ILAIYARAGAM

ILAIYARAGAM Research Posts - 6

Rakkamma Kaiyya Thattu - The touch of the genious

Quite a song this !!!

The biggest success of Ilaiyaraaja as a composer I would say is that, his songs are so
appealing to a lay man captivating him so much yet being musically so rich and
challenging. As a music director of a film, he has a commitment to the director and the
producer to make their movie a big hit, yet at the same time in his own words Music
is not my Occupation; but my breath. So he quenches out his musical thirst through
the songs that he composes for them. What results are dazzling tunes that captivate the
common audience and at the same time can be given as a Study for Violin to the
students of Trinity college of Music for their graduation.

Rakkama Kaiya thattu is one such song! The song thou is composed for a situation which is
not challenging at all for a man of Raajas caliber. The hero of the movie (Rajnikanth) is the
Indian version of the God-father. If I remember correctly, this song comes soon after the movie
begins, apparently for no reason where the hero chills out along with the crowd celebrating his
success of beating a local gangster (Ramana) to death But one good indication that would
have given by the director of the movie (ManiRatnam) to Raaja is that, I want this song to be
the Magnum opus for the movie.. Raaja surpassed directors expectations in giving grandeur
feel to the song. There are some songs of Raaja in which its not the melody, its not the rhythm,
its not the singer who stands out in that song.. Its the instruments or in other words the
Orchestration, which leaves a punch. As I said even a common man can feel the grandness and
vast depth that the collective group of instruments brings in to the song.. Listen to this song and
you dont need to take a second opinion.
The scale selection of the song is very tricky Ill later explain why Still you can say its
composed in Am; Choosing the scale in such a way so that the singers can reach the Mel sthaai
(High pitches) passages easily to give a victorious appeal to the song. The prelude of the song
says it all. The exhilaration of the composition can be just felt in the prelude. A duo violin just
starts like a spark, which soon spreads to a forest fire as the mind-boggling string ensemble
backings unwinds From a catchy start the song soon gets to a crescendo and finishes in a real
grand note Thou the song starts in A major, the strings section soon elevate the prelude to the
equivalent minor. But the surprise is still to come when SP Bala starts singing.. Its neither the
major or the minor of A. There is a sudden tonal shift by 2 notes and SPB starts Rakkama in G
major!!! Still it doesnt sound out of scale.. Why and how?????? Ill explain it later in the
article.. As the song progresses, The gap between two lines of the melody are bridged by the
Duo-violin in a very novel way.. Alternatively Raaja uses choir instead of violin, a trick that he
seem to cherishing in many songs of his. The pallavi (Or the main melody) ends in a foottapping Changu chakku chachakku chakku chorus The interludes of songs are benchmarks
for orchestration.. In fact the prelude and the interludes of this song can not be categorized as
Indian Light-music for their disciplined orchestration. Both the interludes are of fast movements.
Especially the backings of tremolo strings in the first interlude and a brief passage by a set of
clarinets in the second. The usage of Cello, double bass and Tympanum to get a combined orchhit effect is simply astounding. However the stanzas of the song can be called Light music for
their Indianized rhythm (May be Raajas formula to make it appeal to the lay man??) As the song
symbolizes heros success, you may notice that in both the stanzas, the passages where the tune
reaches its top note echoing his victory is sung by SPB. Thus I must say SP gains a edge over
Swarnalatha as the vocalist but primarily because he sings for the hero. Nonetheless Swarnalatha
has done her job flawless.
The climax of the song is the highlight of the composition. There is a small situation change
occurs now.. While the mass celebrates the success, there is another kind of festival going on in
the neighborhood celebrated by a group of conservative, pious, household dames led by the
heroine of the movie.. Its the Festival of lights.. They sing a passage from the good old Tamil
literature hymn of Thevaram. The focus gradually switches there. The hero catches the first
glimpse of the heroine amidst the lights and falls for her. Later the song would come to a soft end
as the heros first love bug sublimes him over his victorious mood. So the song should
effortlessly transform from a mass crowd of rejoicing people to another quite crowd celebrating a

religious function. Simultaneously both the situations has to merge. Raaja achieves this in his
own style.. It can be explained by the parallel approach that he chooses now The Eastern and
western classical outlook
The first perspective is from the western classical outlook.. Being a great follower of the
Baroque maestro JS Bach, Raaja chooses a phenomenon in which Bach is known to be a
master The song undergoes a Fugue transformation to create the above effect. Fugue is the
style where the song suddenly goes to a different melody, which is totally different from its
original track. The song can further switch to many melodies but finally all of them come
together to generate a totally different movement. In Rakkama, from the mainstream song, the
sung comes to a stop when a godly hymn is sung in the eastern style, giving the second
movement.. After that thou the focus gradually switches back to the hero, still the chorus by the
heroine & co is sung in the back ground.. Thus a mix of the first and the second parts to give a
third part.. I wonder can any one handle the Fugue more subtly in Film music. Raaja has been
fascinated by Fugue so much that two of his compositions from the Music album How to name
it are best of his Fugue.. ( Watch out the track Mad mood mad Fugue where different melodies
of Raaga Mayamalava Gowlai flows in 3 parts of violin to produce a Fugue effect..)
The second perspective is from the Eastern classical outlook. He uses Shrutibedham(Tonal shift)
to switch his compositions to different raagas which can be derived from a same set of notes by
shifting the base tonal note Initially I remarked thou predominantly the song is in Am, the
pallavi starts in G major.. But still they perfectly look in place.. And I raised two questions.. Why
and how?? Here is the why part.. Aminor scale is NataBhairavi in carnatic classical form
while G scale is HariKambodhi. Making the Ni of NataBhairavi as Sa and singing it from
Ni to Ni yields Harikambodhi.. Natabhairavi is famously known for serious and sad
occasions and definitely not good for a rejoicing victorious melody in the start of the song..
Thats why he deflates it by 2 notes and makes it Haricambodhi, only in the pallavi.. Now as the
song goes into the Godly hymn, Raaja carefully chooses the raaga. He settles for Beamphlas
here(or also called as Karnataka Deva kanthari or Abheri, Im not sure). Beemplas is a janya
Raaga of KaraharaPriya, still a Aminor scale with a augmented Dha in Natabhairavi, so as to
give a more pleasant feel. Intro of Heroine You see Actually Natabhairavi and
KaraharaPriya are Cousin sisters.. Janya raagas 20 and 22 respecitvelyLiterally onnu vitta
akka thangachis - in Tamil ;-) So the Natabhairavi so far used is converted to Karaharapriya (or
more precisely its child Beamphlas). The hymn Kunitha Puruvamum from Devaram is now
sung in pure Beamphlas!! But remember the scale is still Aminor.. Only Dha is elevated (or F is
augmented to F#) When Rakkama returns again (in G major) the hymn still remains in A minor
in the back ground.. But it sounds prefectly in tune as if both are in the same scale.. But the raaga
Beamphlas has already influenced the song so much, that you dont see Rakamma as
Haricambodhi in G major.. But accept it as Karaharapriya sung from Ni to Ni (or as A minor
scale sung from G to G). You dont hear Rakkama Kaiya Thattu as Sa ri ga ma ri ga ri sa in
Harikambodhi.. But hear it as Ni sa ri ga sa ri sa ni in Beamphlas Thus even thou there is a
tonal shift, the song still stays within Aminor answering the How part of the question raised
earlier...

- click here for Research Post 7

- click here for Research Post HOME

Article Courtesy - Vicky (Vignesh Subramanian - vignesh_s@mail.com), ilaiyaraaja yahoo groups.

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