored. The prelude of Jaane Do Naa is one of my favorite ring tones of Raja.

ravinat,
  Neengalae... ellam solliteengae......... analum..... Telugu film list  ...  unga view il illaiya..........

wat about Shiva 2006 HIndi. all are  tooooooooooooooooooo good to me...........  especially

Dheemi Dheemi  and kaise kahen (very sweet Chorus...... Beautiful arrangements of the Instruments. i feel.)

ravinat wrote:I have a view that is different from fring or CK. I dont care about lyrics.  In fact, I paid attention to Jyotheyale only after hearing Jaane Do Naa. I rate Cheeni Kum as one of Raja's best BGMs. I have heard the sax melody and the end credit score at least 500 times and do not get bored. The prelude of Jaane Do Naa is one of my favorite ring tones of Raja.

Wow!  So I assume you either missed or were not too overwhelmed by the Tamil Vizhiyile Mani from Nooravuthu Naal?  That's one of my favourites of his.  

I do like the BGM for the movie very much.  And that is why I think he should have been/should be allowed to give originals.

Vicks, I heard Baatein Hawa again because I was not sure which take off it is. But by elimination I figured it must be the one reworked from Kuzhal Oodhum.   It works better for me than the other two 'authorised remixes'.  But that's also a measure of the richness of the other two originals, esp Mandram Vandha.  I have talked about the changes in Hindi and Tamil cinema over the years in another thread.  A subtle, out and out 'multiplex' film like Cheeni Kum needed new originals in keeping with its overall tone rather than somehow re-fitting songs written for another era and messing with their emotional DNA.  For someone like me who is too emotionally invested in a song like Mandram Vandha, hearing a watered down version of the song is like nails to a chalkboard.

All this talk of Cheeni...reminded me of one of his best Hindi originals, which of course has great interludes.  Ae Zindagi Gale Laga Le.  The second interlude literally takes me on a journey through the woods...and he evokes the sound of a train passing by without actual train noise intruding, just a nice violin riff.  It's quite easily one of the best, if not THE, songs from Hindi film music of the 80s.  

kolusu konjum paadham from Chinna durai........ kanakae ilai. ethanai time kaeten endru solla...... 

http://tamiltunes.com/chinna-durai.html

kadhal kavidhaigal padithidum neram  - Gopura vaaslilae  -   for the Violins and for  the Sweetest FLute....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL7P_XmSnEY

kadhal meedhu  - kadhal kavidhai..........  The Best Orchestration...... Compositiion.......... Haunting one.......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbaBoqKl0ps

Didn't see any mention of Seer Kondu Vaa - sorry if anybody DID mention it.   Out of the world interludes.  Strangely, the prelude didn't captivate me, at least initially and for the first few times I didn't pay much attention to this song.  Damn, I was so spoilt!   How is it even conceivable to ignore such a gem?  The flute-violin passage in the 2nd interlude transports the listener to some unheard of stratospheric levels of joy.  Another instance of how there is actually busy interaction between two layers of instruments in a Raja passage that apparently sounds dreamy and brings time to a standstill.

Remembered another one...because I am listening to it now!  Ennathan Sugamo.  Love both interludes, but especially - and is this a pattern? - the 2nd interlude.  What a soulful passage...as such, one of his most reflective songs. Transition from 80s to 90s style is evident here.

Seer Konduvaa is somehow a miss on my list. I have this challenge of eliminating duplicates as I do the following after I separate an interlude: a) assign a dominant instrument and push the interlude file into a folder assigned for that instrument. Raja has created so many interludes where it is very hard to figure out the dominant instrument. For example, Ilam Pani Thuli can be treated as a guitar or flute or violins dominated  interlude? I end up with duplicates when I try to get a list of interludes from the file system. There is still one duplicate in my list. My suspicion is that Seer Konduvaa was accidentally deleted from my list.

CK, Enna Thaan Sugamo is listed as part of the 'E' list.

Some others are missing and I can explain. This list was created in response to a request on 'long interludes'. All the items in the list exceed 90 seconds. I eliminated all interludes that are below that cutoff.

For example, Singara Seemaiyile or Vayakatti will not appear as my interest is in only one interlude.

BTW, all reactions I have seen so far are very predictable. I asked this question on a different circumstance and did not get any good response. With the exception of Usha, I have not seen anyone appreciating Raja's 21st century work on interludes. Why?

Usha

  My list of Telugu interludes is less compared to the other languages. Good eye - thanks - I need to figure out why this is the case.

I started doing some interlude quizzes some time ago on youtube. I am not good with videos. Please bear with me.

I stopped doing it as I started receiving copyright warnings from youtube.

Here is quiz 1 of interludes. IT is a different experience listening to just the interludes stitched together.

Quiz 2/10 - Mostly chorus work of Raja

Quiz 3/10 - Flute interludes

Quiz 4/10 - Guitar centric interludes

Quiz 5/10 - Piano and synthesizer centric interludes

Quiz 6/10 - Brass dominated interlude quiz

Quiz 7/10 - Violin dominated interludes

Quiz 9/10 - CCM dominant interludes

crimson king wrote:Didn't see any mention of Seer Kondu Vaa - sorry if anybody DID mention it.   Out of the world interludes.  Strangely, the prelude didn't captivate me, at least initially and for the first few times I didn't pay much attention to this song.  Damn, I was so spoilt!   How is it even conceivable to ignore such a gem?  The flute-violin passage in the 2nd interlude transports the listener to some unheard of stratospheric levels of joy.  Another instance of how there is actually busy interaction between two layers of instruments in a Raja passage that apparently sounds dreamy and brings time to a standstill.

