Good songs that lacked the hype - 1

All songs from the movie 'Raman Abdullah', the 1997 Tamil movie were short-time hits. I heard one of them while browsing for some other song in youtube ...

Chemparuthi pen oruthi ... is a songs that starts off with the drums and guitar getting into full rhythm.

Beautiful lyrics, well pronounced and sung by SPB and Chitra. Excellently scored by Illayaraja, the song has some unusual repetition of verses in different scales where the song slows down.

Amazing !!!

En kanmani, un kadhali - song with a difference

Songs are a good source of linguistic nuances as well as nuances in thoughts. To say the truth, I learn most of my Tamil from songs.I love this particular song 'En kanmani un kadhali' from Tamil movie of the 70s for its music and the way its sung and of course, the way its portrayed. Thanks to youtube for allowing me to watch and re-watch the song umpteen times that powered me to blog on it.

The song starts with the pair of lovers fixedly gazing each other while travelling in a local town bus. Suddenly an clone of each of them start with the verses (Read it as: two of them in their own world). The song explores on the way the two in their own world interacts with the real world including their own real self. The song is written, sung and directed in such a way that four of them sing the song at few places. I think the individual singer voices were not mixed ( two track: one for the real world, one for the clone)

Here is the link to the youtube video

Learn it in your native tongue... in your own way !!

Four years from now we will see engineers with more concrete basics who had opted for studying in Tamil medium. Had there been no Tamil in the engineering entrance question paper side-by-side to English, I swear I would have score 2-3 marks less. Reading it in my native tongue increased my comprehending speed and avoided any ambiguous situation. I had then dreamed of studying engineering in Tamil, and now it is a reality. Yes, from this year onwards selected colleges will offer Civil and Mechanical streams in Tamil.

Some might argue that Tamil-engineers cannot cope up with the current industry which is services based. But at the end of the day what matters is how much of an engineer you are rather than how much of a communicator you express. It all depends on what people consider as success...Being an engineer or being a fluent English speaker. We can study the degree in Tamil and still learn to communicate in English, but not the other way round. When the whole world is embracing web2.0, Let's embrace this next step with pride.

Fell in love for bottle green color

This is in sequel to my previous blog-post on my favourite frames of ‘Vaaranam Aayiiram’

Those frames captured my senses to the extent of forcing me to take a screenshot of the same by doing a print screen while watching the song. 

Though exact frames could not be captured... yet sharing the joy of my minimal success below

My favourite frames in the movie 'Vaaranam Aayiram'

I saw the recent Tamil movie ‘Vaaranam Aayiram’ when I visited Trichy a fortnight ago. In fact I felt lucky relishing the camera / photography of the movie frames. I fell in love with this particular frame sequence in which the actress enters the frame from left; the back ground is brownish orange of an old monument. The actor then enters the frame from right dressed in a white coloured t-shirt and jacket. The actress’s bottle green saree contrasts her skin tone and the back ground. Writing this piece of text, I felt a sudden urge to search shots of those frame in the net but in vain. The search returned my next favourite shot in which the duo is in front of Taj Mahal with mist clad Yamuna River in front; she dressed in red and he in grey suits.

(Photo courtesy: Sify)

 Apart from photography and music, I did not find the movie satisfying enough…

Kudos to the cameraman Ratnavelu alias Randy, Music director Harris jeyaraj for the songs and lyricist Thaamarai for expressing the frames in Tamil...

Birth Centenary of Arignar Anna

It is heartening to see that Tamil people world over instead of rejoicing the birth centenary of Arignar Annadurai, are complaining over the government order issuing a state holiday today. If the government had issued this order a month earlier, it would have been good for planning long vacations for them. To say the truth, we are selfish beings. Why not take this one day holiday, a chance to know about the great politician and literaturist of the modern Tamil.

I got a chance to relish one of his thoughts on ‘Rain’ where he speaks as rain and how people see him coming. Some welcome him; some consider him as a disturbance. Whatever be, he cannot stop and he has to reach the earth below. Reaching the land, he finds no easy route as most of the water bodies are ill maintained. So he wanders about reminiscing the songs sung in praise of him till he finds refuge in the vast ocean which is ever welcoming.

More info on his life and works can be got at
http://www.arignaranna.info/Home1.htm.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C.N.Annadurai and www.tamilnation.org/hundredtamils/annadurai.htm

Aagaya Gangai

Tuned to scale-F in 1979, the song 'Aagaya Gangai' is still entertaining music lovers. For those who know Tamil, the songs instills a romantic sensation in them. Even after hearing the song more than 200 times, whenever I hear this song, I feel refreshed. I enjoy the violin-flute duo pieces in the song. Recently, I got to know that a similar song exists in Kannada too, with the lyrics emphasising on friendship. Need to hear the Kannada version of the song...Sad part is that, many good songs like this are not aired in the Indian based radio channels. Real tribute to these songs are given by the Tamil channels worldwide especially Singapore and Chinese short waves.