Naan Kadavul – music for the soul!
The music for Bala’s much awaited Naan Kadavul came out three weeks back, a full week before the audio of Mysskin’s Nandalala. I have been hearing these songs for this entire period of time and yet could collect my thoughts only now to write a post on them. Unlike Nandhalaala these songs are not immediately likeable. These songs have so much of gravity behind them that are not immediately visible to my untrained ears. However there is an undeniable ‘old world’ quality in them that has kept me in their bind for this entire period.
In this album Ilaiyaraaja proves once again that he is the last one left in the classical mould. Relying heavily on the accoustic strings and the soft tabla he has used to enthrall millions of fans like me over the years, he makes his presence felt again on an epic scale – yet without much of pomp and grandeur.
The album is an entirely devoted to the feeling of pathos save for the rousing Vijay Prakash number. I dont know when was the last mainstream thamizh film audio was filled with such numbers – all sincere and subtle pathos. It takes an Illaiyaraaja and Bala to eschew the need to add a ‘peppy’ number violating the chastity of the film and kudos to them for that.
1. Amma Un Koyilil sung by Madhumitha and written by Vaalee:
This is a 40 second re-mix of the same song ‘Amma Un Koyilil’(my mistake - the original song is ‘maadha un kovilil’) is sung sans any grand orchestration and is sung by Madhumitha with a voice that many of us have heard in trains sung by blind girls in high pitch. The original song was a big time pathos hit from the 1980s movie ‘Achchaani’ and has been recreated nicely. Need to see how this song comes on screen. Bala has been shown to have an affinity of adding sound bites from yesteryear hits a lot – we saw it on display in Nanda (for Karunas comedu track) and in Pithamagan (Simran episode). Will have to see how he has used it in this movie.
2. Amma Un Koyilil(full version) sung by Saadhana Sargam and written by Vaalee
This is the elaborate remix of the earlier song. while the main tune remains the same, the lyrics have been redone to suit this movie and Raaja has changed the 80s interludes and added more layers of strings and some synth sounds. While I was dismissive of this song initially, Saadhanaa’s evocative plea , the lyrics and the ludes have slowly grown on me. There are strings that start out and stop without becoming full bloomed majesty that raaja usually weaves.
The song is a pathos ridden plea of a human existence that has been cursed to be along the sides of a road without any protection. A lament of a tormented soul at the sub-human existence making a case with the ‘mother filled with mercy’.
Special mention about the words of the third charanam
“Jenmangalil paavam Penjanmame
Bandhangal endru sonnaal thuyarangale”
Loosely translated as ..
“In lives the most pathetic is that of a woman
where only sorrows are attachments”
This is simple throwback to the 70s and 80s where every thamizh film had a female protagonist singing a tear jerking song. This song is so emotionally sung by saadhanaa and the special violin passages makes one feel/anticipate what is going to happen to the character on screen. What is Bala upto with this song in his script is a million rupee question and despite the retro feel of this song, the emotion behind the song and its modern rendering though a shade lesser than the S.Janaki rendering is interesting and engaging.
3. Bitchai paathiram yaendhi vandhaen sung by Madhu Balakrishnan and written by Ilaiyaraaja
One less known aspect of Ilaiyaraaja is that he is a poet in addition to a master music composer. He has written hundreds of songs and has even released couple of Thamizh poem collections. He is credited by the poet vaalee to be the one who taught him (Vaalee) the art of writing a unique thamizh poetry form called venbaa. Ilaiyaraaja had released a music album ‘Ramanamaalai’ in the year 2004 as a mark of his devotion towards Bhagwan Ramana Maharishi the great spiritual guru who lived and attained moksha in the temple town of Thiruvannamalai. Ilaiyaraaja considers himself a disciple of the saint and in that album had sung this delightful, simple yet soulful piece called ‘Bitchai paathiram’. Upon the request of Bala he has recreated this song in the voice if the talented singer Madhu Balakrishnan who first sung under Ilaiyaraaja for the awe inspiring ‘nirpadhuve‘ ‘Edhilum Ingu iruppaan’ for the movie “Bharathi”. Madhu impresses again with his amazing voice, range and bhaava. The lyrics of this song are what the siddha literature calls ‘Gnaana pulambal’ a lament on the lack of divine knowledge and an ode of amazement at the divinity combined with the disgust, futility and impermenance of human body and a body level existence of human mind.
The lyrics are so moving and poignant that the music plays a very low-key and subtle role. The bhaava takes precedence in the number and has been quite aptly rendered – though for the listener who has heard the maestro himself sing in the original album – madhu’s version would sound a tad flatter. That in no way takes anything away from this song.
