ILAIYARAGAM

ILAIYARAGAM Research Posts

Research Post 4 - The Art of Googly

In cricket, Googly is a delivery bowled by a leg-spinner with his usual action of fingers and wrist,
eventually leading a lesser mortal batsman in front to believe that its yet another leg-spin while the
ball swings away to glory from Off to leg, leaving the batsman with no idea whats happening. Sunil
Gavaskar often comments that our Anil Kumble has mastered googly like no one. IlayiaRaaja has
produced many googlies too.. Songs that look like composed in a particular style, while they are not
Songs that look like composed in a one Raaga, which is actually done in another. Songs which makes
you almost conclude that its song by Malaysia while you realize that Raaja made SPB sing like that for a
specific reason (Say to suit a hero more!!) etc etc.

The song Aagaya vennilavae from Arangetra velai is one such Googly from Raajas armory. A Beautiful
rendition by KJ & Uma Ramanan; One of favorite combination of Raaja for such semi -classical songs.
Splendid usage of dharbari kanada Like how it comes in Pepsi ads... It doesnt get better than
this !!! .... However, this number would join my long list of songs where the picturisation of the song
can be held responsible for ruthlessly murdering such great songs Surprisingly it was Fazil who did
such a poor visual for this song Deliberately making VK Ramasamy , Prabhu and Revathi to stimulate
their imaginary horse (Karpanai kudhiraya thatti vuduradhu!! ) to hallucinate themselves in their
favorite trends of time Its an example for the statement Yaanaikkum adi sarukkum !!!
When I heard this song, for long time now I thought this song was set to Adhi talam The reason for
that is this song carried all the qualification that googly has it of a leg spin.. They use a term called
Meter or nadai or more simply Santham in light music The rhythm pattern of a song In this
song, If you see the Rhythm, its composed in a nadai like that of a perfect adhi talam song Like
Thaka dhimi Thaka dhimi Thaka dhimi Thaka dhimi.. If I would get more precise to the point, you
can simply take the tabla rhythm track of this song and use it for a song like Masthana Masthana in
Raasaiya(which is a perfect Adhi song). I dont know if you play better cricket.. But certainly I was
bowled out for long time now until one fine day, I found that this song Aagaya venilavae is actually
composed in Rupakam and not in Adhi !!!!!!!
A universal pattern in Rhythm settings is that, Whenever the pallavi or charanam ends and the pallavi
starts again, there will be a brief twist in the rhythm during the last bar.. Its called Theermanam in
classical or Fill-ins in Western It was this theermanam that helped me to find that this song was in
Roopakam.. In this song, I heard the Tablaist performing a theermanam for 3 counts while I was
expecting 4 there It was at that moment that I realized that the song was set to Roopakam I
couldnt believe myself that how I took it for granted for all these days that this song was set to
Adhi.. Adding more to my misery, Raaja plays with the rhythm in this song by perfectly changing the
style to Aadhi in both the interludes.. A perfect googly by an accomplished leg-spinner!!
Its again the same concept that we discussed before. 3 bars of Adhi can be treated as 4 bars of
Roopakam. But the speciality in this song is, unlike his other numbers where he did the camouflage
for a few bars, Raaja has really excelled in this song by setting a Adhi rhythm patter for a song in
roopakam throout

We discussed in details how he produced a Googly in Roopakam while it was in Adhi. Here comes the
next googly. Ilayaraaja normally doesnt re-use his own tunes. I mean normally in Tamilnadu, composers
who proclaim themselves as national or international very often run out of their ideas and re-use the
same melody in Tamil, which they used in a different language or vice-versa. Im not talking here about
the dubbing of the same movie in a different language, but silently reincarnating (!!) a melody fooling
the unknown audiences of another state But Raaja is in fact a bit audacious when it comes to this as
he boasts pro-found composing abilities. Even when he chooses to re-use a melody on a different song,
he totally gives it a new outfit with brand new prelude and interludes. All the songs of the unreleased
Hindi movie Aur Ek Prem Kahani is an example for this. All the songs in that movie are his own all
time hits but with entirely new ideas.. Sometimes he even uses two different melodies for the same
pallavi..

