Vaadaatha Rosapoo

Song : Vaadaatha Rosapoo
Singer: SPB
Movie : Gramaththu Atthiyayam
Composer : Ilaiyaraja
Performed by : Murali Venkatraman



In one of my blog posts, I had somebody requesting me to sing this song. I was utterly unfamiliar with this song. The person who did not reveal him/herself sent me both the karaoke and the original mp3 so that I could sing. I think this happened months ago. I got this recorded a month back and this is for that person who had taken an interest to make me sing this lovely rustic number.

The song is apparently simple. But when one sings lines like "ammaadi" one would come to know how difficult it is to match the master singer's expressions. The quality of the karaoke is not that great. And my version is up for your panning.

AalolankiLi thOppilE - With Sowmya

Song : AalolankiLi
Movie : Siraichaalai
Composer : Ilaiyaraja
Lyrics : Vaali
Singers : SPB, Chitra
Performed by: Sowmya and Murali Venkatraman



The move was a masterpiece from IR in terms of background music. and it was really unfortunate that although the movie bagged every award possible a the national level, the national award for music was left out. One of the grandest scores of IR after Guru (Malayalam) with complex symphonic arrangements and gripping BGM. Especially the song "vande mataram" was a soul stirring number.

This song was a simpler melody and it was a bigger hit in kerala than in tamil nadu. Sowmya and I have tried to sing this. Please let us know how you feel abut it.

Pon enpadho

Song : Pon enpadho
Composer : Ramanujam
Singer : SPB
Performed by : Murali Venkatraman





Probably around 4 years back, when Napster was obsolete and there was hardly any way to get a hand on some forgotten great numbers, I was chatting with Rajaraman - the admin of tfmpage on Yahoo Messenger. There used to be some space in the tfmpage server (about 8 MB) which we both would use to transact songs (Just 1 song could be present in the server at any time). We used to dig a lot of golden oldies. RR was a big fan of golden oldies and used to collect these from obscure sources ( Well..Saravanan of dhool is the absolute master in this regard..nevertheless there were other souls like Mano, RR who knew a big fraction of the Walking Encyclopaedia that is Saravanan). He uploaded this song for me one day and I was caught in a trance because it was probably after 20 years that I was hearing that song. I remembered the song coming through Srilankan radio when I used to be in 6th Grade. I savoured the song every bit and also decided to sing sometime.

The greatness of SPB, as I have seen, is in giving life to compositions of even lesser known composers. This song was sung by him for Ramanujam and I took a liking for this song even as a child. It is relatively obscure but with google pretty much creeping into every crevice of the world, nothing seems impossible to get. It is a beautiful melody embellished to perfection by SPB. I have given a shot at it.

Listen to the original here

SPB yin kuralai Pon enpadho ? Poo enpadho ?

Thanks to Aravind for modifying the original file to soften the rendition.

Ponnira Vaanam - Tamil version of Mallelu poose

Song : Ponnira Vaanam
Original Song : Mallelu Poose (Telugu)
Singer : SPB
Composer : Rajan-Nagendra
Movie : Intinti Ramayanam
Tamil Lyrics : Udhaya
Performed By : Murali Venkatraman

Mixed By : Pradip Somasundaran

Nearly 5 years ago, Raja Govindarajan - a popular telugu and tamil stage singer in North America sent me an assorted collection of songs in 2 cassettes. One contained great numbers from Shankar Mahadevan, Hariharan, Ghulam Ali and Ajoy chakraborty. The other one had a collection of SPB's , what I think, are the finest telugu songs. And it included:

1. oh cheli idhi toli pata
2. madhumaasa vELalo
3. aNuvu aNuvula
4. naa hrudayapu kovilalo
5. pooche poolalona
6. nenoka prema pipaasini
7. kadhile mEgama
8. ee divilo virisina paarijatamu
9. shivaranjani navaragini
10. mallelu poose

Although every number is very dear to me, it is last song that took my breath away. I had not heard a melody so captivating in telugu till then and I ended up playing the song over and over the entire day ! Every note oozes romance (in telugu of course which I have not a clue a about), but you could feel every note's warmth in the enchanting rendition of SPB. Language was immaterial to understand or let me say, feel the song. I can, without any element of exaggeration, say that this song provoked the composer and singer in me. Honestly I was outraged by the disparity in creation - the bundle of talent that were Rajan-Nagendra and the silken voiced supremo SPB and the banal musical pretender that I am. I think I said loudly in the car:

