Anything about IR found on the net - Vol 1

Director of "Tamizhppadam"

Periya Raaja visiri.

A director of Mani Ratnam's stature can't be forced to answer meaningless or inappropriate questions. So, one needs to do proper research before questioning such Legends. A lesson for media!

See how the media is controlled by Mani friends and dings....if Mani loses his cool, media shoould learn.idhuvE IR irundhA...?

Clear proof of how the media has been subtly and overtly influenced by KB and friends' to subtly propoganda about IR's character

Now I remember...thamizhppadam

nanRi plum & Nerd!

Now, an individual's nostalgia w.r.t. rAsA song:

http://songsofage.blogspot.com/2013/01/31-18.html

பொதுவாக புல்லாங்குழல், வயலின், வீணை போன்றவற்றை ஒன்றுடன் மற்றொன்று ஒத்து, பின் தொடர்ந்து வருமாறு வைப்பது தான் இளையராஜா வழக்கம். இந்தப் பாடலின் இரண்டு சரணங்களுக்கு முன்னரும் ஒரு புல்லாங்குழல் மற்றொரு புல்லாங்குழலையே தொடர்வது நமக்கு வித்தியாசமான உணர்வு தரும் - ஒரு பாம்பின் மேல் மற்றொரு பாம்பு ஊர்வதை பார்ப்பது போல....

hi makkals

inge naan orey busy (annan gounds style) - will fill in as i get some news on the NEPV audio reception in the US front!

for now, a digression:

small request - can anyone living in the US call the following guys and ask if Viswaroopam
is slated for release in regular AMC/Regal/Cinemark halls, or, only in
desi halls that do not have Auro 3D facilities ?

BlueSky

Ph:732 586 0932

510 996 8514
i tried and they are not giving a proper reply!
- end digression

'Nadi thudikkudhadi' being shot in the Fiji islands - Pazha Karuppaiah is the producer - $8million is the budget! hopefully beautiful locations will inspire IR to give a splendid album - unlike 'gundello godavari'

irir123 wrote:'Nadi thudikkudhadi' being shot in the Fiji islands - Pazha Karuppaiah is the producer - $8million is the budget! hopefully beautiful locations will inspire IR to give a splendid album - unlike 'gundello godavari'

Unlike gundello godavariya..hmm

I really doubt that sometimes we as fans dont give justice to Raja's works. I have been in this mentality of discrediting his songs before. But over the years now i cannot even discount a single album. I respect your opinion. But just cant digest even hard core IR fans saying GG is poor. More so with GG because having drenched in NEPV and GG i cannot come out of GG more. There is not a single day i dont run the entire album.

Ekkadu Na kodi - Its nothing less than his 80s great peppy earthy numbers. Particularly the way the song starts, the bass lines, the link between every line to next. Its like some mathematical progression. This is the King at work.

Gundello goardi - Pls listen to this song more. Another perfect song. Clean singing by IR and every time the song starts i get goosebumps. The interludes are synth yes but they are Raja's synth in that its a compoistion rather than fillers. Charanams are brilliant.

Jillumandi - This another to add collection to raja's sensuous songs like sivarathiri, masi masam. The charanam particularly in male voice is too good. Again raja has done a classical piece for a sensuous situation which is so typical of him.

Vedhi - I like this song in that it clearly brings the flavour of the masala folk and the way the beats are added and vocals are seperated and the harmonium is so earthy.

And vahcani - Its a remix alright. But thank god raja did this as he knows exactly what to do with the song. I cant help but increase volume to max everytime. The way he has used synth to taper the beat and then go full blown. And the nostalgia factor to it is some experience.

Nanu nethu - Great melody.

The album for me is another perfect Raja album with songs that have so much structural integrity, earthiness and pep to it.
Pls give more time and you would enjoy it.Sorry thats my opinion.

