A Beautiful Sketch-Young,Melodious and Novel!

Experiment is a very interesting word.

Yes, I have been a science student and have had lab sessions in my school and college. What I achieved there is a question only my old teachers and Professors can answer..

But I am not talking about Experiment in that context. Coming to thing of it, this is a word used ad nauseam by many without really understanding the true import. Many feel if they do anything new(or assume it is new), then it is ‘Experimental’.

We have Experimental Theatre, Experimental Cinema, Experimental Dance, Experimental Music.. But I generally observe that nothing happens after this ‘Experimental phase’.

Maybe they involve themselves in new experiments happily..

In Tamizh Cinema, lot of ‘experiments’ have taken place.

One such experiment was having five Music Directors for a single movie. Thankfully, it is not the story of ‘Five Blind men and the elephant’ because each composer was asked to score music for one song individually.

The movie was ‘Kannil Theriyum KathaigaL’(1979) and the Director(s) Devaraj-Mohan.

The Music Directors were KV Mahadevan, G K Venkatesh, T R Paappa, Shankar-Ganesh and ILaiyaraaja.

Going by the songs, I think it was a Triangular Love Story(why don’t we have a Square or a Rectangular Love Stories? Point to ponder..).

Now let us see the song scored by Raaja sir in this movie.

Based on his most favourite Raga Mohanam, the song is yet another gem in his crown.

The opening itself is beautiful..

We see the ‘Laya Raja’ as the instruments follow a particular rhythmic pattern(I am not getting into too much of technical details here and I shall do the analysis in my other blog Ragaranjani when I discuss this song!).

The voices of SPB, Suseela, and Janaki add to the sweetness.

The first interlude sparkles with Veena, Flute, Jalatharangam and a very differently sounding instrument.

The Violin orchestra and the chorus voices in the second interlude make us to meditate.

The seamless transition to Kalyani in ‘Thana Thirana..’in the third interlude is the masterstroke.

The words ‘Ilamai, Inimai , Puthumai’(Youthful, Melodious, Novel)are rendered repeatedly in the song..

Does it not sum up the music of the Maestro?