Lesson 5

Yet Another Lesson on Creating Variety in Film Music

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Song:	Kannamma Kadhal Enum.....(Tamil)
Film:	Vanna Vanna Pookal
Listen to this song. [Audio Courtesy: RaajaNGAHM.com ]

 

The Mood of the Song 

This amazing melody is a duet song that is typical in most Indian films. The song is a lesson on creating variety in film music, thus making a prototypical situation interesting than it would have otherwise been.

 

The Raga

The raga behind this song , (a janya of either 56th or 58th Mela) appears to have the following ascent and descent : S G2 M2 P N2 S and S N2 P M2 G2 R2 S.

Besides a rare note combination that is inherent in the raga , the composer's ability to make melody through his complicated tunes, adds to the novelty of the song .

The note ri is sounded twice in the pallavi and does not appear anywhere in the charanam (except in a repeated tune  at the end). This makes the charanam sound like Samudhra Priya ( Madhukauns in Hindustani ).

Beginning from the pallavi, the flow of tunes in this song are highly unexpected and complicated in terms of note combinations.

The pallavi begins with a tune (Kannamma….) that starts on the panchamam, touches the higher gandharam and finally flows down to the base sa, after touching the rishabham. The next tune (undhan killai moziniyilae….) sounds unusual at that point, starting on the ga, and ending with a wonderful slide from pa to ga. Following this is the tune (manam kollai adipadhundaen…) that lands surprisingly on the nishadham. The pallavi ends with a tune (Arayo….Arayo….) that adds beauty to the song by closely tying up all the notes that are used in the song.

The first two tunes in the charanam sound interesting phrases like P N P G M P ( unnai ninainthu… in the tune punnai mara thopporam) and P G G P M ( solli magizindaen) with shifts from pa to ga.

The next tune (vennilavin oli….) starts on the ni, causing a unusual shift from prati madhyam ( solli magizindaen) to kisiki nishadham. This tune ends at the ga (yet another surprise) and repeats itself causing yet another unusual shift from ga to ni.

(Note the flow of the notes throughout the tune..vennilavin oli kanalai kodhikudhadi.......i'm out of words to explain this astonishing tune. Also note the subtle difference between this one and the next tune......ennumgalae illamal thavikudhadi)

In contrast to the  above mentioned unusual note shifts, the song has a number of smooth slides especially involving the notes sa,ni and pa. (Again, i'm out of words to explain these slides that are found throughout the song).

The Orchestration

Through the orchestration of this song, the composer shows how the flavor of film music should be added to a song that has been tuned with a strong classical flavor. The amazing parts of the orchestration are the rhythm patterns on the tabla that are beautifully intertwined with the guitar and keyboard. This instrumental combination (that holds the stamp of the composer) flows in the background, during the prelude, pallavi and the charanam of this song. The constantly changing rhythm that perfectly matches the flow of the tunes in the charanam and  the small piece of percussion at the end of the pallavi and charanam,are  examples of the composer's ability to create variety.

While the song begins with a tune played on the shenai, that gives an "indian sound" to the song, the beautiful pieces in guitar (in both the interludes) and the violin arrangement (in the second interlude ) bring in shades of western classical music. These aspects portray the composer's style and capability to blend different musical forms, resulting in a novel sound scope that adds color to film music.

 

Thanks to Maestro Ilayaraja for   introducing  this kind of a novel sound in Indian film music.

 
 

Author: R.S.Balaji

 
[Sorry for transliteration errors] 

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