Raja's New Albums

Another song from 'Touring Talkies' : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1G_IEhbUDc&feature=youtu.be

Not sure how the movies is but give that SAC himself is playing the lead, we can give up hope I guess. Anyway, this song and the earlier one show that Raja is having a blast and enjoying himself. I liked both the songs. Energetic and fun.

And here is one more song from 'Touring Talkies'. Superb Mayamalavagowla with a light touch of pathos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xbBbZlChEU&feature=youtu.be

Just when Raaja divided his fans with Shamitabh, he drops another bomb. It is called 'Touring Talkies'. Unexpected bomb. More thoughts later.

Super Kamal. Write soon. Touring Talkies is a lovely soundtrack.

Raaga_Suresh wrote:Super Kamal. Write soon. Touring Talkies is a lovely soundtrack.

Are all songs of TT available somewhere for listening? I happened to see one song, uyire uyire sung by Raja, in a promo program in kalaignar TV.. Liked it in first listen, emotions were similar to paravaye engu irukkirai song..

indha Aasai Mugam Marandhu Poche Raaja song maari illiyE. It is like what Karthik sung for one Vijay TV event.

Both these chutti chutti & kAthirundhen songs sound awesome!

nanRi Sureshji, for the youtube links!

ராசா மட்டுமே (எஸ் ஏ சி போன்ற கற்பனை வறட்சியில் வாழும்) ஏழைகளுக்கு வாரி வழங்கும் பாரி வள்ளல்!

My pick is Nenju Porukkudhillaye. Outstanding composition. That and Sutti Penne and Kaathirundhen are top draw stuff.

For me, these songs are working big time:

1. Aasai Mugam
2. Sutti Penne
3. Kathirundhen
4. Nenju Porukkuthiliyae
5. Chakkan Chaka chaka
6. Uyiye Unnai

That Kaathirundhaen and Nenju Porukkuthiliyae sound like Bala-Raaja combination songs. And Raaja seems to have tried interesting song structures in this album. Nenju song and Aasai Mugam especially - they are more like short verses put to music and still made into 5min songs. 

At this point of time, for me, Touring Talkies >> Shamitabh >> Porkalathil Oru Poo/Mytri (there, I said it).

who wudv thought?
either touring talkes is really a
good movie or raaja has a soft corner
for sac[bring his swansong and all that]

Drunkenmunk wrote:indha Aasai Mugam Marandhu Poche Raaja song maari illiyE. It is like what Karthik sung for one Vijay TV event.

Just checked YouTube video and got 2 revelations:

1. That this composition is not by raaja, but it is a traditional composition. The album sleeve scan that I saw doesn't mention it.

2. Even arrangements are not by raaja. The YouTube video is accurately exact as the song in this album, to each and every note. Looks like they took the audio from that YouTube video and put it in this cd. Again, no mention of at least something like "by Karthik and band" on cd sleeve looks like. Worse, it is inserted between raja's songs which is misleading. It made me believe that this song is raja composition for this film.

(All along, I did feel that it didn't have any raja touch... And I thought raaja actually moved away from his style to do something new. Alas! Raaja didn't have any role in this song)

Yeah. Original tune is traditional. That is known. Semmangudi tuned it several decades back in Jonpuri. All popular online versions on YT today are covers of that. The arrangement here is identical and I've heard the Karthik version before. Which is why it was evident. Even otherwise, his signature is absent. Someone ought to clarify what that song is doing in this album. I shudder to think the likes of Milli tripping on this and creating an online storm for hits and likes.

That said, 4 of the remaining 6 'Raaja compositions' are lovely to my ears and all 6 definitively have his stamp.

kamalaakarsh wrote:For me, these songs are working big time:

1. Aasai Mugam
2. Sutti Penne
3. Kathirundhen
4. Nenju Porukkuthiliyae
5. Chakkan Chaka chaka
6. Uyiye Unnai

That Kaathirundhaen and Nenju Porukkuthiliyae sound like Bala-Raaja combination songs. And Raaja seems to have tried interesting song structures in this album. Nenju song and Aasai Mugam especially - they are more like short verses put to music and still made into 5min songs. 

At this point of time, for me, Touring Talkies >> Shamitabh >> Porkalathil Oru Poo/Mytri (there, I said it).

Where to get the audio cd or songs ?

Really liking this talkies. My order for now:
1. Kaaththirunthen, Nenju porukkuthillaiye, Uyire unnai
2. Title song, Sutti sutti penne [lyrics and Vibhavari's diction are minor irritants]
3. NSK Ramya matter song. In absolute louu with the hook. And it is that typical out-dated song in carbon-dator milli's dictionary. He d be all over this song, if he happens to review this. 

About Uyire - The recording quality [in whatever mp3 that's going rounds] is piss poor, however some lovely piano work in the prelude. And the drumming [synth] is quite nice throughout. The first interlude brings the pursuit aspect very well. Really like the chord progression . The charanam melody sort of has this forceful restraint which is delightful. Love the charanam more than the pallavi. The 2nd interlude has the chorus/guitar complementing each other well. Overall a beautiful song. But to imagine that Raaja composed this for SAC's pursuit of his lost louu  

 And we have people saying he doesn't rise above the director's vision these days! Yeah right, SAC and his vision.

Nerd wrote:
3. NSK Ramya matter song. In absolute louu with the hook. And it is that typical out-dated song in carbon-dator milli's dictionary. He d be all over this song, if he happens to review this. 

