The Unheard Years : Raja in the mid 90s

[Sureshs65]

This thread will be dedicated to analyzing Raja songs of the mid 90s. I propose that we start from the year 1994 and analyze his songs upto 2000. If there is enough interested, we can then analyze the first decade of this century as well

[Sureshs65]

First, why start from 1994? The reason is thus: Even the staunchest Raja fan will agree that 1992 was a key year in Tamil Film Music history. As key as 1976 was. Rahman's entry through Roja was path breaking and changed the soundscape of Tamil Film Music literally and figuratively. The songs were a big hit. Yet, it was the first film of Rahman and during that year, Raja did lot of films and many of them were hits. Sample these: Avaram Poo, Chinna Kounder, Chinna Taayi, Devar Magan, Kizhakku Vasal, Mannan, Nadodi Thenral, Sembaruthi, SingaraVelan, Vanna Vanna Pookal, Thirumathi Palanisamy. Given this, the year cannot be said to be an 'unheard one'.

In 1993, more Rahman films started coming out and success followed success. More than in 1992 when Roja came out, it was now that the music of Rahman was sinking into people. The new sound was attracting everybody. The new beats were 'cool' and very western. It was unlike what they were hearing from Raja. It will be an understatement to say that people lapped it up. Added to the beats, the old style melody was also the quality of sound in Rahman's music. The recordings were crisp and for once people felt that the quality was on par with what they got from the west. The initial Rahman attracted both the young and old alike and his songs zoomed up the charts on all TV shows in major metros.

Inspite of that, the transition from Raja to Rahman was not complete in 1993. While Rahman had Gentleman, Puthiya Mugam, Kizhakku Cheemaiyile and Thiruda Thiruda, all massive hits, Raja had Athma, Aranmanai Kili, Ejamaan, Kili Pechu Ketka Vaa, Marupadiyum, Meera, Uzhaippaali, Kalaignan, Valli and Walter Vetrivel. So people were still hearing Raja and his fans had hope that he will see off the 'challenge'.

It was in 1994 I feel that the tilt towards Rahman became more pronounced. He had 'Duet', 'Kadhalan', 'May Madham' and 'Karuthamma' which were super hits. (While 'Pavithra', 'Vandisolai Chinnaraasu' and 'Puthiya Mannargal' didn't reach the success of the other films, I think songs of 'Pavithra' and 'VSC' got decent air time.) For Raja, 'Mahanadhi' and 'Veera' were the big success, whereas lot of other movies which he scored for did not set the box office on fire and against the music of the Rahman films they didn't figure in the top list of those days. So in a way 1994 was the year in which many Raja fans started feeling that Raja's music was jaded and that he was not able to give 'tough competition' to Rahman. In a way by the end of 1994, a sort of disappointment had set in amongst the Raja fans and you slowly started hearing, "Whatever it is, no one can beat the Raja of the 80s." Many defended the Rahman onslaught not by comparing Raja's recent output but by taking recourse to his 80s output. Once that happened, the battle for 90s was lost.

Let me put a few disclaimers here: Ofcourse what I say is based on my personal experience and what I felt seeing friends around me say and do. Your experience may be different. You would have given up earlier or maybe you fought for a longer time. So don't take this as the final word.

This disclaimer is even more important. I have used words like 'challenge', 'fight was won / lost' etc. In music I personally feel there are no winners or losers. We as listeners are always the winners. And music reevaluation does happen and the way we perceive things will change. So don't take these words to heart. My idea is not to hurt anyone.

[Sureshs65]

This now brings us to the important question. How did Raja react to Rahman's entry and the success of his (Rahman) style of music. Did he react at all or did he follow his own path? Here I am not talking about his personal reactions in interviews etc. I am talking about whether there was any impact on his music or did he continue in the same vein? Now this is a very very tricky question to answer because Raja's output is so varied that we cannot instantly derive any correlation. That is the reason why I started this thread. To go year by year and see if we can find a pattern of his 'response', 'change' or whatever you want to call it.

Though I have stated that getting to conclusion wrt Raja's music is risky, I will take the risk. I would say that Raja continued on two paths. One in which he was evolving, as if there was no competition and another path in which he sort of acknowledges the competition and the current state of affairs.

