Song : Aandholanam
Composer : Bombay Ravi
Lyrics : Yousuf Ali Kachery
Singers : K.J.Yesudas, K.S. Chithra
Movie : Sargam
Performed by : Murali Venkatraman, Rashmi Nair
Mixed by : George Kuruvilla
It was year 2001 I believe. I got a chance to sing in Tyagaraja Utsavam of Charlotte. I sang Samajavara gamana which I managed to learn from a stalwart's recording. The Charlotte community was extremely warm and embraced me in spite of me not having had a formal . They instilled in me a sense of confidence that I could sing bit of classical (and also compose a bit). One among those who became one of my best friends for life was Ramanan Moorthy.
Ramanan and I had similar music interests (not same) and it was easy to strike a conversation with him. He had a modest 2 bedroom flat (which luxury hotels could envy for its cleanliness and organization) and a small Yamaha keyboard with a music system and PC connected to it. We slowly learned basic voice recording using goldwave in the PC and were very happy to try out different things in the jam sessions which would last till 3:30 AM. Of course some nutrition supplements and 'health' drinks would help our singing cause.
Together we sang songs o f countless varieties through out the night. He introduced me to the world of Urdu. Earlier to him, I had heard ghazals but never paused to understand them. And I used to dismiss urdu as sounding bombastic and too high flown. In fact jokingly I remember a friend remarking that Urdu sounds like somebody burped as they talked (In fact he used a more 'southern' adjective). Even then I had only reluctantly agreed to understand urdu. (The real transformation of being able to appreciate urdu and develop a love towards it came a bit later, which I shall elaborate in a later post).
Bottom line is: mallu, hindi, urdu, tamil and bangla songs - formed our discussion. Ajay chakraborty, Lata Mangeshkar, Yesudas, SPB, Jagjit, ghulam Ali, Hariharan and other greats paid a vicarious visit to our mehfil in the form of their songs. But in person, he was visited by his endearing Mom for quite a good length of time and I had the pleasure of listening to her sitar and also vocals. In one of the Jam sessions that ensued, his mom and I sang andholanam dholanam - the song which seems to have been composed to ensure that melody would drip like honey would from an overflowing comb - and it was a memorable experience.
My mom is visiting me here in Melbourne and at her insistence I am singing a series of malayalam songs off which personally this is my biggest favorite (my yahoo id is andholanam). when I decided to sing this, one voice that came to my mind was Rashmi Nair's. Check her rendition out yourself. To me it sounded like a perfect combination of bhavam, swaram, layam, gamakam and sangathi (especially in the aalaap that find its place in the second charanam).
Composer : Bombay Ravi
Lyrics : Yousuf Ali Kachery
Singers : K.J.Yesudas, K.S. Chithra
Movie : Sargam
Performed by : Murali Venkatraman, Rashmi Nair
Mixed by : George Kuruvilla
It was year 2001 I believe. I got a chance to sing in Tyagaraja Utsavam of Charlotte. I sang Samajavara gamana which I managed to learn from a stalwart's recording. The Charlotte community was extremely warm and embraced me in spite of me not having had a formal . They instilled in me a sense of confidence that I could sing bit of classical (and also compose a bit). One among those who became one of my best friends for life was Ramanan Moorthy.
Ramanan and I had similar music interests (not same) and it was easy to strike a conversation with him. He had a modest 2 bedroom flat (which luxury hotels could envy for its cleanliness and organization) and a small Yamaha keyboard with a music system and PC connected to it. We slowly learned basic voice recording using goldwave in the PC and were very happy to try out different things in the jam sessions which would last till 3:30 AM. Of course some nutrition supplements and 'health' drinks would help our singing cause.
Together we sang songs o f countless varieties through out the night. He introduced me to the world of Urdu. Earlier to him, I had heard ghazals but never paused to understand them. And I used to dismiss urdu as sounding bombastic and too high flown. In fact jokingly I remember a friend remarking that Urdu sounds like somebody burped as they talked (In fact he used a more 'southern' adjective). Even then I had only reluctantly agreed to understand urdu. (The real transformation of being able to appreciate urdu and develop a love towards it came a bit later, which I shall elaborate in a later post).
