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[N Y MURALI]

THE ONE AND ONLY GREAT ‘JUGAL BANDHI’

‘ULAGIN MUDAL ISAI THAMIZHISAIYE’

Dear Friends,
This is the second article in the series ‘Carnatic Prowess of our Master’. This is about a song composed in the movie ‘Thava Pudalvan’. The situation is about a music competition between two people one singing in the Carnatic style and the other in Hindustani style.
‘Jugal Bandhi’ is a novel concept of presenting the Carnatic and Hindustani music in the same stage, sung by two different people well versed in their respective skills. But normally this is only to present the two styles and it never involves any competition. But the director of the movie wanted to present the same as a competition only for the movie situation.

The song has been sung by TMS (Carnatic) and PBS (Hindustani). Both of them sung
brilliantly.


Before going further in to the song we need understand the theme ‘Carnatic style’.
Many cine songs have been composed in ‘Carnatic style’ and many songs have been composed in a pure carnatic raga but not in ‘carnatic style’. For instance take the song ‘Aagaya pandalile’ from ‘Ponnoonjal’. The song has all the swarams of the raga ‘karaharapriya’. We can only say that this song is based on the swarams of raga ‘karaharapriya’ but can never call it as carnatic style because this style is ‘light music style’ (Mellisai). Whereas take the song ‘Maadavi Pon mayilaal’ from ‘Iru malargal’ which is called ‘carnatic style’.

There are certain grammar/rules etc for a carnatic style. They clearly specify which swaras are the ‘jeeva swaras’ (means very important without which the raga loses its color), swara prayogas etc etc. This is not required for this article.

There is also a step by step method of how to present a carnatic keerthanai. Many of us are having a wrong impression that carnatic music is about singing the same song composed by a person again and again and it does not offer any scope for the creativity of the singer. In fact carnatic music gives opportunity for the singer to present his creativity. The reason is any classical carnatic keerthanai is presented in 5 parts. They are

Ragam - raaga aalabana with dummy words like ‘thadarinana’ – own creativity
Dhaanam- singing of dummy words ‘dhomda dhana dhom’ (you would have heard KJY singing the dhanam in the movie ‘sindhu bairavi’. – own creativity

Pallavi –This is the one out of five which is created by the composer and this is the lyric part – not own creativity (however here also there is scope given to the singer to present his creativity which is called ‘sanghadhi’. The sangadhi is repeating the same line and again and again but with variations. (You would have heard carnatic singers singing ‘Vadhabi ganapathim baje’ atleast 6 to 8 times and each time it is different within the timing or ‘thaalam’).

Niraval – stopping the song at either anu pallavi or charanam and repeating the lyric part again and again to show various shades of the raga and within the timing or ‘thaalam’.
(You would have heard the keerthanai of Shri Shyama Sastri ‘himaathri sude paahimaam varade’ in which carnatic singer used to present the niraval ‘shyaama Krishna sodari gowri parameshwari’ again and again.

Kalpanaa swarams:
This is the best creative part of the carnatic music and gives abundant opportunity for the singer to present his creative ideas.

So the carnatic singer is judged mainly by the way how he uses the creative part. It requires high skill and training for the kalpana swara prayogams. There was singer called ‘Madurai Mani Iyer’ who used present brilliant kalpana swaram. His was so unique and genuine that he was conferred the title ‘Swara Boopathi’.

The reason why I mentioned these points is to understand the skill that is required to present a carnatic stage performance.

So, carnatic music is not about repeating the same song again and again without giving any opportunity for creativity.

If that is taken as a measure to judge creativity then all the light music, cine music etc are sung by stage performers (light music troops) again and again. There is now way the singer can show his creativity. In fact if a singer or an instrument player does not produce the same notes the audience does not accept it.

Now keeping in mind of all these intricacies see how this song has been built. This song has an aalabana, pallavi, kalapana swaras. There is no dhanam and niraval. The reason being that the song goes for only 5 minutes. The director of the movie has to manage the time for the story, song etc keeping the overall picture.

Since it happens to be a cine song the entire idea has been created by the music director including the aalabana, pallavi, and the kalpana swaram (We all know about how rigid is MSV when it comes to his compositions). So there is no way that the singer has used his creativity. He has just followed what has been taught to him by the composer.

First TMS sings a short aalabana. The aalabana runs for only 13 seconds. Within that he gives the entire shade of the raga ‘Sri Ragam’

Then the song starts with TMS singing the pallavi

‘Ulagin mudal isai thamizhisaiye
adhil udhithadhu innum pala isaiye’

Anu Pallavi:
‘Thaniyoru thamizhagam kalai koodam
isai kalai than engalin mudal paadam
kalai than engalin mudal paadam’

Then again a short aalabana and a swara prayogam for about 8 seconds. This swara prayogam is called as ‘Chittai swaram’ in carnatic music terms. Look at the pace with which the singer presents that short aalabana and the ‘chittai swaram’ and shows the ‘Sri Raagam’ in just 8 seconds. So powerful indeed considering the fact that the whole song is just 5 minutes only.

Now after singing the ‘chittai swaram’ TMS hands over to the chance to the competitor.

