Vinyl ("LP" record) covers speak about IR (Pictures & Details) - Thamizh

nanRi, groucho!

EdhO nammAl Anadhu

Continuing with 1981, a Sridevi hit, bAla nAgammA...by this time, she could sell movies on her own name both in Thamizh & Telugu I think. musicalaya site hosts both Telugu and Thamizh covers of this album in the same link...

koondhalilE mEgam vandhu was a big favourite...also 'paLLi aRaikkuL malligaiyai aLLi iRaiththEn'

We've earlier posted garjanai, which came as a combo with azhagE unnai ArAdhikkiREn (obviously packaged later than the original release)...now, a couple of 'sooppikku kOzhiyum' thani edition pictures too...

Due to the limitation of '4 songs only', this disk misses the 'kuththum oosi valikkum' song!

app_engine wrote:SJ's 'nAn dEvadhai' was a big fav with me those days. It sounded a little bit RDB-ish but with enough elements to identify itself as an IR song.

soolam, another relatively unknown movie's disk cover:

Incidentally only yesterday I listened to Soolam songs. Rex posted a audio clip of Naan Devathai song in his blog. A terrific song and a soundtrack. Especially the Julie song by Malaysia Vasudevan sir.

Thanks for all these treasures App. I need to devote separate time for this thread and note down if any missing number which I have not listened/collected.

nanRi, V_Sji!

Keep sharing with us your new-finds as well

Moving on to another biggie from the same year - a dual Kamal movie, kadal meenkaL!

thAlAttudhE vAnam & enRenRum AnandhamE - I don't have to say anything more

The album front and back cover both have movie stills but interesting to see there's no old Kamal image...also, another Polydor record

Sujatha wrote a thodar kadhai 'karaiyellAm sheNbagappoo' in a Thamizh weekly and the same had a terrific response from the readers.

So, as per the then-norm of killing every successful novel by making a horrible movie out of it, TF jAmbavAns produced 'karaiyellAm sheNbagappoo'...a movie that probably ran out of the theater after a couple of days (well, may be after just a couple of shows).

It was supposedly a story about a city guy coming to village for researching folk songs. Naturally, IR was chosen to compose (being the folk-music-king).

For whatever reasons (best-known to rAsA+producer+director and possibly least known to Sujatha), the resultant album happened to be a super-synth-super-guitar one for the times (and not a typical grAmaththu music).

I don't care whether the public loved the music that much or not (limited reach, by the IR-standards of those days), it was / is such a big favourite with me

Here are the vinyl cover pics:

Much like the Sivaji-Padmini classic 'thillAnA mOganAmbAL' which got composed by KVM and carried the names of MPM Sethuraman / MPM Ponnusamy - the nAdhaswara vidhwans - on the album / track credits and got announced on radio each time, kOyil puRA, an IR album had the names of the same vidwans that got announced on radio those days.

Fantastic songs - vEdham nee by KJY, amuthE thamizhE by PS/UR, sangeethamE by SJ.

I was hoping to see the name of the 'thambi evvaLavu azhagAp pAdinAn' guy in the vinyl cover (amuthE thamizhE song's beginning)...but it's not there.

Now, the only way to find out is if that person is on the news somehow or if someone asks IR my question...

The 'always-azhumoonji' Shankar on the cover (of 'oru thalai rAgam' fame)

Let's have one more Kamal album cover from the same year.

The lovely comedy movie, meeNdum kOkilA

chinnanjiru vayadhil & rAdhA rAdhA nee engE, both the Kannan songs got penned by his dAsan

The front cover pic has KH with SD & Unni Mary Deepa...a similar picture where the originally signed-up actress (Banu)Rekha d/o Gemini Ganesh was present, initially appeared in the mags (may be newspaper ads too at the time of film's launch)...alas, something happened and she didn't do the film

When the Rajini movie, kazhugu, was in the making, magazines wrote a lot about the specially made "expensive" bus in which many scenes of the movie were shot. Also, how the bus got "destroyed" for the movie's sake and thus it was a lavishly expensive movie etc.

Compare that with what people do post-90's or how much money (and time) gets spent in movie making

kadhalennum thEril is missing from this disk shown here...but something called 'theme music' is present, wish they host it somewhere in the web

I don't remember associating the name 'nallathu nadanthE theerum' with rAsA at any point of time...such a movie and album exists

Well, I heard the songs at thiraippadal yesterday for the first time

Since there were only two, the music company possibly released it with two other songs - one from moonRam piRai and another from Anandha rAgam.

Just for record, let me state that it's the first EchO record cover that gets featured in this thread!

Mahendran, after his initial dream run of 4 both critically acclaimed and commerical hits (muLLum malarum, uthirippookkaL, Johny, nenjaththaikkiLLAthE), tasted a string of failures...We've already seen the vinyl cover for poottAtha poottukkAL.

The next one - naNdu. This had Aswini, the uthirippookkaL heroini. Sweet songs (aLLiththandha vAnam, manjaL veyil mAlai itta poovE...)