First let us see how Raja's music was evolving. In 90s, (this is my take of course. Feel free to add your theories / conclusion) Raja was becoming more and more attached to what Plum coined as 'narrative integrity'. He wanted the songs to stick very close to the stories that were being told and match the situation of the movie. It did not matter to him as to what the current 'trend' was. He continued doing this in many of his movies. Also in the 90s, my personal feel is that he was infusing more peace into his songs. No what do I mean here. What I mean is he wasn't too keen on surprising you at every turn, as he used to do in his 80s songs (think 'andhi mazhai', 'nee dhaane en pon vasantham' etc) He was more keen on keeping the intended emotion throughout the song and all the interludes now went into enhancing the emotion. He was no longer thinking of giving you that sucker punch. It can be argued that during this time, this concept went against him as people were being given that 'sucker punch' by Rahman's beats and recording techniques. As I said earlier, if we need to take a theme to describe a part of Raja's works in the mid 90s, it would be PEACE. It was as if the master himself had achieved some sort of inner peace. Very surprising how the external world was changing around him but even in some of the 'kuthu' type songs you can sense this peace. The need to be subdued and not run riot.

The second Raja was what our friend equanimus in twitter had called 'Raja Lite'. This started from 'Kadhalukku Mariyadhi'. This shows more a response to the happenings around him. In these songs he tends to use the synthesizer and his songs get a bit simpler. Ofcourse he being Raja, he cannot eschew complexity and even his seemingly simple songs were more complex than the songs of those times. He started using the singers who were new, who were from Rahman's 'camp', who were introduced by Rahman in these songs. The songs did have a 'light' feel to them and were driven more by synth. (Ofcourse, lot has been said, quite unflatteringly infact, about his synth usage. I will not get into that debate here.)

The third type of songs were vinatge Raja songs. Songs which we can club easily with his 80s output. In other words an unchanged Raja.

In short, the response to the changing musical scene was as follows: in some case we see Raja of the old, in many cases we see the progress of Raja of the 90s evolving along the lines he wants to and thirdly we see the 'Raja Lite' part where there is some direct response to the happenings of those days.

[Sureshs65]

My proposal is this: As app_eng did for the Raja-SPB combo, I will take up some songs on a year-by-year basis and analyse them. People can give their own analysis on these songs and also their opinion. If everyone starts posting we have a problem to analyse in a streamlined fashion. My request therefore is for you to put a request on some song which you want analysed (or you can PM me.) That way, like how app_eng did, we can also capture all the songs of the 90s that were discussed.

Before I begin let me put up a few disclaimers and words of caution

1. As everyone would know, analyzing every song in every year will be almost an impossible task. We will go with a limited set. The main reason for choosing a song would be that it is nice and is not heard. (The title of the thread is 'Unheard' right?) Again I will say the caveat is that we can pick up a known song if it sort of reinforces something we want to say about Raja's technique or philosophy during those time.

2. Sometimes we will be comparing the song Raja had tuned to the songs of other MDs that were released during those times. We will have to ensure that these do not get into Raja-Rahman wars. Our aim is not to prove anything. The aim is simply to understand what Raja did during 1994 to 2000. All I ask from anyone who is seriously following this thread is this: Please listen to the songs posted here a few times. That's all. I do not expect anyone to get 'converted' to 90s Raja. The intention is not conversion but trying to understand the mind of a genius during an era which could have been tough for him.

3. I have no nostalgia attached with any of these songs. Zilch. Many of these I discovered very late and some I will discover during this series. So do not expect this series to be anywhere close to app_eng series. I don't think I can touch you the same way app did in his excellent series. Here we will have more analysis and discussions on the songs. If you have some nostalgia attached to a particular song which comes up, please feel free to write your experience.

4. I am taking the movie release dates from thiraipaadal. They have been doing a great service. At the same time some of the statistics / credits there are known to be wrong. Please correct anything that is wrongly quoted by me.

For a start, here is the listing of the films which came in 1994, courtesy thiraipaadal : http://www.thiraipaadal.com/year.php...r=1994&lang=en

[Sureshs65]

Let's start now. The first song that I want to analyze is this:

Song: Punnai Vanathu Kuyile
Film: Muthu Kaalai
Singers: SPB and Janaki

Since I wasn't in Tamil Nadu during those times I am not sure if this was a 'hit' song or not. Atleast it didn't reach me in Hyderabad. Going by responses I got to this song on twitter, it was not a so popular song. (Did app cover this?) Anyway as I said, the 'hit' is not as important as what we can learn from the song.

