SOTD #843: minminiyai from kaNNan en kaadhalan

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Song of the Day: minminiyai from kaNNan en kaadhalan.

http://www.dhool.com/sotd2/843.html

- Vishwesh writes:

A few weeks before as I was strumming a waltz for a song, I was struck by the chord progression that sounded so pleasantly familiar to me. I couldn’t remember the lyrics but the tune was so fresh in me that I could play the whole song without the lyrics though ! I couldn’t get the song off my mind once I had tried my hands on it. Thanks to google, I could find the song in fifteen minutes. And I was so glad to find a few comments in the web left by those who had similarly been impressed by this song.

The song starts with the typical flourish of an MSV prelude. Right from the start the joyful tempo is beautifully maintained though the saranam changes delightfully to a major scale from a minor. The first interlude itself is beautiful, for it has the flowing accordion (which is replaced by the strings in the second. How charming is MSV’s usage of the accordion, which always sounds to me to be literally oozing out of the instrument!) which is followed by the strings that subtly change the general mood of the song but still full adhering to the joyful tempo of the song (probably the hero and the heroine now sing along with a baby and hence the change to a major scale) . MSV is a true master of maintaining such a spirit from the first note of the song. Compare it with most of the modern songs in which there is hardly any sequence that you can follow from the pallavi to anupallavi, let alone the interludes which are most of the times clueless about what precedes and follows it! There is the typical MSV trade-mark bangos, though it is not so obvious. I don’t know if any other music director used bangos as him. The song sparkles with his tasteful usage of the accordion and the orchestration is rich, like most of the songs he tuned for MGR.

How refreshing TMS is ! I personally feel P.Suseela would have made this song more memorable than LR Eswari. She sounds contrived to me in the ‘la la la la la la’ of the pallavi.

The lyrics were equally refreshing. One of the distinct qualities of songs belonging to this era, as I find, is that you could enjoy the lyrics just as you enjoy good poetry (though in this song the emphasis is on the good qualities of the dad, who is MGR :) that the son would imbibe :) ). I was struck by the playfulness of this line :

‘pasikkural kodukaiyil puthu puthu isai amaiththAn’

A brilliant song and it is a pleasure to hear it even repeatedly, which is the true mark of good music. Play the song in a musical instrument and you will find how strikingly simple the tune is. That a simple tune as that is made into something unforgettable is what makes a creative genius.

[anamika]

that's a truly memorable song.

it's true what you have said about songs these days. they are just as incoherent and irritating as the movies they are played in.

thanks for such a vibrant song.

[OISG]

Saw the very song in Jaya TV "then KiNNam" yesterday.True, with JJ in a wheel chair PS's voice would have suited better than an exuberant LRE.

As mentioned, the tune is an instrumentalist's delight.Thanks for the song.Jollikka Jolikka nagayudan mugam niraya punnagayudan JJ on a wheel chair lipsynch for LRE...definite shades of incongruity.Idhya Deivam as usual with his all-conquering smile.

[rajeshkrv]

wonderful song
b'ful lyrics by vaali

yes TMS is energetic and refreshing ..

thanks for the song

[corley]

"I don’t know if any other music director used bangos as him."

How true! I was thrilled to see this line. His use of bangos itself will tell his songs his apart from that of his contemporaries and later MDs.

[corley]

Also, the rhythm is subtly complex in some parts. Listen to the 4 beat cycle of the bangos, to the accompaniment of 3 beat cycle of the singers and other instruments in the beginning. Again MSV is to my mind the only director to have also come up with beats away from the usual 4 (chatursram) and 3 (tisram).

There is material worth a treatise in his treatment of rhythm alone!

[Saravanan]

Worthy write-up befitting a memorable song- Thanks Vishvesh!

OISG, I too saw the song in then kinnam :)

Btw, if I remember right, Jayalalitha is merely pretending to be a cripple. She does this so that she can win MGR's sympathy and thus lures him away from Vanisri. They get married and the child is born in due course, and MGR doesn't see through her pretence all the while :D MSV might have felt that LRE could bring out the exuberance of Jayalalitha attaining her man and mothering his child :)

[Da Vinci]

Wow, I am glad that this song is appreciated by quite a few here.

Corley, that was a good observation. Yes, the bangos goes on a different beat cycle. That is the reason I believe it doesn't explicitly sound like a Waltz in the first few moments of the song.

[corley]

Da vinci,

Other examples of MSV's amazing rhythm that immly come to mind(bangos/drums) are TMS's pAduvOr pAdinAl and vellik kinnamthAn (uyarntha manithan). In the latter one, the rhythm cycle during the pallavi took some time for me to decipher.

Then there is therOttam from nool veli with a seven beat meter. Note particularly the tabla during the concluding pallavi. Most intoxicating of all is the tabla in naana paaduvathu naana from the same movie, especially during the charanams and the transition to the pallavi.

[ssriram]

what a different song! enjoyed this thoroughly. thanks everyone.

[vinatha]

thanks for the song!!
Actually I was listening to "aap ki aankhon....." - GHAR the prelude music reminded me of this song!! :roll: Yes, Aap ki aankhon..... is slow tempo, minminiyai.... is faster tempo!!
vera yaarukkum theriyaradhaa prelude reminds...

vinatha!

[Ramesh.P]

What a melody. Enjoyed CHACHA MAMMA PAPPA . OOOO CHACHA AMAMMA APPAPPA. Song looks simple but IVVALU VIZHAYAM IRUKKA :o

regards
ramesh