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The Composer Bible Series: An Introduction

I will be starting a new series of posts on the best, handpicked songs of different composers. Some composers have a very large body of work, so we will go 10 songs at a time to build a series and for other smaller composers it might be covered in just a single post. If you want to know which are the best songs of a composer, it will be very useful for you. I am curating this list because in many cases all the songs in a movie/album are not always good, so I will select the best songs from the major composers starting with the Ilaiyaraja era. The obvious list for this would cover ARR, Vidyasagar, Bharadwaj, Yuvan, Deva etc. If you notice some of these composers hardly compose these days but the songs always outlive the composer and so I will also be covering niche composers like Sabesh-Murali, Srinivas (the singer, he is a damn good composer) etc.

Composers as Singers

A big trend now that is seen is that almost every composer is jumping into the singing bandwagon. In most cases composers are never as good as professional singers but they are tolerated owing to their composing talent. Let’s look at some composer singers:

  1. M.S.Viswanathan: He was a decent singer, he had a high pitched voice and a slight nasal twang. He did not sing too many songs unlike other composers.
  2. Ilaiyaraja: He is a great composer but an incredibly overrated singer. He is almost as nasal as Kumar Sanu and has sung so many songs. If they had been sung by a professional singer it would have been so much better! Examples being Undhan Raajiyathil/Kadhal Oviyam/Ye Jagaala Sangamamo…the list goes on & on.
  3. A.R.Rahman: He started singing a few numbers here and there but over time his singing also increased. His voice sounds very laboured and screechy as he sings very high-pitched.
  4. Yuvanshankar Raja: The second worst singer among all…..the worst one is at No 5 below.
  5. Deva: The worst composer singer in Tamil cinema….period.
  6. Anirudh: The best composer singer, relatively speaking, at least he sings in the correct pitch unlike most others.
  7. Ramesh Vinayagam: Almost as good as Anirudh, the good thing is he rarely sings his own compositions knowing his limitations.
  8. Sean Roldan: A pretty good singer with a husky voice, he has sung a lot of songs for many composers.
  9. Imman: He has improved over time but not the best singer.

 

 

33: Song of the Day: Yaarodum

Song: Yaarodum

Composer: Ramesh Vinayagam

Singers: Haricharan

Lyrics: Yugabharathi

Movie: Sollakadhai

Sollakadhai is a movie which was never released and the songs vanished into oblivion. In many cases, the songs of such movies by talented composers would be good and this movie is no exception. Almost each song in this album is pretty good but this particular song is the clear winner with a mellow feel. Ramesh & Chinmayi have sung it and they ace it completely with good modulation. The tune in the charanam especially in the part where Ramesh sings “Kaigal thodumpodhu kuliradhu pani marghazhi” is the highlight of the song. We can always expect at least one brilliant song from Ramesh Vinayagam and he vindicates our belief here.

28: Song of the Day: Siru Thoduthalile

Song: Siru Thoduthalile

Composer: Dharan

Lyrics: Yugabharathi

Singer: Haricharan, Bombay Jayashree

Dharan is a talented composer and he made a decent debut with Paarijatham and has given some memorable songs. Laadam as a movie was a dud but this song was simply outstanding. It has beautiful guitar and piano riffs and the highlight of the song is the flute by Naveen Iyer. The song also has an instrumental version which is lead by the flute. Another strength for this song is the fabulous singing by Haricharan and Bombay Jayashree, Hari excels in the higher octaves and Jayashri sounds great in her lower octaves which is her forte. I would probably rate this as among the top 5 best songs of Dharan.

https://gaana.com/song/siru-thoduthalilae

Needhane En Ponvasandham: Rise of Raaja

The greatest joy for an Ilaiyaraja fan is to see the maestro come back to his past pristine form as he was in the glorious 80’s. It surely has happened with Needhane En Ponvasandham (as it has with a few albums recently like Sri Ramarajyam, Dhoni etc). Almost all the 8 songs are brilliant and here are the best things (worst only where applicable) about each of the songs. Saying that I was awaiting this album would be an understatement and I was very scared whether the album will match the hype and I am so elated that Raja has indeed delivered and how! Its like having your prayers answered.

