http://www.dhool.com/sotd2/708.html
- Saravanan writes:
‘azhagaanaa pookkaL malarndhaadumE’ (SPB) and ‘kanavOdu yEngum siru poonkodi’ (SJ) from anbE Odi vaa.
Lyrics by Vairamuthu
Music by Ilaiyaraja
* * * *
bb being away and a holiday declared for SOTD, I spent some time in an lackadaisical attempt to sort and index my audio collection. And in the process I rediscovered some old favorites that I had not listened to for ages. One such CD was one having all the songs from 3 movies, all in IR’s music: salangaiyil oru sangeetham, nalla naaL and anbE Odi vaa. I exclaimed aloud in joy at the sight of that CD, for these songs were ones that I had fallen in love with as a schoolboy and they brought back half-forgotten images and memories of my adolescent years. Ilaiyaraja was (and he still remains) God to many of my friends and along with them I too used to eagerly await each new album of IR. The songs then would become topics for animated discussions. It didn’t matter to us that many of these movies themselves were insufferable. We heard these songs on radio for a brief period around the time the films were released and seldom thereafter. Listening to the CD after many years, I felt the intervening years melt effortlessly in the magical mist of music…..
I recall seeing the hoarding of anbE Odi vaa (with the ‘Odi’ hidden in a miniscule font size between ‘anbE’ and ‘vaa’ that I first thought it was a new film with the same name as the old MGR starrer!) anbE Odi vaa (1984/ K.R. Art Pictures) had Mohan, Urvasi, Indira, Jr. Baliah, VA Moorthi, and Manorama in its cast. The script, cinematography and direction were by R. Ranjit Kumar. I have vague memories of watching part of the movie on video- starts out as a college caper and then becomes a usual love triangle. Eminently forgettable!
Eminently forgettable….but for the songs. Oh, the songs! Lucky, lucky Mohan! How many of Mohan’s lackluster movies had IR lit up with a nonchalant wave of his baton!
anbE Odi vaa was surely one of those wretches to be blessed by IR’s benevolence. How many ever times I listen to the delectable “disco” ditty ‘idhazhil amutham dhinamum paruga vaa vaa’ (Vairamuthu/ KJY & VJ), I can’t help my knees going weak each time I hear a charmingly chic Vani croon ‘naan thaanE nee, nee thaanE naan, anbE Odi vaa..Odi vaa’. Yesudas too shrugs off his somber serenity, and becomes so dashing and debonair. MV and Uma Ramanan have a lilting, graceful duet ‘kaadhil kEttathu oru paattu’ (Vaali). ‘thuLLum iLamai ithu’ (Vaali/ SPB) is such a joyous, buoyant campus call. The crowning glory of the album, is of course, SPB’s haunting ‘jOdi nadhigaL paadhai vilagi sERndhana’. Vairamuthu writes a melancholic ballad, but sprinkles the lyrics with lines of cautious optimism. IR comes up with yet another rare raagam (I read it as Kathyayini somewhere), and SPB is in his soulful best here.
But for today, let us listen to two other dainty numbers from the album. Two songs in the same tune, yet so delightfully different. Songs that would find place in the ‘inbamum thunbamum’ pantheon of Radio Ceylon. Vairamuthu fills in baroquely diverse matter to the same meter. A languorous SPB sings a romantic rhapsody, while a brooding Janaki laments of love’s labor lost. So SPB is in his dreamy, mellow elements, his trademark half-amused chuckle and all. And SJ brings in a ghazal like ambience in her remarkable rendition- hark at her imaginative variations in each repetition of the pallavi! Ilayaraja has a field day with his guitar strings lending a classy character to the songs, and the piano, violins and tabla ushering in caressing waves of enchantment in perfect coordination. Let the magic begin…