Raja in lighter vein

There are a number of funny picturizations done by TF 80s directors and Raja perhaps was too busy to even laugh at them. Let's use this thread to have some chuckles from the Raja world.

I really love this song - Kanna Vaa from Maragatha veenai. SJ's glide and breath control in this song is just amazing. I heard this song in a loop for some time and finally gathered courage to watch the video. You need some real courage, trust me!



 Observe at 2:29, where the hero is frantically trying to generate the conga sound with a mirudhangam :-) 80s heros were capable of anything!

 Observe the stage and you will notice that there is no tabla and everything comes out of a mirudhangam - really?

  "Director saar, you hit on top, that's tabla, you hit on side, it's mirudhangam..he..he.." (in Janakaraj's voice)

This has got nothing to do with picturization of Raja's songs.

A funny thought occurred to me on Raja and other MDs of today.

Raja is like a guy who knows to cook very well and he suddenly got into a huge crowded, cooking vessel store (the type that call itself 'kadal'). So excited, he has been cooking all kinds of dishes using those vessels he could lay his hands on, from this store. Big, small, long, short, everything has some scope to create a new recipe.

The new composers are all walking into an 'induction stove' store - clean, shiny and very sparse. Everything is centered around the shiny induction stove and you have now get vessels that work with the stove. You need to read manuals, get these fancy recipes from the internet and do whatever that is possible with the new stove.

This is one of the nice humor posts around Raja...

http://7swara.blogspot.ca/2008/07/blog-post_30.html


Is this App?

Another funny post...

http://7swara.blogspot.ca/2008/07/ii.html

An old post of mine from the yahoo groups.

A dig at all Raja fans like us...

These are top 10 symptoms of these patients (Raja fans) can potentially suffer from...
 
10. While having a social gathering in your house, you get a long distance call from a long lost college friend who enquires 'howz ilayaraja?' trying to rekindle memories of disagreements you had with him/her in your college days.
 
09. You patiently listen to the full song played by the street musician with his guitar and donate 10 bucks when everyone else either walks away or donates 1 buck.
 
08. Your friend catches up with you in your car, only to find that the stereo is playing Raja music in a language different from your native one. The friend goes on to tease you that you may be going steady with a girl/boy who speaks that language
 
07. Half the crowd in a social setting starts yawning when you start your discourse on Raja's swara gnanam.
 
06. Your friends are surprised to hear the names of new movies that Raja has set music for and you get very annoyed that they are living under a rock.
 
05. You can hum a musical piece from the BGM of Geethanjali, or Mouna Ragam or Rasathanthram leaving everyone around thinking that you are some weirdo!
 
04. You make everyone in a social gathering uncomfortable by asking them if they know names such as 'Wagner', 'Handel', 'Tchaikovsky' , and you look at them as though they are from Mars when they look like a deer in the headlights.
 
03. You left your stereo playing Vivaldi when your guests arrived. While everyone chats about the nearby restaurant and the weather, your stereo goes blaring as Vivaldi shifts to higher octaves only to leave you embarrassed. You start explaining western classical music and Ilayaraja to the dismay of your audience, who want to get back to their favorite food discussion in the local restaurant.
 
02. When everyone around you are busy wiping their tears on a nerve wrecking tele serial, you are busy complaining about the poor chord progression used by the serial's unknown musician
 
01. Your neighbors wonder why is this man/woman lecturing about counterpoints to his dog

ravinat wrote:Is this App?

You mean app_engine? illeenga
However, I'm positive that the person (Emjay) should have been a regular at TFMDF...

Thanks for the nice share

When I visit India on vacation, I used to go to the 'Landmark' store till 2010 for buying CDs/books. I had a funny experience with this store when I went looking for VSN's 'Madras String Quartet', which was published by Temple Records. I searched the store and could not get hold of such a CD (I think this was in 2008). This was the conversation with the guys in the shop.

RN: 'Madras String Quartet' னு ஒரு  CD இருக்கா? Temple Records வெளியிட்டிருக்காங்க.
LM Guy: என்ன குவாட்டர் சொன்னீங்க?
RN: 'Madras String Quartet'
LM Guy: கம்ப்யூட்டர்ல தேடி சொல்றேன்

The LM guy goes off to serve other customers who have all kinds of CDs to buy. He has no time to search for some weird stuff by this customer...