(Eg:

Koda

manjin

song

in

Malayalam

and

KondaPalli

song

in

Telugu)

The song Vaarayo unakkae charan from Atma is one such song. This song is a re-used output of the
song kaamatchi karuna vilasini from Raajas devotional album Geethanjali. This melody is the
second Googly from Raaja, which we discuss further. At the first look every one will be deceived that
this song is composed in GowriManohari (Let abbreviate GowriManohari as GM) But a closer look will
reveal that the melody does not have 'Dha'. So the structure of this raaga is Sa, Ri2, Ga2, Ma1, Pa Ni3
Sa in the arohanam and Sa Ni3 Pa Ma1 Ga2 Ri2 Sa in the avarohanam. I was frantically searching for the
identification of this raaga until I came to know from another music enthusiastic from Banglore that it
is Rishivani and officially a janya raaga of Keeravani and not GM that was a real googly to me
But I surely can imagine what made Raaja to choose this particular swara combination of GM without
'Dha'. If you see, Gowri Manohari is a raaga very much suited for situations where you are in pursuit of
something... It can be Love, Devinity, peace of mind etc etc.. When poignantly used, The presence of
Big 'Ri' and Big 'Dha' in this raaga will minimize the seriousness of the song.. The big 'Ri' is noramlly a
janaranjakamana swaram.. Still it can be made sound serious when used in combination with big 'Ni',
defying its true color but the big 'dha' can't be made sound serious.... Lets assume if Dm is the root
tonic note of Gowri Manohari.. Then 'Ri' can be used with Ni as in A major or A dominant 7th. This
combination of Dm and A (or A dom7th) is the beauty of Gowri Manohari and it draws a heavy gloomy
effect. But on the contrary, when you bring out Big 'Dha' in Gowri Manohari, always the usage is Dm and
G major combinmation.. this instantly relaxes the mood and eases out the heavy cloud set by A major.
I've tried so many sources in the past to get the name of this raaga but in vain...

If you see both kamachshi and the song "Vaarayo unakkae saran" by mano from Aatma, both are
composed for very serious situations in pursuit of god... Given the demanding circumstances, Raaja
doesn't want to take a break even for a while. But the beauty lies in the fact how the song easily
deceives anyone who listens it (even for n number of times). Another speciality here is, vaarayo is
one of the very few songs where Raja used Mano in situations where he would have normally preferred
SPB. Making the singer heavilly cough in between the song and intentionally making him singing out of
scale to simulate he is ill is not an easy task to do in a recording theatre for a singer.. SPB has
marvellously done this in "Maniyosai keetu elundhu".. Mano also has tried his best in this song to live up
to this challenge.. He is successful, thou' not as much as Balu I must admit...
I was thinking for a long time that Kaamakshi karuna vilasini is the only exception and there arent
much songs in this raaga until I listened to the telugu song Sumam pradhi sumam sumam from
Maharishi. I was genuinely caught in a dilemma because sometimes the song sounded like Keeravani
and sometimes it sounded like GM.. Then I could make out the obvious that the swara dha is missing
and its in Rishivani.. At least I was happy that I could realize the relation of Rishivani as a child raaga
of Keeravani.. The song starts with a brief alapana by Janaki in this raga. The charanam has some
beautiful birukkas rendered effortlessly by SPB. This song is a pure Rishivani.
Another song soon to follow is Ennadhan sugamo from Mappillai. All these days I was also mistaking
this song also to be GM. Its not.. Its again Rishivani I was busy for a long time double-checking that
this song has no Dha. In fact the melody is devoid of Dha (Thou some Natabhairavi style chinna Nis
can be observed in BGMs). The prelude and the pallavi of the song vaarayo vaanmadhi from Pagal
nilavu is also pakka Rishivani.... But the charanam has a punching start at Dha.. Soon after that
there are also usages of Chinna Ni giving it a Karaharapriya touch.. So its unfair to call this song is
based on any raga But again the Rishivani touch is so strong in Pallavi. It was a singer called Ramesh
who

sung

this

song

One more song to join the band wagon is Karpoora mullai onru from Keladi kanmani. The pallavai
again is an agmark Rishivani. As we previously discussed, removal of Dha brings a more serious appeal
to the melody. The song Karpoora mullai onru is the theme song of the movie. If you see, the theme
of the movie is padu sentimental and the feel is accentuated so much by this dha bypassing. This
song comes in flashback where baby Neena reminisces some beautiful moments with her mother

(Geetha). But when played as a full fledged song it should alternatively reflect happiness and pathos..
So Raaja leaves the sogam behind in Pallavi and switches to a jolly mood in the interludes and
Charanam.. But the characteristic progression Ga Ma Pa Ni Sa of Rishivani (bypassing Dha) is more
beautiful

in

the

pallavi

than

any

other

songs.

I must say Rishivani is a real pure innovation by Raaja in Carnatic classical music.. There may be
other classical numbers in this Raaga by great mahans and pandits. But Maestros understanding of the
swaras and the moods that they can create either by their presence or by their absence is something
absolutely amazing!!

- click here for Research Post 5

- click here for Research Post HOME

Articles Courtesy - Vicky (Vignesh Subramanian - vignesh_s@mail.com), ilaiyaraaja yahoo groups.

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