Classical Ilayaraja - 11

I wrote these articles in 1994 and 1995 while at University of Houston graduate school. I posted them in usenet groups (recreation.music.indian.classical). Now that I have my own blogspot address, I wanted to bring these articles to my blog. Thanks to www.tfmpage.com/ci who had hosted them thus far, I found my own articles and brought them here. 

V.G.Pannerdass has got an experimental animal in his V.G.P Golden Beach

near Madras! That is his "goorka". He pays that watchman only to stand near

the gate with an expressionless face. Whatever the passersby do, he would

stand there with the same old expressionless face! Let Kamalhasan do all

the "seshtai" that he does in the last scene of moonrampirai, the VGP

goorka's mask like face would show neither happiness nor sadness! He'd

neither cry nor laugh. The VGP management is so proud of this guy that it

is even ready to bet a hefty prize money if that would motivate somebody to

make this guy cry or laugh. I cannot help wondering at VGP's morbid taste

in having this kind of a person at their gate.

Now, can we consider the usage of ragas to make this person change his

emotions? If Illayaraja goes before this person and sings his valli song

(enna enna kanavu) or payanangal mudivadhilai song (vaigarayil) in subapan-

thuvarali ragam, would it make his affect sad? It perhaps would, because

some of the ragas indeed have a powerful negative effect on one's affect,

causing him to go to the lows! Let SPB go before this person and sing his

mayuri song (idhu oru mananaatiya medai) in the ragam Brindavana Saranga,

or L.Vaidyanathan sing his "veenayadi nee enaku" (aezhavadu manidhan) in

Kalyani, would it make his affect happy? It perhaps would, because some

ragas indeed have a very powerful positive effect on one's affect, causing

him to go to the highs! (This is what music therapy basically aims at,

right?). Now, the question is, are there any ragas that can really make

this person laugh or atleast to open his pursed lips and give a smile ?!

The human species is very conceited that only it can laugh! It has

concluded that the sense of humour is an essential human quality. Maybe,

during the innumerable years of evolution, it is the only species that has

somehow successfully learnt to expressively manifest its inner humourous

feelings. Just because the animals do not widely open their mouth and laugh

(as many of us do often, much to the disgust of our neighbours!), the old

ancestral members of our species seem to have concluded that the animals do

not have any sense of humour. I atleast know of one another species that

can express its humour well! Buy a pocket of "kadalamittai" and start

ascending the stairs of Trichi malaikotai to have Lord Ganesha's darshan.

Those garrulous monkeys 'gumbal' there will stealthly follow you and at one

oppurtune moment "rag" you and snatch away your kadalamittai with a swift

agile attack! While they recede away from you (or rather you recede away

from them) the victims report noticing a kinda derisive laughter by the

monkeys! Anyway, if ragas can cause sadness and crying, can it also cause a

person to laugh!

Music directors often face this challenge, when directors tell them a

comical situation in their movie and ask for a tune. M.S.Viswanathan has

done a fantastic job in the movie "balae pandiya". The song is "neeyae

enaku enrum". MSV tuned that song in chaste Sudha Danyasi. The situation of

that song is a very comical one, Sivaji Ganesan and first class actor

M.R.Radha vying with each other in their jest. The lyrics too is quite

comical. But, the question is, does the Sudha Danyasi ragam of the song

have an element of humour in it! Probably not.

Illayaraja too has used pure classical ragas to suit humourous situations.

In "thambiku endha ooru", Madhavi is a city girl. Hero Rajini is a country

brute! Madhavi happens to come to Rajini's village once. And now, even a

small "paapa" with a rubber nipple in its mouth will tell the rest of the

story: Rajini will sing a song critisizing Madhavi, Madhavi will get

irritated, then she will fight with Rajini and vice versa, and when the

villain comes, both of them will start loving each other and finally, the

extras in police dress will come and arrest the villain....! Can you try to

guess what ragam Illayaraja has used for the comical song! Arabhi!

Arabhi is a Sankarabharanam janyam. Its arohanam and avarohanam are Sa Ri2

Ma1 Pa Da2 Sa; Sa Ni3 Da2 Pa Ma Ga3 Ri2 Sa. It is a very pleasant ragam. It

is closely related (sanchara-wise) to Devakandhari. There are no cinema

songs in Devakandhari. But, in the pre-Illayaraja period we have got one

Arabhi song. That is "aerikarai melae". I guess it has been tuned by the

then giant K.V.Mahadevan. T.M.S starts the song in his "ganeer" voice in

the madhyama sthayi dhaivatham. Illayaraja's first Arabhi song is "aasai

kiliyae arai kilo puliyae.."