At one point the singer pleads
‘Aththanai selvamum unnidaththil
Naan pichchaikku selvadhu evvidaththil.
verum paathiram ulladhu ennidaththil
adhan soothiramo adhu unnidaththil‘
loosely translated it reads,
‘All the wealth is in your (read lord Shiva) hands
where else can I go and beg?
I have only an empty vessel (read mind – body mix)
Only you (The benevolent Lord) have the idea of its inner workings‘
Such meaningful lyrics adorn this wonderful song that was all but lost to the mainstream listeners drowned in ‘kuththu paatus’ and party shakes. Thanks to Bala for requesting it and thanks to Raja for obliging!!
4. Kannil Paarvai pona poadhum sung by Shreya Ghosal and written by Vaalee
Hold your breath – it is another pathos – and no ordinary one. It is the pathos song of the decade for me! The words can not be more apt to detail the plight of a blind girl without sight in her own words. The saarangi starts to set the melancholic mood which is taken to a new level when Shreya ghosal sings
‘Kannil Paarvai pona poadhumum
Kannil eeram thadhumbum thadhumbum
Kannilaadha paerai kandaal
Kanaakal kooda odhungum odhungum
kanaavil kooda inbam kaanaadhu vaazhum jenmam
O deivame idhu sammadhamaa?‘
loosely translated,
‘Even if the eyes lost their sight,
the tears keep welling up
Even the dreams that may come
escape the eyes of the sightless
Joy is a feeling unbeknown even in dreams to this life
Is this what you agreed for O God‘
The lyrics are so in your face on the pathos, yet when heard in the voice of Shreya Ghosal with all that bhaava and accompanied by the heart tugging strings of Ilaiyaraaja, one cannot help but remain spellbound at such a melancholic composition. The interludes in the first charanam start out sadly and gather momentum indicating an impending ‘doom’ kind of feel and I am sure this song is going to be placed in a sequence preceding the climax that sense of impending sadness about to take place has been recreated in an eerie fashion here. After hearing this song I reiterate my opinion that Ilaiyaraja is the master ‘mood’ creator in existence in the world of Indian films. The feeling of joy of hearing a great melody is only surpassed at the feeling of sadness for the character . Million kudos to Shreya Ghosal who at one point sings it till she is almost breathless and recovers to complete the song in style and yet retaining the feel.
5. Oru Kaaril alayu siragu sung by Ilaiyaraaja and written by Vaalee
This is another version of ‘Kannil Paarvai Poana podhum’ by Ilaiyaraja himself. He has kept the rendering simple while retaining the same bhaava . The lyrics are different and I wonder if this version also would be present in the movie.
One marked note about the lyrics…
‘Engengum kaanum inbam
Un pangu ponadhenge‘
loosely translated..
‘There is happiness all over
where did your share of it go?‘
This is an acknowledgement of the great national poet Bharathi’s verses that read
‘Eththanai Koadi inbam vaiththaai sarvesa‘
which means
‘Crores of happiness you have put in this world‘
Only paradox is that this song is about the share of happiness that is in this world denied to a hordes of helpless people forgotten and thrown to the fringes of this society.
6. ‘Om Shivoham‘ sung by vijay Prakash and chorus and written by Vaalee
is a song of such reverberation that if you play it on a discotheque floor, the walls would crack to million pieces. The song is a thumping ode written in simple and pure sanskrit!! Yes you read it correct – a thamizh film album having an entire length of its song in Sanskrit. The lyrics are a gem, the rhythms rich with udukkai, dolak, urumi and chendai are complemented by chants of ‘Rudram’ serving as interlude. Vijay prakash pours his life into this song blasting the lungs with chants of the great Lord, the crematorium dwelling ‘Shiva’ the maha rudra – destroyer of sins and worlds. The second interlude carries a sitar and veena celebration with amazing tabla one has not heard in recent times ending with a conch and shell sound that shakes one’s soul in its impact. The lyrics begin with verses extolling the greatness of the lord Shiva as the bearer of the thrishul and the one possessing the fiery eye who destroys ‘Ghora’ – the distastes of life. By the end the song culminates in the supreme realization of the state of one’s being – ‘Shivoham’ one is the same as the shiva who is so great!!! The complete package of this song is enough to overcome the feeling of doom and pathos that is conveyed by the other songs in this film. The lead character of the movie is touted to be an ‘Aghori’ in Varanasi and one can expect pulsating visuals to be conjured up by Bala and Ilaiyaraja has created the music of the decade for this song.