The Hindustani version starts with a harp and a beautiful sarangi piece and they show the full shade of the raga ‘Bahadi’ which is a classical Hindustani raga. Then PBS starts with a short aalabana and starts the lines which is in Hindi (How many Tamil music directors have composed tune for a Hindi lyric in a Tamil movie apart from MSV?)

‘Sangeet bulonki bagiyaan hai, bagiyaan hai (then an aalabana)
Sangeet bulonki bagiyaan hai
sangeet dilonki duniyaa hai

then again a sarangi piece and

‘Radhonki rang be sapnaa hai, sapnaa hai, sapnaa hai, sapnaa hai (repeatition of the word ‘sapnaa hai’ with various sangadhis)
Radhonki rang be sapnaa hai
Bhaavongi ganga jamuna hai’

Here the composer gives the full effect of the Hindustani raga style. There are many differences between a carnatic style and Hindusani style. One of that is in carnatic you are restricted with the swarams difined for that raga where as in Hindustani music anniya swarams foreign swarams (sharp notes or foreign swarams ) are used just to give beauty for the melody. But the anniya swarams itself becomes a rule in Hindustani music. This means you just cannot use any notes even though it gives beauty to the melody. That can happen in light music.

Look at how this anniya swarams or sharp notes are shown in this raga ‘bahadi’. See how PBS sings the bolded word ’bagiyaan hai’ at which he shows the swaram ‘da1’ which is sharp note for the raga ‘bahadi’

Then look at another bolded word ‘sapnaa hai’ at which he shows the anniya swaram ‘ma2’ which is another anniya swaram in that raga.
Again after singing the pallavi ‘Sangeet bulonki’ his part is over and it has been taken back by the carnatic singer.

Now a violin piece in raga ‘Maant’. This is the most beautiful piece for me in the entire song. The violin piece happens for just 5 seconds and you are in the territory of the raga ‘Maant’. The ragamalika effect takes place in no time.

Then TMS takes the song further.

‘Yezhu suram enum medaiyile (then a short aalabana to show the raga ‘Maant’)
Yezhu suram enum medaiyile
Thamizh yeyri nindra vilaiyadaiyile
Maanida jadhiyum mayangi varum andha
Vana vilangum aadi asaindhu varum’

Showing the raga ‘Maant in all these above lines he repeats the last line
‘Vana vilangum aadi asaindhu varum’.
The repetition is in the raga ‘Sri Raagam’ which is the traditional method of taking back to the original raga of the pallavi once you have effected a ragamaliga. Look at how beautifully the change to ‘Sri Raaga’ takes shape.

Then the pallavi is sung and again handed over to the other.

Again as usual a harp and the sarangi piece take place. This time this is in the Raga ‘Sindhu Bairavi’
‘Leharonki Thez ravaani hai’ (A beautiful aalabana in the raga and the aagaaram which is very important for the Hindustani Muisc. What an agaaram presented? Hats of to PBS)

‘Leharonki Thez ravaani hai
thadukanuki prem kahaani hai
thirulonki azi jaawani
madhu mathi shaam suhaani hai’

The raga of this is pure Hindustani style ‘Sindhu bairavi’. Many people think that ‘sindhu bairavi’ raag consists of the swarams of ‘Hanumat Thodi’ with the additional swaram ‘ri2’. They have composed songs in that scale and call it as ‘Sindhu Bairavi’.But a typical Hindustani ‘Sindhu Bairavi’ consists of not only ‘ri2’ but also ‘ma2’ and the vivadhi swara prayogam ‘ma1’ and ‘ma2’ takes place. This particular vivadhi swara prayogam can be noticed in the line ‘thirulonki azi jaawani’ (A similiarity can be noticed in the Barathiar song ‘Theeradha vilaiyaattu pillai’ in the last sangadhi)

Once this is over the Hindustani singer starts the kalpana swarams in the same raga ‘sindhu bairavi’ a typical Hindustani kalpana swaram.

This is immediately taken over by the carnatic singer who also presents the carnatic style kalpana swarams in the raga ‘Hanuma Thodi’. (Thodi and Hanuma Thodi are the same. When Venkatamagi catalogues the Melakartha raga he added the word ‘Hanuma’ which is a code word to understand the serial no of that raga which is 8th melakartha raga out of 72). The raga ‘Sindhu Bairavi’ is an offshoot of the raga ‘Hanuma Thodi’ and that is reason the competitors could present Kalpana swarams of their respective style.

What a reverberating kalpana swarams in both Hindustani and carnatic style for 64 seconds. In between the Hindustani singer also drags the other with the ‘aagaram’ challenge which is well accepted. Finally TMS takes it to the ‘Thara Sthyai’
Or the higher octave and there ends the song.

The winner is decided by the claps he gets. But in reality none of them is a winner and none of them is a loser. Both of them produced the best in their respective style.

This particular point that there was no clear indication of the loser made me think deeper. I thought there could be some thing MSV would have left to indicate this competition.

As I was thinking deeper few points struck me when I studied the raga used in this song.

