I spent the past week floating in a wonderful haze of euphoria, all thanks to three amazing songs by Harris Jeyaraj in Bheema.
Enadhuyirey Enadhuyirey -
This is in the munbe va genre - slow, melodious, romantic. Nikhil Mathew is soulful. Sadhana Sargam's thamizh is surprisingly better than usual, but the song would have been even better if Harris had used Shreya. I checked out the singers on Raaga and found that Chinmayi's name was also listed for this song. Then i realized that Chinmayi has actually sung the second saranam, but i would not have known it was her if i had not read the album credits. This is the major trouble with her - she is an excellent singer, but for some reason, ends up sounding entirely different in every song. Being versatile is not a bad thing, but, I'm not sure how she can make a lasting impression without a signature voice.
Siru paarvaiyaley -
I love Karthik! His voice is young, peppy and near perfect. I'm listening to Harini after a while. She has matured as a singer, and its a pleasure to hear her sing the beautiful lyrics
"thumbiyaaga maari undhan veedu varavaa
thoongum unnai thottu paarthu muththam idavaa"
Mudhal mazhai -
If you ignore the "mehu mehu" throughout the song, this is easily one of Harris' best. Mahathi is superb - she sounds like a seasoned carnatic singer, but her voice is also light, and young, like a really cool version of Bombay Jayshree. I love the lyrics in this song too....
"Ore naal unnai naanum kaanaa vittaal en vaazhvil andha nannaley illai
ore naal unnai naanum paarthey vittal annaalin neellam podhavillai"
However, in order to appreciate these songs, I have forced myself to accept two annoying things that many Thamizh composers do -
*Pet peeve 1 - Use singers who do not bother figuring out the right way to pronounce thamizh words -
I do not have a problem with hindi singers performing thamizh numbers. The wonderful thing about true rasikas is the way we appreciate and enjoy the real spirit of music without restricting ourselves to the narrow confines of languages. Afterall, the mecca of carnatic music is Chennai and not Hyderabad (i mention this in the context of Thyagaraja's telugu compositions), and didnt SPB became the voice of Salman Khan during his best days? I love Shreya Goshal. Her pronunciation of thamizh words is near perfect, and if you listen to her soulful renditions of munbe va and elangathu veesudhey, you wouldnt believe she is not a thamizh speaker. Madhushree however just kills me. Its not her accent which bugs me, but the very mutiliation of one of the greatest treasures of the world - thamizh. In Vaaji vaaji, she sings "azhagai saani idu" instead of "azhagai saanai idu". Small difference? No way!!! Anyway, it looks like i am the only person getting rattled by her voice. She ends up getting to sing really good numbers such as Mayilirage and unakkul naane, and now Ragasiya kanavugal in Bheema. I listened to this song once, and promised myself it would be the last time. She tries to sound sexy when she sings "ilamai ilamai". She really could have focussed on getting the "la" in the illamai right.
*Pet peeve 2: Weird words in no particular language
Harris is probably the worst offender. I was hoping he would have changed with this album, but no. And we listeners have recently been spoilt by Vairamuthu's fabulous senthamizh in Sivaji - "Poompaavai aambal aambal". So, listening to "kaiba kaiba" in Beema's siru paarvaiyale is like nails on a chalkboard.
I waited for many years hoping they would change, but looks like i have to do the changing if i want to listen to good new Thamizh music.
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2 comments:
Too funny :) However, till date Mayilrage has to be the worst pronounced. Also, Vennila Vennila from Iruvar which Asha Bhonsle killssssssssssssss
Oh I can't stop now that I've started. What about Engengey by Asha Bhonsle in Neruku Ner.
She gets on my nerves with her godawful voice and the way she pronounces tamil words
Well said. I cannot stand good songs being spoiled by horrible diction. Sadhana Sargam's "July Malargale" spoiled the whole song. I cannot believe the bearers of Tamil Language put up with this nonsense. It is the responsibility of the music director to make sure that the rendition is correct. In the song, Madhushree says"Irudhaayam" and it sounds like "Iru Dhayam" like two dhayams in the game "Dhayakattai" instead of "heart".
Shreya Ghosal has sung songs where her diction has been below par (Samikitte solliputten Unne Nenjil Vechikitten). Udit Narayanan gets on my nerves as well.
My only question is that would Hindi music listeners tolerate such a mutilation of the language like the hapless Tamil listeners?
When there is no dearth of good Tamil singers (gone are the days of monopoly of one or two singers), why do these music directors take the language and the listeners for granted? When I listen to a good song with a bad diction from a “Northie” singer, I feel like “Koolavanigan Seethalai Saththanar” who is supposed to have poked his own head with the writing nail (as the legend goes hence “Seethalai” and the real reason being his nativity from “Seethalai”).
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