Best song in Agni Natchathiram

I see we are a little stagnant so starting this series. With a monster of an album. Album has six songs, three female solos and two duets. One of those albums which is so popular, I mean ALL the songs still get played regularly everywhere.

So pick your best and if you can, please explain your choice so that it would be a rewarding experience for people reading this thread.

We will continue the series if the response is good (> 10 votes perhaps?) and slowly get into the 'rare' territory.
You can only choose one option to vote and I believe that will make the series very interesting.

Please post your comments / suggestions and also mention if its worth continuing it  

Excellent thread!

Very difficult to pick the #1 in this case as each one tops on a particular day and mood

That way, this is perhaps the best "objectivity" test that anyone could get

This definitely gives an opportunity to leave aside our "moods" and other situational hazards to analyze a song purely as a song and pick the best.

Let me try to write my thoughts on each of them one by one before voting

Thanks Nerd for starting this thread. It is very tough to pick one. Still let me try to pick one with the reasons.

Poonkhaavanam, Poonkhavanam, Poonkhavanam said Jimbalakkipamba. Oru Poonkavanam, says me.

Reason? Need I go beyond this? (look below) But however, every song is a favorite, this topping. Having already voted for this, shall write when time permits on Thoongadha Vizhigal Rendu. Excellent thread!

Gonna go with Oru Poongavanam too.  I love all songs on the album, it's one of the highlights of his career.  Every song is both innovative and entertaining so it's a very tough vote.  But what is innovative about Poongavanam is not so obvious. Matter of fact, I never noticed how Carnatic the charanam actually is until the maestro himself demonstrated it at the NEPV launch, as DM also mentioned.  It's a truly wondrous creation - sounds like a sophisticated, erotic R&B track (even the interludes are totally Westernised) but there is also so much Indian content in the vocal melody.

I am picking Thoongaadha vizhigal as that's the song I listen to most often. Truth be told, AN is not a  particular favourite of mine. The songs are of course wonderful, but none repeatedly blows me away on very listen. A great, iconic album nonetheless.

An after-thought...

Since I've posted about each song at one time or other (mostly in the hub), I guess it does not make sense to do another "appreciation" post on songs one by one.

Let me play this game a little differently...

- Pick one "quality" at a time and compare all six on that measure...(melody, rhythm, singing etc)

-Attach a weightage to that metric (e.g. melody -10, singing -10, lyric -5, picturization - 5 etc)

-Give each song a relative score on each metric

-Add them up, to get a "score" and whichever tops will get the vote

Let me take up the easy (but least relevant) aspect, picturization

Here are the links to all the videos, if anyone wants to revisit the songs :

ninnukkOri varNam https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzlJJy2S9s4


vA vA anbE anbE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqqw4tciTuQ


thoongAdha vizhigaL reNdu https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlhbudJYLF8


rAjA rAjanindha rAjA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOAWJBhco2w


rOjAppoo Adi vandhadhu https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfSmENxLShI


oru poongAvanam https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1_6ub2gjOI


I will give picturization a weightage of 5 and will give marks to each of the videos in the next post

vaa vaa anbE anbE. 

quite lately, i am enamored by this one (and thankfully I got a chance to vent it out) - it's all vivacious, high-spirited on the surface but there seems to be a haunting emotion locked deep in the tune/song. almost like love.

I'd have participated in the discussion but as it happens, I have been traumatized by the telugu versions of the songs in the past 2 weeks - happening to be stationed in Hyderabad, I have heard 5/6 songs several times on FM in 2 weeks. The one that didnt find that favour with telugu public seems to be raaja raajadhi raajan, which, shorn of Raja's voice, seems to have failed to capture people's imagination.

But the real story is Vani Jayaram, who has indefinitely put me off this album for some time now. What a teacheramma! Imagine Nirosha back-pedalling on the pool with teacheramma primly and properly vocalising her fantasies in the background. Terrible images prop up in the mind, I tell you.

I will quit talking about this now - I am not able to take it

As it has been brought it up, I think Rojappoo is perhaps the most unsatisfactorily picturised. It has nothing to recommend it except for the sheer presence o Amala, which admittedly is a valid clinching argument in its own right. Maniji perhaps had this worked out and figured he could get away with murder as long as he presented Amala to the audience at her sensual, seductive, coquettish best. Little wonder no one lols at Prabhu bench pressing those rubbish paper weights.