See any competition be it music or games etc are not decided with one aspect only. They are all decided by various skills of the performers. Nowadays we are seeing a ‘Tamasha’ taking place in the TV called ‘Super Singers’ Juniors/seniors and all other nonsense. How can a you judge a singer without testing his ability to sing various forms of music like Carnatic/Hindustani/Light Music/Folk Music/Western Music etc. One should also see what is his voice range/words clarity/bhavam etc. If these real tests are taking place these so called Super Singers would not get a full cipher (zero). Just compare these so called super singers with the ability of TMS/PBS/PS/LRE/SJ/VJ etc and see how they have performed in all the above styles. Music comes by sheer bakthi/hard work/interest/and the attitude to excel and the last thing to earn money.

Ok. Coming back to the levels of any competition there are many rounds taking place in any competition. In boxing the winner is decided by the points a competitor earns in a round and the cumulative points he earns in all the rounds.

If we take the same thing in this song competition let us see what happens.

First the Carnatic singer starts the raga ‘Sri Raagam’ This raga is a traditional carnatic raga. (‘enthoro mahaanu baavulu’ pachratna keerthanai is in this raga. MSV himself composed other songs in this raga which is ‘Deviyar iruvar muruganukku’ and ‘Gangai Yamunai ingudhaan sangamam’)

The Hindustani singer takes the raga ‘Bahadi’. (Hindi song ‘Gora ka kasutha manu mera’ from the movie Aaradhana, MSV’s ‘Kannukku Kulamedhu’)

Then the Carnatic singer makes the ragamaliga effect by changing the raga to raga ‘Maant’.
He completes the ragamalika effect by going back to the pallavi with the last line of the ‘Maant’ raga charanam to the original raga ‘Sri Raagam’.

This is one of the main points. Because The raga ‘Maant’ is not a traditional Carnatic raga but a Hindustani raga. (‘Oru naal podhuma’ is in this raga and after some time other ragas comes as ragamaliga. Incidentally the singer Hemanath Bagavadhar is from North India as per ‘Thiruvilaiyaadar puranam’). In Tamil music books you would see this as raga ‘Maandu’. This is just like making the English month ‘August’ to Tamil ‘Aagathu’.

This is like challenging the lion in its den. This is exactly what happens in any competition. When the opponent is defending the other person goes on the offence and if his offence is successful scores points over him.

The Hindustani singer should have gone on opposite offence by taking a traditional carnatic raga and render it in the Hindustani style. But he prefers to stay defensive by opting to prefer the raga ‘Sindhu Bairavi’ which is again a traditional Hindustani raga.

The other point which struck me was when the Hindustani singer after completing the ‘Sindhu Bairavi’ raga and starts the kalpana swaram in the same raga ‘Sindhu Bairavi’.

Now the carnatic Singer challenges that also by singing the Kalpana swarams from ‘Hanuma Thodi’ (I mentioned already that ‘Sindhu Bairavi’ is an offshoot of the raga ‘Hanuma Thodi)

When the Hindustani singer presents the agaaram in that raga, the Carnatic singer challenges that also with his agaaram from ‘Hanuma Thodi’.

So these are some of the inferences we could get to decide how the composer would have approached the composition. (It is another matter that if you go and ask the composer he would say he does not know anything about the ragas).

But these are all only composition aspects. As far as singers TMS/PBS are concerned they would have sung line to line which was composed by MSV and no way their personal sangadhi. So neither TMS nor PBS is winners.

The real winner is MSV. He has skillfully added the Kohinoor Diamond in his music archives. The real challenge is for the other composers.

It is indeed very interesting to study how many TFM composers who are well versed in Hindustani Music. At least you could count on some old Telugu Composers like Aadi Naarayana Rao/Chalapathi Rao who have used many Hindustani Raagas for Cine music. But all of them are the light music version. Any classical Hindustani style composition from them? The closest example is ‘kangalum kavi paadudhe’ from ‘Adutha Veetu pen’.

But many of them have composed brilliant numbers in classical carnatic styles. But Hindustani style? Still a question. Quote if you know any number. But if you see MSV in Hindustani style you will notice that he is at home.

But later MDs after MSV have not even shown their traditional Carnatic Style leave alone their ability to compose Hindustani style.

While deciding the Carnatic style we need to take in to the points which have been mentioned earlier like aalabana, dhaanam, kalpana swarams etc. Especially this aalabana and the kalpana swaram would reveal the knowledge of the composer about the nuances of the carnatic style.

While taking about the kalpana swarams take the example of the kalpana swarams that comes in the song ‘kadavul oru naal ulagai kaana’ (Santhi Nilayam). This is certainly not Carnatic style kalpana swarams. They are at best called notes or swarams. But the kalpana swarams that comes in this song or ‘Paattum naaney baavamum Naaney’ is certainly carnatic style.

If you apply the same logic see the kalpana swarams in the song ‘Paadariyen padippariyen’. This is at best called notes or swarams but not kalpana swarams in carnatic style.

In the same way see the aalabanas in that song. The raga of that song is ‘Saaramathi’. If you notice the short aalabana she renders after the word ‘Sonnadhu Thappa Thappa’ raga ‘Saramathi’ does not have such kind of ‘raga sanchaaram’.The kind of aalabana she rendered is for the raga ‘Thodi’ raga sanchaara. She presents the ‘Gandharam’ in that aalabana which is the exclusive property of the raga ‘Thodi’.