Tuyitterla anbargaL vENdukOLukkiNanga sila pala IR-related Telugu-Malayalam videos-ai translate paNNi thandhEn... Why miss out on our forum for that? Here's for you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP_cXwL_86c


SPB: Bharathiraja was my good friend. I didn't know Ilayaraja then. One day BR told me "I know a family of 3 brothers from my place. Their elder brother was a communist propogandist, these fellows used to help him as musicians. The elder bro died suddenly..and they are struggling now...they have come to Madras now...can you take them in your orchestra?". // (pronouncing it orchestra - che as in chembai)

I said "Send them across". I was running an orchestra by then.These 3 brothers came to me - Raja, his name was Rajiah actually, the younger one was Amar Singh, the elder one was Bhaskar.

After my rehearsals, I called them and asked Rajiah "So what do you play". He said "ji I play Harmonium ji".

I called for the Harmonium in the place, and asked him to play, He started playing 'Laura's theme' from Dr Zhivago using both hands. I was so astonished when he finished - I asked him " Have you learnt WCM".

"No Sir I dont know music. I dont even know to write notes"

"How could you play the...you are playing the bass parts, and the other parts of the...whole orchestration you are playing with two hands."

"I dont know sir. I am just playing by listening to the music"

I already had a Harmonium player called Anirudha, son of a famous rhythm player called Thumba raja, who had given me my first chance to sing in an orchestra in Chennai. How can I fire him and take this man?

So I said "See I already have a harmonium player, he is like my Guru, how can I ..."

"I also play the guitar"

"What? You dont know music..WCM.. anything but you play guitar also?"

"Sir I just learnt by listening.."

I didn't have a guitar player then.. I had a mandolin player but no guitar player. So he joined as a guitar player

Shortly, Anirudha dropped out due to his corporation job, and retired from our orchestra. Thus, Raja got promoted as harmonist. Amar became the guitarist. Elder Bhaskar used to play triple congo.

Thus started the orchestra called Paavalar SagodharargaL in tamil, It was their "family name". ......// *1

So started the paavalar brothers orchestra
We did many many kutcheris in tamil and telugu

Then he joined GKV...then he, with dedication, learnt our classical music and Western Classical as well, and of course, he became a great music director.

The songs that he gave me in Tamil/Tel/Kannada are Rubies(mAnikkya). Amazing, he made amazing songs..amazing songs, he made me sing. Shall we try to sing one such song now...you talked about Abhinandhana....one from Abhinandnana?

Anchor: Prema entha madhuram... //*2

(Song is sung)

SPB: Actually, Athreya rarely writes lyrics for tunes.In his whole career, hardly 1%, he'd have written for composed tunes. All these songs in this movie, he wrote for Raja's tunes.

When Raja composes, he composes with harmonium...no guitar or anything..not even rhythms. He takes a 'thathakAram', like say, in this case, 'thAna thAna thananA, thara thAna nAna thananA". Look at the syncopation coming next ...it's one heck of a syncopation...

"thari thara thana thana thanana nana"

And immediately Athreya goes "how many thanas rA..cheppaRa " ///*3

IR responds: "Will you write for the trac..music? If so, write without losing even one rava deviating slightly. If you think that's difficult, you write the song, and I'll set it to tune"....//*4

So he is very particular, and as he demanded, Athreya sir wrote exactly as per his thathakAras without an iota of deviation...

The great thing about working with Athreya sir is..one day he came to my house and started right away " E rA...don't I look like a writer...you think I am not a poet..."

I said "no no nothing like that.enti guru gaaru ala antunAru."
He replied "It's not like I am not getting opportunities...you seem to be always calling Veturi Sundararama murthy for your songs...he is a great lyricist, I agree..but there wont be a record of me writing for you..vedhavA, give me a song you donkey(gaadihdha)." //*5

He had that sort of dominant personality - he could demand it from me.
I immediately asked him to write for my "magadheerudu", the very next day.

And Raja... My Buddy, you know how proud I am to just call him my friend, even today...he's special..his re-recording...the way he has...in a way nobody can imagine. I could see, the first strains of his song...even as they played the first few notes, they put the instruments down and started applauding him..
"We never heard these sounds before...never before heard"...they said. That song, in that Manirathnam movie...ah..tha...thalabadhi.

