ILAIYARAGAM
ILAIYARAGAM Research Posts
Research Post 4 - The Art of Googly
In
cricket, Googly is a delivery bowled by a leg-spinner with his usual action of
fingers and wrist, eventually leading a lesser mortal batsman in front to
believe that its yet another leg-spin while the ball swings away to glory from
Off to leg, leaving the batsman with no idea what’s happening. Sunil Gavaskar
often comments that our Anil Kumble has mastered googly like no one. IlayiaRaaja
has produced many googlies too….. Songs that look like composed in a
particular style, while they are not… Songs that look like composed in a one
Raaga, which is actually done in another…. Songs which makes you almost
conclude that its song by Malaysia while you realize that Raaja made SPB sing
like that for a specific reason (Say to suit a hero more!!) etc etc….
The
song “Aagaya vennilavae” from Arangetra velai is one such Googly from
Raaja’s armory. A Beautiful rendition by KJ & Uma Ramanan; One of favorite
combination of Raaja for such semi -classical songs. Splendid usage of
“dharbari kanada”… Like how it comes in Pepsi ads... “It doesn’t get
better than this !!!” .... However, this number would join my long list of
songs where the picturisation of the song can be held responsible for ruthlessly
murdering such great songs… Surprisingly it was Fazil who did such a poor
visual for this song… Deliberately making VK Ramasamy , Prabhu and Revathi to
stimulate their imaginary horse (Karpanai kudhiraya thatti vuduradhu!! ) to
hallucinate themselves in their favorite trends of time… Its an example for
the statement “Yaanaikkum adi sarukkum !!!”
When
I heard this song, for long time now I thought this song was set to Adhi talam…
The reason for that is this song carried all the qualification that googly has
it of a leg spin.. They use a term called “Meter” or “nadai” or more
simply “Santham” in light music… The rhythm pattern of a song… In this
song, If you see the Rhythm, its composed in a ‘nadai’ like that of a
perfect adhi talam song… Like “Thaka dhimi Thaka dhimi Thaka dhimi Thaka
dhimi”…….. If I would get more precise to the point, you can simply take
the tabla rhythm track of this song and use it for a song like “Masthana
Masthana” in Raasaiya(which is a perfect Adhi song)…. I don’t know if you
play better cricket.. But certainly I was bowled out for long time now until one
fine day, I found that this song “Aagaya venilavae” is actually composed in
Rupakam and not in Adhi !!!!!!!
A
universal pattern in Rhythm settings is that, Whenever the pallavi or charanam
ends and the pallavi starts again, there will be a brief twist in the rhythm
during the last bar.. Its called ‘Theermanam’ in classical or ‘Fill-ins’
in Western… It was this theermanam that helped me to find that this song was
in Roopakam.. In this song, I heard the Tablaist performing a theermanam for 3
counts while I was expecting 4 there… It was at that moment that I realized
that the song was set to Roopakam… I couldn’t believe myself that how I took
it for granted for all these days that this song was set to Adhi….. Adding
more to my misery, Raaja plays with the rhythm in this song by perfectly
changing the style to Aadhi in both the interludes.. A perfect googly by an
accomplished leg-spinner!!
Its
again the same concept that we discussed before…. 3 bars of Adhi can be
treated as 4 bars of Roopakam…. But the speciality in this song is, unlike his
other numbers where he did the camouflage for a few bars, Raaja has really
excelled in this song by setting a Adhi rhythm patter for a song in roopakam
thro’out…
We
discussed in details how he produced a Googly in Roopakam while it was in Adhi.
Here comes the next googly. Ilayaraaja normally doesn’t re-use his own tunes.
I mean normally in Tamilnadu, composers who proclaim themselves as national or
international very often run out of their ideas and re-use the same melody in
Tamil, which they used in a different language or vice-versa. I’m not talking
here about the dubbing of the same movie in a different language, but silently
reincarnating (!!) a melody fooling the unknown audiences of another state…
But Raaja is in fact a bit audacious when it comes to this as he boasts
pro-found composing abilities. Even when he chooses to re-use a melody on a
different song, he totally gives it a new outfit with brand new prelude and
interludes. All the songs of the unreleased Hindi movie ‘Aur Ek Prem Kahani’
is an example for this. All the songs in that movie are his own all time hits
but with entirely new ideas.. Sometimes he even uses two different melodies for
the same pallavi.. (Eg: ‘Koda manjin’ song in Malayalam and ‘KondaPalli’
song in Telugu)
The song ‘Vaarayo unakkae charan’ from Atma is one such song. This song is a
re-used output of the song ‘kaamatchi karuna vilasini’ from Raaja’s
devotional album ‘Geethanjali’. This melody is the second Googly from Raaja,
which we discuss further. At the first look every one will be deceived that this
song is composed in ‘GowriManohari’ (Let abbreviate GowriManohari as
‘GM’) But a closer look will reveal that the melody does not have 'Dha'. So
the structure of this raaga is Sa,
Ri2, Ga2, Ma1, Pa Ni3 Sa in the arohanam and Sa Ni3 Pa Ma1 Ga2 Ri2 Sa in the
avarohanam. I was frantically searching for the identification of this raaga
until I came to know from another music enthusiastic from Banglore that it is ‘Rishivani’
and officially a janya raaga of Keeravani and not GM… that was a real googly
to me…
But
I surely can imagine what made Raaja to choose this particular swara combination
of GM without 'Dha'. If you see, Gowri Manohari is a raaga very much suited for
situations where you are in pursuit of something... It can be Love, Devinity,
peace of mind etc etc.. When poignantly used, The presence of Big 'Ri' and Big 'Dha'
in this raaga will minimize the seriousness of the song.. The big 'Ri' is
noramlly a janaranjakamana swaram.. Still it can be made sound serious when used
in combination with big 'Ni', defying its true color but the big 'dha' can't be
made sound serious.... Lets assume if Dm is the root tonic note of Gowri
Manohari.. Then 'Ri' can be used with Ni as in A major or A dominant 7th. This
combination of Dm and A (or A dom7th) is the beauty of Gowri Manohari and it
draws a heavy gloomy effect. But on the contrary, when you bring out Big 'Dha'
in Gowri Manohari, always the usage is Dm and G major combinmation.. this
instantly relaxes the mood and eases out the heavy cloud set by A major.
