Sorry, I realised that I said Madushree instead of Rekha! (I know, how could I?!) . probably because I was listening to Yaar Mila tha from Blue when typing this.Apologies!
________________________________ From: Indmov Buff <[email protected]> To: A R <[email protected]> Sent: Wed, 5 May, 2010 11:24:19 Subject: Raavan/Raavanan and the whole thing about Lyrics Note:Like, Gayathri,I am going to warn you. This e-mail is Long and perhaps largely incoherent. Apologies in advance This thing about lyrics. Well I am one who firmly believes that music has no language. I have fallen for all of AR’s hindi work without understanding what the lyrics meant and only out of curiosity do I go and read up translations much later. But there are some songs for which I still don’t know the meaning to. For eg Jashne Bahara- probably the most played melody from recent AR albums for me. I fell in love with it when I saw the promo for the first time. I know the hindi lyrics by heart now but haven’t got a clue as to what it means but it won’t stop me from picking it over a tamil song. So music for me really has no language. And perhaps for most of you as well. What about all the beautiful classical music pieces we’ve heard from the past. The most heart wrenching pieces from Bach, Hayden, Beethovan, Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Brahms, Wagner etc. The many operas in French, German, Italian and many other languages we are not fluent in. What draws them to us? Music. But when you are given two tunes that are largely the same with two sets of lyrics with one being your mother tongue, one cannot but be drawn to pick out the difference and perhaps a favourite. Especially when you have Gulzar and Vairamuthu. My grasp of hindi is , well let me say “thoda thoda”(!) but having read some wonderful, in-depth translations here and elsewhere for some lovely AR-Gulzar gems, I have developed a deep respect for Gulzar. One song that comes to mind instantly is Chalka Re. Loved what he did there! For me what he writes is poetry, just like Vairamuthu. It’s like they transport me to a different era/world. Behene De in Raavan - my fav track in terms of lyrics. Loving every line in this song- it's deep. It's emotional and it pulls you straight into Raavan's mind. I haven't been able to absorb the lyrics of the other songs to the extent that I can remember the meaning of each line when I play the song (like Behene De) but I am getting there. Behene De however is my second favourite in the album in terms of the entire package (music+lyrics). Probably because I made too much of an effort to understand the lyrics that somehwere I got a bit tired of making the effort. As for Usire pogudhe, I have fallen truly, madly, deeply in love! The lyrics are Raw and it's been a while since I heard something like this. Some lines that drew me on the first hearing : " Maamen thavikkiren madi pichai thaadi en manikuyile" "Akkarai cheemayil nee irundhum, ai viral theendida nenaikuthadi Akkini palam endru therinchirunthum adikadi naaku thudikuthadi" "en kattaiyum oru naal saayalam en kaanula un mugam poguma" Beautiful! I am loving the dialect and the depth in these lines. Amazing, Vairamuthu! Genius!It easily makes Usire pogudhey my fav Raavanan track in terms of both music and lyrics by miles! Love Love Love it! Too short! (I know what you mean now, Chord!) Ranjha Ranjha - I am absolutely in love with and haven't got a clue as to what they are on about for most part of the song. But strangely it's my favourite song in Raavan and I can't get enough of it. I like the rawness Madushree brings to it and the contrasting soothing voice in Javed Ali.It's been on loop since day 1. everyone has a special song in a ARR-Mani album and this one is my special song in Raavan. As for Kaatu Sirruki - I think Anuradha and Shankar have changed the flavour of the song slightly. I find an extra portion of rawness from both singers especially Shankar. Having gotten used to having Javed sing his parts like a dainty ballerina, I am struggling to adjust to Shankar's hard ways. Anuradha is one of my fav singers and I am glad AR used her here. Oddly I really like what she has done here (I see I am in the minority here) and also Shankar despite his different take on the song but that's the advantage of having the same song sung by different singers- they bring different packages to the table. Vocally, I am glad we have Anuradha and Shankar singing for us but what has let me down in Kaatu sirukki is the lyrics- not the contents but that the lyrics somehow seemed forced to fit the tune in some of the major lines in the song. For eg " yar kaatu chirukki iva" in the first line. It gets repeated throughout the song reminding us that these songs were written for another language. It's a distraction. Kata kata - what a track ! Power power power! And the lyrics are awesome too (having read through Rawat's translations a few times). It's my third fav track in the album. It’s my Veerapandiya Kottaiyile equivalent in Raavan. Love it. Keda Kari- I don’t how AR does it but when I heard this one I could relate it instantly to a southy wedding. After listening to Kata Kata so many times I couldn’t help but think that the tamil version will be a misfit in Raavanan but now after listening to it, I am wondering if Keda Kari was written first! The naathaswaram and the chorus transforms the song completely! Rayhana voice too (reminds me of Shubha) – just makes it all the more southy. And Tanvi – wow. She can do this? The same person who sang in D6 and Jillunu oru kadhal. Love what AR does with his singers. It’s like peeling an onion and finding that the colour changes with every layer. This song is a huge treat (in both languages).The lyrics are superb again. It’s my second fav track in Raavanan. Khilli Re unfortunately was not my cup of tea (apologies to Chord! ;) ). I loved Reena in Meenaxi and her sweet voice but it's that same voice that I couldn't relate to in Raavan and Khilli Re. And so I haven't even bothered to read the translation for this song. And I listened to Kalvare- Shreya just brought life to this song, for me. I don’t know how she does it but it’s the lovely little nuances she adds to the song that just transforms this completely for me. Thok de Killi - I have probably listened to it the least number of times in the album and only listened to it for that Beautiful Shehnai piece at the beginning. Wish we had an entire song on that piece alone. Breathtaking. Kodu poatta- now I have not even once attempted to skip this song when I listen to Raavanan. I love the lyrics of the song. I think I lost Thok de killi because I couldn’t grasp the lyrics but Kodu poatta is definitely growing on me. Loving the lyrics. “soothula pangu ketta elaya podu elaya “ “sothula pangu ketta ada thalaya podu thalaya” Respect, Vairamuthu! As for the title track - Beera vs Veera. Both win hands down. Even if the lyrics were utter rubbish (which they are not but if they were) I would still love every sound from this song. I am not even going to rank this song in the album because the song is beyond rankings. Beera is what AR’s music is to me. A novel classic. It will be an immortal track for me just like Chaiyya Chaiyya. Just tooo short. Usire Poghudey beats Behene De (by miles probably because I connected to the lyrics in the tamil version and my poor grasp of hindi). Ranjha Beats Kaatu sirukki (by miles because the tamil lyrics were a let down ). Kalvare beats Khilli re (because of the singer, the lyrics in Khilli re are more appealing though). Kodu Poatta beats Thok de Killi (down to lyrics again), Kata Kata and Beera have equally engaging and thoroughly enjoyable tracks in their tamil counterparts. So Raavanan Vs Raavan for me comes down to the lyrics which is unusual for me. Lyrics, not because Vairamuthu is superior to Gulzar or vice versa but most likely because of my grasp (or rather a lack of ) in Tamil and Hindi. Raavan and Raavanan together is edging towards being more special than D6 which is probably an unfair comment to make given that the former was made available to me in two languages. So does music really have a language then? Would I have loved Raavanan much more, if I’d listened to it before Raavan?
