IR - king of folk (call it themmAngu or dappAnguththu)

**app_engine** · 26th August 2006, 02:35 AM

I was surprised to see that there's no thread in the NEW IR forum on this topic...May be another identity crisis for 'nAttupuRaththil piRandhu nagaram peyarndha' DF'ers

In any case, listening to the `katta vaNdi' (after a very long time)has prompted me to start a new thread for this. Interestingly today while going through some test results, I had this on the head phone...the boss came and shook me up telling " Hey I caught you dancing"...Apparently he called a couple of times from behind and I didn't answer, while shaking the body a bit...

A very polished folk song...especially the majestic synth guitar sounds used as replies to 'nalla vaNdi....pAradi puLLa...ukki pOttu...ERadi puLLa' is out of the world...(as also in the prelude and the 2nd interlude)...

And the very special chords and bass sounds through out...look for the lack of these during the `durrrrrA, durrrrA' in the third interlude and the magical effect it creates by joining when `yEh kikki-pukki' is sung...

**Google Adsense** · 26th August 2006 02:35 AM

**Nakeeran** · 26th August 2006, 02:09 PM

App Sirrrrr

Damn sure, U must be anticipating my call

As another IR fan amongst crores of his, I too will vouch for this.

However, dont u think that during IR's early days, there were lots of village oriented movies WHICH WAS ALSO A TREND DURING THAT PERIOD , which also enabled him to compose more folk songs ??

Given some chances, all MDs of yesteryears have done exceedingly well .

MSV's Endee muthamma & Thalayam poomudichi still on my ears Reengaramidigindrana

Not to forget KVM's Mama mama & various other songs

Even Chandrabose had - Maampove siru mainave & engamma magarasi

Shankar ganesh combo were very popular for some folk compos.

Still Raja rulez finally as THE NUMBERS ARE MORE

My choice for the best album will be KARAGATTAKARAN

**app_engine** · 27th August 2006, 01:22 AM

Good observations, Nakkeeran sir!

However, there are many misconceptions about IR's achievements in popularising Thamizh folk music and you've mentioned one of them...

"during IR's early days, there were lots of village oriented movies "...

Village movies were always there aplenty in TF...in fact, the whole TN was like a country side (with few exceptions like metro chennai) before 25 years and almost any storyline that had an average TN background can be easily considered a village movie. That apart, what about the rAjA rANi movies? Who prevented using folk scores there? avanga enna americA'layA arasAtchi seidhAnga?

And Raja never bothered whether it's a village movie or not, to use his folk scores. `adiyE manam nillunnA nikkAdhedi', 'thaNNiththotti thEdi vandha kannukkutty', 'mArugO mArugO' ippadi 100's of examples can be given.

And he has scored a number of movies in his early years that can fit to any situation - village or town and excelled in each and every one of them.

Another popular misconception goes like this...'Because IR was from a village, he could do better than others in village music'.

Enunga, MSV sir poRandhu vaLandha `elappully' a.k.a. `pARa'ngara oorukku pOirukkeengaLA? It's in Palakkad district even today as a village...(In fact till recently, Palakkad Town itself looked like a village only, with complete folkish culture). KVM sir's Nagerkoil area (i.e. before 50, 60 years) endha metropolis'la irundhuchchu? Shankar-Ganesh ellAm metro Chennai'yA? illa americA'la irundhu vandhAngaLA? Rajendar's MAyavaram aka mayilAdu dhuRai was still looking like a village (culturally) when I visited in 1981, i.e. few years after the release of oru dhalai rAgam. Not only MD's, a number of popular cine artists of yesteryears were from countryside but aped modern...

Even till recently, most of the towns in TN had parts of them running like villages only. (simple example, mEttuppatty which is part of Dindigul town, a dist HQ, was still exactly run like a village with kOil, thiruvizhA, kadA vettu, Adu-mAdu, vayal etc. with families who had `nAttAmai' in previous generations still wielding some authority and even called so...a number of my relatives are still there, with a lot of aunties / pAtties without blouses and having heavy `kundalam's make their ear long like man vAsanai Gandhimathi)

I look at these (and similar) statements as veiled efforts to take away credit from the great achievements of a master artist. The biggest comedy was the statement that Dr Pushpavanam Kuppusamy made in an interview to `thendRal' last year during his visit to U.S. ( 'thendRal' is a magazine popular in north america)...claiming something like he is the main cause of popularity of folk music in TN and only 'recently' cine field is attempting to use some folk

)

**MADDY** · 27th August 2006, 08:40 AM

though IR was a genius in WCM orchestration and Carnatic music, during late 80's he was into Dappangutthu a lot.......this excessive dose of dappangutthu made a entire generation (like me) shift to ARRahman........

no brickbats pls...

