MAESTRO ILAIYARAAJA NEWS & TITBITS VER.2010-2011

[Plum]

Sujatha owes her resurgence to Rahman and might not feel any gratitude to Raja for introducing her. Which is understandable atleast to me. Chitra OTOH, respects Raja like he were God, and owes a lot to him. As for Hariharan, trained classical all fine but it is not just Raja's rigid tunes he butchers - I took the example of MSV's Viswanathan and Baroque spoke about his kolai in Rahman's show. The man simply is a molester of others' tunes. Deserves to be jailed for that - even SPB does that in Telugu shows sometimes but thankfully not to Raja's tunes. He has too much awe for Raja to attempt that. Singers imnsho, should only kaal amukkify not karutthu sollify. Composers are the Gods. Singers are just messengers - do not attempt to play God.

[groucho070]

I've seen quite a number of ARR's concert (TV/DVDs), and Hariharan is not perfect there, in the effort to get into the groove, and do the move, he sothapifies. Worst is his pronunciation. "NilA kAgirathu"

[Plum]

Yeah, he molested "Nilaa Kaigiradhu" and "UyirE" in that Asianet series as well.

[raagas]

Plum is right! actually SPB also does what Hariharan does, probably to a lesser degree, but in similar dimension. Only difference is that SPB doesnt do it in Raaja's songs. For all other composers' songs, he is almost same as hariharan.

Hariharan's gimmicks are composer agnostic. He does it for his own compositions, other composers' songs.. What is surprising is that Raaja didnt make Hariharan to re-sing the whole thing again. Raaja made even Yesudas sing again, when he made mistakes, but Raaja lets hariharan off the hook! Why raaja why!!!

[PARAMASHIVAN]

Being trained in classical music and a highly accomplished ghazal singer, nobody can question his vocal prowess. But I feel HH is normally up in his elements while singing free flowing tunes, say in a Rahman show, esp in songs like vennilave vennilave or malargaLe or UdhYa Udhaya . He seems a little out of comfort zone in rigid tunes of Raja and that is pretty evident on stage shows.

Mano is also trained in Classical/ghazel , but listen to his singing

[PARAMASHIVAN]

Yes, I agree that SPB also tries to improvise non IR songs on stage, but he is a master at that, and he has never ever gone off shruthi!

Recently I watched a SPB+ARR concert, where SPB did his gimmicks when he sang Kadhal roajave / Roja jaaneman, no one could notice the difference from the Original track to the one on stage! For the likes of SPB/KJY I can understand that they may have forgotten certain tunes, as they have been singing for almost 5 decades! so mistakes can be understood! But for some one like Hari, it is not acceptable! Like Jai anna mentioned he never makes any mistakes during Hindi concerts, he makes mistakes only in Tamil!

[PARAMASHIVAN]

I've seen quite a number of ARR's concert (TV/DVDs), and Hariharan is not perfect there, in the effort to get into the groove, and do the move, he sothapifies. Worst is his pronunciation. "NilA kAgirathu"

If you talk about pronunciation he is not "exactly" the worst culprit compared to Udit Narayan, I think ARR made mistake by introducing these singers to TFI in the process of "introducing new talents"

BTW, even KJY had an issue with Tamil pronunciation those days

[K]

http://pesalamblogalam.blogspot.com/...g-post_30.html

[vel]

Aren't these gimmicks though? 3 note song, 2 note song, next concertnu onnu irundhaa one note songA?

Even if you think it were gimmicks, i would say 'well why not?' Nothing wrong in showing (proving) how the 7 notes can be flexibly (and sparingly!) used even though Raaja was still not compromising on the melody. It was not a mere academic exercise but had lot of music sense to it...The actual message one should takeaway is that this monstrous talent would need even bigger challenges to get him motivated, going forward!

[vel]

thanks Narayanan for sharing part - I, here is the next


16) Edho Mogam - Kozhi Koovudhu - surprising only around 40% of the audience recognized the song when the first 30 seconds of the strings prelude was playing ! Then the applause was thundering & complete when the actual tune is played after 30 seconds or so. Karthik sang it effortlessly. I think apart from the strings magic, the chorus harmony work was outstanding…the harmony guys did fantastic backing ! Ageless song performed to full satisfaction ! ....another paisa vasool performance (#endrendrum raaja chronicle)

17) Madai Thirandhu - Nizhalgal – a balu thunder all the way….all the lines where the maestro is referred to (e.g. pudhu ragam padaipadhaale nanum iravane, OR isaikena irunkindra rasigargal etc), Balu threw a knowing glance appreciatively to Raaja and also the audience cheered out aloud….the second interlude harmonium bit was not accurately reproduced – may be because the original sound was by Raaja himself playing on his best friend – his harmonium ! Tough to reproduce …Overall this was SPB extravaganza all the way !! ………(#endrendrum raaja chronicle)

18) Oru Raagam Paadalodu - Anandha Ragam – a gem of a selection – caught me by surprise that someone thought of including this rarely played number. KJY took us all to heaven with that blessed divine voice of his! (#endrendrum raaja chronicle)

