Manadhil oru paattu - Song of the moment - Vol 1

baroque wrote:ammamma.....janaki...thaalattu paadava....ilayaraja's pouring music in madhyamavathi.

What I feel  from this morning, I couldn't express... I am joyous  and lonely,  couldn't snap out of it though...


.

crimson king wrote:Just can't get this song out of my head last few days. Unbelievable arrangements.

baroque wrote:Checked out your pick, went on with the lingering mayamalawagowlai melody Sunta hai mera khuda.... in my mind:)

ilayaraja-yesudas...rama namamoru....

தமிழ் திரையுலகில் இப்படி உணர்வுபூர்வமாக மென்மையாக மிகைப்படுத்தாமல் இருவருக்கும் இடையில் இருக்கும் காதலை பின்னணியுடன் பின்னி பினைந்து இசை வழியாக சொல்லி காட்சியை ஆழப்படுத்தியது அபூர்வமான ஒன்று.

writeface wrote:
What an awesome arrangement for this typical item song!

a_e wrote:
I don't remember reading much dissection of this song by hub-pundits...I feel there are some brilliant musical ideas hiding in this number to be uncovered by V_Sji / Sureshji and other experts. Request their kind attention

V_Sji wrote:
We know there are four paths of yoga; Bhakti, Jnana, Karma and Raja yoga. Similarly there are four goals of life according to Hinduism; Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha. Kama which is pleasure is often misunderstood as just sex, but the pleasure is a result of art, music, drama, dance, poetry including sex. Since the composition of interest is related to third goal (Kama), we will see how Maestro attacks every component of Kama Yoga through this composition. The interesting part of this whole composition is while all the above 6 components are tightly integrated, they can also be easily separated as per individual's taste and we can even add our own aesthetics in this composition (except the music part, haha).

Before going to the composition, first we need to applaud K Bhagyaraj for coming up with some outstanding concept very little known in film industry. We might have seen so many songs using 'Manasatchi' (inner voice of ego) including love songs, but this song is unique as it talks about a person's inner feeling of the desire and pleasure. Actually there is a big risk taken and he has done it quite well nailing down by walking on the rope, but could have picturized better without all those standard p.t. exercises. Also song was not much appreciated at the instrument level, that's where visually it was not engaging!

Having got the draft from the director, how Maestro works and develops into a full blown art is the topic of interest. We will come to that later.

Dance and Drama
Almost at the dawn, dreams galore. Hear how this composition showcases such a feeling with aplomb. Hero imagines being in indra loga with four gandharva kannigal, but his hands are tied. Why? There comes his manasatchi (manmadhan) first. This was another beautiful concept. Manasatchi appearing first than the actual person. Here KBR implies brilliantly that even before we start any physical interaction, our mind already attains/completes that state. புலன் வழி இன்பம் அடையும் முன்னரே மனம் அதனை அடையும். First manasatchi, then the actual person, so his hands were tied. Only thing I don't understand is why he was shown as an old man. May be just because of experience.

Maestro complements musically by calling Vatsayanar, Adiveeraramapandyar (no idea who he is) and then those gandarva kannigaL; Athini, Sithini, Padmini and Sangini. There starts all the drama and dance. Crash cymbals for introduction of each female. Even there he adds some minuscule sounds from synth alternatively to our each ear, very pleasant to hear. Two trumpets one at lower octaves and another at higher octaves followed by great strings in crescendo, setting up the right tempo with trumpet echoing at last. Such grand opening is required for this big bash in that maaya logam. The trumpets implying the big ones used at those times. Somehow that grandeur was not much captured visually, especially when the trumpets and violins are played.

How about this one? The two trumpets, the higher one is of the soul and lower one for the body. His manasatchi after introducing each one of those angels, he makes them disappear as the body actually tries to reach them, as he is not yet attained his desire. The high trumpet shows that agility of the soul, while the body is still in the phase of getting activated from the soul. Also manasatchi is not willing to give it to him, so he teases him every time. The time when violins plays in crescendo, he races behind each one of them and when the trumpets echo, they are gone, vanished! Magnificient Pause there (only in video).

S Janaki and S P Shailaja sings alternatively. When they sing the angels appear again with the magic of soul, but he realizes now that his hands are tied. Maestro understanding this ahead, does not start the vocals with SPB (the body) instead starts with females to again build up the tension to the hero and sarcastically complemented by his manasatchi at the end of every line. As this is a dance song, Maestro brilliantly introduces the 'jathi' at every line and every jathi is different. Please hear the jathi. 1. nakinthinnaa nakinthinna thirana, 2. nakinthinaa thirana, 3. thakathimi tha, 4. thirikidathathom tha, 5. thirikidathom tharikidathom. Some great singing by TVG sir (I think) and it appropriately sets the tone for this extra-ordinary composition.