Well. One could escape by saying that she only sings folk music and as such she need not necessarily maintain the strict rules as per the Carnatic styles. But the movie situation does not say so. She insists the Carnatic singer to sing Tamil Songs and goes on to challenge him when he asks her what she knows about music.

This is clearly implied when she decides to sing a folk song, render a kalpana swarams and then instead of coming back to the pallavi ‘Paadariyen’ she goes to the keerthani ‘Mari Mari Ninne’. She says that she knows his part of music and challenges him whether he knows about her part of music.
This has been changed and tuned to the raga ‘Saramathi’
(This keerthanai ‘mari mari ninne’ is a Thyagaraja keerthanai and it has been composed in the raga ‘kaambothi’ by him. Unfortunately this happened to be a Telugu Sahindhyam. People would have inclined to touch a ‘Sanskrit’ sahidhyam particularly of Muthuswamy Deekshadar for changing the tune. But Muthuswamy Deekshadar is very clever. He used to some how bring the raga name in the lyric part (sahidhyam) and it would be foolish if you change the raga.)
Well. There is nothing wrong in performing Tamil Keertahanai and I myself am in favor of that. But when you challenge the other person by showing that you know his music you must know in full. Not half baked information and knowledge.

There is another point. Many used to rate very high about the Hindi Film composer and for them the TFM composers are always inferior. While I maintain very high regards for the yesteryear other language composer the only point I am trying to make is there a Hindi composer who has composed this kind of ‘Jugal Bandhi’. Ok. Leave alone this ‘Jugal Bandhi’. Whether any of them composed any song in a typical Carnatic style like ‘Aadadha manumum undo’ or ‘Mannavan Vandhaanadi’?

PBS is from South India. Just see how he has sung the Hindustani version of this song. But tell me how many Hindi singers could sing like a MLV or TMS or Sirkhazhi in typical Carnatic style.

The saddest part of this is that today opinions are decided on numbers. This is certainly not an election. And favorable opinions can also be engineered which is a very disturbing trend.

Regards,

N Y MURALI.

[tvvraghavan]

Dear Murali uncle
At first, I would like to extend my sincere thanks for reminding this song. A neat and vivid analysis and presentation on the song and the other intricacies of the Carnatic and Hindustani music.

Our Master always stands TALL when it comes to Hindustani music, What a Sarangi , tabla !!! All I can say is that the whole WORLD (music of all genre and the film ) has not utilised his potential even to a minimal extent possible.

IMHO, any basic keen listener would tend to like the Hindustani part of the song which is more melodious and soothing than the Carnatic part of it. Many times me and Ram have spoken on this during our college days

This is one of those few songs which I wish could last for more than an hour atleast , with all the musical embellishments (both Hindustani and Carnatic) of our Master and that it does not end so faster.........

It will be good if someone sponsors for a complete Hindustani instrumental album by our Master with Santoor, sitar, sarangi, shehanai, taar shehanai, dilruba, tabla, pakhawaj, dolak etc. It could be based on raaga or some concept like World Peace, war etc.

Thanks for the opportunity.

MSV Rules !!!
Venkat

[msvramki]

Dear Murali,

What a great analysis of the song "ULAGIN MUTHALISAI" of Thavapudalvan.

Though I always felt that the Hindustani part of PBS was a ray prettier than Carnatic (that is basically because of our master's closeness to Hindustani (ofcourse any music of any part of the world), your writing clearly tells one is not anyway inferior to the other. You have also rightly said the real winner is neither TMS nor PBS but MSV !

MSV is always at 'home' in whatever genre of music he tunes.

Pl keep writing such articles for the benefit of music lovers.

VENKAT : Nice to see around after a long gap ! I see the same venkat who was shouting 'Kelungadaa ithai " running here and there in an Internet Cafe, after listening to NITHAM NITHAM song.

Pl analyse songs of our Master in your own style as you used to do in the intial days.

RAMKI
_________________
isaiyin innoru peyar thaan emmessvee.

[madhuraman]

Dear Mr. Murali,
Coming as it does after a brief silence, the write-up registers Class, clarity, conviction, confidence in convincing- borne out of commitment. I am just not indulging in verbal jugglary.Certainly every word fell in place as I began typing. Such pieces of writing -though relatively spread apart in time, definitely add genuine lustre to the articulate composer who chooses silence as a weapon, even if asked to respond to. If we ever come out with any further publication on MSV , these pieces must be augmented for driving the points home[Mr.Ramki are you listening?] I feel the day is not far off.
So Mr.Murali congrats on your effort to technically put things in place.


Warm regards Prof.K.Raman Madurai.
_________________
Prof. K. Raman
Mumbai

[Vatsan]

Murali, as others have stated, great work and what a nice way of sequencing the post, commencing from a short primer of sorts for Carnatic "style" of composing and the "light" style and then the song itself !!! Good job !!! The competition part of it has also been beautifully described here, especially the choice of Maand which is a North import and having TMS sing it, underlines the very competitive spirit the song is based on. Furthermore, your observations on the swara sancharam competition with TMS singing out the Hanumathodi swarams as a counter to PBSs is very precise. As an observation, the typical gamaks around "Ga" for Carnatic thOdi have been left out here.

When PBS starts "lehrOn ki tEz.." or prior to PBS starting the phrase, there is his harp or some other instrument that is used to depict the undulating nature of waves, apt for the word "lehrOn" which actually means waves. Certainly consciously squeezed in by MSV who would have had PBS translate the Hindi lines for him.

