Thumbi Vaa Concert Version - A Tribute to Ilayaraaja!

Write-up by Balaji Seetharaman :
Happy Birthday Ramji KS from the fame of the “Making” of Kaatu Kuyilu: D and also my "Blood"y good friend.

This song has taken so many different forms right from the year 1982 till the year 2009 and has almost panned across multiple generations.
1) 1982 – Olangal - Thumbi Vaa
2) 1982 – Nireekshana - Aakasham enatidho
3) 1983 – Auto Raja - Sangathil Padatha Kavithai
4) 1988 – Kanne Kalaimaane - Neer Veezhchi thee mootuthe
5) 1995 – Aur Ek Prem Kahani – Monday Tho
6) 2009 – Paa - Gum Sum Gum

Each one of the above is special in its own form. There is one other form that really took a good solid crowd of many thousands in chennai and later millions on television on a great journey. IR performed this live on stage in a show called “Andrum Endrum Indrum” (Also in Live in Italy). This particular version made me crazy for a long long time and it still does. Such a mesmerizing version! (Check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV_IVtXcg4g)


First thing I had to do was to get hold of the track. After a patient search with no luck, decided to do this myself with my keyboard. The Live version had around 50 violinists, Arulmozhi(Flute), Sivamani on the drums and lot of other people :D. The initial aalaap was sung by none other than Hariharan! Never really knew upfront what I should do :D ! With Rewind <→ Play over and over again on my IPod, played every instrument individually and mixed them to get close to the original feel of the orchestration. It worked out quite well but then the usage of drum kits in the charanam did not help the flavour of the song, so got in touch with Tara and she immediately shared the Thumbi Vaa track with me. First thanks to her! I sampled out the charanam tabla from the Thumbi vaa track and merged it with my K-Track ! Sounded perfect from the orchestration point of view.


After completing the track, the initial plan was to sing this all by myself. Muziboo that time was pretty new to me and I enjoyed listening to some of the great singers here. “Adithi Akka” was my favourite (and still is) and I looked up to her for her sheer passion, perfection towards music. That was the time she did this Remembering Bharathi – I was just spellbound. Slowly got to know her personally and casually was discussing this project with her. She said she could do some portions of the song. I was just thrown off! Made me nervous :D Made me excited as well, never expected this! Then I picturised this version in a different way with Adithi on board. I finished my part and sent the files to her. She had different plans :D she just took the whole effort to great new heights. Her “Original” improvisations, Harmonies and Seconds added totally a different dimension to this already wonderful version (you will not find this part in the original concert version, hence this is an experiment, first of its kind from her). She just took over from there and then there were a lot of exchanges Back and Forth, before we were collectively happy on the final version. Thanks a lot Akka.


“Kathai la oru nalla climax koraiyuthe! Naanga ellam hero va padathoda kadasila than introduce pannuvom la!!! :D” With fireworks around, we invited our Muziboo’s very own Rajathi Raja Jr PBS Rajkumar Anjan to do the mixing for us. He really got involved and spent quality time trying to do this mix for us and we as a team think it has come out really well. Thanks Raj Anna.


Thanks Harish, Ramji for hearing this pre-release and for your suggestions.

Rest is for you to decide! Please leave in your honest thoughts! Thanks.

Sung by : Adithi and Balaji
Mixing : RajKumar Anjan
Harmonies/ Chorus arrangement: Adithi
Composition : Maestro Ilayaraaja


Thumbi Vaa Concert Version - A Tribute to Ilayaraaja! (Adithi, Balaji & Raj)

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Naan Kattil Maele KaNDen

Place: Taramani Film City


Year: 1999 December

Event: Shooting for Raj TV’s Pongal episode of Tamil film music quiz

I was one of the participants and was doing reasonably well when breaktime was announced. Shrikala Bharath, the producer of the show, casually requested a song from the compere and asked me to sing with him. No rehearsals, we didn’t even check if we knew lyrics etc and we started singing “Sippi Irukkuthu”. There was pindrop silence in the auditorium till we finished when they burst out into a thundering applause! Such spellbinding performance by this brilliant singer/ MC! Later, I got introduced to him and his beautiful wife. The time that we spoke was short yet enough to know that this man had some high taste in music!


It was after nearly 10 years that I recollected all of the above when I met Sriram Srinivasan in Muziboo :) It is a small world indeed!


Sriram suggested this beautiful song from the 80s and I happily agreed. The opening tune reminds me of a Hindi song(which one-still slips my mind!). Although it is not our first duet together, it is the first in my space!


Movie: Neeyaa

Music: Shankar- Ganesh

Originally sung by: SPB, P.Susheela

Mixing: Sriram


Naan Kattil Maele- with Sriram Srinivasan

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Paarijaatha Poove

This song is perhaps the one with longest WIP status in my Inbox. LOL

Shrinesh and I started working on this song back in Nov’08. There have been atleast half-a-dozen attempts from each side to complete it, resulting in utter failure due to track issues, technical glitches, flaws in singing and what not! Finally, we decided to beat it to death and end the long wait with some persistence!