Another beauty is how he has used the percussion instruments during the pallavi. For the single beat punches he uses mridangam. For every other beat he uses acoustic drum or hi-hat, if you hear closely. I don't know how he conceived that idea. May be because he wants to convey throughout those two instruments that those two beats are the heart beats of soul and the body and how it sounds when tapped one after another. Soul and body cannot exist independently. Both has to co-exist to attain the desire which they are longing for. But when listened casually we can only hear one instrument. Oh man what an innovation at every note. Colossal talent!

Not just that, if you observe even closely, the beats coming from hi-hat are more compared to mridangam as he soul is slowly transferring its desire to body thereby the heart beat of the body is pounding faster than the soul. Brilliant! Brilliant!!

Poetry and Sex
We have some great lyrics for the situation. Eventhough we have to appreciate the lyricist for conceiving appropriate lyrics for the situation, I am going to first appreciate Maestro for the lyrics. Why and How? The whole soul in the song is this jathi which is aptly sung by TVG sir. You can clearly hear where the jathi is leading to, from where it started.

nakrithana thiranana na (starts the real fun)
thana nakrithana thana dhiranana dhirana (improvisation compared to first line)
nakrithana nakrithana nakrithana (kenjel, seendal, climax)
nakrithana nakrithana nakrithana dhiranana na.. (salvation!)

Why have I linked poetry and sex together?.
Again purely my thoughts. Why Maestro adds more jathi here instead of actual lyrics. Could have been better? May be, but as I interpret, Maestro cleverly stops with sandham and wants us to conceive our own lyrics based on our imaginations for this jathi, so that composition becomes dynamic instead of being static. Instead of what is being given is what we have to listen, as I mentioned ealier, we can add more aesthetics to appreciate it better. Assuming Maestro has given us a small template where we can play with (on the final output, which is truly amazing!). Have we ever witnessed such scenario, I honestly do not remember.

So, he is also teaching us to code on the template, but strictly there are no rules and syntax, except to match the sandhams.

Singing these lines gives so much merry. Greatest aural poetry!

Music
At every section there is music. The drama, dance, poetry all associated with music. Here we will continue where we left off from previous section.
The drums after the above jathi is just spellbinding, no one, I repeat no one can ever create this atrocious punch and magic, mavane dhool! He gives that chill and literally gets into our nerves, no one can ever give me! I remember one of my town friend who is elder to me and studied at CIT, Coimbatore during that time (may be 2nd or 3rd year - perfect time to be in college). He used to visit our town for semester holidays. He always calls Maestro as 'Mottai'. He used to always get hyper about this song, especially during this beat. He used to scream "mottai" during this part and used to say 'Mottai mandaikkula ennathaanda irukku'. Even now I am screaming and my wife and kids are in for a rude shock That's a monumental piece!

I mean the whole rhythm arrangements and syncopation (as KV mentioned), surely cracking and out-of-the-world stuff!!

While the energetic trumpets, bass guitar, ferocious violins tells the true story, visually KBR does not have a damn clue what needs to be done during this piece, just moves his legs here and there. Truly underwhelming!!

We can now hear the single trumpet at very high octaves which is of the body as the body is now ready for fun (except he is still in bondage), while at the last we can hear the second trumpet dipping down (of the soul). After the soul has attained its desire, it is now passing it to the body. Now the angels prey for the actual body. SJ and SPS seize this opportunity and comes with some extremely cheerful and erotic singing. Superb tune in charanam, giving the appropriate mood. The highlight is how the tune goes to lazy mode exactly during 'raaghu kaalam pOnathu, yOga nEram Kooduthu', Paarizaatham vaaduthu dhaagasanthi thEduthu', as still the hero is in bondage and they are becoming restless. The last line goes in for a great finish with violins to follow! Experience the "Maestro Roller-Coaster effect"!!

என்னைக்கும் இல்லாம இன்னைக்கு உன் கிட்ட ஆச (punctuations with synth/guitar?, clearly calling for hero's action!)
எப்பப்ப வந்தாலும் அப்பப்ப கல்யாண பூச
ஒன்னுக்குள் ஒன்னாக ஒன்றாகி நின்றானே சாமி
அத கண்ணுக்கு முன்னால என் கிட்ட இப்போது காமி
ராஹு காலம் போனது யோக நேரம் கூடுது
பாரிஜாதம் வாடுது தாகசாந்தி தேடுது
மதில் மேலே வரும் பூனை எதில் பாயுமோ (excellent guitar chord progression there!)