I really wonder if MSV has chappathis at home instead of "chOru" and rasamalai instead of chakka prathaman !!! I tell you, Mrs. Narayani Kutti sang out lullabies to MSV in Miya ki Todi and Megh Malhar, and certainly not the Carnatic Neelambari or Madhyamavati ...or possibly Misra Sivaranjani which later blossomed into "neerOdum vaigayilE..." His breathtaking phrases in Sarangi, Shehnai, Tar Shehnai etc..., wonder where it all springs from !!!

With respect to South Indian composers doing the Hindustani bit well, that is a fact. Leave alone Hindustani music afficianados like Saluri Rajeswara Rao and Adi Narayana Rao, our own Carnatic inclined KVM Mama has a fantastic Tilang Hindustani ghat in "inru pOi nALai vArAi', a veritable master piece. Pure North Indian classical stuff will not be possible if the cinematic situation does not call for it, such as the one you have taken up for discussion. There are masterpieces like "Rajasekara.." from Anarkali, "thEsulavuthE" from "maNALanE mangayin baaggiyam", "ithuvE vAzhvin AnanthamE" from "mangayar uLLam mangAtha selvam" ...all by the Adi Narayana Rao which could have all been made to sound more "classical", but for the film situation. About North composers being able to do the Carnatic bit, I have not heard any except for a stray "ek chatur nAr badE hOshiyAr" by Manna Dey, composed by RD Burman. I do not recall hearing any full fledged Carnatic composition with the kind of command that MSV wields over the Hindustani idiom. Probably a situation never arose.

[parthavi]

Dear Mr. Murali,
The most outstanding feature of your paper (this indeed is a research paper - a student of an academic music degree can get a Ph.d by using your points and expanding it by adding some fillers - is its clarity and facile expression. Such write ups usually end up being highly technical, leaving an average reader in just a blind awe, with no understanding of what he has read. But your write ups are meant for dummies like me. I am being honest when I say that I understood several nuances of classical music. Your citing examples has been of great help. For example (I am also giving an example!), your citing the swarams of 'kadavul orunaal' to illustrate the kalpana swarams was an eye-opener. No wonder Aruna Sairam keeps herself tuned to MSV's music to pick up some innovative pieces to use.

Your writings are to be printed out and preserved for repeated reading.
Congratulations on your great presentation. Needless to say, I look forward to more of such enlightening and exciting pieces.
_________________
P Rengaswami (9381409380)
MSV, Un isai kettaal puvi asainthaadum, idhu iraivan arul aagum.
http://msv-music.blogspot.in/

[N Y MURALI]

Dear All,
Thanks for your replies. As far as the time lag mentioned by Prof Raman, it is due to the fact that I had been hearing that song frequently and allowed the points to flow on its own after which I conceived that idea of writing this post.
As far as the points raised by Mr. S R Shankaranarayan regarding the raga madhyamavathi for the song ‘Aagaya Pnadalile’ I wish to state that a close scrutiny of the notes of that song it satisfies the notes in the raga ‘Karahapriya’ and not any other notes foreign to that raga. But still we can only say that it satisfies the notes of that raga and cannot call it is as a classical ‘Karaharapriya’.
With regards to the song ‘anbu nadamaadum’ I have no knowledge about the raga ‘vasanthi’ and only heard when Mr. Vatsan pointed out that. Still I have some points to mention here with regards to MSV composition.
I always feel that MSV never kept any raga in mind for composition except for a situation which demands such like ‘Yezhu swarangalukkul’ etc. This point MSV himself mentioned in few interviews. So we would be interested to know how than he approaches a melody for a particular situation. Many people have mentioned many ideas regarding this aspect. The reason many ideas flowed is because in his songs you could find shades of many ragas. The important point here is that it looks very sweet for hearing and sucks us in emotion. This is the raga theory.
There is another theory doing round is that his melody ideas happens just like that and you can format it. This is the reason his tunes are so unique.
My idea is in between these two. I do not feel that you cannot format his composition. Logic says that beauty happens because of orderliness. So there has to be some order which we can find out in the form of a format. I proposed the idea as a ‘Chords Based melody’. But if you say like this then the western style compositions are all ‘Chrods based melody’ which are called as ‘Chords Porgression’. So does MSV did the same thing what a western composer does?. May be it cannot be called as ‘Chrods based melody’ or ‘Chords Porgression’ but you will notice that his melody is going along with ‘Chords’.
May be we should call it as ‘Harmony based melody’ could be the correct term. Even then the chords are nothing but a product of playing two or more notes together to support a main melody and that chords is harmonic to the melody generated.
This you will be able to understand and appreciate better when you know playing harmonium. It is indeed a great surprise to me when I first found out when I was practicing harmonium. All my experience with music are self learnt and I could be wrong at some point. But the experiences also gave me practical proof. Initially when I started playing harmonium I played only one note at a time. I could easily find the note and play songs of other music composer since they happen to be in raga. So if you know the notes of a particular raga you could easily play after few trials. Even if some deviations happens you could easily find out. But I just could not play MSV songs in this method. Then thanks to a gentle man who suggested to me and gave some tips about how to play more than two notes at a time all with one hand only with which you play the main melody as your other hand is preoccupied for the bellows. Once I started that method of playing that style I found it became very easy to play MSV songs even easier than the other composer. Like a jig saw puzzle all fell in place. From that time onwards which I experienced about 25 years back I started trying all his songs and by now could have played at least 1000 songs. There could be very slight mistakes but over all melody of the song could be arrived. I am continuing to do this almost every day.
Well even though I mentioned this aspect of his composition I do not say that MSV adopted a western style composition in Indian style music. But he cleverly found that with this method of ‘Harmony based melody’ he could be different from others. But still you will see complete Indianness in his music because he maintained the Indian music concept of using the ‘gamakas’ , ‘sangadhis’ ‘brigas’ in the melody. His ‘gamakas’ and ‘sangadhis’ would also be ‘harmony based’ and not raga based. This is the reason why once the Great G Ramanathan mentioned to one of his friends after the movie ‘Pudhayal’ that the older ‘ gamakas’ and ‘sangadhis’ up to him may not appeal anymore. This is also one of the reason why it appealed to the carnatic singer ‘Aruna Sairam’ when she mentioned that his ‘gamakas’ and ‘sangadhis’ are very unique and she found to be very useful for Bhajan singing. If the ‘gamakas’ and ‘sangadhis’ are normal as done by other Music composers it may not attract a carnatic Singer as she is already used to it.

