Illayaraja- Naan Oru Ponnoviyam kanden ilamai - extreme Carnatic
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Illayaraja , the prolific composer is an amalgamation of 3 musical genres - Carnatic Classical, Western and Village Folk .
He cleverly mixes with his own concoction ,every mix is a surprise . While most of his songs you can map it to a definite carnatic raga , there is always some shade of western harmony and/or village folk. Let us take in and out a carnatic composition.This post is all about his one musical genre - carnatic .
#1# The movie kannil theriyum kathaikal is a 1980 early saga of raja sir.Incidentally 5 music directors inclusive of Illayaraja composed where each of them created one song . Illayaraja's guru GK venkatesh also created one song and even his super senior KV Mahadevan created one song , but Illayaraja created this magic where he adopted this song Naan Oru Ponnoviyam in ragam mohanam.
#2# In 2020 taking young kids and making them basically appreciate carnatic classical is a tussle and how to bring a basic interest to kids is a himalayan struggle due to global problem of plenty to choose . We usually give an attempt to make them hear few thukkadas with some catchy basic ragas like mohanam mayamalavagowlai shivaranjani etc.
This is just not working for many. The bigger struggle is for them to get the basic structural muse of south indian instruments like mrudangam , veena, flute , jalatharangam. Also the biggest struggle is for them to adjust to alapana, structural constructs like thillana jathi ,taanam like phrases and also for them to basically assimilate the fact that this music is centered on composition .
Let us move on...
#3# Here comes the main actor Illayaraja with 3 support actors SPB, S janaki and P susheela with a lot more supporting actors . In 1980 Illayaraja made us listen to carnatic classical music without revealing that this music is carnatic,
Let us discover how the known carnatic in
conditioned ears of 2020
was revealed then in the
unconditioned ears of 1980
#3A# The song has 3 stanzas hooray. The opening interlude is a clever collection of well tuned carnatic instruments with chief import western violin also in as a prolific not out batsman.Opening prelude rhythms are teasers with salangai cymbals and mrudangam. The interlude lead instruments all are again intense southern carnatic instruments, the plot starts with distinct jalatharangam and opening interludes end with a distinct veena(may be sitar)(Lesson 1 learnt without knowing south indian instruments you already learnt).
#3B# The first supporting actor spb comes roaring with his shruthi maatha entry after laya pitha interlude.SPB sings with a feel the line போதை தரும் நாதசுரம்? which roughly means intoxicating naada .Indeed the unknown pentatonic Mohanam has gone deep to many in 1980 without even knowing that there is some thing called ragam (Lesson 2 learnt without you knowing ragam and mohanam).
#3C# The first interlude starts heavily , I am assuming the instrument is not veena but sitar. But hey wait the ragam still only stays as mohanam and has not moved to Hindustani bhoop despite a trespass from carnatic veena to Hindustani Sitar.Flash of jalatharangam is a stop gap and the flute takes over distinctly with the anchor of mohanam jeeva pidis getting more pronounced with always violin being the interchange instruments. Mohanam is still there
#3D# The Melody king SPB is joined by P susheela in first stanza. We struggle in carnatic concerts where many of them struggle to appreciate raga alapana and lose their patience before the start of krithi. But Illayaraja gives alapana in between lines of the charanam (Lesson 3A learnt without you knowing alapana you just started liking alapana too).Susheela sings beautifully but S janaki sings next .
#3E# The usually expressive violin gets most expressive with a beautiful interlude in little higher register of mohanam . ALapana is more with a higher share of chorus singers (Lesson 3B learnt after you getting little acclimatized with alapana you just started enjoying longer alapana too in second interlude)
#3F# S janaki , i would humbly say is best artist for Musical expressions .What feel she gives and she takes . Just hear the line where she steadies with her pitch in the line Oru vaanam karu megam and guides her musical brother spb.
#3G# Third interlude you also get acclimatized with a thillana also , You get a boat load of jathi phrases of a typical thillana like thirana thana thirana(Lesson 4 learnt you started liking thillana)
#3H# In 3rd stanza starts with a phrase of a typical taanam that comes in Raagam Taanam Pallavi . The taanam phrase is Thanthom thanam thanam (Lesson 5 learnt you started liking taanam )
#3I# In the same stanza both janaki and susheela along with lyricist pulamaipithan also reveal sahitya bhavam and they craft the ragamudra in their song too in the line "Athu enna MoghanamO ". This point is a lie actually they only sing a "Athu enna NoodhanamO" but i heard for many years as mohanamO till few minutes back when i checked that line in web with the song. All said this misunderstanding can also be a lesson (lesson 6 and and 7 with raga mudra and sahitya bhava)
#4# For many years atleast a generation born in 1960's to 1970s all got acclimitized to Indian carnatic music only because of the early exposure of these beautiful nuggets that IsaignAni created. We dont have a guru like Illayaraja in 2020 to camouflage the deep classical nuggets namely - depth of instruments,south indian instruments,ragam , alapana ,thillana, taanam, ??raga mudra and sahitya bhava . God of Music gave 7 carnatic nuggets in 5 mins.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igqp75E ... rt_radio=1
Naan Oru Ponnoviyam Kanden illamai | Kavignar Pulamaipithan | SPB, S Janaki and P Susheela |Illayaraja(1 of 5) | kannil theriyum kathaikal |1980
- Rajesh dated July 16th,2020 , 2nd Fortnight July 2020 Edition
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Illayaraja- Naan Oru Ponnoviyam kanden ilamai - extreme Carnatic with 7 nuggets
www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=364941#p364941
- Rajesh dated July 16th,2020 , 2nd Fortnight July 2020 Edition
- from the film Thai Mookambigai 
can be debated . You cannot debate that isaiTamil is also a western musical 
throw distance.
. 
