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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