Even as I am typing this post, I am listening to a wonderful Nalinakanti by Mandolin Srinivas. :) This raagam is one of my favourites. Raagas like this one always fills your heart with happiness and transports you to a state of bliss. :)

My first ever memory of Nalinakanti is listening to Ashok Ramani sing Manavyala at a temple near my house. That was more than a decade back and Ashok Ramani’s singing was much better than how it is these days. After coming home, I searched through all the cassettes and found one by Bombay Jayshree in which she had sung this song. I got hooked to it immediately! Today neither do I enjoy Bombay Jayshree’s nor Ashok Ramani’s singing much. :)

The next song based on Nalinakanti that I listened to after this one was Manam virumbudhey from the movie naerukku naer. You can call that song as one more than inspired by Manavyala. After all, who is the music director of that song ;) Both Unnikrishnan and Harini versions of this song are good.

Eesane by Nithyasree Mahadevan is yet another favourite of mine in Nalinakanti. The lines in the anupallavi, each ending with vaasane! Wow! What a wonderful song so beautifully rendered by Nithyasree! Talking about Nalinakanti by Nithyasree, how can I miss out mentioning about the swarams in Nalinakanti sung by her in the movie, Kandukondain Kandukondain, along with Kalyani Menon! I love it! It goes like SGRMP,MGR RMPN MPN PNGR NPMGR. (Those who know Nalinakanti, sing it and enjoy it. Those who don’t, try recollecting it from the movie ;) ) I don’t have a recording of this with me. If any of you have, please do mail it to me. Thanks in advance!

Finally, there’s one more film song in Nalinakanti that is IMO, one of the best film songs ever composed! It is Yendhan nenjil from Kalaignan. The only sore point in this song is Ilaiyaraja singing the swarams in between the last two paras. Why did he have to make us listen to his voice in between Yesudas’? :( Anyway, I absolutely enjoy every moment of the song.

With this, I conclude the first of the many posts to come in a series in which I will be writing about my favourite raagams and some compositions on it, without getting into the technical details of the raagam. :)