Listened to this after a looong time (years perhaps) after seeing this. Looping now . Lovely, lovely song and interludes, plus the joy of rediscovering and being surprised all over again at each twist and turn of a song which is not so fresh in your mind.

ravinat wrote:BTW, all reactions I have seen so far are very predictable. I asked this question on a different circumstance and did not get any good response. With the exception of Usha, I have not seen anyone appreciating Raja's 21st century work on interludes. Why?

Hmm, I can only speak for myself, and part of the reason is that I only started seriously listening to noughties IR post NEPV. So I am not familiar with enough of his new age Mallu or Telugu songs and have some catching up to do. Of the Tamil ones I have heard, I am so far unable to rate the interludes of say, Enakku piditha paadal or Vaanavile with the best of the 70s and 80s, great melodies though they are. 

It is not that I always crave complex counterpoints or innovative scale and chord changes though. For example, the interludes of amma endrazhaikadha, which (I think) are in pure kalyaani are just blissful.

ravinat wrote:I have a view that is different from fring or CK. I dont care about lyrics.  In fact, I paid attention to Jyotheyale only after hearing Jaane Do Naa. I rate Cheeni Kum as one of Raja's best BGMs. I have heard the sax melody and the end credit score at least 500 times and do not get bored. The prelude of Jaane Do Naa is one of my favorite ring tones of Raja.

I agree about the BGM of Cheeni kum. Like you, I also generally don't care much for lyrics and don't notice them unless they are particularly brilliant (Mandram vandha) or particularly grating (cheeni kum). For the most part, I am happy with decent rhyming words. If they have poetic or philosophical value independent of the music (like a lot of Kannadasan's many of Vaali's and some of Gangai Amaran's' and Vairam's do), it's a bonus. It's neither a deal maker or breaker. It is also not as though I find English words being used in Hindi or Tamil poetry unseemly or anything - Rum bum bum is just fine (one o'clock, 2 'clock), as is O butterfly (though Asha Bhonsle's pronunciation isn't the greatest), but I draw the arbitrary line at 'door door hogee problem' and '50 kg taj mahal'.

ravinat wrote:
BTW, all reactions I have seen so far are very predictable. I asked this question on a different circumstance and did not get any good response. With the exception of Usha, I have not seen anyone appreciating Raja's 21st century work on interludes. Why?

Speaking for myself, 80s IR is what introduced me to the myriad possibilities of interludes.  90s ARR interludes tended to be ambient or rhythmic, less said about 90s/00s Bolly the better and I was yet to discover the majesty of Naushad or Madan Mohan.  So it's an unconscious selection bias now - if asked about IR interludes, I go for the ones that first enthralled me - Seer Kondu Vaa/Mandram Vandha/Sangeetha Meham/Pani Vizhum Malarvanam/Enna Satham etc.  

Some of his interludes in the noughties are also more 'economical' than in the 80s.  Which probably works better with the scene but from a purely musical point of view, I enjoy the uninhibited adventures of the 80s a bit more.  But now that you have raised the topic, these are my favourite noughties interludes in no particular order:

1.  Paatu Solli (both)
2.  Khajiraho (both)
3.  Enakku Piditha Paadal (1st interlude)
4.  Enna Solli (both)
5.  Vaanaville (2nd interlude - fabulous!)
6.  Sattru Munbu (both)
7.  Kaatrai Konjam (1st)
8.  Sayndhu Sayndhu (2nd)
9. Mudhal Murai 
10. Kalvane (both)
11. Mugilo (prelude)
12. Kurangu Kaiyil Maalai (both)
13. Appidi Parkirthellam (both)

fring151 wrote:

crimson king wrote:Didn't see any mention of Seer Kondu Vaa - sorry if anybody DID mention it.   Out of the world interludes.  Strangely, the prelude didn't captivate me, at least initially and for the first few times I didn't pay much attention to this song.  Damn, I was so spoilt!   How is it even conceivable to ignore such a gem?  The flute-violin passage in the 2nd interlude transports the listener to some unheard of stratospheric levels of joy.  Another instance of how there is actually busy interaction between two layers of instruments in a Raja passage that apparently sounds dreamy and brings time to a standstill.

Listened to this after a looong time (years perhaps) after seeing this. Looping now . Lovely, lovely song and interludes, plus the joy of rediscovering and being surprised all over again at each twist and turn of a song which is not so fresh in your mind.

After it clicked, I heard it maybe three times in a row at that time. 

On Vizhiyile mani vizhiyil, say about 4 years ago, if you had asked me to pick exactly one favourite IR song, this would have been it.  I have matured since then and realized that whenever I hear a great IR song or BGM for the first time or after a long gap, that becomes my temporary favourite, just as Seer kondu vaa is now. . Back to VMV, The 2nd interlude is just crazy. I think if someone held a knife to my throat and asked me to pick the best IR interlude, it will probably be this. How? how? is what I kept asking myself every time it was played on the radio during those many long late night drives in Madras when the spooky synth passage came to an end - and just as I expected the second charanam to start, he unleashes a furious strings-strings counterpoint of such passion that I swear I used to think the man must be possessed.