Raja of the mid 90s

I am continuing the 90s thread here as well as in my blog.

Song No: 32
Song: Enna Varam Vendum
Film: Nandavana Theru
Singers: Mano, ??
Lyricist: R V Udaykumar
Link: http://www.thiraipaadal.com/tpplayer.asp?sngs='SNGIRR2289'&lang=en

Sorry for the long break. Too many things happening all at once.

I was in Chennai when this movie was released. The song that used to be played often was 'velli nilave', which we can say was a certified hit. The TV channels used to play that song only and I never heard this song till about a few months back when Suka posted this song on facebook. When I told him that I haven't heard this song, he was ready to 'unfirend' me.

When I hear this song now, I wonder how I missed this song all along. The song starts with a lovely female chorus with the bass joining the chorus to add the required depth. Then the humming starts before Mano joins in. The rhythm seems to go its own way and the tune its own way. Very typical Raja stuff. The song seems to be based on Panthuvarali. The pallavi has a nice but very soft music happening in the background.

The first interlude is a delightful play between the flute, the voices and the violins. The way they interact is awesome to say the least. The charanam, again in typical Raja style takes a different pattern than what we would have expected after listening to the pallavi. The rhythm is very unique and the sort of asynchronous feel between the tune and the beat adds to the tension.

The second interlude is more mellow than the first but this too has a lovely interplay between the voices and the strings. Mano does a nice job in this song. The female singer is good but who is she? Raaga.com lists the singer as Swarnalatha and that is wrong. I am a bit confused here. Is there only one female singer with an echo happening or are there two female singers? Sometimes I hear Bhavatharini's voice here. (Am I going crazy?) Help me here please.

Overall a song which should have got much more exposure than what it did. Brilliant song.

Actually, Nandhavana Theru was a very good album. This and Mohamul were my chief weapons against Kadhalan and Mr ROmeo and Love Birds patronising hostel neighbours. Needless to say, they weren't impressed. But then, that isnt necessarily an indication of lack of quality, is it?

Velli Nilave was actually a hit - I was surprised recently when my wifey sang this line by line. She isnt tamil-movie literate, not least 90s tamil movies.

Looks like she was holed up in a foreign country during that time with no indian entertainment, and her only respite was one Video cassette with assorted tamil hits(This for someone who had perfunctory interest in Tamil moviedom in the first place) - and this was the pick of that cassette. No Kadhalan. No Love Birds. No Mr Romeo. See? Sometimes, you do get what you deserve

Enna Varam Vendum was a lovely song - suresh sonnappuRam nan enna solla pudusA?

Viralil Sudhi mIttavA is also a nice song except that people had lost patience with classical based songs that were expressing anguish by then.

aNNiya kAttu aNNanE shuld have been a hit but wasnt. Mr Mano's bulldozer rendering didnt help but a decent song actually.

I even used to listen religiousl to the bhajanai song - Ramana Venkata Ramana.

The ones that didnt stick even to me were the youththu songs - nadakkudhu nandhavanam, adichu pidichu edaththai pidikka munnEru machi machi.

Even the latter came of use to me when I used it to a hostel neighbour nicknamed mancy - a fresher who was a lazy bum and was notoriously late for hostel cricket practice sessions. To indicate that he had to work hard to gain a place in the team, and show intent by turning up for early morning practices I used to sing to him "adichu pudichu edaththai pudikka munnERu mancy mancy"

Excellent song Suresh ji to start. Coincidentally, I have been humming the song since two weeks when Rex (http://365rajaquiz.wordpress.com/2012/10/18/track82/) posted one of the interlude of this song in his quiz. This is a clear case of a memorable classic forgotten. How unfair and heartless! I will try to find the female singer(s).

plum wrote:Actually, Nandhavana Theru was a very good album. This and Mohamul were my chief weapons against Kadhalan and Mr ROmeo and Love Birds patronising hostel neighbours.

Plum, Did you see my comment in Rex's blog on this song?

No, V_Sji. What was it

Rex had written about his college memories when writing about this song. My comment was similar to your feelings.
//What a song you have reminded me! Really a stress-buster. One of the most under-rated classic. Really very happy to hear that you listened to this song during your college years when the norm was something else. Songs like these are never going to be born. Your special write-up on just the interlude says it all.//

Yeah - I have ample experience of not succumbing to peer pressure. Whole hostel-la nAn thani AL. iraval tape recorder(that too belonging to a Rahman fan) namma kodiya nAttiyirukkOmla

Haha!. Since I passed out before that transformation I am always eager to know from people who were in college during 94-95-96 time frame and what was their mindset.

