Forgotten Singers of Ilaiyaraaja's Era

app - the singer in maniyosai kettu ezhundhu on screen is K. Swarna, wife of famous MD V.Kumar. Kumar and she fell in love when he stayed as tenant in her house, in a typical scenario out of the movies of KB, who was Kumar's most famous and effective colloborator in movies.

ok, nanRi Plum...Swarna V Kumar, nice to know!
(Possibly the dhool V Kumar series had this detail, I confused it with Kalyani Menon)...

Ah yes app - Dhool Saravanan kittE irundhu sutta matter dhAn adhu

Incidently, Deepan is sharing his experiences on Jaya TV in ManathOdu Mano. Deepan was explaining about how he recorded "Ithu KanavugaL" from Nizhal ThEdum NenjangaL. Initially Raja's assistant taught him the tune and when Deepan was rehearsing, Raja himself went in and corrected with more details and it turned out be a breezy song altogether. He was explaining how Maestro gave him the name "Deepan" and his first song for Maestro; Oh NenjamE from Enakkaaga Kaathiru. Mano and Deepan were also sharing the intricacies of Poojaikkaga Vaazhum (from Kaadhal Oviyam) and the raaga beauty of Malayamarutham. Bloody brilliant! How SPB acknowledged this song and asked Maestro and BR not to change it. I think this we already know. Even though Nizhalgal released first, his first song was Oh NenjamE. Unfortunately he sang only few songs for IR. Listing out his songs. If I have missed out any please fill in.

PoongathavE - NizhalgaL (1980)
Oh NenjamE - Enakkaaga Kaathiru (1981)
Pani Mazhai Vizhum - Enakkaaga Kaathiru (1981)
Poojaikkaaga Vaazhum - Kaadhal Oviyam (1982)
Nathiyil Aadum - Kaadhal Oviyam (1982) (Only the starting slokam)
Vaa Machchi Machchi - Manjal Nilaa (1982)
Idhu KanavugaL Nizhal - ThEdum NenjangaL (1982)
RamanukkE Seethai - Raani Theni (1982)
Kaalai NEra KaatrE - Bagavathipuram Railway Gate (1983)
Vidhaitha Vidhai - Ethanai Konam Ethanai Paarvai 1983)
Aasai Manasu Onnu - MalargaL Nanaigindrana (1983)
Sevvanthi PookaLil - Mella PesungaL (1983)
Hello Aasai DeepamE - Hello Yaar Pesurathu (1985)
Sorunna Satti - Kanni Raasi (1985)
DEvadhai POLoru - GOpura VaasalilE (1991)

I feel Raja could have used him more, may be his voice didn't suit most of the heroes. If Arummozhi can sing hundreds of songs with his voice, definitely he could have done much much better. Great singer almost forgotten!

V_S wrote:
I feel Raja could have used him more, may be his voice didn't suit most of the heroes.

One reason was Deepan C had aspirations to become hero. (He didn't seem to give up even after the disastrous 'rANiththEni' debut).

I've read somewhere (varalARRu suvadukaL, may be) that IR was asking DC whether he was clear as to which route he was going to pursue seriously. Unfortunately, the confused DC didn't make proper choices...IR wasn't going to wait for his recordings, even for someone like SJ

App, Good to know all these details. Seeing him participate in many music shows nowadays and hear him sing well, I thought he was available. May be he lost touch with the music directors after 80s and also didn't come forward saying that he is still available, not sure.

V_Sji,

Lovely post on 'poovE idhu poojaikkAlamE'.
However, idhukku mattum objection your honor:

V_S wrote:
unheard film

grAmaththu athyAyam, apart from the fact that it had four phenomenal songs by IR, was a big "looking forward to" movie those days, by the serious cinema lovers.

Reason?

It was the second film of Rudraiah, the director who made the wonder 'avaL appadiththAn', the career best for Sripriya - in company with Kamal, Rajini & rAsA. Though I've read great things about that movie those days, got a chance to watch only a couple of years back (on the net) and was thoroughly impressed. (Jaiganesh has a detailed review of this movie on his blog IIRC). The movie also earned decent money, apart from a lot of fame.