I felt it had a strong Michael Jackson touch there actually, particularly in the hook line and the synth arrangements. Like some Billie Jean kind of song.

You have a point. kv mentioned over mail that it has a Smooth Criminal feel to it and ya, there seems to be a conscious hattip to MJ there.

^Good catch. But to my point, still 'dated' saar. MJ is so 80/90s 

Touring Talkies and more...

Uyire - Quite a bland tune to my taste. The rhythm pattern during pallavi/charaNam clearly indicates that. It has some lovely prelude and interludes, but could
have been a winner if the melody had ruled. I expected this to be the winner having Raja in it, but it didn't this time 

Chutti peNNE - Nice lilting and free-flowing melody with excellent arrangements. As Nerd mentioned, Vibhavari's diction could have been better. The first word itself is a turn-off for me (chutti peNNE -> sutti peNNE) and rasikkaththaan->rasikkuththaan etc. First interlude chorus followed by piano is so good. Tune-wise I feel it has similarity with aatrinkaraiyOrathE (starting pallavi phrases) +aavanithumbi (some charaNam phrases) +oru vaandu koottamE (ending charaNam phrases similar to mEgam kuLu kuLu maN paanai part). All three songs are my big favorites, so will be this song. Second interlude is a masterpiece.

nenju porukkuthillaiyE - Female voice and her natural voice breaks adds so much interest, but the song belongs to Sharreth. What a rendering! The rhythm arrangements and its respective acoustics takes the song to breath-taking heights.

kaaththirunthEn - Heart melting pathos. Nice tune. Sharreth has done a nice job. But when he goes to high pitch, his voice sounds little feminine. I like the chorus portions.

Chakkan chaga chakkan - My most favorite of the album. Engaging tune and groovy. I always like Ramya's singing. Her voice is very expressive. She rendered this song extremely well and with adequate glamor. Maestro freaked out literally. Interludes has loops I think. Not much to read into it. I laughed out loud on the lyrics (Na. Muthukumar). Real fun, enjoyed the song to the core.

Touring Talkies - Another super fun song. Maestro in jolly mood. The way Maestro blends the casual conversation with the song phrases is too good. Lots of pauses and starts to address the theme of the movie to the listener, very well done. Except for some sruthi issues by Vivek ('paarkalaam' didn't hit the note properly. Could have avoided). Definitely miss Pushpavanam Kuppusamy.

My favorites (in order): Chakkan chaga chakkan, nenju porukkuthillaiye, kaaththirunthEn, chutti peNNE

Nice album, but still Shamitahb wins it easily so far for this year (again only 3 songs) followed by this one. Mythri has one all-time classic; chandranEnu chanda which tops my singles list along with Sha Sha Sha Mi Mi Mi closely followed by chakkan chaga chakkan, Piddly & Ishq-E-Phillum. Sharreth's two songs in TT comes next, followed by Chutti peNNE. Great start for the new year, but still looking for a film soundtrack to beat Oggarane (which came last year) this year. I am in absolute love with that one with not a single constraint/issue.

@irir
No idea what movie that reviewer watched.  Shamitabh had great BGM.  I found the music suited the movie in every frame.  I loved it enough to watch the movie back to back.  Good performance by Dhanush, Amitabh and Akshara.
Some background about myself:  Love Ilaiyaraaja (of course!),  my knowledge of Hindi is poor, not necessarily a Balki fan (could not get into Paa - though watched that twice to support Raasa), Paa is the only other movie of Amitabh Bachan that I have watched. 
I felt happy that there is someone like Balki out there.  I like that he got an album like this out of Ilaiyaraaja.  As Raaga Suresh points out songs in Shamitabh are indeed IR's forte, and it is good that the film and music is getting some attention.

I actually liked aasai mugam. I was wondering how come we have such a song that has a L Sub kind of treatment and you guys have already explained the source. I like both the Sharreth songs. IR's song has a un samayal araiyil hangover and I think the sutti pennE song is a re-cycle. It is a good album not great for my tastes.

mythri

Giriraj  recalls, “Mohanlal used to practice the Kannada dialogues while interacting with the light boys and watching their expressions. That is a genius actor right there. He is not only a great actor but also a great human being and brought positive vibes and enthusiasm to the sets of Mythri.”

Talking about Ilayaraja, Giriraj says, “The legend has composed music for more than 1000 films and he has seen films of different genre coming at different periods of time. For him, our film was not challenging at all, but he took complete care of our baby. At 73, he still works 14 hours a day. We can only kneel before his dedication,” he says. 

 ஒரு மெல்லிய கோடு

Link courtesy Nerd on Twitter

Murder mystery with music by IR and that itself is reason enough to watch the movie. Megha-ve paathaachu, hopefully it will be better than that.

Ultimate response by IR to the standard questions. Best of that was (not in verbatim) - Sigappu Rojakkal was a murder mystery and you heard the score. This movie is the same theme and watch and find out for yourself how my score would be different (vedikkai paarunga to be exact)

rajkumarc wrote:Murder mystery with music by IR and that itself is reason enough to watch the movie. Megha-ve paathaachu, hopefully it will be better than that.

Ultimate response by IR to the standard questions. Best of that was (not in verbatim) - Sigappu Rojakkal was a murder mystery and you heard the score. This movie is the same theme and watch and find out for yourself how my score would be different (vedikkai paarunga to be exact)

BTW megha eppdi irundhadhu?
Oru 1 hour paathen.. not bad..