The song is based on Sivaranjani ragam, which Raja has explored in myriad ways. This song is what I call the 'peace' song. And also observe how everything supports the overall mood of the piece. There is nothing in the whole song which says, 'Hey look at me. New Clothes'. Starting from the shenai, the flight of violins backing the shenai, the north indian string instrument which plays Sivaranjani to the singing of SPB and Janaki there is a softness of touch. Also check how softly the pallavi ends. The first interlude also carries this softness of touch with the flute and violins. The one thing about this interlude is that I hear shades of Madhuvanthi here. Do others hear it? Lot of twists in the interlude but keeping in with his philosophy Raja doesn't let them go overboard. Everything is very subdued. The charanams continue in the same vein and wonderfully gets back to pallavi with 'palarum thenarum'. In the second interlude, the shenai takes up from where it left off in the prelude and this gives an excellent consistency to the song. Overall a song which we can bracket as the typical 90s Raja song.

Listen to the song here: http://www.thiraipaadal.com/tpplayer...8'&lang=en

[Sureshs65]

The next song details:

Song: Idi Idikkudhu
Film: Shaktivel
Singers: Mano and Chitra

I would bracket this song as a typical Raja's 80s song. Raja, has we all know, is the master to the 'matter song', the category to which this song belongs to. From the starting 'mungal' you get the Raja stamp. The rhythm, as in many such Raja songs, is very uneven. It is not free flowing. The drums seem to be going in one direction while the finger snapping goes to a different beat. The chorus in the interlude is such that you can easily imagine what happens on the screen. And what an interlude it is !! The charanam's start is sort of surprise and the charanam as in such songs twits and turns. A tabla joins in very effectively after the first two lines are sung. The second interlude is an excellent one with the rhythm and melody sort of countering each other. Overall, a very innovative song reminding you of the 80s Raja. The song is based on Madhyamavathi and when Raja uses this ragam he rarely goes wrong.

Thanks to equanimus who pointed out this song to me sometime back on twitter. I was unaware of its existence till then. Listen to the song here:

http://www.thiraipaadal.com/tpplayer...2'&lang=en

Note: I don't think I will be able to do a post a day like app-eng did but will try atleast two times a week. Each time I will take up two or three songs for analysis

[skr]

Sureshji for finally starting this long awaited thread the "90s of Raaja".. You have aptly titled it as the unheard years..
Wonderful summary you have made in your posts , im looking forward to the discussions and also unearthing some rare gems through you guys..
Especially im looking forward to year 1997 when Raaja created some inhuman tunes in movies like Guru (Malayalam) and Shiva Shainya (Kannada)

Wishing you all the best in this series..Let us have some very interesting fruitful discussions and also scold ourselves on missing many lovely gems [Im sure that will happen as the thread unfolds] ..Also hoping that V_S ji also makes a comeback with this thread.
Let us all discover the lost Raaja of the 90s.

[TBCD]

following

[Plum]

Suresh - . After app's series ended, there was a bit of dullness around here. Obviously, you hav made it clear you will not have as much masala as app to create the same atmosphere but I think it is a good idea to do this 'art film' after the one year of commercial elements thrown in by app

Great start - punnaivanaththu was what I would call - and only a 90s Raja fan could have invented this term, I am sure you'll agree - niche hit

It was a hit among hardcore fans who were tracking him obsessively, despite the increasing difficulty in accessibility through popular media. Mind you, there were the shaktivels which werent a hit among even this constituency. I have radio memories associated with Shaktivel(starring, I remember vividly, Chelvaa, younger brother of Rajasekhar who recently was seen in Yuddham Sei). "malligai mottu manasa thottu" was a sort of - well I am a 90s Raja fan and you'll find me coining more jargon now - miniscule hit. I havent heard the song you are heralding now. And I have only ever heard the first two lines of "malligai mottu" closely, in the viLambaradhArar program in radio, which were dying out and giving way to the satellite channel revolution at that time.

That's some 90s socio-graphy.

Coming to Punnaivanaththu kuyilE, the Shehnai heralding the second interlude is what immediately comes to mind. Propah tamizh rural movie - the man brings in Shehnai and did you ever feel out of place? No. That's the magic.

I remember thinking this is so familiar, rehashed Raja but still succumbing to the magic. But no denying these songs eventually led to accusations of rehash of 80s templates etc.

"Andha kanji kalayaththa", a rehash of "Olathumbathinoru" from Pappayude Swantham from, I think, the previous year in malayalam, was also heard to some extent in the satellite channels.

[KV]

Sureshji... deadly stuff! Fantastic posts! .
Interesting choice of songs. 'Punnai vanathu kuyile', I'll even bracket it with Raaja's 80s classics. Lovely melody! IR+SPB+SJ+Sivaranjani... difficult for this one to go wrong, aint it!?
OTOH, 'idi idikkudhu' - you can set your counter ticking! I'm listening to this one for the first time now. Instantly catchy; interesting charanams. Nice find, indeed!