Music and Healing

It is a proven fact that music indeed is one of the most effective therapies. Owing to sheer interest, I have read a few expert articles written on Shri Kunnakudy Vaidyanathan, who until recently, before his demise, was heading the Raaga Research Centre in Madras. He and his late father (who was one of the pioneers of raaga research) have confirmed that music/raagas have the power to cure us of many ailments! This is certainly good news to all music lovers. I personally believe in this completely and I have experienced the therapeutic effects of music innumerable times. Each raaga is said to have a unique medicinal property. This post is just a starting point to discuss about the healing effects of music. The study in this field has been quite extensive leading to some pleasantly stunning results. I give below the unique properties of a few raagas. These are culled from various authentic articles in the internet and “The Hindu” newspaper.

  1. Keeravani-Good for heart.
  2. Rathipathipriya-Strength and vigour, remove ill-will.
  3. Shanmukhapriya-Sharpens intellect and instils courage.
  4. Kalyani-Destroys fear.
  5. Karaharapriya-Remedy for worry, stress and neurotic disorders.
  6. Abheri-Heals the mind.
  7. Shankarabharanam-Cures mental disorders, showers wealth!
  8. Charukesi-Rejenuvates mind
  9. Mohanam-Filters ill-effects of our bad qualities like anger, lust and attachment.
  10. Mayamalavagowla-Counters pollution.
  11. Anandabhairavi-Lowers blood pressure.

This is an incomplete list. For those who have faith, music is the best medicine. If we are mentally happy, then I feel, the presence of physical diseases cannot affect us. Music is a wealth that we have, its a gift from God itself which can give us a lot of bliss and satisfaction. Let us use it so that there is more Love, Peace and Harmony and let us promote, good, melodious music!

Vishal Bharadwaj—A rare talent

If there is any composer in India who has continuously defied stereotypes it is Vishal Bharadwaj. He made his debut with Maachis in the 90’s and it was a refreshing musical score at a time when Hindi film music was largely sounding like pop music. I loved the sound that Vishal created in Maachis in the songs Chhod Aaye Hum (a song that makes you imagine the mountains) and Chhappa Chhappa (great hilly folk tune) and his choice of singers too was spot-on—Hariharan, Suresh Wadkar, Lata Mangeshkar etc. Since then Vishal has proved that his promising debut was no flash-in-the-pan. Though he composes for only 2-3 movies in a year, you can be sure that most of the songs would be radically different. Be it the frenzied energy in Beedi or the lilting O Saathi Re (both from Omkara) or the boisterous Kash Laga (No Smoking) or the symphonic Aasmaan Chhathri (Blue Umbrella), Vishal has shown his mettle in diverse genres. I hope we get to listen to more wonderful scores from this unsung composer, who definitely deserves more chances than he gets now!

Vijay Antony

Vijay Antony is one of the newer composers in Tamil, who made his debut with Sukran (a horrible movie) about 3 years back. It was a forgettable debut in my opinion and when I heard the commercial songs of Sukran (director S.A. Chandrashekharan, who has no place for melody songs), I dismissed Vijay as another run-of-the mill composer. But the real talent of Vijay came to the fore in the songs of Dishyum. I realized that Vijay was a composer with a bright future. Though, all the songs of Dishyum were not good, Ninjankootil was a cracker of a tune with superb orchestration. What I like about Vijay Antony is that his sound is very melodious and different. He uses an assortment of guitars, pianos and flutes.From then, Vijay has given some great tunes, though, I feel he has to get more movies which exploit his talent to compose great melodies. I hope he gets more subject-oriented movies. Here are my favourite Vijay Antony songs:

  1. Ninjaankootil-Dishyum-a song in Raaga Brindavanasaaranga
  2. Azhagaa-By 2-this movie had great songs by VA
  3. Roja Poovin-By 2
  4. Naanthaana-Ninaithaale-a song in the rare Amruthavarshini raagam, wonderful song!
  5. Thaneer Pookalaey-Ninaithaale-amazing orchestration
  6. Thozhiya-Kadhalil Vizhundhen-so catchy and peppy yet melodious!
  7. Solladi-Kadhalil Vizhundhen-superb guitars and a great tune.
  8. Natta Nadu-A Aa E Ee-what a song in raagam Hamsadhwani

Saroja, Jeyam Kondaan: Worth a watch

I recently saw 2 tamil movies-Saroja and Jeyam Kondaan and was pleasantly surprised that they were indeed very good.

