Some say 7, others 12, and yet others 16…

Posted on June 4, 2005 by zeppelin
I have been compiling a list of some of my favourite ragas in carnatic music; have been making notes here and there as and when I find something out or get some new information…. finally thought of putting it out there in the Wide Wide World, and share it with similar enthusiasts. Owing to the long list of ragas, I have broken down this into 3 parts. Click here for the other parts…. Part II , Part III

Part I

Abhogi

adiyE kiLiyE (KudaikkuL mazhai)
konja nEram (chandramukhi)
mazhai varudhu…kudai konduvA (prabu and goutami, don’t know the movie’s name)…

about these I am confused – on the lines of changing scales and changing ragas…. Most of my friends these songs are Abhogi, but when I tried it on the keyboard, it seems to be a totally different raga… so I am curious to find out… will do pretty soon…:)

Anandha bhairavi

palukE bangAra
mettu pOdu (duet) – though this raga is probably given a softer, melodious feel by typical carnatic musicians, Rahman has pepped it up really well, with some heavy percussion and thunderous Saxophone notes by Kadri Gopalnath.

amritha varshini

sudhAmayI
thoongAtha vizhigal rendu (agni natchathiram)

chala nAttai

pani vizhum malarvanam (ninaivellAm nithyA)
Nobody’s fault but mine by Led Zeppelin…. Listening to this song was one of the most ecstatic moments…the style of rendition in this song, and the distortion used on the guitar, so much sounded like a carnatic music recital, ‘cept when Bonzo takes over. Also on the DVD there is a Jimmy Page solo….listening to this solo with my eyes closed, I couldn’t tell if it was electric guitar or veena/sitar…I was amazed and perplexed at the same time as to how early Hard Rock music, could sound so close to carnatic music !!

chArukesi

Adal kalaiyE deivam thandhadhu (rAghavendrA or guru rAghavendhrA, the rajini movie)
AahistA AahistA (swades) – me thinks raga shown in its entirety.
I want to spend my life loving you, by Marc Anthony and Tina Arena for the movie The Mask of Zorro. (just cant stop listening to this beautiful, passionate, romantic number, especially, knowing it’s based on a carnatic raga)
yEdO yEdO (e20u18)
engengE (nErukku nEr)

darbAri kAnadA

Vidyasagar’s middle name…:) one exceptional song (among many), with SPB and Janaki competing to supercede each other with their vocal improvisations… malarE mounamA from karnA

dharmAvathi

ottagatha kattikO (gentleman) – However, it has got traces of kaisiki nishAdam, giving it a hEmAvathi flavour
thathithOm (azhagan) – wonderful song, perfect example.
kanA kANum (7G rainbow colony) – second interlude bass and strings really superb composition.

dwijAvanthi

akilANdEshwari – amazing song… like Maharajapuram Santhanam’s version.
mounamE (anbE sivAm)…. breath taking vocals by the Man SPB, and Chandrayee…overall an amazing song, absolutely dwijAvanthi.

gambheera nAttai

innum ennai enna seiya pOgirAi (singAravElan) [please refer for a beautiful analysis @ http://arvindsrinivasan.blogspot.com/2005/05/song-watch-innum-ennai.html ]

gowri manOhari

pAttum nAne (thiruviLayaadal) – TMS ROCKS !! that’s all I can say…
vizhiyum vizhiyum (sathurangam) – good vocals and nice orchestration. (2.40-2.45), (4.01-4.05) mark the raga absolutely…
kAdhal vAnoli (album) – actually a mix of Gowri Manohari and Dharmavathi nicely intertwined by Karthik Raja..

hamsanAdam

pantureethi kOlu
thendral vandhu ennai thodum (thendralE ennai thodu)… (which is probably not entirely this raga, but has got a strong flavour)
sorgame endrAlum (ooru vittu ooru vandhu)
isaiyil thodangdhammA (hey rAm) – amazing vocals….feels as though the singer, Ajay Chakraborty, is totally in love with this song and of course the raga and is doing all possible improvisations….the whole song sounds like having been improvised ‘cept for a couple of lines where he had to singing the lyrics….:)

hamsadvani

vAtApi gaNapathim
veLLai pookkaL (kannathil mutham ittAl) – Rahman pours in emotion and melody into this song; when one thinks at the start of a song, that the rhythm on the acoustic guitar is so melodious, Rahman comes in with yet another marvelous vocal performance, and of course his genius bassist accompanies softly…Ahhh! Serenity !