Naturally, the next by that director was keenly anticipated. To add to the expectations, rAsA gave tremendous songs that got played ahead of the release in SLBC I think :

-Aththu mEttula oru pAttu kEkkudhu (MV / SJ)
-oodhakkAththu veesayila kuyilu koovaiyila (SJ/PJ)
-vAdAdha rOsAppoo nA onnu pAththEn (SPB)
-the BSS song that got posted about

(I think our village teakkadai fellow had the 48 RPM vinyl as well)

So, though the movie was a disaster, it cannot be called "unheard"

Thanks App. I didn't hear much about this film. Yes, songs were very popular as you said. Thanks for great details about the film.

The director actually picturized the songs wonderfully in the B&W 'avaL appadiththAn' ('uRavukaL thodarkadhai' picturization meets ulakaththaram - i.e. if someone can give me a definition for that ; otherwise, that song IS the ulakaththaram, on and off screen!).

As he had directed only 2 movies (AA & GA), he at least gets 50 marks w.r.t. picturization of rAsA songs So, IMHO, he cannot be clubbed with the large group of directors who mercilessly massacred great songs on screen

We all know these Duets, but when asked about the singers, we can clearly tell the male singers. Somehow we get confused when it comes to identify female singer, as she is shadowed by these legends. Yet she stamps her class. Her voice sometimes gives a feel like Swarnalatha's voice, but we can distinguish. So, mostly she has been shadowed by these male and female singers. She has sung some popular ones and also quite rare ones mainly as solos. Thiraipaadal has most of them, but few are left and some songs have been wrongly credited to her which is usual in thiraipaadal site.

Good that she is still singing. She has some great songs for other music directors. My favorites being her solos as she has full song to prover her capability.

Duets:
Kaadhal Mayakkam - Pudhumai PeN
VeLLa Manam - Chinna Veedu
Poongiyil Rendu - Veetla Visheshanga
Oru KOlakiLi - Pon Vilangu
Solli Solli - Senthamizh Paattu
SemmeenE SemmeenE - Sevvanthi
Siruvani - Enga Ooru Kaavakkaran

Solos:
Sollattuma - Sakkarai Panthal
Anbennum - Sakkarai Panthal
Poove Sempoove - Solla Thudikkuthu Manasu
Chinna Chinna - Sakthi Vel
Suthratha Bhoomi - NilavE Mugam Kaattu
ThuLi Mani ThuLiyE - Raasa Magan
Vidiyum NEram - Sethupathi IPS
Ayya - Dharma Seelan

http://www.thiraipaadal.com/singer.php?page=1&SGRID=Sunandha&lang=en&sort=song_asc

Two more excellent numbers by Sunandha :

mannavA mannavA (walter vetrivel)

sheNbagamE sheNbagamE (happy version, enga ooru pAttukkAran)

Thanks App for adding the missing numbers.

Whenever we think of Mike Mohan, we cannot forget this person. Whenever we think of this person, we cannot forget Mohan. Both benefitted mutually. He has a 'blocked nose' voice, but definitely that does not take away his capability as a singer. Apart from giving playback, he sang some beautiful songs right from late 70s till millennium for Maestro, not frequently though. I think his first song incidentally happened to be a duet surprisingly with his sister Shoba Chandrasekar from the film Aval Oru Pachchai Kuzhanthai.

The song starts with a breezy guitar and a gliding keyboard. I could not clearly distinguish if this song has anu-pallavi or just the pallavi. The flow is continuous except for the first word, maalai. 'Maalai iLam manathil aasai thanai thooviyathu adhi kaalai, andha ninaivil dhinam aayiram kavithaigaL paadiyathu maalai' Very sweet pallavi. Interlude comprises of lead guitar, bass guitar, acoustic drums and flute, a very short interlude. Second interlude mostly has keyboard and bass guitar. Surendar has just few line to sing in charanam and ending pallavi, more of a Shoba's song, nevertheless the song which introduced him to film world.

http://www.thiraipaadal.com/tpplayer.asp?sngs='SNGIRR0351'&lang=en

There is another rare one which skr introduced to me. Aivagai MalargaLai from Adhikaaram, a duet with S Janaki. An excellent number.