  1. Saroja-First things first, Saroja is a remake of a Hollywood thriller called “Judgement Night”. So I had minimal expectations and did not see the movie as I had watched Judgement Night quite recently. But when I heard from a few friends about Saroja, I decided to give it a try and was completely bowled over. This is one of those rare times when I feel that the remake entertained me more than the original, though JN was a brilliant movie. Where Saroja scores is the amazing humour which the original didn’t have at all! Saroja is a fantastic joyride alternating between tense moments and rib-tickling genuine comic moments. The humour is very decent and Premgi Amaran displays great comic timing. According to me he is the soul of the movie. Everytime he appeared on the screen, I started laughing. Apart from the humour, a couple of songs, the cinematography and the excellent background music are the other strengths of Saroja. If you have not seen this movie, please see it, you will not be disappointed. It is miles ahead of the commercial fare that we are exposed to, nowadays.
  2. Jeyam Kondaan-Jeyam Kondaan was a revelation. This movie has avoided every damn cliche that we are used to in Indian films. It had a wonderful script, good humour by Vivek and gang, melodious songs (Vidyasagar) and very decent acting by the entire cast. It is a very racy movie sans any violence until the climax fight, which too, is short. The film very subtly depicts the relationship between a brother and sister. Some scenes did bring tears to my eyes. The director is a former assistant of Maniratnam and it shows in the way the scenes have been skilfully crafted. Jeyam Kondaan was a very satisfying experience.

Agam’s Music

Agam was one among the six winners in the ooh la la la competition held for music bands. The concept of the competition was spearheaded by none other than A.R. Rahman. Agam actually has been existing for quite some time much before the contest started. Their music is an amazing fusion of classical-based tunes wrapped in superb orchestration. I was very impressed on hearing their songs which are available for free download here in their blog. The details about the band members too can be found there. There are 6 tracks:

  1. Mystical Abheri-My favourite one, a tamil song, where Reethigowla and Abheri raagaas have been used. The flute interludes are mesmerizing.
  2. Path of Aspiration-This song is called “Lakshiya Paadhai” based on Naatai raaga. This too is a beautiful song with a faster tempo.
  3. Nothing but Hope-A song that begins in English and moves to a ghazal-like tune in Hindi.
  4. Amma-This is a lullaby to the mother, set in Kaapi raagam. It has very poignant lyrics praising the Mother. The tune is so soothing that you will fall asleep if you hear it!
  5. Brahma’s Dance-This is an instrumental piece interspersed with vedic chants.
  6. Amma Instrumental-The instrumental piece of the “Amma” song on violin.

One common thing among all the songs are the very meaningful lyrics. This is a fantastic effort from the Agam team. Soon, we can expect another album from them which will be sponsored by KM Music from A.R.Rahman’s stable. I am eagerly waiting for it after listening to 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.

Ilaiyaraja and Background Scores

One of the greatest contributions of Ilaiyaraja (apart from his songs in multiple languages) are his background scores (BGM’s) for movies, whose discussion would need a separate blog for itself! This is no exaggeration because if you see the movies where the maestro has scored music, you would notice that the movie “looks much better” because of the music. I can recount hundreds of scenes from movies where the music has taken the impact of that scene to a different level. You remove the music from the scene and the impact of the scene would not even be half of the original.
Making background music is no easy task. What makes IR special is that he gives equal importance to the background score as he gives to the songs. His BGM’s are not just a patchwork which is very common otherwise. Ilaiyaraja’s BGM’s are characterized by:

  1. Grand string arrangements-He has used 75 violins and an assortment of instruments you can think of.
  2. Unconventional instrument usage for scenes-In Shiva (Telugu) chase scene he used a mindblowing violin piece for the chase which sounded perfect for that scene. Who would think of using violin for a chase, normally we would use some percussion instrument!
  3. Great themes-The theme scores of Ilaiyaraja are so good that they can be released as a separate CD by themselves. The legend has used flutes, guitars, violins beautifully to create some immortal theme pieces. Case in point Mouna Ragam, Nayagan, Punnagai Mannan, Unnakagave Vaazhgiren and many many more.