Best picturized for me is Thoongaadha Vizhigal Rendu. The raw tension, energy and lust from Amala looking at Prabhu's photos in black and white are well done imo.

Picturization helps to appreciate the song more, but it does not make the song better or worse IMHO. I tried hard to select one, but I may have to accept the defeat, but I am happy for that.  Every one of them is a masterpiece.

Having set this thing (video) as a criteria, I had to suffer watching all those music videos


Other than some of the brilliance w.r.t. PC Sriram's camera thingy, every one of them fails to evoke ANY interest beyond a few seconds (unfortunately, I watched all of them in full, kodumai).

My marks should be negative for most of them, considering they all spoilt tremendous compositions of IR. However, that will derail this thread and let me keep away my irritations to focus on whatever +ves I can find on these videos...

ninnukkOri - the only 2 +ve things are 1. Amala is shown on screen 2.Prabhu is not made to dance
Light flashes and everything else irritates to the core considering such butchering done for one of the most brilliant works of music in TFM. So, I will give 1/5

vA vA anbE anbE - better than the previous one, mostly done in daylight / beach. Once again, no dancing, which is good. The girl matches the boy. I guess the director tried to find out silukku replacement in Nirosha but failed to realize that 90% of silukku's attraction was in her eyes which is absent in this case.
1.5/5

thoongAdha vizhigaL reNdu - back to light effects which are ok in this. No dancing by Prabhu. Some good photos of Amala. Some hair-water-splash stuff nicely done. 2/5

rAjA rAjAthi rAjan indha rAjA - good camera work here (some nice angles), innovative selection of spot to dance - railway platform 1/5

rOjAppoo Adi vandhadhu - another good spot for a song (gym), Prabhu does not dance. 1/5

oru poongAvanam - pool is a big +ve, water splashes / bird chirps etc are nicely done, neat camera work, no dancing around 2/5

"thoongAdha vizhigaL", what an amazing Amruthavarshini ever composed, in TFM history ! Best aspect about it is, it doesn't get overtly semi classical , despite KJY's jaw dropping kaarvai in "mAmara ilia mElE..." . Absolutelt adore those kaarvai's at the charanam endings too. The guitars that come along the pallavi, the flute bits in the interludes and the brisk pace of the song accentuate the romantic, erotic mood of the song. A perfect fodder for the super singers to chew .

I'm mostly with V_S on not being able to rate one over another as I love all the songs. However, I'm going to pick one song that made me hit the repeat button more than once during my morning listen while driving to work. Also, I'm completely ruling out the picturization aspect of the song as that never comes in my way when appreciating an IR song.

That song is Roja Poo Aadi Vandhadhu - a rendition that only SJ is capable of doing, stunning interludes and most of all the tune that expresses a girl's yearning for love subtly and powerfully at the same time. I have always under appreciated this song until I read P_R's writeup (will post the link if I find that).

Rajkumarc, my thoughts and vote exactly!

Gokul

Picturisation is truly irrelevant in the appreciation of music. For that matter, so are lyrics, but then I am bringing my personal bias into the conversation. It is an incontrovertible fact that nearly all picturisations of Raja songs are botched beyond repair and it is my hope that memories of these should be permanently obliterated from the minds of present and future generations. 

I am sure App intends the picturisation rating only as a fun exercise  

But Writeface, where is your vote?

Just wanted to add a worthless point to this discussion. The videos for the songs in this album which are so unlike previous Mani films are sort of forerunners to later day Mani films (and songs). And Rahman put fodder for exactly these kind of videos. Mani's vision (or the lack of it) aligned accurately with Rahman's. i.e. create pop music, make people dance to it, enamor people by the visuals, not the vision, forget soul and all.

I haven't voted and I am inclined towards rojapoo as well simply becuase thats the only song on my playlist for this month. The song has so much packed into one. The subtle eroticism, the brilliant tune structure, the drum work, the pace itself one can go on and on. My favorite part is the connect from charanam to the pallavi.

இதோ
இதோ
உன்னாலே
விடாமல் மோகம் வாட்டுது
தாங்குமா

And here's the post rajkumarc mentioned - dagalti.blogspot.com/2011/10/blog-post.html

9 votes so far. All we need is one more vote to continue this exercise. Will wait until Monday  

Nerd wrote:9 votes so far. All we need is one more vote to continue this exercise. Will wait until Monday  

நான் அனாலசிஸ் எல்லாம் முடிஞ்சு ஓட்டுப்போட நாளாகும், பரால்லையா?