More later…

V_S Gopuranggal Saivathillai numbers are by Krishnachander illa?

grouch,
You are right, I don't know how did I make that mistake Somehow that song played in my mind when I was writing that post and messed it up. Just checked in my list, yes it is Krishna Chandar. Will clear that up. Thanks for correcting me.

Trouble is, when these songs are playing in our mind, we are too immersed with the music that we have no grasp of the singers, especially not too frequently used types like Krishnachander or Surendar. In fact, that Surendar song you posted, he sounded like, no thanks to poor quality of the sound, Deepan Chakravarthi. Only less than stellar singing confirms its Surendar.

Here is somewhat better quality compared to thiraipaadal.
http://www.mediafire.com/?hkzrvk9mn1rhd1w

Also found one interesting write-up about this song by 'Dhool' Saravanan.
http://www.dhool.com/sotd2/448.html

I'm ill-equipped to decipher the connection, but whenever I hear this 'mAlai iLamanadhil' song by Vijay's ammA, the terrific PS-TMS song 'mannikka vENdukiREn, undhan Asaiyaith thooNdukiREn' starts playing in my mind

While reading V_Sji's post, I let the song play in the background and invariably the fantastic song from iru malargaL started playing in the mind

Not just that, it kept playing all night and in the morning, until I switched to the 'yE thendRalE' in the car (on repeat mode there).

I'm so in love with that 'mannikka vENdukiREn' song right from radio days.

Especially the end of the saraNam is OOW! PS rules!

http://www.thiraipaadal.com/tpplayer.asp?sngs='SNGOLD0607'&lang=en

Someone please decipher this 'mAlai-mannikka' connection for me

BTW, S N Surendar - Mohan connection is still there in gOpurangaL sAyvadhillai (as dubbing voice to Mohan, though the 'pudichchAlum pudichchEn' song was Krishna chandar).

One song that SNS sang for Mohan is 'dEvan kOyil deepam onRu' but it was only on the disk - onscreen version is SJ solo in nAn pAdum pAdal

App,
Yes, 'maalai iLa manathil' definitely has MSV touch in the tune. Only from orchestration we can distinguish it is Raja. Your connection to Iru MalargaL songs seems interesting, the resemblance is there at the start.

Another interesting tit-bit about SN Surendar is he didn't sing much solos for IR and most of his duet are male duets (with two or more singers). No other singer has sung so many male duets (and chorus) compared to the total number of songs. As you pointed out, it is surprising he sang only one song for Mohan, but has given Mohan a whole new life with his voice.

Most popular IR numbers. I use to listen to these songs often, especially Paarijaathu PoovE and Mangai Nee as his voice is clearly heard in these songs.
DEvan Koyil (Naan Paadum Paadal)
Paarijaatha PoovE (En Raasaavin ManasilE)
DEvathai pOloru (GOpura VaasalilE)
Santhanam Javvaathu (VaLLi)
Mangai Nee (Innisai Mazhai)

But he became popular during mid 80s with two of his best numbers, from Oomai VizhigaL; Maamarathu Poo eduthu and KaNmani nillu (music by Manoj-Gyan).

He also sang in KarimEdu Karuvaayan, SEthu, Amaidhi Padai, Periya Maruthu, Thaayamma to name a few, but most of the songs as a group. Will get these rare ones in the evening.

ahA silukku dhaavani!

A nice song by Chitra and Krishachandar from KarimEdu Karvuvaayan. Starts with beautiful guitar, backing violins and finishing with scintillating flute. Hear the bass guitar, lovely! The rhythm pattern is uneven which adds beauty to this innocent composition. Very sweet tune. Not much strain for singers, as Maestro keeps the tune mostly in middle octaves. Violins and flute flows like the blood and branches out in every direction (through our veins) to provide composure.

http://www.thiraipaadal.com/tpplayer.asp?sngs='SNGIRR1573'&lang=en

This is captain's film, but this song was pictured on Pandian and Aruna.

I think thirapaadal links for this movie songs were breaking every few seconds. Good link irukA?

Yes, youtube link here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA9nc0kHG2U

I uploaded the song now on mediafire.
http://www.mediafire.com/?yrw47ss2feddp1y