  1. Kaatrai Konjam: A song which became an instant hit at the time when it was previewed itself. It triggered lots of discussions in the web and increased the hunger of all the fans. Its a masterpiece as its quite complex and the staggering variety of instruments used in this is heard to be believed. I have listened to it almost 50 times in the last 20 days and its a song with so many layers. The usage of strings (London Orchestra), the mild electric guitar, the piano, the 7/8 beat. the saxophone counters, we can go on & on about it. The choice of Karthik also is perfect and he sings it with great gusto and gaiety. The tune progressions in the charanam and the supporting counterpoints are too amazing and Ilaiyaraja’s class is written all over the song.
  2. Mudhal Murai: This is called an high-energy song. IR shows that you need not create a heavy-beat Kuthu song, you can infuse enough energy into a song with a bunch of cellos/double bass/a great voice like Sunidhi Chauhan! What a wonderful song it is and the most striking thing about it is the first interlude where the violin is played in a high-pitched western style, its pure goosebumps stuff. Once again choosing Sunidhi for this was a great idea and she delivers more than expected.
  3. Sattru Munbu: Ramya is a revelation and her western-styled voice suits this song to a T. Once again a fantastic tune by the maestro and he leverages the power of the live orchestra very well in this song. As usual, the charanams are fabulous and so unique with the notes being multi-layered. This is a song in the album which just grows on you after a few listens.
  4. Saaindhu Saaindhu/Yedhi Yedhi: I have purposely added the Telugu version of this song beause Yuvan is unbearable in this song. He just kills the glorious tune. That is why I have the Telugu version of this song sung wonderfully by Shaan & Ramya. This is a vintage Ilaiyaraja tune loosely based on Mohanam and makes for a great listen. Yuvan definitely must not sing and his voice is suitable only for niche songs as the one below.
  5. Pengal Yendral: This is a song which I used to skip as I stupidly assumed that it would be bad owing to the rock tune and Yuvan singing. I was totally wrong and this song suits Yuvan’s voice and is a killer tune. The distortion guitar usage and the unpredictability of the tune are the things that make it unique. I strongly feel that this is one of the best songs sung by Yuvan ( I know that list is very small). One more beauty in this song is towards the end where the distortion guitar starts playing after skipping one beat after Yuvan finishes the line and its gives an awesome effect.
  6. Pudikale Maamu: Somehow I have not yet started liking this song, who knows I may be wrong again 🙂
  7. Vaanam Mella: Once again a good tune and maybe the choice of singers could have been better. IR & Bela Shinde singing this diminishes the beauty of the song and I strongly feel that with better singers singing it would have been much better. Strangely even Bela who normally sings well, sounds out of sorts in this song especially in the higher octaves. The orchestration again is very good with great usage of strings and some wind instrument (not sure what it is, maybe Oboe).
  8. Yennodu Va Va: A superb song sung amazingly by Karthik, it has a retro feel to it and the first interlude is sheer magic. The charanam progression is almost like waves falling on each other and I am constantly humming this song., the second interlude becomes a little synthy but thank God its not too overpowering and Karthik’s voice stands tall. IR again uses a blowing instrument which sounds totally apt for this retro’ish tune.

In my opinion 6 of the 8 songs are extremely good and this is definitely a Grand Slam album by Ilaiyaraja. A million thanks also to Gautham Menon for making Ilaiyaraja push his boundaries. Somehow he has the knack of having great music for all his movies.

Uliyin Osai—Masterstroke from Maestro Ilaiyaraja

Uliyin Osai has to be one of THE best soundtracks of Maestro Ilaiyaraja at least considering the 2 stunning classical compositions in it. I am now only able to FULLY appreciate the genius of the songs, especially Aganthaiyil, Pulargindra, Kaalathai Vendra and Kallai Irundhen. Instead of writing about these, I would like you to read a brilliantly written post here. After reading it, I am enjoying the songs even more! It will give you a clear idea about the intricacies of the compositions tuned by Maestro Ilaiyaraja and how he THINKS in a different plane altogether. Though I am not so well-versed in classical music, I am still hooked to these songs, just imagine the classical connoisseurs, how much bliss they would be deriving from these songs!

Laptop:Music Review

Laptop is a Malayalam movie which released about 2 months back. The movie sank at the box office but the music of the movie by acclaimed Carnatic vocalist, Sreevalsan Menon, was fantastic! The album had all soft, ghazal-like numbers, which is quite common in Malayalam films. Almost all the numbers are very soothing but there are 2 melodies which were outstanding- Etho Jalashankkil and Maymassame. The first one is a duet sung by Amal Antony/Sonia and the second one is sung by Amal alone. The tunes are so celestial that I am addicted to them and listen to them almost everyday, atleast once. Its pure bliss!
Sreevalsan Menon has already released many carnatic-based albums-the best one that I have heard is Monsoon Anuraaga(compositions in all rain raagaas) which is a brilliant album. I really appreciate Sreevalsan in Laptop because, being a great singer himself, he has not sung all the songs but has given an opportunity to Amal Antony (winner of Gandharva Sangeetham 2006), whose singing is fabulous. I hope and pray that Sreevalsan Menon gets more such chances to compose and Amal gets to sing more. The varnachitram blog has a great detailed review here of Laptop’s music.