The Sound of Music …

It gets you through difficult times. It helps you celebrate euphoric moments. It is the much needed bottle of glucose at the end of a tiring day. Ah I love music. Well, who doesn’t?

As my friends would say, I am a little bit behind times in music. Oh yes people ! I haven’t quite come out of the 70s and 80s yet. There are two musicians whose music has constantly been there in my humming-list. One’s Ilayaraja and the other is The Beatles. I thought I would just share a list of my favourite Ilayaraja songs in this post. If you have never listened to Ilayaraja, well you really should do it now. I struggled really hard to narrow down the list to just ten songs. So here I go – my top ten favourite Ilayaraja songs :

9) Nayakan Theme Music

This is the lesser-known theme from the movie “Nayagan” while ‘Then Pandi Seemayile‘ is more popular. Not many remember this theme from the movie. Even I came across this piece only a couple of weeks back and ever since I have been hooked to it. Many people draw comparisons between Nayagan and The Godfather. In my opinion, they are both unique in their own way.  Oh and both the movies had the best composers 🙂

8) Ninaivo Oru Paravai – Sigappu Rojakkal

I love the interlude in this song . The movie itself is a classic. To top it all, Kamal Hassan did the male vocals in this song.

7) Raja Raja Chozan – Rettai Vaal Kuruvi

Another awesome melody from the Comedy “Rettai Vaal Kuruvi” adapted from the movie ‘Micki and Maude’. Mohan, the 80s leading star wasn’t exactly great shakes at acting but had the best directors, Surendar(his dubbing artist) and Ilayaraja to make all his movies runaway hits.

6) En Iniya Pon Nilave – Moodupani

A classic guitar song by Ilayaraja. K.J.Yesudas’s voice is the icing on the cake. The funny thing about this song is, many people (from Tamil Nadu ofcourse) who touch a guitar for the first time pretend to act like Prathap Pothen from the song. Even I did that when my sister bought her first guitar!

5) Punnagai Mannan Theme

Need I say anything ? See for yourself. Ilayaraja’s masterpiece.

4) Sundari Kannal oru sedhi – Thalabadhi

I have never listened to this song fully because every time I listen to it at night, I drift off to sleep. Such a soothing song 🙂 The movie is really good too. A very subtle take on Karna’s story from Mahabharata. I didn’t notice the Mahabharata resemblance at first but then after years I came to know about it through a TV Interview. Rajnikanth-Mamooty’s combo set the screen on fire and also lead to many a parodies.

3) Ilamayenum Poongatru – Pagalil Oru Iravu

Do not judge a book by its cover. Similarly do not judge a song by its video. You know some songs become super hits even before the movie is released. When you go to the theater expectantly for the song, it turns out to be a total let-down. Well, this is one of those songs. I love the music and sometimes my sister and I do some karaoke-type thingy at home much to my mother’s dismay. It has great music but the video ruined it.

2)Ennule Ennule – Valli

This is my loop-song. The song sets an eerie mood and I love it! A wonderful rendering by the honey-voiced Swarnalatha.

1) Inji Iduppazhagi – Devar Magan

Funny how almost half the songs from this list are from Kamal’s movies. Without any doubt this song is my most favourite. I might have listened to this a 1000 times continuously but it never gets one bit dull. I love everything about this song – the movie , the visuals , Kamal’s careful pronunciation. Devar Magan is a great movie, very much inspired from The Godfather but subtly changed to suit the Tamil Audience.

0) Those that almost made it to the list
* Jotheyali – Geetha
* How to name it – A must-listen 🙂
* Nee Partha Parvai – hey Ram

Hope you enjoyed the songs as much as I have 🙂