While I tried to explain this things could be clear if we know little about carnatic music, western music .Things could be much more clearer if you know to play ‘Harmonium; or at least ‘Key board’.
I shall give an example of how to compose a song in ‘Harmony based melody’. Take for instance the raga ‘sankarabaranam’’ . The raga as
Aarohanam as
‘sa ri2 ga2 ma1 pa da2 ni2 sa
Avarohanam as
Sa ni2 da2 pa ma1 ga2 ri2 sa
Now if you see this as raga ‘sankarabaranam’’ then your composition if the melody would be of the creative ‘aalabana’ you would try to make for that raga. But if you approach the ‘Harmony based melody’ then make out the following basic harmonic combinations instead of aarhonam and avarohanam.
The raga ‘sankarabaranam’ would have harmonic combinations as
Sa ga2 pa
Ma1 da2 sa
Pa ni2 ri2
These three combination covers the entire 7 notes of that raga. There could be other combinations like ga2 pa ni2, etc which can also give inspiration of melody making. But what I am trying to explain is a fundamental idea and as such we shall restrict with this. Now if we try to de codify the notes of his songs most of the places it would flow through this harmonic combinations than a typical aarohanam/avarhonam flow. Of course at few places a next note to the earlier note would also happen but we would notice that the entire composition would be standing fundamentally on this harmonic compositions. Now do a trick here. Now add a note which is not in ‘sankarabaranam’’ . Let us say we are adding the note ‘ni1’. Then the
Aarohanam as
‘sa ri2 ga2 ma1 pa da2 ni1 ni2 sa
Avarohanam as
Sa ni2 ni1 da2 pa ma1 ga2 ri2 sa
Now in such style we cannot say any specific raga name but we could only say the shades of raga ‘kamaas’ ‘maant’ etc. commonly people would say that he has mixed 2 ragas that is ‘sankarabaranam’’ and ‘harikanbothi’ as the difference between ‘sankarabaranam’’ and ‘harikanbothi’ is ni2 for ‘sankarabaranam’’ and ni1 for ‘harikanbothi’ .
But looking at ‘Harmony based melody’ then we could get the following major combinations
Sa ga2 pa
Ma2 da2 sa
Pa ni2 ri2
Ri2 ma1 ni1
As mentioned earlier you could also get many other combination because of the addition of one more note to the original ‘sankarabaranam’.
The important point here is that in carnatic style composition or singing if you add ‘ni1’ it looks like an ‘abaswaram’ . So the mixing has to be carefully planned without showing the ‘abaswaram’ feeling. That is how the raga ‘kamaas’ is structured.
The ‘kamaas’ raga is
Sa ma1 ga2 ma2 pa da2 ni1 sa
Sa ni2 sa ni2 da pa ma1 ga2 ri2 sa.

