Singara Velan - starred Kamal Hassan and already plumpy Khusboo :-(. Directed by RV Udayakumar. The movie was a run-of-the-mill with all commercial elements and nice songs. 'Innum Ennai' & 'Thoodhu selvadharadi' were very nicely done. 'Pudhucerhi Katcheri', was what stole the honors however.
Innum Ennai is the best song in the movie and lets get to the review of the song right away.
The song is set in Gambeera Naattai, the swaras are simply 'sa ga3 m1 pa ni3 Sa'. No complications there. But how can one produce a lovely melody out of such simple notes. IR shows us how....
The song opens with bells & violins at a very fast pace going over the raga's structure, before trumpets & drums join in and announce a grand opening to the song. The electric piano/synth flute sets up the pallavi for the song with a fast & hip rhythm section and our inimicable SPB opens with 'Innum Ennai'
The pallavi is wonderful especially the section 'kaigal thaanai korthai, katti mutham thenai varthai'. One wonders where such melody was kept hidden behind the raga till IR discovered it.
The interlude is nicely done...that is first place, i guess you note an anniya swara in the song so far....with the typical IR combo of flute/violin.
The stanza once again is kicked off by SPB...the flute follows the line so closely that it feels as if a logical extension of sorts. If you are humming the song..rarely would you not hum the flute piece as well. Janaki joins in quite late in the song and it is a walk in the park for her for this stanza.
Disclaimer: Bit detailed the following para is.
In the following lines am gonna attempt to explain, what i've observed as notes...it may have technical term to it, if there is please let me know. If you listen to 'pudhu pudhu vidukadhai (2.24)' , the way the tune is structured is pudhu pudhu & vidukathai are theoretically similar, but slightly shifting the start note of vidukathai by 1 full step brings in a majestic touch to that song. I've seen many MDs do it...but never knew whether it is a 'construct' in light music. Help appreciated.
As his wont, IR toys around with drums to produce a nice climax to the stanza and anupallavi with Janaki bringing it off easily.
The second interlude is the best part of the entire song. Starting at 3.00, a nicely 'gamakam'ed veena (positively synthetic) for 4 seconds is out of the world. The trumpets join in with the piece repeating and the violin arrangement is as expected.
The second stanza, is set off by Janaki. As with the first stanza at 2.02 and here at 3.37, 'nool idayiyai yenga vidum', the section between 'idayiyai' & 'yenga' there seems to be a drop of note by half-note that brings in wonderful but subtle variation to the song.
The song finishes off with SPB & Janaki letting loose their creative improvisation...but as we have heard thousand times before..it is actually 'programmed' by IR.
In my list of bests, this song is amongst IR's Top-3 if not the best. It has a simple structure, easy melody, nice fast pace & lovely orchestration. I would listen to this IR gem anytime !
Rating 4.9 out of 5
7 comments:
You have got some pretty nice movie music reviews on your blog! How come you havent reviewed Uzhavan songs yet? They are one of my favorites from the ARR stable. One more review recommendation - you must have definitely listened to IR's Mudhal Mariyathai - they are the most melodious songs ever!
Thanks for ur comments on my blog :-). Keep blogging!
A,
Thank you ! Uzhavan, yeah should get to it sometime. Will add it to my request queue :)
Mudhal Mariyadhai..yes i have heard it. Will add it to my request queue as well :)
Like a politician, meeting citizens and gathering votes, there is no saying 'no' to the requests :-) ;)
Arvind
And like with politicians, there is no guarantee that a request would *ever* move up the queue? ;-)
LOL :-)
So you were wide awake, while reading the analogy ;-)
I never knew politicians had 'queue' in the first place :p Do you hail from 'neverland' ? :-)
As they say in IT, 'customer is always right'.
'Never say never again'
Nice review. Definitely one of IR's top offerings. But, I wouldn't want to rate it as No. 1, 2 or 3 because there are just too many of them great one's!
Singaravelan was a musical treat what with the jazzy Pottu Vaitha Kadhal thittam in the mix as well. It also has Ilaiyaraja's favorite scheme of using the same tune for a slow pathos song. Vara solli in neram is just Pudhu cheri cutchery slowed down. Simply Great!
Can we see a review on Bose - The forgotten hero?
Sure, will add it to my to-do list :-)
Appreciate your patronage & patience ;)
Post a Comment