19) Sundari Neeyum - Michael Madhana Kamarajan - grapevine has it that Kamal was supposed to sing this one along with two other numbers (ninaivo oru paravai and raja kaiyya vacha). Anyways, Haricharan did not disappoint. …a regular performance! I would have rather had them perform “vachalum vakkaama ponaalum” instead of this song….that would have been a feast ! ………(#endrendrum raaja chronicle)

20) Naan Thedum Sevvanthi - Dharma Pathini – Given the heavy heavy expectations that the audience always has on the prelude alaap that Raaja sings, one could see some traces of restlessness on Raaja’s face as he settled down to start the song….it was a cakewalk as usual for him and as usual audience wanted “once more”…this time they didn’t get a repeatu ! ………(#endrendrum raaja chronicle)

21) Gum Sum Gum - Paa – the hungary troupe came into play for this one…..Bhava sang this song and she managed to sail through the high pitched portions with some effort. The chorus too could have been more pronounced and accentuated. Could have been much better than what it was. ………(#endrendrum raaja chronicle)

22) Aayiram Thamarai - Alaigal Oyvathillai – first time this was played, the mirudhangam sound in the prelude was not audible at all….then it as played again….though technically the mirudhangam notes were reproduced as per the original, the recreated sound was not the same as the original. It was sounding a bit different. Anyways, the song made splendid connection with the audience who were clapping along happily. Youthful SPB !! Racing strings portions !! The hungary
orchestra guys were perplexed at the complicated soundscape that this song has ! Paarthukongada, idhu dhaan enga Raaja ! ………(#endrendrum raaja chronicle)

23) Poongathave - Nizhalgal – God knows why don’t composers use Uma Raman’s voice anymore. The golden pair from the original Deepan chaks and Uma sang this song superbly. Deepan especially sang it effortlessly. Perfect work by the orchestra. ………(#endrendrum raaja chronicle)

24) Sundari Kannal - Thalapathy – magnum opus. We already know this will be a clear winner and it was. Grand to listen this one being performed live. ………(#endrendrum raaja chronicle)

25) Ilangaathu Veesudhey – Pithamagan – Sriram parthasarathy at some places forgot that this is supposed to be light music. I think Raaja corrected him quickly during the interludes by telling in his ears not go too carnatic’ish and to keep it plain. Nice open throated singing anyways ! ………(#endrendrum raaja chronicle)

26) En Mana Vaanil - Kaasi – while Hariharan sang the song, Raaja maimed in action throughout the lyrics. For the line ‘manamullor ennai paarpaar, manadhinal avarai parpen’ he pointed to the audience. The lyrics match Raaja so perfectly describing his rightful place (maaligai vaasam) he deserves and what he actually got (mara nizhal nesam) ………(#endrendrum raaja chronicle)

27) Raja Kaiya Vacha - Aboorva Sagotharargal and 28) Ninaivo Oru Paravai - Sigappu Rojakkal – both sung by Yuwan. When Prakash asked what he could emulate from his father, he said he learnt about dedication from his father. BTW whose lousy idea was it to make him mimic like Kamal …thevaiya idhu? Usually Raaja pulls Yuvan’s legs on all shows, but he was merely watching his son adoringly like any proud father ! ………(#endrendrum raaja chronicle)

29) Idhu Oru Nila Kaalam - Tik Tik Tik – Harmony people outstanding ! Who is that fattie who sung the ‘nagirdhana thiranana’? he got special applause from the audience. Reeta made full use of the opportunity she got and she sung this one beautifully with lot of feel. ………(#endrendrum raaja chronicle)

30) Vacha Paarvai Theerathadi - Ilamai Kolam – Prakash raj introduced this song as a kuthu song. More than kuthu song, I would have personally wanted more folk numbers in this program. Folk genre was totally underrepresented in this concert playlist! Ok anyway, nice energetic performance by KJY ! ………(#endrendrum raaja chronicle)

31) Kaattukuyil - Thalapathy – this was not just a performance. It was a phenomenon. SPB+KJY+Raaja as well joining towards the end. The percussions boomed thundersouly ! The emotional bonding between the three legends came to the fore. Spell binding performance for the class as well as the mass. ………(#endrendrum raaja chronicle)

32) Kannan Oru – Bhadrakali – interesting to note that this was originally composed for a drama troupe and was a song meant for lord muruga! Raaja sang those original lines much to the delight of the audience. Few interesting tidbits were discussd…It seems while recording this song, the orchestra made plenty of mistakes and also KJY recalled distributing sweets to all as it was Gokulashtami that day…………(#endrendrum raaja chronicle)

33) Ilamai Idho Idho - Sakalakala Vallavan (last song to end the event) ………there wont be another SPB….there wont be another Raaja…..you dont get to see such a powerful orchestra ensemble...nothing more to say on this song and the performance ! One cannot imagine any other song to be a fitting finish, as the year 2011 draws to a close. Thanks to Subashree thanikachalam for making this dream show happen (#endrendrum raaja chronicle)

Idha pathi ezhudhavae kanna kattudhe....idhai practise panni perform panradhu evlo kastamda saami ! I will write on some "out of the box" performance in part III