But in MSV case it does not follow this route but take the harmonic shift when the change happens to ni1. Normally the change happens through though a junction common to both the ragas and then through that junction the shift to the note ‘ni1’ takes place and when It happens it goes through the harmonic combination of Ri2 ma1 ni1 and again when it goes back to the original melody it again goes through a junction. Because of this process we could sense that the shifting takes place but the melody does not sound ‘abaswaram’ or in MSV’s style ‘non harmonic’.
Now in this scale he could have composed 100s of songs. All songs like ‘naalam naalam thirunalaam’, ‘pakkathu veetu paruva machaan’ ‘kumari pennin ullathile’ etc are in this scale mentioned earlier with both ni1 and ni2. Many refer the songs ‘naalam naalam thirunalaam’ as raga ‘rageshri’. Well I do not know the aarohanam , avarohanam of this raga. But play this song and you will notice that the song flow through combination of these harmonic combinations. The same method if we will adopt then we can understand how the song ‘malligai en mannan mayangum’ has been composed.
Mr. Subbudu once wrote an article about this song. He mentioned about the beauty of this melody. I do not remember whether he had mentioned any raga name for this. He also did not explain this melody as I have mentioned. At that time I did not know playing harmonium. But Mr. Subbudu was one person who could have found out this and explained to us about this concept because he himself Is a harmonium player which gives the advantage for him. But he was more looking at the carnatic aspect and was looking at the journalism for carnatic music. Otherwise he was competent enough to have explained this to us.
The same method if we will adopt then we can understand how the song ‘malligai en mannan mayangum’ has been composed..
Now to answer your point about the song ‘Aagaayapandalile’ the fundamental reason why it sounded like ‘madhyamavadhi’ is because at that point it goes through the harmonic combination as ma1 ni1 ri2 which comes in madhyamavathi. But it is only for that line. The subsequent melody changes to various harmonic combinations where the notes ga1, pa, da2 etc all happens. To sum up every combination then we would get the notes as sa1. Ri2, ga1, ma1, pa, da2, ni1, sa which is the raga scale for ‘karaharapriya’. But I call this as MSV’S light music ‘karaharapriya’ because it uses the harmonic combinations within that raga and not the raga itself as aarohanam and avarohanam.
The same method if we will adopt then we can understand how the song ‘malligai en mannan mayangum’ has been composed which is also ‘karaharapriya’
But the karaharapriya in the song ‘pon magal vandal; is different. In that song MSV used a new harmonic combination called the 7th chord. I shall explain.
The raga karaharapriya is
Aarohanam
Sa ri2, ga1, ma1, pa, da2, ni1 sa
This can be explained in harmonic combinations as
Sa ga1 pa
Ri2 ma1 ni1
Ga1 pa ni1
Ma1 da2 sa.
This cover the entire seven notes of that raga. But as I have mentioned earlier we can also get other combination. The combinations is
Sa ga1 ma1 (this called the 7th chord of the note ma1)
The line ‘pon magal vandhal’ and ‘porul kodi thandhaal’ is in this harmonic combination. Then in the next line ‘poo medai vaasam’ he introduces the combination ri2 ma1 ni1. You can sense a melody shift in that line. Then in the next line ‘kan malar konjum’ he introduces another 7th chord combination which is pa ni1 sa (this is called 7th chord of sa). Then he changes the next line ‘kani vodu ennai’ in which he uses the harmony ma1 da2 sa. The line ‘ennai’ lands at the note ‘da2’ which is so far hidden. This gives the melody as it is shifted from no where. Now if you see all the notes In totality satisfies the raga ‘karaharapriya’ but these are used as a harmonic combination one by one line by line that you cannot find out to be a raga ‘karaharapriya’ as we understands from the carnatic angle. But see Ilayaraja’s song ‘Maappillaikku maaman manasu’ you can straight away find out the raga because it is raga based.
Now to conclude my answer I also suggest that it would be suicidal on our part to brand all his combination as this method only. I closely studied and found out that he started this method from 1960s that is from ‘Paalum Pazhamum’ onwards. Before that from 1952 to 1960 are different but common to many at that point of time. In fact a precursor to ‘paalum pazhamum; happened in ‘pudhayal’ and ‘padi bakthi’ and ‘bagapirivinai’. But it took leaps and bounces in the 1960s and continuing till date. Besides that he maintain the traditional carnatic style and Hindustani style are those we know. The rest are all in this style which is MSV’s unique style.
What I have mentioned here is only a foundation or the structure of the main melody. There are other many aspects in his music like the ‘gamagas’, ‘sangahdhis’, rhythm, orchestration etc which are beyond the scope of this.
And he seem to have found out one more style in which he would start few lines like a raga and then he would shift using this harmonic combination and then get back to the original raga. Classical examples are ‘vellimani oosaiyile’ ‘thangathoniyile’ etc. The song ‘anbu nadamaadum’ could fall in this category where it starts as the raga ‘bhoopalam’ then changes with the harmonic combinations shift of other notes not n the raga ‘boopalam’ and then comes back to the raga original. If you notice the shift from the raga ‘boopalam’ the shift would be harmonical and the shift would seems to us like raga ‘malaya maarudham’ A combination of these two ragas could be raga ‘vasanthi’. But I am very sure that MSV would accept it as raga ‘vasanthi’. He also did not mentioned any time about how he composes. That is why it is always a mystery for us. I once asked him whether he uses the chords to get the melody for which is said he also uses that method. He also mentioned that he did not know abcd of chords not he knows the chords name etc. He did not explained that in detail to me. This is understandable because he need not explain to me all these in detail for a common person like me.
Then later on he seems to have adopted the raga based melody also. Classical examples are ‘kadal kadal endru pesa kannan vandhano’, ‘malare kurinchi malare’, ‘kanchi pettudhithi’ and many more in the 1980s when he found ilayaraja was successful using the raga based melody.
Some have agreed some have disagreed on this subject. It is left to the individual perception because at the end of the day it is only the combination of seven sounds. (yezhu surangalukkul ethanai paadal’). But I can also say that it is very difficult to adapt MSV’s styles. Many have tried. Classical example are Shankar-ganesh, Kovardhan, V Kumar etc but they could not exploit beyond a certain point. The reason is the style is only a foundation. The building rests on a foundation. But foundation is not every thing. There are many other aspects for the building.
Now finally I do not know anything about carnatic, hindutani or western music and I have not learnt any of these. It so happened that tunes started flashing to me and I wanted to remember the tunes which got flashed. That was the reason why I started learning harmonium on my own. (of course I learnt harmonium for 3 months from a carnatic teacher and left it from the varnam classes). This I did it so that I can play the tunes flashed to me and remember. That was how I composed around three devotional albums.
My style of composition is raga based. The regular method but I use to deviate deliberately to a foreign note from the original raga to give the light music effect. When I use to play my compositions in the harmonium I found that there are huge differences between myself and of MSV’s. it was then I started to study his pattern .
Many have asked me since I have studied MSV’s style whether I could compose in that style for which my answer is simple NO. The reason is I could develop but it would be artificial. It may not be natural. I never try to compose any new tunes on my own. It has flower on its own. That could be better rather than trying to create artificially. So the natural tunes come to me are raga based.
People could talk about E=mc2 now and write pages about this. But it was only Einstein who got that inspiration.
Later I also understood that apart from these concepts MSV’s music also reveals an emotion. In fact this emotive idea comes to him so naturally that appropriate combination of harmonics happen on its own.
I must admit I never thought about this in all my three albums and if there is any emotive content is there in any of my songs then it happened on its own.
Last but not the least is that I am pretty sure about what I have mentioned about his composition. My only anxiety is that it should be known to public. The thing is we in India would not accept any thing suggested by fellow Indians. But I am sure in the next 25 to 50 years there would be a person from Europe or USA who would reveal this truth about MSV’s composition. Only at that time people would know about the values of MSV’s music. Till such time let us wait.
Regards,

