SOTD #1013: pani vizhum poo nilavE from thaippongal

[bb]

Song of the Day: pani vizhum poo nilavE from thaippongal.

http://www.dhool.com/sotd2/1013.html

Listen

- Udhaya writes:

Song: pani vizhum poo nilave
Film: Thaippongal
Singers: Malaysia Vasudevan, S.P.Shailaja
MD: Ilayaraja
Lyrics: M.G.Vallaban?

One telling aspect of MSV that sets him apart from others is the route he takes to negotiate the sandham back to the pallavi. Very rarely can you detect a preconceived feel in his music. It's that spontaneity that invites us back to his works endlessly. By preconceived, I mean the singing, the lyrics, or instrumentation that is forcefully shoe-horned so that the road back to the pallavi is achieved without complication. Lesser composers telegraph the sandham winding down way ahead and the energy leaks right out of the tune. ARR comes a distant second to MSV in this ability. Of course, IR had many such efforts in his pre-bald phase.

The SOTD begins with the flute capturing a lazy morning whistle and the violin stretching the stroll. Then comes a feverish MV with a first line that could start a short story. MV has thrown off many songs where he belts out lines that should be whispered tongue-in-cheek, but here he is all poise and weathered like a gentle giant. The long pallavi continues our guessing game and almost stops abruptly with a short, monosyllabic word, thEn. And what we get is another surprise: SPS. Not the top liner in anyone's list but here she is all nimble charm and youthful spirit to MV's thick stoicism. The tune continues with the whimsical tempo as the yin and yang of bass and treble are so brilliantly balanced by a dirge-like bass (one of IR's best bass efforts), tablas, and whet-with-emotion male voice greeted by a crisply light female voice, dulcimer-thin strings, airy flute, and a rolling flow. The song and the soundtrack remain permanently in my Ilayaraja collectibles.

- theerthak karaithanilE from thaippongal: http://www.dhool.com/sotd2/750.html

Tags: Malaysia Vasudevan, Ilayaraja

[RajaM]

Excellent choice Udhaya, this song always makes one yearn for the days when IR used to come out with gems with each movie release.

The song featured Rajesh and Radhika, and was available on youtube - but some kind hearted soul decided to ban the uploader.

[eden]

What happened to dhool all of a sudden, ore IR mazhai :-)

Nice song, used to be a treat whenever any of the songs from this movie was announced on radio those days (including the now-somewhat-infamous-kaN malarkaLin azhaippidhazh).

[OISG]

During my teens had fought many MSV-IR warswith cousin and friends. Pushed this song as a Raja Rehash of "Oru vaana vil pole".

But secretly i was a fan of this song and MV's voice in particular.Those..days.thanks Udaya. but some of the IR fans whom i had fought with weren't SPS fans so i always had company from the enemy camp for SPS songs:lol:

Listening to this again & Again.

[Udhaya]

RajaM, eden,

Now there are some oldtimers I haven't seen in awhile. Thanks for resurfacing, folks.

OISG,

I thought if I heard from you for this song, it would be to deride the singers. I'm surprised you liked MV's voice here too.

Regarding 'Oru Vaanavil polE', that's a colossal song! I hold that song as having IR's best prelude ever. Quite a contentious statement, I know.

[OISG]

i have not disappointed you wrt to SPS,Udaya :wink:

MV in "allithantha Boomi","MalargalE nadhaswarangaL","Kovil mani" "nee illadha podhu" "aagaya gangai"are on the top range.I would put songs like "sugam sugame" "enRendRum anadhamE" or even "Oru ooril oru maharaNi" (Garjanai" on grade 2. But songs like "Oru moodan","Kattavandi" etc are beyond grading. Unfortunately he has a long list in that range.More unfortunately i would put even his "mappillaikku maman manasu" in that range.

He could have been Tfm's Kishore with that voice but ended up as Kumar Sanu.Someone must have misled him that on-screen that his songs would be sung by V.S.Ragavan.

The way he starts a song like "Kannil enna kaar kaalam" you will understand as to where he starts and where he ended.

[SGRK]

"He could have been Tfm's Kishore with that voice but ended up as Kumar Sanu. Someone must have misled him that on-screen that his songs would be sung by V.S.Ragavan. "

OISG, you are the Suppudu equivalent for TFM :-) Please think of writing a regular weekly music column for dhool, Sir ! If bb wont agree, then pls start your own blog ! Sara-vukku aduththadhaaga ungaLukku thaan inga fan-club :-)

[vinatha]

ஆஹா! :)
thanks.