***Sings sundari kannal***

He used about 126 musicians for the orchestration of this song...french horns...he called for every instrument available..it was like a festival...the bombay folks were saying .."IR is recording a song. We have to see it..last time it happened was for [i]Aa Ab Laut chalein by Shankar-Jaikishen.that's when they used such a huge orchestra.". "What sounding(sic) this is.."

He got 'daasoham' as the recordists praised so much as above...but SJ and myself were so proud..i cant explain how proud I was...me and Janaki. So, in my journey, a wonderful swaram that i have got...is Ilayaraja....//*7

*1 - SPB says, inaccurately, that Paavalar was their intiperu(family name)
*2 - Think the anchor is singer Sunitha
*3- Athreya, a famous telugu lyricist from the elder generation to IR. Note he is allowed to call IR in orumai. EntrA chepparA.
*4 - not sure if rava is equivalent to what we call mAththirai. Presumably a measurable unit of a thathakaram is what a rava is.

*5 - vedhava, sort of rascal
*6 - Song in a Raj Kapoor movie(Jis desh mein ganga behti hain from 50s about reforming chambal dacoits. This is the anthem song as he leads them back to normal society. This song was rehahsed in a tamil movie called Thaat Bhoot Thanjavur as 'Amma omsakthiyE"(in the 90s)

*7 dhaasoham - sort of feeling humbled

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kakn4a3ZuQ

This was a S Janaki Interview we discussed in previous forum. I am almost 100% sure that the reason this one is in the net is a outcome of that discussion. I am almost sure that this was dug out after we brought it to the attention of the internet populace.
However, with a nice twist, what happened was, it seems like this was shared in Facebook, with the following translation - slightly - no significantly - misrepresenting Janaki's words, and making it sound like Janaki stood up to the bully Ilayaraja. This came to my attention in twitter:

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/kk0la3

So, I had to set the record right, which I did, with the following translation:

SJ: Periodically, we used to have differences, and end up in me not singing for a couple of months for him, then he used to come behind me and ask why don]t you sing my songs. This happened many times

Interviewer: So what kind of differences you used to have.

SJ: For example, once he asked me and I agreed for a recording. On the same day - at RR Theatre - I had an Ilayaraja recording and at AVM C, a MSV recording. I told IR that MSV said he will leave me by 12PM. IR said "no he wont send you that early". I said "no he will definitely" and "even if it stretches, I will manage to come. "]/i]

And it turned out that MSV couldn't send me on time.

I asked MSV "[i]I need to go how long this will take" MSV replied "how will I know?[ (kala kannAnA)".

So, MSV who agreed to send me earlier said like this. Suppose I had left then, it would have looked bad, no? It wouldn't have been respectful to MSV and shameful on my part. So I kept quiet and it soon became 1PM...meanwhile, from IR's theater few people kept coming to remind me...and my husband tried to manage the situation there saying "it is last take, she is coming soon.."
Then, we finally left.

As we neared in the car to RR theatre, we heard Jency singing the same song, my husband immediately said "we'll go back" and we skipped it.

After that he ended up not giving me any songs, and when questioned started saying "oh it was 1Pm already what can I do etc". Then I asked him "You have sent me to Sathyam's recordings at 2PM. Didnt they wait for you? This is all adjustment no? Why cant you forgive when you know it was in same studio". Two months passed. We met in a preview and said "my songs are getting spoiled. I said what can I do etc and then eventually, we struck a compromise and then I started singing again for him.

Then, on another occasion, he asked me to sing a club song, I said "if you give other heroine song I will sing this" and this caused a rift. I have my own prestige no? It is not that I cant sing a club song but ...so again a rift, then, again, his attempts to get me back singing for him. Sometime later, I was singing for MB Sreenivasan, and he came and started the same story again..and MBS rebuked him "Dont disturb my artist when she is singing in good mood" . So, things like this used to happen.In general, I wont let down any MD -if I commit, I will turn up. Even for IR, I have song many songs when I was not well, not many know this.

