Category Archives: Music

Kharaharapriya all the way!

Today, I got the recording of a concert of Sanjay Subrahmanyan held on 30th July, 2002 at SVN Music Academy, Bangalore. It had a 1-hour 5-minutes RTP in Kharaharapriya sung by Sanjay! What more can you ask for! In the RTP, he has sung the Pallavi ‘rAma nI samAna’ in raagas Kanada, Salaka Bhairavi, Darbar and Siva Ranjani. It’s too good! Sanjay had sung Raga Sudha Rasa in that concert. A 4-minute alapana of Andolika followed by the song is awesome! Can’t stop listening to it! (I am listening to T.M.Krishna’s and Sanjay’s Raga Sudha Rasa alternately now!) I am yet to listen to other songs in that.

Incidentally, today has been a day full of Kharaharapriya!
I listened to Chakkani Raja sung by Sri Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar, then, another 1-hour RTP in Kharaharapriya sung by Vedavalli and above all, the song I am learning now is Chakkani Raja! šŸ™‚

Can a music lover ever have enough?

Every aspect of the new WorldSpace ad is too good! Be it the WorldSpace Signature tune played in a Hindustani style or the music shop or the Hindustani music lover (look at his expressions!) and then, of course, A.R.Rahman! Does he look cool! And then, the lines in the ad!

ā€œSo you love Indian Classical music? You spend every rupee you can on Ravi Shankar, Bhimsen Joshi? But, can a music lover ever have enough?ā€ asks Rahman.

Yeah, can a music lover ever have enough? What is it that is there in music that never lets you feel you have had enough of it? What is there in music that makes you feel that every time you listen to it, you are elevated to a new state of bliss altogether?
Continue reading

An evening with Rahman’s music

For the past four days, I have been listening to only two songs again and again. They are Sonu Nigam’s Deewana (This one is of course not A.R.Rahman’s) and Rahman’s Lukka Chuppi. More than the music, one thing that had me hooked on to these two songs is the voice of Sonu Nigam & A.R.Rahman. The feel that they both bring to the songs with their voices is amazing.
Yesterday evening, I listened to the songs of Sivaji for the first time. After listening to Rahman singing a beautiful line like ā€˜Yahaan sab kuch hai maa phir bhi lage bin tere mujhko akela’ in Lukka Chuppi, his singing the line ā€˜Bun bun nee sweet bun’ in the song Athiradee didn’t appeal to me initially. After that, I listened to some of my favourites sung by Rahman since all I wanted to do was to listen to only the songs sung by him!
Continue reading

Roja

Roja
I am going to start with the climax! I love the climax and the location where it was shot too. Perfect choice! Madhubala runs down the steps and Arvind Samy too runs towards her. The first time he slips and falls, she hurries down the steps. Then, when he rolls down the steps, she lets out a cry and rushes towards him. Now, they are just a few feet away from each other. Unlike other movies where the heroine will run towards the hero immediately to help him, here, she herself becomes so weak with joy on seeing her husband after a long time that she is unable to even stand! Then, when he finally reaches her, they let their eyes and tears do the talking, he then calls her ‘Pattikkaadu’ and they both hug! No unnecessary dialogue between the couple. Their eyes and actions do all the talking! Wow!
Continue reading

Ponmaalai Pozhudhu

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! šŸ™‚ Wow!
P.S.: I didn’t have my camera with me. So, couldn’t take snaps šŸ™

Oru Naal Oru Pozhudhu

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 šŸ™‚ ) to tell the truth, I have not listened to it much inspite of having all the songs with me. šŸ™ 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!

Sanjay Subrahmanyan’s Concert

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! šŸ™‚

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. Ennadoo – 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 Ennadoo 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!