Actually Imagine. App did his college during THE PEAK. You probably did towards the late peak.
My college days were 94-98. epdi irundhirukkum? appO thani ALA ulagathEyE edhirththa experience dhAn ipdi interent saNdiyanA vaLarndhu nikkaRA levelukku koNdu pOyirukku LOL

//I can't imagine your situation, in fact I would have not been the same too. College atmosphere would have been hot and spicy. Luckily I passed out before and by 94-95 I am out of state (didn't return till 2002 except for holidays), so I didn't feel much of a impact.//

I feel very sad for songs like this not getting its recognition and losing only to popular ones and not to the deserved ones.

nandavana thaeru was the case of one outworldly song simply outshining other gems.
"Velli nillave" - this song creates an inexplicable emotional impact in me that i remain addicted and
spell bound to this song inspite of the horrendous picturization of vadivelu vivek and a decorated chariot and
a expression starved heroine.

I think i have listened only to Velli Nilave from this album
At least i don't remember the other songs. Implicit Raajafanatic - Overt Rahman fanatic - Complete Raaja bakthan transformation la idhu middle phase. I guess this must have been the "parava illa, ippo kooda anga inga nalla paattu kudukkaraaru" kind of sympathy + respect thing :lol2:

P.S: The image i get associated to the heroines face is idly

Bala

The film was a flop, and therefore, I believe, contributed to impact the songs had on audience/listeners. The lowest in RVU/IR collaboration (in terms of film itself)

Fantastic song Sureshji. Saw the film FDFS. My elder brother was a Karthik fan apart from being a Rajini fan. So have seen so many Karthik films FDFS. Can't forget this one and Gokulaththil Seethai because on both occasions I saw people crack a 1000-wala in the theater. For a Karthik film!!

Anyway the female singer(s) are one Sindhu Devi (1 song wonder) backed up by Lekha who IR has used for a handful of films in the mid-90s. KaaththirunthEn thaniyE from Raasa Magan and thoothukkudi muthu muthu from a Rajkiran films were perhaps her most famous. I also remember this song - ippOthu enna from makkaL aatchi. Guess she sang mainly (or only?) for Raaja.

Song No: 33
Song: Thonru Thottu
Film: Avatharam
Singers: Malaysia Vasudevan
Lyricist: Muthu Koothan
Link: http://www.thiraipaadal.com/tpplayer.asp?sngs='SNGIRR0365'&lang=en
One of the eagerly awaited movies for Raja fans in 1995 was Nassar's directorial debut, 'Avatharam'. Raja did not disappoint and gave some outstanding music for the film. The TV channels and the general public disappointed us a bit though. The songs stayed around the 3rd or 4th in the ranking, never reaching the top spot. With respect to general public also, the songs were well received but the response was not the same as that was accorded to the other non Raja albums during those times.

This is one album I can confidently say that I heard it, heard it many times and felt bad that it had not become a super duper hit. I still have the tape with me and I generally don't put it in my car because once I do that I keep looping the album and can't get another album in for quite a few days. Whatever be the reception when it was released, now most of the Raja fans agree that this is a milestone album.

What fascinated me towards this album was the usage of 'theru koothu' in the songs. Ofcourse mixed with some amazing WCM. I also realized that there is a great difference between 'theru koothu' and folk songs. Earlier, given the city upbringing, everything was 'folk'. This movie made the distinction very clear.

Today we will hear the only song in this album where the male voice is not Raja. Raja's voice suited Nassar perfectly and sometimes you cannot distinguish between their voices. This song alone is sung by Malaysia Vasudevan. A revolutionary genre song. Once I mentioned this song to the veteran hubber app_eng and he responded saying he hadn't heard it. This was hidden beneath the other jewels in this movie.