Filed under: TFM, carnatic, music, raga

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26 Responses

  1. sb, on June 4th, 2005 at 3:12 am Said:

    a bold venture. i have always wanted to do this, but have never found it possible to curtail it to limits. :-) A compilation of such a thing needs a lo of thought process and planning.
    good work.

    Reply
  2. Zeppelin, on June 4th, 2005 at 3:27 am Said:

    sb,

    thanks da.. :)

    Reply
  3. anantha, on June 4th, 2005 at 12:41 pm Said:

    machi.. I am not too much knowledgable in these things, but by mentioning Vidyasaagar, you have set me off. The guy seems to do a lot of experimenting with pukka classical songs. Enna thavam / Alan Kuyil from Parthiban Kanavu and Raravenu from Mr.Butler!
    Ok the second mentioned is a totally funky version of “raravenu gopala”. Go to Musicindiaonline and in the mallu section, look for this movie – Mr.Butler and the song “Raravenu”

    Reply
  4. Zeppelin, on June 4th, 2005 at 4:37 pm Said:

    anti,

    awesome da… will go and check these out…

    cheers!
    ak

    Reply
  5. Arvind, on June 4th, 2005 at 4:39 pm Said:

    Konja Neram & Mazhai varudhu…both use ‘Ni’(2) liberally…hence Abhogi is ruled out….but add ‘Ni’ and to Abhogi and it becomes ‘SriRanjani’ :-)

    So i’d rather have them under SriRanjani than Abhogi.

    Anandha Bhairavi…thenmerku paruvakatru (karuthamma) also quite nicelys explores the raga.

    charukesi – Aahista’s ancestor, udhaya udhaya (from Udhaya) is also equally nicely done. So is Thoodhu Selvadharadi (Singara Velan)

    darbari Kanada – you can literally list songs running into thousands…can’t agree with you more that it is VS’s middle name :-)

    gowri manohari…very nice ragam….(some song from gayatri), kanna varuvaya (manadhil urudhi ?) saiyan (Zubeidaa)

    hamsanadham – is ’sorgam’ indeed :-)

    Will get back on few other ragas like dwijavanthi….

    And thanks for uplinking me ;)

    so long…

    Reply
  6. Zeppelin, on June 4th, 2005 at 4:54 pm Said:

    arvind,

    super dude ! some of the songs u’ve mentioned also crossed my mind… but i wrote this in bits and pieces and was jumping back and forth so much…and lost track and felt bad that i missed some songs…. thanks a lot buddy !!

    ak

    Reply
  7. subramoni, on June 4th, 2005 at 9:09 pm Said:

    Enakku therinjadu raaga.com mattum thaan da :-( . I am not qualified enough to comment on this post but it seems to be a nice compilation. Good work, da.

    Reply
  8. Zeppelin, on June 5th, 2005 at 5:20 am Said:

    moni,

    thanks buddy !

    Reply
  9. IBH, on June 6th, 2005 at 12:08 pm Said:

    Hillarious comment by Subramoni :) mite be coz I fall under that category now after checking ur knowledge..:) AWESOME!!!

    keep it rolling…now u defly justify the title of ur blog :)

    Reply
  10. Zeppelin, on June 6th, 2005 at 1:31 pm Said:

    ibh,

    thanks very much… moni’s comment made me remember vivek’ dialogue about “muruga dollar” from the movie minnale… :)

    this compilation is just a sprinkle…. theres much more out there… however, just wanted to put it down somewhere and get some more inputs from people on this… feeling very satisfied now… :)

    Reply
  11. Sangeetha, on June 6th, 2005 at 1:52 pm Said:

    hey some more additions to your list
    1) Kaalai Nera Poonguyil-Aabogi
    2) Azhage Sugama – Dvijavanthi
    gtg back to work now…will post a few more soon!

    Reply
  12. dinesh, on June 6th, 2005 at 3:55 pm Said:

    Nice compilation ! I find darbari kaanada very pleasing as well…”Kaatre yen vaasal vandhaal” from rhythm is another flowing darbari kaanada. And for charukesi, there are some old songs like “Vasantha mullai pole vandhu”…very enjoyable !

    Reply
  13. Raman, on June 7th, 2005 at 12:32 am Said:

    Arun,

    Excellent work. I use Arvi’s blog to try and enhance my musical knowledge (Emphasis on the word try!). Now, I have one more to learn from.