The crescendo violins after the last line clearly states the body is now out of bondage and the soul has completely transferred what it got, to the body. That's where our hero SPB kicks in with thunder, this time 'Pala macham ULLa' and not 'Ada macham ULLa' except to be let down by some funny dance movements by KBR. No look back from now on musically. During this pallavi we can hear his manasatchi again punctuating with those jathis. When he sings "thirikidathom tharikidathom", we can easily put "nadakattum nadakattum". That's the magic I was talking about the template.

High energy violins and trumpet in second interlude played only to again discover that KBR used it to some naive dance movements. Wasted opportunity! First time we are hearing flute as well in this interlude.

எங்கெங்கும் முந்தானை கண்டாலும் உண்டாகும் போத
சத்தங்கள் இல்லாத முத்தங்களின் என் காதல் கீத
மெத்தைக்கும் வித்தைக்கும் எப்போதும் பட்டத்து ராசா
உங்க கட்டுக்குள் வந்தாலே மொட்டுக்கள் தள்ளாடும் லேசா
நீரில்லாத மேடையில் நீந்த போகும் மீன் இது (hear how he extends the 'Ithu', so elegant!)
பாயப்போகும் வேங்கையை சாய வைக்கும் மான் இது
புயல் வீசி வரும் வேகம் கொடி தாங்குமோ (hear how SPB pronouces ThaangumO, what a punch! Only him possible)

When he finishes the pallavi lines for the last time, for the same lines TVG sings jathi differently. "nakinthinna nakinthinna thiranana na" instead of usual "nakinthinaa thirana", so breathtaking! Maestro demonstrates how much space is there to pack more things in the same span.

Art
All the above sections contribute for an excellent art. Maestro here combines all the above pieces to demonstrate Kama Yoga. He also cleverly leaves some portion for us to fill, thus making the composition a dynamic one.

Explosive trumpets (drama), extravagant rhythm arrangements (dance), high energy jathis and violins (poetry), terrific guitar and some glittering tune and singing (music) all makes it a wonder composition. So, all the above sections, Maestro has done through music alone. Is it not a wonder? Wonderful Keeravani (?) based composition with western pop/jazz arrangements. Maestro has used just 5 main instruments, violin, guitar, drums, trumpets and mridangam to create this grand wizadry of art.

If an art is an expression of creative skill and imagination in visual form, Maestro does not have a chance there, as the music is not a visual form. On the other hand, if a Maestro can bring visuals in front, to his listeners with his music alone, then there is a 100% chance of being called as art. Maestro does not need a separate visual media to reflect his work. In fact, he is the source for the visuals (as described in the above paragraph). It is then a superior form of art (IMHO). Why it is superior form of art?. In visual art, we can analyze the product in detail, write reviews and even point out the areas we like and dislike it. In music, with Maestro, each listener is taken to another level apart from the areas pointed above. That is the listeners visual imagination about the product of work. I wrote my thoughts above, but another person will come in and pour totally different set of ideas/perspectives on this composition (again I am not talking about reviews here). Third person can come in and paint a different set and so on. Again, if a child listens to this music, he can paint his own visual imagination over this. Only few visual art forms have his boon.

For example, take the same composition and listen again, completely forget all my above irrelevant thoughts. I am 100% sure, no one can even think about eroticism here. We can just enjoy the tune, singing and the orchestration, that's it. Unless you go by the lyrics or the situation, this composition is absolutely friendly to everyone. It will immediately trigger us to sing/hum the composition along. You are now the visual medium for the listener (may be for your family now). Even if you sing alone, you are still hearing and appreciating it and you are both the singer and the visual. If Visual forms like Dance, Film, Drama, Painting, Sculpting etc invoking visual imagination in us is such a great thing, a non-visual form like Music, especially Maestro's music invoking visual imagination in us is not a superior form of creative art?

crimson king wrote:
This was a classic mid 90s IR syndrome.  Supposedly a hit, but the truth is a lot of people simply wrote if off, at that time anything he did was invariably "same old, same old" in their eyes.  But what a beautiful tune and an amazing second interlude by any measure. Shades of Oru Myna where the chorus vocals come in in the charanam.

crimson king wrote:^^^  Exactly.  Familiarity breeds complacency and contempt.  Who knew then that 'just another Raja song' was something people would long for one day.  I was the only one in the family who liked the music of Azhagi at the time of release.  The other day, when Parvathy was singing Paatu Solli, my father remarked that he loved this song so much.  Change of heart, albeit pretty late in the day.  

crimson king wrote:Both Paatu Solli and Oliyile were played repeatedly on TV at that time and up to a few years after.  But by then TFM was well past the stage where such songs could ever hope to get talked about.     The songs you just mentioned bear testimony to it.  It was the time of bismillah bismillah nam vaazhvai vazhvom PLAYFUL a.