[vijay]

Udhaya, you really think ARR is still a distant second? I thought in the last few yrs after 2000, he has improved a lot in this area(especially his HFM output). Of the big three, he seems to be the most unpredictable in tune flow (his strength as well as weakness at times in my opinion). For instance in ennuyir thozhiye song from Kangalaal kaidhu sei, you can never predict the line that starts with IniyavaLe..., after the first couple of lines. A total surprising detour. Same with how the charanam of Udhaya Udhaya ularugiren ends. In fact one of my complaints with him is that he is too restless and experimental at times, when a slightly more conventional approach would do enough justice.

[tvsankar]

i have not disappointed you wrt to SPS,Udaya :wink:

MV in "allithantha Boomi","MalargalE nadhaswarangaL","Kovil mani" "nee illadha podhu" "aagaya gangai"are on the top range.I would put songs like "sugam sugame" "enRendRum anadhamE" or even "Oru ooril oru maharaNi" (Garjanai" on grade 2. But songs like "Oru moodan","Kattavandi" etc are beyond grading. Unfortunately he has a long list in that range.More unfortunately i would put even his "mappillaikku maman manasu" in that range.

He could have been Tfm's Kishore with that voice but ended up as Kumar Sanu.Someone must have misled him that on-screen that his songs would be sung by V.S.Ragavan.

The way he starts a song like "Kannil enna kaar kaalam" you will understand as to where he starts and where he ended.

One more song for your list - aathu metulae oru paat kaekudhu.

[vijay]

OISG, endrendum aanandhame would be on my Grade 1 list, more due to IR than MV, but MV was subdued and delivered what was expected. A terrific song with IR's stamp all over it. Unfortunately I happened to see the picturization. For Suman or Sudhakar the inspiration for any composer would have to be purely from within.

[OISG]

But i felt at places like "thottu thotu manmadhanin" MV goes a bit overboard and gives you a "Pattukotta ammaLu" feel.

SG too spoilt him (or was it mutual?)But among non-IR songs Pattuvanna Rosavam is in grade 1. MV provided the balance with SPB and to a very large extent he was original.

[vijay]

But i felt at places like "thottu thotu manmadhanin" MV goes a bit overboard and gives you a "Pattukotta ammaLu" feel.

.

:-)

The guy who sang Kaadhalennum Kovil from Kazhugu, Kovai Murali(?), he could have been tried for some of these songs. Jayachandran too missed out on quite a few of my favourite songs

[Anniyan]

Vijay,


The guy who sang Kaadhalennun kovil is not Kovai Murali but Soolamangalam Murali s/o Soolamangalam Rajalakshmi. Why this confusion always? Kovai Murali sang Cho's parody in Annapoorani and a nice duetduet with SJ Kodikaalam naanum thaedi ...from Ival oru seethai.[/u]

[vijay]

Anniyan didnt even know that 2 Murali's were there. Any info/background on Soolamangalam Murali and his work(besides TFM)? His voice sounded like a gentler version of Deepan Chakravarthy's in Kaadhalennum Kovil.

[Anniyan]

Vijay,

http://www.tfmpage.com/cgi-bin/stream.p ... halenum.rm

[SureshS]

While I agree about MSV's spontaneity, I always felt that Raja's return to pallavi from the charanam was more complicated and very effective. There are many songs where I can never seen any other MD coming up with such twists and turns and yet flowing so naturally into the pallavi. An example of that is the Malayalam song from 'Kaala Paani', "Atirambile". When the charanam goes 'maane poon thene', you have no clue how he is going to reach the pallavi. And reach he does, in a route which very few MDs would even think of traversing. Infact, the guy who sang this, M G Sreekumar, in a program said that when he was taught this song, he was wondering how the tune will descend and was stunned when he heard the descent. He said that though he himself has composed songs he could never dream up such a phrase to join the charanam with pallavi.

I would agree with you about Rahman being a long way behind, especially if we take into account both 'being different' and 'being effective'. Rahman may be good in the first part but the second part is always questionable. Many a times it is more being different for 'being different' sake. There is no overall unity which is achieved.