N Y MURALI

[N Y MURALI]

Dear Mr. S R Shankar,
Further to my reply earlier I stand corrected for the Hindi lyric part which was mentioned by you. Thanks for the same.

N Y MURALI

[parthavi]

Dear Mr. Murali,

I understood your posting only in parts because I have no knowledge of chords or notes.

But I have an observation. You have shades of MSV. You are probably the first and only person till now to have discovered something about MSV's approach. I fully agree with you that beauty cannot be created without orderliness. I have observed certain similarities in some orchestration between different songs and have been intrigued by them since long. These may be called curves, landings etc, I don't know. But these might be indications of a method, however subtle and however unpredictable, behind his compositions. Mr. Ashok Iyer also mentioned this in one of our meetings in your house but his idea did not find any takers among the knowledgeable people present there.

After writing so much on the nuances of MSV's music, you say you don't know any Carnatic Music or Hindustani Music. (This is what prompted me to say that you have shades of MSV in you. ) MSV also says this. But, the important thing is you both know MUSIC. And that is what makes the difference.

I don't know how to conclude. Right now, I have the same feelings towards you, as I have towards MSV.

May God bless you.
_________________
P Rengaswami (9381409380)
MSV, Un isai kettaal puvi asainthaadum, idhu iraivan arul aagum.
http://msv-music.blogspot.in/

[N Y MURALI]

Dear Mr. Rengaswamy,
Thanks for the reply. No way for comparing me with the great. You are always welcome for a session during which I can practically explain to you about all these points. Get all the interested together.

Regards,

N Y MURALI

[N Y MURALI]

Dear msvpriyan,
Thanks for the correct lyrics. You may also give a small narration of the lyrics in order to make the readers understand the meaning of the lyrics through which they can understand the tune better.

Regards,

N Y MURALI

[ragasuda]

Dear Soundararajan,
Welcome to the great group of hardcore fans of Mellisai Mannar. Your maiden post speaks of what's in store for us. Pls post an introductory message at the thread for introduce yourself.
Without doubt, all of us are fans of Mellisai Mannar, more for his bgms, preludes, etc. and then only songs. There is a separate thread for discussing bgms, title musics, etc. Please go through it. There are many title musics of Mellisai Mannar available there and you can have a wide variety of discussions.

Wishing you more and more happy postings.

Raghavendran
co-moderator.
_________________
Visit my website for Viswanthan-Ramamurthi
http://mellisai.tripod.com
My blogs:
http://msvquiz.blogspot.com/
http://oldtamilfilmsongs.blogspot.com/
http://oldtamilfilms.blogspot.com/
http://mellisaititle.blogspot.com

[msvramki]

WELCOME, Mr. SOUNDARAJAN, TO MSVTIMES FORUM.

THOUGH WE DISCUSS A LOT IN PERSON, YOUR FORMAL POSTINGS IN THE SITE WILL ADD A LOT OF VALUE TO THE SITE AND FANS.
ALL THE BEST

RAMKI
_________________
isaiyin innoru peyar thaan emmessvee.

[N Y MURALI]

Dear Mr. Soundararajan,
We warmly welcome you to our site. Though I can see you through my house window, I would like to see you through internet window which will have a different feel like our MSV's music.

WELCOME AGAIN

N Y MURALI

[Venkat]

Dear Mr. Soundararajan,
Hearty welcome to msvtimes.com.
We wish to see many more contributions from you on the compositions of our Musical Prodigy.
_________________
Meendum Santhippom Viraivil...
Regards,
Mahesh