"mavanE..eppadi..eppadi paadaraan paaru..yENda ennai ellaam padichchaan ? !@#$..eppadi oru tune pOttu irukkaan paaru..ippadi oru tune pOttutu seththu pOidaNum"

And I have found myself mouthing similar words when I hear MSV's compositions. Please regard my appreciation in singular address as the love for the artists I worship. I have always heard envy never brings love. But when it concerns me, I think in the case of SPB, MSV, KJY and IR, I make an exception. My envy is simply an extension of the deep affection I have towards their musical creations.

I did have the temerity to perform this song a couple of times on stage - once in telugu and once in kannada (aaseya bhava)

==========

If mallelu poose's linguistics cannot be fully appreciated by me, I know who I need to turn to. Udhaya. Impressed heavily by the song, he wrote tamil lyrics albeit with a philosophical overtone and not the romantic overtone the original has.

# 219 பொன்னிற வானம்
மல்லெலு பூசே என்ற தெலுங்குப் பாடலை தமிழில் கேட்க நினைத்ததின் விளைவு இது.

பொன்னிற வானம்
போடுது மோடம்
ஏனிந்த மாறுதல்?
இதயமுமே அந்த வானம் போல அல்லவா?

பொன்னிற வானம்
போடுது மோடம்
ஏனிந்த மாறுதல்?

சரணம் 1
எதிர்வரும் காற்றினிலே
எவருக்கும் மாறும் வழி
மாறிடும் பாதையிலும்
ஊன்றிடு உன் கொடி (2)

சதுரங்க ஆட்டத்திலே
நகர்வது முறைப்படியே
வாழ்கையின் போக்கினிலே
முறையே புரியலே

தோல்வியின் சன்னதியே தந்த வரம் இந்த அனுபவம்

(பொன்னிற வானம்...

சரணம் 2
ஏக்கங்கள் தேங்கிடவே
கனவுகள் பெருகிடுமே
வேண்டிய முயற்சியிலே
ஏக்கங்கள் விலகுமே (2)

வெற்றியின் படிகளை
அடைந்திட பல வழி
அத்தனை வழியிலும்
முயற்சி முதல் படி

வெற்றியை பகிர்ந்திடவே சொந்த பந்தம் வந்து சேருமே

(பொன்னிற வானம்...

When I got the lyrics I had to say this :

"mavane..eppadiyya ezudharaan ippadi?"

In order to stay true to the philosophical overtone of Udhaya's lines, I chose to underplay the romantic element that is present all over in SPB's telugu rendition. So, what you hear is what Udhaya and I cooked up in the background of Rajan-Nagendra's orchestration and SPB's shadow. Please let us know how you feel.

=========

Thanks to Pradip who helped me to mix this.

Malare Mounama - With Sowmya

Song : Malare Mounama
Composer : vidyasagar
Movie : Karna
Singers : S. Janaki, SPB
Performed by : Sowmya, Murali Venkatraman




I think it was in late 90s. SPB after recording a song excalaimed to the director of the movie "90s la vandha songs la indha maadhiri endha paattaiyum naanum jaanaki ammaavum anubavichu paadinadhillai. dhayavu seydhu idhai nalla padam aakkunga"

That song was reasonably picturized and became the face of the great composer Vidyasagar. A total Raag- Darbari pujari, he churned out many melodies in the same or similar scales without ever sounding stale or repetitive : nee kaatru naan maram, malaikkaatru vandhu. A composer whose melodies have the strength to stand the test of time. A composer who is regarded by SPB as one among the best he has worked for.

Sowmya of ragasudha got introduced to me probably a year or two back. She is a consistent performer as you would see in her blog. Here I team up with her to present this song in our voices after quite a long break.

SPB has stamped his class all over in this wonderful song. Every time he sings malare, the modulations are different. This extreme creativity can neither be reproduced nor be acquired by hard work. One simply needs to be born blessed.