Movie: En Raasaavin Manasula

Music: Ilayaraaja

Originally sung by: S.N.Surendar, K.S.Chithra


I love this song for 2 reasons. One is the very funny picturisation where a cute, bright girl is singing this duet with a silly but sincere young boy. IR has aptly used S.N.Surendar’s voice to bring out the innocent voice to suit the brash(but asadu) teenage lover on screen. Chithra sounds as sweet as ever!


The second reason is the unfailing tune. IR has used a similar tune in 3 different songs during just about the same time period and all were super hits. I would like to make a medley out of it someday if someone tried to finish the third song, as I have done the other one in the string! :) Do give it a try and you will know exactly what I am talking about :)


Naan sirithaal Deepaavali – Paarijaatha Poove – Oh Party nalla Party thaan(Idhayam)

Shrini and I have sung a couple of duets long ago and I am so happy to be singing with him again :) He has done a very nice job in this one as always and “underplayed” deliberately to suit the song sequence! He has also done the mixing.


Paarijaatha Poove- with S.Srinivasan

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Malarnthum Malaraatha

This song sequence is perhaps the most loved of all pathos numbers from yesteryears’ Tamil cinema……


The absolutely amazing expressions by Sivaji and Savithri, the mindblowing lyrics, the unforgettable tune by MSV-TKR, the sweet woe-filled voices of TMS an Susheela made it the perfect mix to elevate the song to immortality.


Sukumar and I have tried our best to do justice to this song. Sugi has done a stupendous job again, in my opinion! He has the perfect voice for TMS songs which so easily handles those intricate brigaas.


Movie: Paasamalar
Music: M.S.Viswanathan- Ramamoorthy
Originally sung by- T.M.Soundararajan, P.Susheela
Mixing :Sukumar


Malarnthum Malaraatha- with Sukumar Rajendran

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Andhimazhai Pozhigirathu

It will not be an exaggeration to say that in every singer’s lifetime, this duet is a must-do.

My earliest memories of music, movies, Kamal, Kavithai and love are so indistiguishable from one another….this song is a highlight to it all! :)

I decided to team up with Vishak for this one since it was in his wishlist too. Needless to say, we both thoroughly enjoyed singing this one. We hope you will like it too.

I want to dedicate this rendition to my friend Neeraja Neelakantan who fined me with this song for forgetting the day of her wedding! LOL!


Movie: RaajaPaarvai

Music: Ilayaraaja

Originally sung by: SPB, SJanaki

Mixing: Vishak Subramoney

 

AndhiMazhai- with Vishak Subramoney

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Celebrating ShankarabharaNam - Saa ri ga ri

Write-up by Murali Venkatraman :
“It is one thing to have classical songs with swaras and another to have a song made of just the swaras without sounding too complicated. This is one of the rare songs in film industry which in spite of having only swaras as its lyrics, sounds very melodious to all and sundry. Ragam Bowli is a cousin of Revagupti which traditionally signifies the music at dawn. Here Adithi and I have tried to recreate the song that touched us deep some 30 years back. It was done almost 3-4 months back but saw the light only today”


Song : Sa Ri Ga Ri Ga(Bowli) – Sangeetha SikshaNa
Original by: S.Janaki, S. P. Balasubramaniyam
Music By : K. V. Mahadevan
Movie : shankaraBharaNam
Singers: Murali Venkatraman and Adithi Devarajan


Thanks once again, Meera, for the awesome mixing !!!!

This song has been beautifully picturised in the wee hours of dawn when the Sangeetha SikshaNa begins. The highlight is Manju Bhaargavi’s myriad of expressions throughout the song.


I am so glad and honoured to be a part of this team working together to bring back the magic of this 30 year old movie. Murali has been so patient in waiting for me to complete the song for the series. He is an awesome musician from whom I have learnt so much in the past many months of association :). A song with him at last……. :D



Celebrating ShankarabharaNam - 4- Saa ri ga ri

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Oru Naal Oru Pozhudhu

I had no idea of singing this song until Unnikrishnan requested it of me. Infact this song is my birthday gift to him! :) Happy Birthday, Unni!

Unni kindly offered to do the mixing for me. In the process, he has tried something different in the form of introducing a tiny humming of his in the middle of the song. I loved it personally as I thought it accentuated the beauty and mood. I hope you will like it too! :)

Swarnalatha is one of the finest singers in the industry today. It is not an easy task to become the favourite of all 3 stalwarts of TFM- MSV, IR and ARR! :). It is quite a challenge to bring the feel and clarity of her songs into one’s renditions.

Ofcourse, my version is nowhere near the original but atleast I am happy that I did this one specially for Unni! :) Glad you loved it, kutta! :) Thanks Sudhathee, for the track. I still think that you have sung this song much better than me, di! :D


Movie: Andhimandhaarai

Music: AR Rahman

Lyrics: Vairamuthu

Mixing: Unnikrishnan KB


Oru Naal Oru Pozhudhu | Music Upload