Malaysia Vasudevan has sung this song. He is one of the best singers of our

time, who has been appropriately used only by Illayaraja. Malaysia does not

seem to have got any proper training in classical music. His voice is like

a resume with record of BA (history) from Madras University and 2 months of

computer training in NIIT! If you give it to a proper body- shopper it will

come to California. Otherwise it will just go to teach 7th standard history

text in Madras Corporation school! (Thou shall not take offence, dear

resume!) Like Rahman uses the "thagara dappa" voice of Suresh Peters

wonderfully and sells it, Illayaraja has used Malaysia's unpolished voice

excellently in many of his highly classical songs. Aasai kiliyae is one

such instance....The song starts like this Ma Pa Da Sa, Da Sa Da Pa, Pa Pa

Da Pa Ma Ga Ri Sa Ri, Ri Ma Pa Da Da Pa Da Sa....It is a fantastic song,

giving all the raga-lakshanam of Aarabi in a very pure form. Even though

the avarohanam of Aarabi just lists all the swaras of Sankarabaranam

plainly, there is a specific way by which you got to use those swaras to

make it sound Aarabi. The temporal duration (karvai) of Ma is usually

protracted while the gandaram is just touched upon very rapidly. Thus Ma Ga

Ri Sa is sung like Ma....GaRi Sa. Also, we can practically omit the usage

of nishadam and the ragam would still be unblemished. Illayaraja has not

used Ni in this song. The lyrics of this song is funny.

Aasai kiliyae arai kilo puliyae

aazhugina thakkaliyae...

Maeyura kozhi ellam aaguradhu kariyae

adiyae en arumai thavakalayae...

If the hero taunts the heroine by calling her as "spoiled tomato" then it

is understandable. When the hero calls her as "half kg of tamarind", what

does it mean? But, that is how the song goes.... Now, lately Illayaraja has

given two more Aarabi songs. One song goes like "mannavanae mannavanae

manasukaetha thennavanae". I think it is a Vijayakanth movie song. The song

has been sung by SPB and Janaki. It is a very melodious song. He has used

Ni in this song. The last Aarabi that he has given comes in the movie

pudhupatti ponnuthayee. The song is "madhurai vaazhum meenakshiyae". This

is also an unbelievably classic song sung by K.J.Yesudoss and Janaki. One

can very easily learn Aarabi with the help of these cinema songs! But, does

Arabi have an element of humour? Probably not.

Carnatic music is like Choolaimedu 24 hours polyclinic in Madras. You go

there with just symptoms of common cold. But the Doctor there (who has not

yet cleared the subjects that he failed in final MBBS) has lots of

surprises for you. He says that you are very week and almost coerces you to

have the supposedly invigorating 5% glucose drip (which hardly has a total

of 25 gm of glucose in it!). Carnatic music has got lot more surprises to

give you than this Doc! There is a ragam which has got the same arohanam

and avaro- hanam as Aarabi (Sa Ri Ma Pa Da Sa; Sa Da Pa Ma Ga Ri Sa; Since

we can sing Aarabi without using Ni, we can say so) The ragam is Sama,

another janyam of Sankarabaranam. Even though Aarabi and Sama are

swara-wise identical, they are totally two different ragas sanchara wise.

The differ- ence comes in the way we deal with the gandaram. In Aarabi, the

Ga is just touched upon while we go from Ma to Ri. In Sama, we can be

little more liberal (time-wise) with Ga. Also, there are certain special

prayogams in Sama like Ma Pa Da Ma. So, these minute details make a drastic

difference in these ragas.

MSV is the only one who has beautifully used this wonderful ragam, Sama in

cinema. He has given two Samas. One is in the movie "Sirai". The story is a

revolutionary plot charecterizing the pathos of Lakshmi, an innocent rape

victim. She is the wife of a Brahmin priest, Prasanna. After the rape the

priest finds her repulsive, and she decides to go and live with the rapist

(Rajesh)! In the first few scenes there is a song to portray the kind of

love the priest and his wife have for each other. The song is "naan paadi

kondae irupaen" in the ragam Sama. Oh, boy! What a song! What a classic

Sama piece! Vani Jayaram has sung this song. The heroine says:

Sahityam naanaga, Sangeetham neeyaaga

naal thorum isai archanai...

en paadal nee kaetka un kangal enai paarka

naanae un varadhakshinai....

How beautifully the poet (?Kannadasan) has written about their love. Later,

after the rape, the hypocrisy of the hero's love gets fully exposed. Very

rarely, we get to see such classic song, classically acted and classically

picturised (director: R.C.Shakthi). The second Sama that MSV has given is

"mownathil vilayadum manasakshiyae.." (?Nool Veli) This song has been sung

by Dr. M. Balamurali Krishna. It is a great song. These are all great

contributions of MSV to Thamizh cinema music.