.....my honest opinion.....

**kameshratnam** · 27th August 2006, 11:30 AM

MADDY..given an opp. u take dig on IR..for heavensake can we stop it.u are free to move to a r rahman.tommorow somone can come and say that i moved away from a r r because of the over compuyterization of music..Leave it mate...if u can contribute something positve..pls do.. again u have every right to air to comments but pls dont dig at IR everytime..u see a new Post

On behalf of all IR Fans...I today agree the A R Rahman was the best ever born Music director/composer..Happy..leave us all IR Fans alone

"Dappangutthu" has got a lot in it. Even today whenever a hindu deity is taken out in procession, its lead by a dappanguthu team.

Dont under estimate. In villages its popular even today. The so called educated who lived in the cities didnt like it because they taught it was a BAD SOUND.

**kiru** · 27th August 2006, 12:53 PM

Hello App,
I am with Nakeeran on the # of rustic movies. My impression is most of Gemini, MGR, Sivaji movies were set in a city/town/middle class atmosphere. During IR's days, with the advent of bharathi raja, movies were set more in villages. If I remember right BR is credited for taking the movies 'outdoors'. A green/verdant country side is much better looking on screen as well. Re: IR's background I think it is surely different from MSV or KVM's. I am pretty sure MSV, KVM grew up with carnatic music. IR grew up with rustic folk music. The good thing is our folk music is not very different from Carnatic. IR was able to catch up later on this. Actually, he caught up very well. If MSV and KVM gave great melodies based on Carnatic. IR figured out the source or 'fountain-head' of melodies in the indian system of raagams. Actually, I think, by now, he 'knows' MUSIC. The kind of insight one gets when you understand the fundamentals. (Like the way, Einstein might have felt when he discovered Relativity, I am not exaggerating).
IR gave folk melodies and tribal rhythms based on first hand experience and just like the strong MSV/KVM's carnatic tinged melodies, IR's folk melodies come out polished and heartfelt after a considerable amount of 'internalisation'.

**kiru** · 27th August 2006, 01:01 PM

Originally Posted by MADDY

though IR was a genius in WCM orchestration and Carnatic music, during late 80's he was into Dappangutthu a lot.......this excessive dose of dappangutthu made a entire generation (like me) shift to ARRahman........

no brickbats pls...

.....my honest opinion.....

I thought Rahman also did dappanguthu but just that it sounds different

(sorry, Rahman is a great music director, but could not resist this. take it in good humor)

**tvsankar** · 27th August 2006, 05:10 PM

Dear app,

Rajini songs dhan niraiya ninaivil varugiradhu.

1. Solli adipenadi -- Padikadhavan

2.Machanai paradi -- Thanga magan

3. Vaadi vechalai -- Veera

4.asai nooru vagai -- Adutha varisu

4. Rakku muthu raaku -- Ejaman ( Endha topic patri sonnalum indha paatai enaku solla thonum.)

2 songs from Mohan

1. Yei atha athorama variya -- Payangangal mudivadhillai

2. Kavidhai padu kuyilae -- Thendralae ennai thodu

----------
Kadai thengayo vazhi pullaiyaro -- Satam en kaiyil (Soft ana first duppanguthu from IR i think )

En jodi manaja kuruvi -- Vikram

With Love,
Usha Sankar.

**MADDY** · 27th August 2006, 05:14 PM

Originally Posted by kameshratnam

MADDY..given an opp. u take dig on IR..for heavensake can we stop it.u are free to move to a r rahman.tommorow somone can come and say that i moved away from a r r because of the over compuyterization of music..Leave it mate...if u can contribute something positve..pls do.. again u have every right to air to comments but pls dont dig at IR everytime..u see a new Post

"Dappangutthu" has got a lot in it. Even today whenever a hindu deity is taken out in procession, its lead by a dappanguthu team.

Dont under estimate. In villages its popular even today. The so called educated who lived in the cities didnt like it because they taught it was a BAD SOUND.

dude, relax.......read my post again, i have appreciated IR......read my posts in Shiva thread.....i post very rarely in IR's section, so ur accusation that i dig at IR again & again is untrue....

kiru, true but thankfully ARR didnt overdo it

.....btw, is dappanguththu - official folk genre of tamilnadu??

**app_engine** · 27th August 2006, 05:51 PM

"during late 80's he was into Dappangutthu a lot"...Maddy, may be you noticed at that time period, but the amount of folk dosage was more in the initial years than later, IMHO.

OK, are not `rAkkammA kaiyaththattu' and `kAttukkuyilu manasukkuLLa' folk songs (ofcourse as always with some other ingradients added...even the very first `machchAnappAththeengaLA' had nice chord progressions)?

Do you really think songs like that will make one move away from the composer? ...