Also to be noted is P B Srinivas, the famous singer from pre-IR era writing both the indhi lyrics of the album...

Interesting to see musicalaya hosting four pictures for the album of a relatively less known movie (unknown to me until the songs got featured in the hub a couple of years back)...

oru iravu oru paRavai (looking at the name of the crew, one wonders if this happened to be a Telugu-dubbing product)...

The first movie that IR composed for KBR as a director was inRu pOy nALai vA.

Unfortunately, our source site does not have the cover. If and when we get from other sources, we'll look at that mEri pyAri dil ki rANi.

For now, let's host the next one from the KBR-IR combo - vidiyum varai kAththiru.

The movie where KBR tried to do a role different from what he was then known-for, a new "bad-guy" avatar. That didn't do that well in the BO and he had to switch back to his 'anudhAbam-seeking-appAvi' kind of roles again, to strike it big.

VVK had two nice songs, pEsu en anbE (SPB/SPS/Sasireka) & neengAtha eNNam onRu (MV/SJ)...





To me, the movie was kind of OK...but the ending was cliche

ok, all the four remaining movies from 1981 whose pics are available are Kamal's

These are in addition to the two we've already posted (meeNdum K & k meenkaL) Add 'ellAm inba mayam' whose cover is not in our source site, there had been at least SEVEN Kamal movies with rAsA in just that year!

Could it be some sort of a record for a Hero / MD combo in a year?

We know very well that 'sollachcholla enna perumai' of EIM made into the 'finders keepers' thingy and was also a big fav with youtube viewers in the west (much before the kolaveRi rage).

Let's now look at the cover of the album from which another Kamal song found favor with 'finders keepers', that 'nAn dhAngoppandA'!

Ram Latchuman...there seems to be two disk covers that these people had access to and thus four pictures for us (warning : being a Devar films movie, you'll see yAnai having as much or more prominence than hero):

The next one is tik-tik-tik, BR movie that got more famous for the bikini photo than anything else those days.

I remember posting about my cousin talking to an "assistant director" of this movie who sat next to him in an omni bus travel around the time this movie was getting made, calling IR the 'laddu-master' (or a similar term, laddoos being the metaphors for his songs).

He also remarked that IR was given an advance check of Rs 65000 (a huge sum in 1981) for this movie. I promptly boasted about that number with my +2 classmates!  And, a HCMSVF promptly replied "MSV always get 1 lac as advance"  

Anyways, no bikini in the vinyl cover...however, it helps to prove my earlier statement in the IR-SPB thread that 'idhu oru nilAkkAlam' got penned by VM (and so was poo malarndhida).

Of course 'nEtRu indha nEram', sung by w/o Rajini for a Kamal movie, was written by kavingar!

Shankarlal (or Sankarlal) was a T N Balu movie (who earlier made uyarndhavarkaL & sattam en kaiyil with Kamal).

Per wikipedia, the movie got completed by Kamal as T N Balu died midway...and can technically be called his first directorial venture - ahead of his alleged ghost activities.

I always thought that the movie got MD'ed by both IR & GA in parts (i.e. like kaNNil theriyum kathaikaL...one doing pre-interval and another post or something like that).

Now, from the album cover, it does not seem that way

There are two possibilities :

1. My new theory:

IR composed iLangiLiyE (the only song credited to him in the vinyl cover, all others are credited to his anujan) and then something happened (say, for e.g. the director / producer got sick and the project was on limbo...when the financiers pressurised the family, Kamal stepped into help and finished the movie...but IR was too busy / no dates available and GA got roped in).

2. Raja toyed with the idea of a "duo" composer

This is what the disk company wants us to believe, placing a pic where IR-GA are together. I don't subscribe to the view that the pic was when they were composing together It must have been when GA was given some mettu to write lyrics (or given notes to play / work with the orchestra).

Anyways, you are all free to guess with these four pictures (two disks, one the initial one and another when it came as a combo with another):









In addition, I have posted another wild theory related to iLangiLiyE in the hub sometime back and no one commented on it...so, trying it here again

The prelude of this song is used in the prelude of 'hum banE tum banE ek dujE kE liyE' that got recorded later...it was possibly Kamal's influence to the KB-LP gumbal to utilize his recent IR-toy

The last one for the year - rAjA pArvai

Sujatha wrote a nice article in kumudam on the panthuvarALi instrumental piece, starting with the line 'Kamaludan oru mAlai nEram'...I still remember that piece increasing my Aval to listen to the instrumental

Anyways, the disk cover available in that site does not give us any additional info that we don't know about this album / movie.

The only funny thing about this pic is it misses the lyric writer of the most popular song of the album - andhi mazhai. VM had a lot of media attention those days when the songs arrived, giving explanation as to why "indhiran thOttaththu mundhiri" and such. (OTOH, years later rAsA ridiculed the song asking how can a blind fellow sing about seeing the girl's face in every drop of rain).

Anyways, both the other lyricists - Kavingar for 'azhagE azhagu dEvadhai' & GA for 'vizhiyOraththukkanavum' - are seen here in the pictures available to us!

