Aparna’s Blog

Wishing A.R.Rahman and Saira Banu a Happy Wedding Anniversary!

(A.R.Rahman and his wife at actor Prabhu’s son’s wedding)

(Photo from http://ratnadeep.netfirms.com/FAMILY.htm)

You are travelling on ECR by bus in the evening. Forget the East Coast and the beach! Look towards the west. You see the blue sky turned pinkish adorned beautifully by the orangish sun. You turn on the radio and guess what song plays! ‘Idhu oru ponmaalai pozhudhu’ from ‘Nizhalgal’!

Idhu oru pon maalai pozhudhu
vaana magaL naaNugiRaaL
vaeRu udai pooNugiRaaL

You can witness this right in front of your eyes! Wow!
P.S.: I didn’t have my camera with me. So, couldn’t take snaps

Though I have heard that Andhi Mandhaarai is one of A.R.Rahman’s best, blah, blah, (Well, we Rahman fans say that about almost all his songs ) to tell the truth, I have not listened to it much inspite of having all the songs with me. Thanks to Adiya’s comment for my earlier post, I decided to listen to all the songs from the movie today and I have got addicted to the song ‘Oru Naal Oru Pozhudhu’ (Of course, I have heard this one earlier too)! What a lovely song! Can’t stop listening to it! Thank you, Adiya!
There is soooo much left to explore in A.R.Rahman’s existing compositions itself. I have almost all the compositions of Rahman with me thanks to the A.R.Rahman Fans Yahoo group. I think I have to spend some 2-3 days to listen to all his compositions that I have not listened to much.
Talking about Rahman’s music, I can’t wait for the audio of ‘Sivaji’ to get released!

I finally had to stop listening to A.R.Rahman’s songs yesterday since I had to go to Sanjay Subrahmanyan’s concert at Nayaki Sabha. Sanjay started the concert with varnam in my favourite raaga Sahana!
Accompanists:
Violin: M.R.Gopinath
Mridangam: Guruvayoor Dorai
Ghatam: T.V.Vasan

List of songs:
1. Varnam - Sahana
2. Raa Rama Inti - Asaveri
3. Ninnu Vina - Reetigowlai
4. Ellaam Sivan Seyal - Vasanta
5. Ninnadoo - Kalavati
6. Evari Maata - Kambhoji
7. Maatrariyaadha - Surutti
8. Theril Erinaan - Kalyani
9. Nijagaadasa - Sindhu Bhairavi
10. Pittham TheLiya - Senchurutti(?)
11. Mangalam - Sowrashtram

I think this is the first time I am hearing Sanjay sing Reetigowlai. The raaga alapana and the song with swarams lasted some 15 minutes and I would say for this alone yesterday’s concert was worth attending! The next one, Ellaam Sivan Seyal in vasanta with a raaga alapana, neraval & swarams at the line ‘Anjael anjael endre achchatthai pOkkidum’, was too good. Sanjay had chosen Kambhoji for the main piece for the last concert of his that I went to and again Kambhoji in yesterday’s concert too. One thing that I observed in most of Sanjay’s concerts is that most of the times he does not do neraval for the main piece and this concert was no different. Nijagaadasa and Ninnadoo are some of the songs that Sanjay sings often. Coming to Tani Avartanam, when two veterans are playing the Tani will of course be excellent!
On the whole, yet another excellent concert of Sanjay as usual!

From the morning, I have been listening to A.R.Rahman’s songs non-stop. I couldn’t resist posting a random list of my favourites of Rahman that I have been listening to since morning.

1. Holi Re from Mangal Pandey - I listened to it for some 2 hours continuously yesterday thanks to so many of my friends who kept on wishing me a Happy Holi and this was the song that came to my mind as soon I heard the Holi wishes. I couldn’t help listening to it today too.
2. Telephone Manipol from Indian - Rahman’s music! Hariharan and Harini’s singing! Wow!
3. Pachchai Nirame from Alaipayuthey - I am not saying anything about this song apart from the fact that I watched it some 4 times today
   
4. Poovukkenna Poottu from Bombay
5. Theendai from En Swaasa Katre - A beautiful song based on Sri raagam!
6. Swaasame from Thenali
7. Girlfriend from Boys
8. Pettai rap from Kadhalan - Even a Dappaankutthu song sounds nice when composed by Rahman
9. July Madham from Pudhiya Mugam - I love the guitar in this song. Off late I have became quite crazy about Guitar Prasanna’s playing and incidentally he is the one who has played the guitar for this song.
10. Hello Mister Ethirkatchi from Iruvar
11. Aayo Re Sakhi from Water - This is my current favourite in Water.
12. Kaatre En Vaasal from Rhythm
    
13. Sonnaalum Kaetpadhillai from Kadhal Virus
14. Uyirum Neeye from Pavithra - One of singer Unnikrishnan’s best (I don’t like his singing that much)! This song is based on one of my favourite raagas Khamas.
    
15. Naan Paadum Sandham from Duet
16. Then Maerkku from Karutthamma
17. Malargale from Love Birds - Hariharan’s singing again!
18. Thee Thee from Thiruda Thiruda - No words to describe this song. I just love it! I always increase the volume of my music system to as much as my ears can tolerate and listen to it. Btw, who is this Carolene who has sung this song? What other songs has she sung?
19. Chikku Bukku Rayile from Gentleman
20. Thirakkaadha KaattukuLLe from En Swaasa Katre
21. My Wish comes True from Kisna - I love the flute interludes in this song.
22. Strawberry KaNNe from Minsara Kanavu

I can go on and on but, I am stopping with this. As I have earlier said, I can never ever find the words to describe A.R.Rahman’s music. In spite of continuously listening to his music from the morning, I am not able to stop listening even now! Rahman Rocks!!!!

Well, it seems that was how the song, Sandai kozhi/Kabhi Neem Neem from Aayitha Ezhuthu/Yuva was referred to by A.R.Rahman! I heard some RJ (if I remember correctly, it was Suchi) telling about it in Radio Mirchi at the time Aayitha Ezhuthu was released. It seems Mani Ratnam had initially wanted a song to picturized on the hero and heroine with the hero singing it to the heroine, tapping a bucket! It’s another thing that the song later got changed to the heroine singing it, but Rahman still called the track as the bucket song.

Coming to the picturization of this song, I like the picturization of Kabhi Neem Neem more than Sandai Kozhi. Abhishek and Rani is one pair that I like very much and is there anyone better than Mani Ratnam who can picturize a romantic song this beautifully! Enjoy watching the song here:

It seems ‘Guru’ is the first hit of the year and it has completed 50 days! I very badly wanted to watch Guru in Inox but somehow I couldn’t make it all these days and when I finally decide that I will go this weekend, I see that since yesterday the movie is running only in Woodlands, not in Satyam too. Anyway, I am happy that Mani Ratnam’s Hindi film has finally been declared a Hit in Bollywood.