The net discussion boils down to S Janaki reminiscing her tiffs with IR, and overall, just shows the strength of their relationship. There is absolutely no bitterness or a feeling of "I stood up to bully IR". She recalls in a tone that clearly shows she is nostalgic about the urimai in that relationship and the friendly banter and how they used to fight childishly, just like friends do.
Also, not the following points

1. "MSV who agreed to leave me by 12PM totally went back on his word and I couldn't say anything as it will be disrespectful to a senior"
2. Her recall of the incident in MBS's recording where MBS rebuked IR and asked him to go out. What does this show you? A man committed to his art, who doesn't mind being "humiliated" in pursuit of perfection. Also, it might be that IR didn't mind that from his senior MBS, who he most likely played for and respected.
3. It was S Janaki's husband who turned the car when they heard Jency singing. There is nothing like "I felt humiliated etc" as the facebook post has masala-claimed.

Yesterday, my daughter made me proud by playing "Thumbi vaa" in a talent program on the keyboard!!
She did so close to 95% correct. I got her the score sheet that Vignesh Subramanian had uploaded in raagadevan.blogspot.com.
She was overwhelmed by the complexity - particularly the charanam portion and the "dangerous descent".
Somehow we managed to cheat a little and get it done.. will upload soon the video.

http://solvanam.com/?p=23484

ROTFL

Thanks a lot plum for taking time and translating SPB and S Janaki's interview and also providing your insight into it. Thoroughly enjoyed your writing on SPB interview. By the name "Paavalar SagotharargaL" all the while I was thinking SPB was part of their troupe, but only today I knew that only SPB initiated a troupe and included them. YaarumE intha idha vishayatha idhuvarai clear'a sollaliyA illa naathaan thappA purinchindEnA theriyala, but now it cleared my confusion. Thanks!

rajafan wrote:I really doubt that sometimes we as fans dont give justice to Raja's works. I have been in this mentality of discrediting his songs before. But over the years now i cannot even discount a single album. I respect your opinion. But just cant digest even hard core IR fans saying GG is poor. More so with GG because having drenched in NEPV and GG i cannot come out of GG more. There is not a single day i dont run the entire album.

Ekkadu Na kodi - Its nothing less than his 80s great peppy earthy numbers. Particularly the way the song starts, the bass lines, the link between every line to next. Its like some mathematical progression. This is the King at work.

Gundello goardi - Pls listen to this song more. Another perfect song. Clean singing by IR and every time the song starts i get goosebumps. The interludes are synth yes but they are Raja's synth in that its a compoistion rather than fillers. Charanams are brilliant.

Jillumandi - This another to add collection to raja's sensuous songs like sivarathiri, masi masam. The charanam particularly in male voice is too good. Again raja has done a classical piece for a sensuous situation which is so typical of him.

Vedhi - I like this song in that it clearly brings the flavour of the masala folk and the way the beats are added and vocals are seperated and the harmonium is so earthy.

And vahcani - Its a remix alright. But thank god raja did this as he knows exactly what to do with the song. I cant help but increase volume to max everytime. The way he has used synth to taper the beat and then go full blown. And the nostalgia factor to it is some experience.

Nanu nethu - Great melody.

The album for me is another perfect Raja album with songs that have so much structural integrity, earthiness and pep to it.
Pls give more time and you would enjoy it.Sorry thats my opinion.

rajafan,
Please do write often. Your review is very inspiring. As I said to Suresh ji earlier as he was also of similar opinion like yours, it is time I put some time to listen to GG again.

Looks like KR has built a thillAlangadi song...look at what he says here:

http://dinamani.com/cinema/article1421016.ece

எனது தந்தை பாடல் பதிவின் போது, எந்தப் பாடலாக இருந்தாலும் 10 நிமிடத்தில் பாடி முடித்து விடுவார். ஆனால் இந்த ஆல்பத்தில் உள்ள ஒரு பாடலை பாடி முடிக்க 3 மணி நேரம் ஆனது.