RN: 'Madras String Quartet' இருக்கான்னு பார்தீங்களா?
LM Guy muttering to an assistant: எங்க குவாட்டர் கிடைக்கும்னுகூடத் தெரியாம கடைக்கு வந்துறாங்க! கம்ப்யூட்டருல தேடு சரவணா...

ravinat wrote:When I visit India on vacation, I used to go to the 'Landmark' store till 2010 for buying CDs/books. I had a funny experience with this store when I went looking for VSN's 'Madras String Quartet', which was published by Temple Records. I searched the store and could not get hold of such a CD (I think this was in 2008). This was the conversation with the guys in the shop.

RN: 'Madras String Quartet' னு ஒரு  CD இருக்கா? Temple Records வெளியிட்டிருக்காங்க.
LM Guy: என்ன குவாட்டர் சொன்னீங்க?
RN: 'Madras String Quartet'
LM Guy: கம்ப்யூட்டர்ல தேடி சொல்றேன்

The LM guy goes off to serve other customers who have all kinds of CDs to buy. He has no time to search for some weird stuff by this customer...

RN: 'Madras String Quartet' இருக்கான்னு பார்தீங்களா?
LM Guy muttering to an assistant: எங்க குவாட்டர் கிடைக்கும்னுகூடத் தெரியாம கடைக்கு வந்துறாங்க! கம்ப்யூட்டருல தேடு சரவணா...

Lol. 

I bought VSN's Resonance, Raga saga and Raga fantasy from Giri traders, Mylapore. Raga fantasy is the latest release. Quite a novel attempt, wouldn't call it extraordinary, but it is worth encouraging these venturesome independent artists given the state of TFM. Raga Saga is a really good album, but I found Resonance to be the most accomplished work. Sometimes the arrangements are a little elementary with the second violin, viola and cello playing basic three/four part harmony as the virtuosic first violin of VS Narasimhan sketches out the melodies and it occasionally feels like the other three are only providing support and not engaging in conversation which is supposedly the ideal of a string quartet. But it is noteworthy that all these are arranged and written by one man, VSN - and there are original compositions in Raga fantasy (Don't remember if Raga Saga and Resonance have any original compositions), written, arranged and orchestrated by VSN. Definitely recommended.

LOL @ ravinat. One of my most favorite tracks of MSQ's; their Krishna Nee Begane for the album Portrait of a raga



Also, I have their Seamless Strings. Lovely collection of kritis revamped with Western styled orchestra with the core of the raga and the kriti nuance intact. Has a thillana composed by VSN too. Highly recommended.

PS: Their celloist, VR Sekar is Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan's son and started out with Ilayaraaja with Kunnakudi apparently telling IR it was in IR's hands to groom him. Remember IR recounting this in Jaya TV's first concert with Raaja (2005?). Of course, we know VSN due to HTNI and the many film tracks for Raaja.

Not related to Raja, but about general classical musical snobbery. Came across this Guardian piece on Beethoven's 5th symphony as I as randomly googling for articles on it. Got to love the Engleeskaaran writing and comments, especially of one Mr. Jollyswagman and Chris Icarus.
http://www.theguardian.com/music/tomserviceblog/2013/sep/16/symphony-guide-beethoven-fifth-tom-service

Among other comments,

I think in this sort of stuff they just have a thesaurus of superlatives and pluck them out more or less at random. "Good idea" becomes "stroke of genius" etc. No messing with Mr In-between. I think "teeming effulgence" really just means that he liked it - it got him "right there".

 

drunkenmunk wrote:One of my most favorite tracks of MSQ's; their Krishna Nee Begane for the album Portrait of a raga

Oh, this is there in one of the other albums as well - either RS or Resonance, don't remember which...Yes, fine arrangements

I wanted to post this news on the other thread but found it too amusing...

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news/Salman-Khan-and-Ilaiyaraja-to-now-sell-mineral-water/articleshow/46212468.cms

Nothing like Raja diluting his own reputation