The team that has created this album have boldly bucked the trend and created music that stays in touch with the soul of the movie. Probably Ilaiyaraaja felt that there is a genre of music concerning pathos songs and rousing devotional songs in Indian films and has recreated them so magnificiently that we can thank him for eternity. ‘Shivoham’ and ‘Kannil’ songs are enough to put the sound and music of the album beyond the realms of ordinary mortals.
Go buy this album and treasure it . There can be no better curtain raiser to the movie than this album which came out as the new year gift from thamizh film’s pithamagan Ilaiyaraaja!!! And what a gift this musical experience has been!!!
Tags: Aarya, Bala, Ilayaraja, Isaignani Ilaiyaraaja, Naan Kadavul, Pooja, Raaja, Saadhana Sargam, Shreya Ghosal, Vaalee, Vijay Prakash
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
This has been out 3weeks?!
I’m so outa touch with the music scene of late!
Thanks for the write up.
But for me, I only seem to appreciate Illayaraja once i’ve seen the visuals.
I’m not really a huge fan of his but I can’t deny his brilliance and importance.
I’ll be getting this album quite soon though.
Any idea when the film is due?
Bala is just INCREDIBLE!!!
Woow double bonanza for ilayaraaja fans . Nandalaala and Nan Kadavul. Good write up and analysis
jaiganes, thnx for the nice review.
2nd part of the write up on Amma un pillai has mixed with Pitchai pathiram. Please correct the same.
Also, Ramana maalai was released in 1997/98 and not 2004.
Jai, very well written. Very well written.
Jai, look forward to your review on Nandalala also.
Nice review. One correction—Nirppadhuvae is by Harish Raghavendar & not Madhu Balakrishnan! This album grows after multiple listens
Its “Matha un Kovilil” n ” Amma un pillai”.
Nice article Jai…a small correction. Nirpadhuven in Bharati was sung by Harish ragavendra. Madhu sang another song in the same movie called “edhilum ingu irupaan avan yaaro”
cheers!
an outadted album…really disappointing from ILR.
the review is a bhajan on ILR
Thnks for the corrections guys!
I have corrected some mistakes in the post.
@Abin:
There have been many IR albums that released and I have not sung any bhajans in praise of them. These two albums(Nandhalaala and Nan Kadavul) of IR are truly exceptional. Exceptional because ppl like you say they are ‘outdated’ – What is the current trend today as far as music is concerned is not all that healthy. The music of these two albums is a throwback to the 70s and 80s when the movie’s story and script dictated the songs and not some insane desire to sell more ‘records’.
Abin: I remember a dialogue from ‘The American President’. Someone tells Michael Douglas: In the absence of water, people drink sand. To which he retorts: People drink sand because they do not know the difference.
What Jaiganesh is trying to do is point out the difference..His efforts need to be lauded..else we will keep giving Padmashrees to Viveks and Aishwarya Rais and Akshay Kumars and keep ignoring Ilayaraja.
Jaiganesh: Carry on the good work dude!!
Got some updates – the story backdrop is the same as exploitation of children and women – something similar to SDM – lets see how the film pans out.
@Jaiganesh,
I am not a blind fan.Only blind fan can praise any work of his Idol.
@Anand,
I know the water and sand atleast in ILR’s composition.OK.
adding up..
There are enough good compositions outside which made for soul better than these listed two.
Come on guys..
abin, I dont have issues with you finding other albums better. But I think what Jai was pointing out was ‘outdated’ is an archaic word to use in this context. You would probably think Thyagaraja and Mozart’s music are outdated, too. But they have lasted centuries – and some of the trendy and up-to-date film albums you are listening to now will actually be outdated in a couple of years. Naan Kadavul is music for the soul. If you dont understand it, fine. Ignore it. Ignorance is bliss, after all. But when you make comments like this, we reserve the right to laugh at you. No offence, honestly.
abin: I am a fan of Steven Spielberg. His Schindler’s list was an outstanding piece of work. But I think his other works like The Colour Purple, A.I, Minority report, Saving Private Ryan all sucked. I am not a blind fan you see :-)
@abin.
I have clarified that I have not been praising ‘any’ work of my idol Raaja.
The two albums he has given this new year have been special. If you fail to read what I have written – then I must assume that you have some preconceived notions that you dont want to give up about IR’s music.