Start 1982, the year when EchO records got launched and started getting featured on movie title cards.

Let's start with one "bayamuRuththal" cover where Suhasini appears in dance costume

BTW, while many of us were critical of the quality and packaging of EchO cassettes, we must admit that their vinyl covers were some kind of 'maRu malarchchi' to that industry! Very nice and refreshing with their picture quality!

AgAya gangai (director Manobala) cover (mu Mehta appearing in this thread for the first time):

oru rAgam pAdalOdu...what an Anandha rAgam!

The first disk to have a rare kind of song - a KJY-IR duet (kadalOram kadalOram)...

Sivakumar-Radha acted in this BO disaster that had such evergreen numbers...

The director Bharani was an artist and was doing artwork for movies (I've seen many posters, newspaper ads and such material with his signature those days)

The song 'kAviriyE kAviriyE' is such an enjoyable number from 'archanaippookkaL' and one of my favourites at the time of arrival. Not a big hit song but so soothing with its "riverside" effect...nothing else was talked about this movie those days (and now)...

In the "anything about IR on the net" thread, we recently got treated with a lovely youtube...of jaiganesh's child playing on key board a multiple-avatAr-rAsA-song!

While 'thumbi vA' (from Malayalam film OLangaL) happened to be the most popular number out of all those avatArs, there happened to be its first TFM avatar in a Vijayakanth movie Auto Raja - 'sangaththil pAdAtha kavithai' (IR-SJ).

Let's look at the cover of Auto Raja, which is quite unique. The movie's MDs were Shankar-Ganesh and they composed all songs except the sangaththil number (and possibly did the re-recording). The producer (or director) managed to get one song from rAsA and happily featured his picture on this cover

Director Mahendran's run of failures continued with 'azhagiya kaNNE'. (I had the misfortune of watching this movie in theater, after magazines raised the expectations writing about this as an inspired from 'the oman' etc. Despite having a lot of stars, like Baby Anju, movie was extremely boring).

Songs too were quite average, both in listening pleasure and hit status (i.e. by IR standards)...out of them, 'chinnachchinnakkaNgaL reNdu' was my pick those days.

I'm surprised to see four pictures for a not-so-famous 'echchil iravukaL'. The movie done by pErAsiriyar A.S.Prakasam. The shiny cover for the disk could be due to the fact that Balu Mahendra did the camera work for this film and possibly the pictures were impressive. (Polydor label )

IIRC, it was a movie about pichchaikkArarkaL and one of them was played by Pratap Pothen konjamAvathu nambuRa mAthiri irukka vENdAmA sArE? BTW, the lead actress looks like 'oru thalai rAgam' heroine...correctA?

Anyways, here are pictures for the movie that had 'poomEla veesum poongAththE, en mEl veesa mAttAyA?' (a melody somewhat similar to 'mazhaikkAla mEgam onRu maNi oonjal Adiyadhu' that came a little later bearing GA's name in the prEmAbhishEkam remake)...

ok, one more cover (possibly the last one for this week)...

A very acclaimed album (i.e. by HCIRFs)!

Another movie with Pratap Pothen as Ezhai / kudisai dweller etc (but with jeans IIRC).

Easily one of the best albums of IR's career (though not recognized as such at the time of arrival or for years...internet somewhat helped showcase this in the deserved light).

eera vizhikkAviyangaL!

Two landmark movies got released in the early part of 1982.

one, moonRAm piRai - Kavingar's last song 'kaNNE kalaimAnE', NA for Kamal, one of the best performances of Sridevi, one of the all-time-great movies of BM / TF, a very competent score by IR with that path-breaking 'poongAtRu pudhidhAnadhu'.

Now, this vinyl cover somewhat confuses me

All along, I was thinking that poongARRu was by VM. This says kavingar Howver, the confusion is because it lists the track incorrectly ('poongAtRu thAlAttudhu') Someone please confirm me if they heard from elsewhere too that the song was written by kavingar only and not VM!

The disk has only four songs ('vAnengum thanga viNmeenkaL' is not listed). With 'putham pudhukkAlai' and 'en iniya pon nilAvE' getting credited to Gangai Amaran, some of the 'iyaRkai ezhil' songs that I've earlier attributed to VM had gone. With 'poongARRu pudhidhAnadhu' going kavingar's way, I'm not sure whether I can assertively say 'vAnil oru deepAvaLi' was by VM

Now I need some document to believe that...

Here are the pictures (Kamal & Sridevi)...

Two, payaNangaL mudivadhillai! A musical with silver jubilee success (i.e. in Gaitey Singarathope Trichy...may be golden in Madras).

First movie that had IR's name above the movie's title on posters (that "Ilayarajavin innisai mazhayil" thingy).

No confusions here regarding lyricists

rAga deepam & maNiyOsai kEttu : Muthulingam

iLayanilA, thOgai iLamayil & sAlaiyOram : VM

vaigaraiyil & Ey AththA : GA