நீங்க மெதுவா வாங்க சார்.

அடுத்தது என்னன்னு முடிவு பண்ணிட்டேன், அதுவும் உங்களுக்கு ரொம்ம்ம்ப்பப் பிடித்த ஆல்பம், என் கணிப்பில் அ.ந.வை விட பிடித்த ஆல்பம்.   

Moving on, let me pick one of the most important characteristic for a song to be lovable - the melody for pallavi & saraNam. Personally, I give a lot of weightage to this attribute (and so are many fans of TFM from pre-IR days as well as people who love ICM in general). Let me set the scale at 25 max before giving marks to each song.

Disclaimer - my rating won't probably be based on the ACTUAL "value" of the melody (complexity, rare rAgam etc) but how I perceive it to be melodious...

ninnukkOri varNam - I believe the first word is from some classical original demonstrating mOhanam, and that ragam is a biggie with rAsA. (I often recall actress Banumathy's advice to IR to name his child Mohan / Mohana because she loved his mohanams). Obviously, the sweet notes of pallavi and saraNam, ending of saraNam - all are catchy & stunning! Fresh after decades! Easily, 20/25

thoongAdha vizhigaL reNdu - As mythila mentioned, possibly a rare rAgam in TFM, amrutha varshini and the palavi melody is so thuLLal - right from the start, it's the definition of what one would call "racy" (and the percussion aptly supports it with its runny nature that continues in interludes as well). The saraNam is bordering on semi-classical and obviously rich! rAsA can do so much within cinematic constraints shows his prowess! 21/25

vA vA anbE anbE - This is like a typical IR song of later days - where saraNam melody gets better than pallavi, just that the pallavi itself was quite catchy too. The saraNam is simply awesome! 17/25

rAjA rAjAthi rAjan indha rAjA - Obviously the weakest of all the songs in this department...catchy from a filmy PoV but personally, not hummable enough Another case of saraNam better than pallavi from a melody PoV. 14/25

rOjAppoo Adi vandadhu - Terrific western styled melody which needed some vocal "doubling" kind of harmony to increase appeal, while greatly hummable and listenable otherwise as well. And the range of octaves it jumps across makes it even more enjoyable. Not easy for ordinary singers to do justice (cannot be an easy pick for super-singer kinds, obviously). Personally, I don't consider this any less than ICM based songs. So, 20/25

oru poongAvanam - IR-E solleettAr, what is more for me talk about this innovative, melodious number? Thoroughly enjoyable song! 21/25

Oru poonggavanam just attacks me ferociously. It punches your face, kicks your ass and asks you to enjoy feminine beauty...very difficult to describe the feeling...while you are being violently violated music-wise, you are also experiencing mood enhancing narcotics purely from the psychotic sound. This is one of those drug rapes that IR have been guilty of for decades..that shaped our childhood and made us stand apart from our peers during our adulthood. And it is not easy to stand away from mere mortals...mere goddam mortals...

Of equal importance is orchestration of the songs. Will rate on a scale of 25.

ninnukkOri - Excellent prelude, mostly synth with lavish strings, brilliant drum work (IMHO), sufficient bass and interludes matching the melody 18/25

thoongAdha vizhigaL reNdu - racy percussion for pallavi & interludes (though similar to many previous rAsA songs), the first interlude one of the very best of rAsA from the PoV of "continuation from pallavi", the second interlude is a shift with synth(?) stuff yet enjoyable 17/25

vA vA anbE anbE - terrrific prelude, percussion similar to many prior-rAsA songs, lavish strings as in the case of other songs of the album, nice guitar first interlude with flute joining in a grand manner and an equally punchy second interlude (flute / guitar / strings...) 18/25

rAjA rAjAthirAjan - Terrific innovation of doing the song with only rhythm instruments Drums / bass (synth?) alone and still make it feel whole / complete! Simply brilliant! 19/25

rosAppoo Adi vandhadhu - What a lovely prelude! The accompaniments / bass for the pallavi is something that makes me fly each time I hear the song! Add those lovely drum twists! Some of rAsA style "melodic bass guitar" too makes this song exotic! That rock-style (?) strings in the second interlude soars one's spirit! 24/25

oru poongAvanam - Terrific interludes, that flute thingy is haunting! And the jazzy slow drumming is exotic...this song is a killer in whichever way one looks at it! 23/25