Saturday, August 10, 2013

Eyy (Ilaya) Raja

I tried writing this piece for quite sometime.

Male duets are really rare in TFM. The moment one think about male duets, immediately the epic "Pon ondru Kanden" of TMS,PS comes to everyone's mind irrespective of the timelines.  This song is ruling even today after many decades speak volume of its impact it has on the TFM lovers. Another classic one being "Paadinaal oru Paattu" from yester year. When I sat down to think post 70s/80s I couldn't find better than this one "Eye Raaja ondranom Indru" from the Jallikattu. Yes I am biased and I agree since I didn't think beyond anyone other than Raja while taking up this.

Coming to this song, let me try to give my few cents on how to look into compositions of Raja. IMHO, he never tried to compose any single track in isolation. He tried to get into this skin of the story line however thin or effective the story, screen play, characters and he always come up with mind blowing compositions not to forget about the BGMs, preludes and interludes. While saying this one must look into BGMs itself in isolation and can be analyzed.

If you carefully look at his earlier compositions beginning of 70s and 80s he had given us lot of gems which has brilliant preludes.

The song in discussion here is from the film Jallikattu starring Sivaji Ganesan, Sathyaraj, Radha directed by Chitra Lakshmanan.  This story line is very simple of a vengeance with a Sivaji as the leading protagonist.

Lets just peep into the situation for this song. Sivaji, a retired Justice takes into his custody a murder accused to rehabilitate him. The accused, Sathyaraj, didnt like Sivaji from first sight since he has awarded him the highest punishment for no wrong done by him.  Over a period time Sathyaraj understands Sivaji's intentions and understand the motto for both of them is common after initial hiccups. This song comes at the moment when he realizes and pleads to Sivaji for his innocence. And Sivaji says he will lead him to fight for the right. Krishna, helping Arjuna to fight for right. Heavily inspired with the situation, Gitapadesa, this song is pictured and carefully look into the lyrics also brings out that.

Now about the song. Raja was using MV to sing for Sivaji but for this he has chose Balu and Mano for Sathyaraj. There is a interesting twist here also if you look at Mano being shishya of SPB. Is it Raja's intelligence or I am reading too much into this :-).

This song starts with a brilliant prelude. This composition has outstanding orchestration especially these kind of songs are targeted to sing in live performance. Raja has given another such best orchestration targeting a live performance category is the wonderful "Sangeetha Megam" from Udhaya Geetham, and it has the one of the best preludes till date and a popular ring tone of many even today.

Once the anu pallavi lands nicely, the interlude starts with a breezy humming. Look at the situation here, the heroine feels happy about the bonding of the two and her happiness is coming out very well in this humming. Both Balu, who blends so nicely and Mano do real justice to this song.

I do not see any other male duets coming close to this. Again I am biased and let me be :-)

Before I conclude, IMHO, if you want to enjoy each and any composition of Raja I think one should see it not in isolation but wrt to the situation to enjoy it fully.

PS : Too many thoughts in mind once I start writing about IR hence ended up a lengthy one. Atleast post this, couple of you will look deep into his compositions rather than hearing it stand alone.

http://youtu.be/EOTmvsE9IoM