Bottom line is: mallu, hindi, urdu, tamil and bangla songs - formed our discussion. Ajay chakraborty, Lata Mangeshkar, Yesudas, SPB, Jagjit, ghulam Ali, Hariharan and other greats paid a vicarious visit to our mehfil in the form of their songs. But in person, he was visited by his endearing Mom for quite a good length of time and I had the pleasure of listening to her sitar and also vocals. In one of the Jam sessions that ensued, his mom and I sang andholanam dholanam - the song which seems to have been composed to ensure that melody would drip like honey would from an overflowing comb - and it was a memorable experience.
My mom is visiting me here in Melbourne and at her insistence I am singing a series of malayalam songs off which personally this is my biggest favorite (my yahoo id is andholanam). when I decided to sing this, one voice that came to my mind was Rashmi Nair's. Check her rendition out yourself. To me it sounded like a perfect combination of bhavam, swaram, layam, gamakam and sangathi (especially in the aalaap that find its place in the second charanam).
Murali- this was probably the first song you passed on to me when we'd first met. And this was the first name of yours I got acquainted with :)
ReplyDeleteLove this song.
Very, very nice performance, both of you!
Rashmi- you sound heavenly :) I love your subtle brighas. Lovely, lovely!
Murali- I like the gambheeram in your voice for this one. Some brighas could be better, but I won't harp on those. Really liked this cover, guys. Very good job!
Oh, awesome mixing btw- I was wondering who did it as I was listening, and then saw the mixing credits on the post. Great job, George!
ReplyDeleteMS, excellent!!! enjoyed your singing.
ReplyDeleteI am not that great to comment on this performance! Hats off to you both. I loved it a lot!!!
ReplyDeleteGurubhyon Namah!
Ms, Your voice has matured to a great extent. Fantastic efforts by everyone. Sound Mix is warm and perfect.
ReplyDeleteThanks Murali...you took me back - ways back to very special and endearing times. God bless and good luck. Your malayalam pronounciation has so much improved over these years as well. Fantastic rendition both you and Rashmi and super mixing George.
ReplyDeleteMurali, you have done a good job on male vocals. You could bring in the teacher-student situation as depicted in the original movie. Did you really chew the betel leaves in the beginning? :-)
ReplyDeleteRashmi's rendition in this song was totally flawless and soothing. Really beautiful work from her. Everything is just perfect about her vocals part and I totally loved it!
And as usual, George has done a great job on mixing too!
Fantastic.. -Ramya Iyer..
ReplyDeleteMurali,
ReplyDeleteYou are maanasa murali. Amazing rendition.....!
Rashmi,
Very sweet voice, great job!
Murali,
I am glad your mom is here and I should be thanking her for this.
Very Very beautiful Murali & Rashmi, made the same comment on Rashmi's blog as well.
ReplyDeleteAgree with Sindhuja that some brighas could be better, but nonetheless enjoyed it a lot!
thanks for sharing
This is was super, I loved it
ReplyDelete- regards
Sandhya
Murali,
ReplyDeleteI stumbled on your blog sometime back and ended up becoming a big fan of yours.... am a regular visitor nowadays.... listening to all your older renditions. U r great!! I feel you and Sindhuja would do complete justice to the song "thandhana thathana" from the movie "Varumayin niram sivappu". Its my favourite number, and would love to hear it in your voice.
-Priya
Hey Murali,
ReplyDeleteOne more "Neyar Viruppam"!! "Kadhalin deepam ondru" from Thambikku endha Ooru. Will be too good to hear you sing it. Pls!
-Priya
Muraliji,
ReplyDeleteSuperb rendition,
Btw isn't it K.S Chitra or is it K.C Chitra as you have posted?
Muraliji,
ReplyDeleteSuperb rendition,
Btw isn't it K.S Chitra or is it K.C Chitra as you have posted?
Dei, I have a neyar viruppam pending for almost two years, I think. After these malayalam songs, I hope mine is next! Great job, as usual,
ReplyDeleteVijay.
Thank you all for the wonderful feedback :) Happy to see you all liked it.
ReplyDeleteI have posted my comment in Rashmi's blog too...Amazing...performance - i can see comments are all posted by people who know a lot about music...I know absolutely nothing - but when I hear good music...i forget myself and tears start to flow...You guys are so blessed!
ReplyDelete