Exosphere

 Two Saturdays ago, I was driving on ECR. What is special about this? It is just that it was my special day. My family was there in the car and there was somebody else as well in the form of music. Suddenly, my son said – “His next song from Dorothy will be released in 30 minutes’’.

My thoughts went back to those days when I would be with my transistor radio waiting with bated breath to listen to his ‘latest’. With that excitement back now, I kept asking my son if it was out. Finally, he said, ‘Yes’ and started playing it on his phone.

‘Bamchika Bamchika Bamcha Bam’ sang a very different voice repeatedly even as the electronic sounds backing the vocals. And this went on almost for nearly one and half minutes with a couple of instruments (Synth Shehnai and the Flute) appearing in between and the chorus humming a tune. After 2 minutes, my son said ‘I think it is just the background music and not a song’. But then appeared the female voice (Swetha Mohan). After nearly 3 and half minutes, the Master’s voice appeared too.

‘Such a long prelude!’ I thought and at the same time wondered as to why it was sounding so repetitive. I was also not that happy with the same beats continuing without any change. For a person who has listened to thousands of his songs thousand times, where the beats keep changing every now and then, this sounded odd. And to top it all, the number of instruments was too less. And yes, there was no interlude. So, when my son asked my ‘verdict’, I said ‘I am sorry, I am not impressed; I like his portion alone’.

I stuck to this ‘verdict’ for nearly 2 days until I started looking at the song from a different perspective.

To start with, I must admit that the genre ‘Trance’ was something new to me. After I tried to get more information, I understood that the beats – essentially 1 2 3 4- remained constant almost through the song in this genre. I also deciphered that EDM was part and parcel of this genre and that there will be a kind of emotional breakdown after a build- up.

With an open mind, I listened to the song and it opened new vistas and avenues.

Experimentation: Right from 1977 when he innovated and came up with a technique called ‘super-imposing’ (Kaatrinile varum geetam/ En KaNmaNi), this composer has always experimented with sound- even when technology was just at its budding stage in our country. So, this new experiment does not come as a surprise at all.

Raga/Scale : It is based on a raga called Udaya Ravichandrika, though it is popularly known by another name – Shrotsavini. But this is not the only speciality. When the (synth) Shehnai plays in the beginning, it plays the notes of Shuddha Dhanyasi. After a while, when the flute joins in, it becomes the raga I mentioned. How? If one replaces the variant of the swara ‘ni’ with the other variant in Shuddha Dhanyasi, it becomes Udaya Ravichandrika. This is not Gruha Bhedam, but just the substitution of a variant of a particular note.

Vocals : The Master is very well known for his expressive rendition. The way he sings in the second half is something incredible. But what is to be noted is the fact that he traverses the different octaves with consummate ease. Please also recall that in Trance, there is a sudden emotional breakdown and match it with this.

Lyrics: I am not sure about the sequence in the movie, but to me this seems to be a celebration of womanhood. Knowing the composer’s piety, I feel the wordings in the second half must have just rolled out of his lips spontaneously.

MutthumaNi – A different plane!