This is a song with multiple emotions coursing through it. Sadness, helplessness, anger and the urge to revolt. Only Raja can do justice to such songs where you have to get out multiple emotions. The song starts with a streak of sadness provided by the female chorus. The male chorus and synthezier provide an eerie feeling. The drums provide the anger and the energy. The pallavi line conveys the sadness and helplessness, especially the way he takes the 'ayaa' part and the female chorus joining in. The eerie feeling is kept up in the first interlude by the female voices and the synthesizer.

Malaysia starts the charanam with his characteristic energy and after two lines the pace picks up and two lines later, the peak is reached. The sense of this being a climax song is reinforced here. The second interlude also uses the combination of chorus and the synthesizer effectively. The lyrics of Muthu Koothan are outstanding and goes hand in hand to provide the climax. Raja now brings in the strings for the pallavi and then lets loose the rhythm section, who provide the dramatic finale for the song.

What is striking is the way Raja keeps the energy intact throughout the song, maintains the same feeling throughtout the song and the way Raja deals with multiple emotions in this song. Malaysia's voice is the perfect foil for Raja's tune and Muthu Koothan, as I said earlier, writes the most apt words for the tune. A perfect combination of everything. You can know how great an album 'Avatharam' is by the fact that this was the least heard of the songs!!

Thanks for the feedback on the 'Nandavana Theru' song. For a couple of more weeks, I will probably post the songs but may not be able to respond immediately to comments. Please pardon me for this. I will start writing regularly soon.

'enna varam vENdum' - hearing for the first time, what a lovely song!

Great pick Sureshji - not happy that this song didn't get the attention it deserved

'thonRu thottu' -again first time hearing.

MV in decent form in this song and rAsA of course maintains the standard comparable to the other avathAram songs, despite this being a "situational" (may be prior to the denouement or something like that). The chaNdai oli in the end is quite interesting - is the movie's plot located in the TN-KL border area?

Sureshji,
Excellent song and beautiful write-up. As you said, there are many soundtracks like this which came during that were not properly recognized are getting its due now (not just among Raja fans). We know the reason. Raja's words that time are becoming true now. Even though Raja composed for a film, it stands beyond that. This soundtrack especially is the pride of Tamil Nadu, its culture and tradition which many fail to understand.

So the 90s series started again. Need to catch up :-)

Thondru thottu in a soundtrack which had theNRal vanthu theeNdumpOthu? Well, good luck! All the other songs were hits with TVT being played quite often even today.

One of the last few songs of a terrific singer. May be this was his last for Raaja?! He sounds alright in this though. Wonder why he was completely sidelined post Rahman, even by Raaja.

suresh aNnathey why abscondu?

Song No: 33
Song: Oru Maina Kunju
Film: Oru Ooril Oru Rajakumari
Singers: Mano, Janaki
Lyricist: Vaali
Link: http://www.thiraipaadal.com/tpplayer.asp?sngs=’SNGIRR2494′&lang=en

I would not go to the extent of stating this to be ‘rare’. I vaguely remember hearing it. I am posting it here because it is a very interesting song. Ofcourse ’vandhal vandhal’, was the song which was played often.

Raja gives this song a sort of retro feel. The starting piano notes are a throwback to an earlier era. The tune of the pallavi, with its ‘dhandakku danda’ keeps up the vintage feeling. And what a pallavi he constructs. So peaceful, so soothing. The violin and flute duet and later the synth keep up this ancient mood in the first interlude. The interaction between the instruments is very interesting with lot of asynchronous movements.

Janaki enters in the charanam to accompany Mano and the way she casually sings the pallavi is a lesson to every aspiring singer. The charanam is in typical Raja style flows smoothly. And the bass guitar in true Raja style provides lovely backing along with the violins which enter once in a while.

The piano and then the shenai once again take us back to an earlier era in the second interlude. Once again a very interesting interlude.

This song to me will fall under the ‘experimentation’ catgeory. Raja being Raja, even when people in those days were experimenting with newer technologies, he harnessed the technology to create a fresh sounding ‘old melody’. In other words, Raja was declaring ‘en vazhi thani vazhi’.

Too much happening on the work front that I find it hard to even post a few tweets But I somehow manage that

Thanks to Plum for pushing me. I am hoping that I can post about atleast one or two songs per week. Let's see how it goes.

Will slowly get the participation level high. Have been reading but not replying. That will change soon hopefully.

Welcome back Sureshji. We were missing you a lot. Thanks for the nice post on Oru Mainaa Kunju.