Here is a totally incomplete, only-indicative list of movies which have some stunning BGM’s by the Legend.

  1. Kadhalukku Mariyadhai
  2. Pithamagan
  3. Mouna Ragam
  4. Anjali
  5. Mahanadhi
  6. Aboorva Sagodharargal
  7. Thalapathy
  8. Kaalapaani (Malayalam)
  9. Azhagi (what a masterpiece!)
  10. Aruvadai Naal

The list is endless and this is just for a reference. Ilaiyaraja’s music is an ocean, there are still so many hundreds of songs which I am discovering every now and then which reaffirm my faith that he is indeed the “composer of this century” as exclaimed by none other than Dr.Balamuralikrishna who himself is a legend! I don’t think there is any other composer who is so COMPLETE as Ilaiyaraja who has proven his mettle thro’ his songs, BGM’s and creating tunes in almost every genre of music!

A Wednesday-Your story, my story

I recently saw the movie-A Wednesday. It was an awe-inspiring movie to say the least. I am sure most of us have already seen the movie. These kind of movies are what masterpieces are made of! I am so proud that an INDIAN movie, an AUTHENTIC thriller has been so good, when you have every other movie being ripped off from foreign films (not only Hollywood).

The director, Neeraj Pandey’s script is so crisp, so taut that the movie is only one-and-half hours long! Thats pretty short for an INDIAN movie, where we have had yawns like Ekalavya 🙁
The message of the protagonist played by one of the most underrated actors of our era-Naseeruddin Shah is mindblowing!! If STILL you have not seen “A Wednesday” you must see it-your life will change. I have only one grouse against the movie-why have an english title, when it could have been named “EK DIN” or something like that, which definitely would not have sounded wrong.

RAFI RESSURECTED

Mohammed Rafi-the phenomenon continues to live among us through his songs. Sonu Nigam, one of his most famous fans (or should I say devotee?) has done an amazing project, which has released quite recently-RAFI RESURRECTED. Basically, Sonu has collaborated with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) to sing 16 songs of Rafi with a grand orchestral setup.

As expected the result is stupendous! I bought the CD recently & it was worth every penny because:

  1. It contains a booklet (about 30 pages) of rare Rafi photographs & a mini-biography of the legend.
  2. The CBSO has done a marvellous job of exactly replicating the music for most of the songs and the soul of the song has not been tampered with. Its so nice to listen to live instruments especially in today’s age of electronic synth music.
  3. Sonu has sung with his heart-it shows!

For all Rafi fans out there-for lovers of vintage Hindi music, this is a MUST-BUY. Go get your copy-its priceless!! Let us support such projects by buying the original CD’s, that’s the least we can do and spread the word too 🙂

Hariharan-My Favourite Singer

I had an opportunity to listen to acclaimed ghazal singer Shri Hariharan in one of the ghazal concerts recently. The concert lasted for about 3 hrs and we were in bliss for those 3 hrs. The genius of his singing is difficult to describe. Hariharan is a master of Carnatic and Hindustani music. It is so evident in his singing. That evening he sang with so much variety and range that it was mind-boggling to listen to him. Moreover the accompanists in guitar, flute, sarangi, tabla & keyboard were maestros themselves. I can say that he is the best singer I have heard ever. (Though there are many who are close to him like Rafi, Yesudas & SPB) He has some great ghazal albums to his credit like Hazir, Kaash, Gulfam, Paigham et al.
I also follow Hariji’s singing in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu & Malayalam. He has rendered some wonderful melodies in these languages too. Music dirs like Rahman, Vidyasagar, Vishal Bharadwaj & Ilaiyaraja have given some immortal melodies thro’ him. I have earlier attended 2 of Hariharan’s concerts before where he sang tamil songs.
There’s a lot to look forward to from Hariharan in the future..a new ghazal album, another Colonial Cousins album, more film singing…..its definitely going to be exciting……