I've tried so many sources in the past to get the name of this raaga but in
vain...
If
you see both kamachshi and the song "Vaarayo unakkae saran" by mano
from Aatma, both are composed for very serious situations in pursuit of god...
Given the demanding circumstances, Raaja doesn't want to take a break even for a
while. But the beauty lies in the fact how the song easily deceives anyone who
listens it (even for ‘n’ number of times). Another speciality here is,
‘vaarayo’ is one of the very few songs where Raja used Mano in situations
where he would have normally preferred SPB. Making the singer heavilly cough in
between the song and intentionally making him singing out of scale to simulate
he is ill is not an easy task to do in a recording theatre for a singer.. SPB
has marvellously done this in "Maniyosai keetu elundhu".. Mano also
has tried his best in this song to live up to this challenge.. He is successful,
thou' not as much as Balu I must admit...
I
was thinking for a long time that Kaamakshi karuna vilasini is the only
exception and there aren’t much songs in this raaga until I listened to the
telugu song Sumam pradhi sumam sumam from Maharishi. I was genuinely caught in a
dilemma because sometimes the song sounded like Keeravani and sometimes it
sounded like GM.. Then I could make out the obvious that the swara ‘dha’ is
missing and its in Rishivani.. At least I was happy that I could realize the
relation of Rishivani as a child raaga of Keeravani.. The song starts with a
brief alapana by Janaki in this raga. The charanam has some beautiful birukkas
rendered effortlessly by SPB. This song is a pure Rishivani.
Another
song soon to follow is Ennadhan sugamo from ‘Mappillai’. All these days I
was also mistaking this song also to be GM. Its not.. Its again Rishivani… I
was busy for a long time double-checking that this song has no ‘Dha’. In
fact the melody is devoid of Dha (Thou’ some Natabhairavi style ‘chinna
Ni’s can be observed in BGMs). The prelude and the pallavi of the song vaarayo
vaanmadhi from Pagal nilavu is also pakka ‘Rishivani’.... But the charanam
has a punching start at ‘Dha’.. Soon after that there are also usages of
Chinna ‘Ni’ giving it a Karaharapriya touch.. So its unfair to call this
song is based on any raga… But again the Rishivani touch is so strong in
Pallavi. It was a singer called Ramesh who sung this song…
One more song to join the band wagon is ‘Karpoora mullai onru’ from
‘Keladi kanmani’. The pallavai again is an agmark Rishivani. As we
previously discussed, removal of ‘Dha’ brings a more serious appeal to the
melody. The song ‘Karpoora mullai onru’ is the theme song of the movie. If
you see, the theme of the movie is ‘padu sentimental’ and the feel is
accentuated so much by this ‘dha’ bypassing. This song comes in flashback
where baby Neena reminisces some beautiful moments with her mother (Geetha). But
when played as a full fledged song it should alternatively reflect happiness and
pathos.. So Raaja leaves the ‘sogam’ behind in Pallavi and switches to a
jolly mood in the interludes and Charanam.. But the characteristic progression
‘Ga Ma Pa Ni Sa’ of Rishivani (bypassing ‘Dha’) is more beautiful in the
pallavi than any other songs.
I must say ‘Rishivani’ is a real pure innovation by Raaja in Carnatic
classical music.. There may be other classical numbers in this Raaga by great
mahans and pandits. But Maestro’s understanding of the ‘swaras’ and the
moods that they can create either by their presence or by their absence is
something absolutely amazing!!
- click here for Research Post 5
- click here for Research Post HOME
Articles Courtesy - Vicky (Vignesh Subramanian - vignesh_s@mail.com), ilaiyaraaja yahoo groups.