    Here are some more to the list from Isaigani’s movies,

    ———–

    Abhogi –
    Indraikku Enindha from Vaidehi Kaathirundhaa

    chala nAttai –
    Panivizhum Malarvanam from Ninaivellaam Nithya

    chArukesi -
    Mayanginen Solla Thayanginen from Naane Raja Naane Manthiri

    dharmAvathi -
    Anba Chumanthu Chumanthu from Ponnumani
    Meendum Meendum Vaa from Vikram

    gowri manOhari -
    Solai Poovil Maalai Thendral Paadum from Vellai Roja

    hamsanAdam -
    Om Namaha from Geethanjali
    Thendral Vandhu Ennai Thodum from Thendraley Ennai Thodu

    hamsadvani -
    Iru Vizhiyin Vazhiye from Siva

    ————-

    I can visualize Arvi thinking indha isai gyaana sooniyathukku idhelaam eppadi therinjudhu! ;-)

    Well, am trying to get a grip on the raaga’s. So, have a cheat sheet for Raja’s songs – here. Idhu Eppadi Irukku. Ketta paiyan sir indha raman ;-)

    There’s more there to add to the list I’ve given as I’ve listed only those that I’ve used to understand the nuances of the raaga. Hope you guys find it as useful as I have.

    Reply
  14. Arvind, on June 7th, 2005 at 12:57 am Said:

    Raman,

    Indraikku yenindha was what i was looking for…

    Arun,
    Got the abhogi we were talking about it yesterday

    Reply
  15. Zeppelin, on June 7th, 2005 at 3:51 pm Said:

    raman, arvind,

    thanks a lot guys… will keep adding these to my list as we go.. :) [probably never ending..hehe]

    cheers mates!

    Reply
  16. Narayanan Venkitu, on June 8th, 2005 at 6:57 am Said:

    Great work my friend. Mhy favorite,Darbari Kanada and the great song ‘malarae’.!

    Reply
  17. Zeppelin, on June 8th, 2005 at 5:23 pm Said:

    Narayanan Venkitu,

    Thanks very much…..

    “Villain” has got a good song – “orE manam..”something like that..but vocals are not promising…. but hey, darbAri kAnadA eppdi venalum kekalam… :)

    cheers!

    Reply
  18. sen, on June 9th, 2005 at 7:31 pm Said:

    nice post.

    Reply
  19. Zeppelin, on June 10th, 2005 at 3:30 am Said:

    senthil,

    thanks very much.

    cheers!

    Reply
  20. Anonymous, on June 12th, 2005 at 2:29 pm Said:

    Zep, I don’t know anything about raagas…so very informative for me…will carefully listen to all the songs that u posted here so that I may be able to identify some of the raagas when I listen to them the next time…

    Very nice post…

    KP.

    Reply
  21. subramoni, on June 13th, 2005 at 5:36 pm Said:

    dei,

    I just noticed something weird in the pic in your profile. At first glance, it seems like you have a white towel on your right shoulder giving you a “server sundaram” look. :-) .

    Reply
  22. Anonymous, on June 13th, 2005 at 5:48 pm Said:

    Haha, Subbu, I agree, Arun… err..Nagesh Zeppelin…any comments?

    KP.

    Reply
  23. Zeppelin, on June 13th, 2005 at 6:04 pm Said:

    dey KP, Subbu,

    in one way I am a server..so thanks for the compliment.. ;)

    interesting point though… you two have hit on a topic called “Visual Perception”…. scientifically speaking… :)

    cheers mates !

    Reply
  24. anantha, on June 14th, 2005 at 2:02 pm Said:

    Yo Zep, you’ve been tagged!

    Reply
  25. localhost, on February 12th, 2006 at 11:36 pm Said:

    Maybe too late to comment but it happens to be my fav hobby too…so here are my 2 cents:

    Hamsanadham- Malargale Malargale idhu enna Kanavaa (Love Birds by ARR)

    Darbari Kanada- Kalyana Then Nila (Mounam Sammadham), Aagaya Vennilave (Arangetra Velai)

    Charukesi- Vasantha mullai pole vandhu…(dont know the movie, shivaji’s i think!)

    Abhogi- Talat’s song “Hum se aaya na gaya”…

    And…Mazhai Varudhu is from the movie “Raja Kaiya Vechha” :-)

    Reply
  26. maha, on July 26th, 2009 at 6:53 am Said:

    lovely identification. my long time thinking of identifying these ragas. well done. add some more to it.

    Reply

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