Recently, in the movie sathileelavathi there is a very humourous song. The

song has been sung by Kamalhasan himself. This "marugo marugayee" is in the

ragam Kaanada. Kaanada is a major gana ragam. It is probably now less sung

in the katcheris than about a few decades ago (the popularity of a ragam

seems to go through a cyclical change through years!) Kaanada is a janyam

of Karaharapriya. Its arohanam and avarohanam are Sa Ri2 Ga2 Ma1 Pa Ma1 Da2

Ni2 Sa; Sa Ni2 Pa Ma1 Ga2 Ma1 Ri2 Sa. The key prayogam that gives Kaanada

its identity is Pa Ma Ga Ma Ri Sa. Illayaraja has followed the grammer of

this ragam sincerely in the pallavi and charanam. But the interlude music

is not very good. Because, he used this ragam for a humourous situation,

does it mean that it has an element of humour in it! Probably not.

Earlier, he used Kaanada in a very majestic way in the movie

sindhubhairavi. The song is "poomalai vaangi vandhan". Jesudoss! With the

drone of the Thamboora, and the usage of very minimal instruments, it is a

fantastic song. Rahman has few Kaanada's to his credit too. First, "vellai

mazhai" in the movie roja. There is another number "kisu kisu nammakul

kidayadhu" (manidha manidha). There is a liberal Ni3 in this song. Deva

scored a Kaanada song too (thennamara thoppukullae kuyilae...?movie)

Earlier, how can we forget the old gem "mullai malar melae" by the music

directors of yesteryears. Dharbari Kaanada is closely related to Kaanada.

While Kaanada is the janyam of the 22nd melam (Karaharapriya), Dharbari

Kaanada is a janyam of the 20th melam (Nadabhairavi). Thus we use sudha

daivatham (Da1) instead of Da2 (sathuchrathi daivatham) in Darbari Kaanada.

Illayaraja has a few songs in this ragam. The best example is "aagaya

vennilavae" in the movie arangaetra velai. Uma Ramanan and Jayachandran (or

?Jesudoss). Uma Ramanan is another unfortunate singer (like Malaysia). Only

Illayaraja has exploited her marvellous voice to the maximum capacity.

Recently he has used her in paatu paadava (nil nil nil; an half boiled

Vasantha) and in pudhupatti ponnuthayee (oor urangum naerathilae; a superb

Hindholam). Perhaps his first Darbari Kaanada is "isai medayil" (Illamai

kalangal) sung by SPB and Janaki. There is another one in the movie ?mounam

sammadham (kalyana thenila) by Jesudoss.

A couple of years ago, cinematographer Ashok Kumar directed a Hindhi movie

called as Kamaagni. Reportedly he had sexploited the heroine from top to

bottom as the story was some kind of abstract Freudian theme! (P.C.Sriram

did the same to Ishwariya in his movie Meera. Is there any association

between camera-men turned into directors and hard-core sexploitation?) My

brother tells me that there is a very good Darbari Kaanada song in that

movie. And, it seems Illayaraja has done a very rich re-recording in that

movie, mostly in Darbari Kaanada!

There is a song in the movie enga ooru paatukaaran in which (I presume)

that our village hero "pasu nesan" Ramarajan milks his cow (the meaning of

the song goes like that). I don't know if that scene was supposed to be

comic in that movie, but since Ramarajan would have mostly come in his

"touser", probably it was a comedy scene! Can you imagine what ragam

Illagaraja has used to tune this song "azhagae nee perazhagi"?

Kunthalavarali! Look at the selection of ragam! Kunthalavarali is a

Karaharapriya janyam. Sa Ma Pa Da Ni Da Sa; Sa Ni Da Pa Ma Sa. He has used

this ragam very beautifully in this song sung by SPB. Particularly the

thara sthayi Sa Ma prayogas are very good (veerangalum dheerangalum...)

Maatai paal karakaradhuku Kunthala- varali kaekudha! I don't know if there

are any more kunthalavarali songs in cinema music.

Man is essentially a visual animal. He gets most of the information from

the external world as a tremendous fund of visual input. The visual

information interacts with his intellect and can cause all different kinds

of emotions. Just look at the "heart-wrecking" scene of an old thaatha

accidently walking on a banana skin and falling on the ground! It might be

a real humourous scene! Just look at a self-assumed hero (trying to show

film in front of a ladies hostel with his 2 stroke Kawasaki Bajaj!) skid

and fall on the ground! It might be a real humourous scene. Strangely, just

auditory input alone doesn't seem to have the capacity to evoke man's sense

of humour! Sure that music can cause sadness and happiness. But, humour?!

Recently, Music Television showed Beavis and Butt-head farting in public,

with a fantastic "background" score! That music indeed seemed to be very

humourous. But, if I had put off the TV and let my room-mates hear that

"music" alone, I doubt if they would have at the least made a smile!

Lakshminarayanan Srirangam Ramakrishnan,
Department of Vision Science,
University of Houston College of Optometry,
Houston, Tx 77204.