This article was possibly written on the net last year, i.e. prior to the postponement of the Toronto concert...however, a portion of this chocked my throat and got my eyes welled up...so, sharing the blog link here:

ஈழத் தமிழன், இழக்கத் தயாராயில்லாத, இளையராஜா

ஈழத்தமிழன் இழந்தவை கொஞ்சநஞ்சமல்ல..பெற்றோர்,சகோதரர் ,சொந்தங்கள்,பந்தங்கள், நட்புக்கள், உடமைகள், சிறுவயதுப் பாடசாலைகள், கல்லூரிகள்,தியேட்டர்கள்,கோவில்கள்,வேலிகள்,தோட்டங்கள், ஆசையாக வளர்த்த நாய்கள்,ஆடுகள்,மாடுகள்,கோழிகள், பனைகள், வாகனங்கள், தவறணைகள்.. முக்கியமாக தாய்மண்ணை , பிறந்து தவழ்ந்து வளர்ந்த வீட்டை.. ஊரை எல்லாத்தையும் இழந்துவிட்டான்.. அவை அவனுக்கு திருப்பிக் கிடைக்கப் போவதில்லை.. இழந்தவைகளை ஒருமுறைகூட மீண்டும் பார்க்கக் கூடிய சந்தர்ப்பம் வரப் போவதில்லை. ஆனால் அவனது வாழ்க்கையில் நடந்த மகிழ்ச்சியான சம்பவங்களையும், சொந்தங்கள் பந்தங்களுடன் கூடிக் குலாவிய அந்த அழகான நாட்களையும், இடங்களையும் இன்றும் அனுபவித்துப்பார்க்கக் கூடிய அற்புதம் நிகழ்ந்து கொண்டிருக்கிறது அது எங்கள் இசைஞானியால்.. அவரின் பாடல்களால்.

App,
Aayiram thanks for that blog. I am mesmerized by that picture. I can feel the silence and peace looking at the picture. Will try to download that one for my desktop. Seems like a good blog, will read it in the evening.

அவரது பாடல்களுக்கு நான் அடிமை என்றார் அனுஷ்கா

app_engine wrote:Looks like KR has built a thillAlangadi song...look at what he says here:

http://dinamani.com/cinema/article1421016.ece

எனது தந்தை பாடல் பதிவின் போது, எந்தப் பாடலாக இருந்தாலும் 10 நிமிடத்தில் பாடி முடித்து விடுவார். ஆனால் இந்த ஆல்பத்தில் உள்ள ஒரு பாடலை பாடி முடிக்க 3 மணி நேரம் ஆனது.

ஆஹா! எங்க ஊர்லயா வெளியிடுகிறார். ரொம்ப நல்லது

Nothing about Ilaiyaraaja - but because of Raaja..
Here is the youtube link to my daughter performing "Thumbee vaa" in a talent show in our local hindu temple (Des Moines, IA).

I am a proud dad and thanks to Raaja.
To music experts - little help required in teaching her the final portions and also need the score sheet for interludes. I used the
score sheet from http://raagadevan.blogspot.com/2008/11/thumbi-vaa.html for this.
and thanks to raagadevan blog for this.

Lovely, Jai, lovely. Congratulations.

interesting comment in a youtube video of vegam vegam from Anjali : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD-1Ffo36Qo

"this song is unique for the technique used. Its so high tempo that I am almost suspecting it was recorded in a lower tempo and then played back to the intended fast tempo for recording the vocals. My reason for thinking is that when I wanted to play the piano and string interludes, it was to fast to play in one go, also the slap bass sounds a bit high pitched. This is something I might have to ask the maestro if i ever get to meet him"



Anyone thinks that's how the song was recorded? (ie; tempo ethified after recording the instruments part ?)

Jai ,
Wow that was really nicely played
Only a few small areas for her to take care of ..
During Charanam at 01:08 , she plays it as Ma1 Pa Ni3 Ni3 Sa Sa Sa , actually it should be Ma1 Pa Ni2 Ni2 Ni3 Ni3 Sa
(ie as per western notations should be F G Bflat Bflat B B C)
And the last part from 01:30 , these should be the notes Eflat D C , B C Bflat Bflat A A G , Aflat G F E , E F Bflat G F Eflat D C B (B alone in lower octave)
The last part notes are pretty confusing , she has done a great job of playing this tough song