If you give even one casual listen to ‘Kannil’ sung by Shreya, you cannot but be drawn by the amazing musical structure of its melody – simplicity, yet effectiveness of its lyrics and the emotion conveyed by the music and the singer’s superb voice. Beyond that I cannot explai more to you. As far as Shivoham is concerned, it is one of its kind and the energy in the percussion arrangements and the maniacal veena an sitar arrangements are something never heard before in Indian film music. I have heard similar arrangements only in some rare fusion albums and as far as the energy is concerned, there was an album of collaboratio between late Kunnakudi and shivamani that comes to my mind.
True this music is not as sweetly packaged as songs from 5 seasons or something like that. However considering the story line we have heard, the songs sure are going to amaze us even more on screen unlike modern film music which is a separate entity that dilutes the movie watching experience.
@raj,
Thyagaraja and Mozart’s music are outdated?
Comparing those with nan kadavul and nandalala..
Give me a break..
first you guys study to appreciate or agree to other’s opinion.Dont consider them as ignorant or dont say that they will be thinking all other classics as dull.. OK
@Jaiganesh,
Ok .Letus wait for the movie..
Above all, i should not have commented for this post, as i am fighting against some big fans of ILR who has ‘just’ reason for everything and makes me and my opinions as a joke.Thank you.
Time is the best judge.letus see how long this albums lasts.
abin: “first you guys study to appreciate or agree to other’s opinion”..”i am fighting against some big fans of ILR who has ‘just’ reason for everything and makes me and my opinions as a joke.”
Dude..take a chill pill!! You said that this review is a bhajan of ILR..Doesn’t your comment treat this well written article as a joke?? If you have a point of view, just say it na..why do you have to deride the writer of the post? Have you read the other posts of this gentleman? Have you even visited his blog? Now you want to be a crybaby..don’t throw stones from inside a glass house buddy.
But for the record, if my comment has hurt you, I am sorry.
@abin – it is your prerogative to comment on anything. Pls don’t feel that this blog is a personal blog of a celebrity or his fan. VEry rarely do I post on music related articles on this blog and I have to reiterate that I dont write reviews, otherwise I would have told you the raaga of the song , where tonal shifts occur and how was the swara rendition of the singer etc., IMO if you dont know music atleast at the basic level, you can’t write reviews – you can only publish your views expressed through your prism of feelings and restricted entirely by your lack of finer knowledge to enjoy it even more comprehensively. I am in that position and pls dont construe my articles to be ‘reviews’. All I wanted to convey was here is Ilaiyaraja – last of the classical mould of music composers for films who still composes for the need of the film rather than tuning hits in billboard charts and here is Bala who prefers music that goes with the movie and not stand out as a separate entity, together they have created a musical output that stands out. It stands out because you dont hear a hip hop loop, purely traditional, native sounding music, relaxed and loaded with meaningful lyrics that reach you the first time you hear as they are not clouded by extra layer of digitization. This musical output stands out from the run of the mill that is filled with needlesly international sound. Another striking feature is the presence of a full scale sanskrit bhajan and who would have thought that narrow minded ‘regional’ language movies could accomodate a full length sanskrit devotional song? Except for Malayalam I have never come across any other language film accomodative of a different language song – English is always welcome sadly.
So there are many reasons why this album is unique. Much like the duo’s earlier album ‘Pithamagan’, the music is ‘Cherishable’ and not ‘perishable’.
Jai—somehow I am enjoying this Pichaipathiram more than its original (by Raja itself). Madhu’s bhaava-filled rendition is awesome! Its a magical, HAUNTING tune.
Though some say it is outdated, as Jaiganesh is saying it fitting in to the filam as always as any IR album. After reading the various movie reviews of Naan Kadavul JAiganesh stand vindicated, I feel. Any IR album must be thought with the film together. It is my opinion that if you hear an IR album which sounds technically/sonically/soulfully superb then the picruisation will not be worth it because IR music has always been 25 years ahead of his times. Movie makers struggle to picturise his songs because they find them out of reach for them, conceptually. See how songs in the Malayalam film Guru (Oscar entry for 1997) have been portrayed. I was not satisfied with its portrayal as against the music.
Hence I feel, because of these issues IR has narrowed down his compositions to movie makers capabilities. Thats why he is not accepting more films these days.
Surely Naan… stands out among IR’s recent albums simply because there is so much soul in it. Also Bala makes films only once every 2-3 yrs.
The BGM for the movie, I read, is really superb, it seems.
Jaiganesh, have you written before about Bala and his prior films…asking because ive no clue @ this director and what this naan kaduval is @…good or typical commercial stuff and you write @ SI films here….tx…