Raincoat

Yesterday I was watching this movie – Raincoat – a brilliant story according to me, based on a novel by O Henry made into a movie.

There’s this character of a village woman Neeru, who is very young, has an affair with her childhood lover Mannu for almost 8 years. Barely educated and a little crude in behavior, Neeru always dreams big – of being rich, having lot of servants to take care of her house, car, jewels, lavish life. To quench her thirst, Neeru ditches her childhood lover and heeds to circumstances ending up in an arranged marriage to a rich guy. Neeru is convinced that her parents are also happy about this. Her lover is young, a struggler, yet to start making money and he gives up too since he feels helpless.

They meet after a 6 years of gap, Neeru lives in a city with her husband and Mannu comes from his (and her old) village to her city. Mannu’s situation is pathetic. He is a total loser. He is a failure in his job and he desperately needs money. So he comes to meet a friend in the city to borrow some money and ask for help from his other friends who could help him financially. He carries a letter to show to all his friends that better explains his situation, so that they can read it and help him out. Mannu is unmarried yet. He is depressed and miserable. His friend feels very sad for him and lends him some money and recommends more friends from whom he could go and borrow more money. In the process, he decides to meet Neeru and her husband and God knows what struck him to check her well being after such a long hiatus.

Mannu comes to Neeru’s big house. He is taken aback to see her in a very pale condition after years and they end up having a long conversation, since Neeru says her husband is away, in Japan on a business tour. In between their conversation, the door bell rings. Mannu asks her if he can open the door. She shudders and says it must be some troubling neighbors and refuses to open the door. He is surprised at her strange behavior. He also notices that all the windows are closed and the house is very dark. She says that since she feels cold and it is rainy season, she keeps the door shut always. Her living room where they are sitting is full of handsome furniture. He is not able to understand the situation exactly and feels confused. They get back to their conversation. Both of them camouflage their identities estranging themselves from reality telling each other tales about their dream lives, like as if they are living lavish lives at present. She says that her husband is very rich, keeps traveling abroad, she has servants, jewels, lavish life and she is happy and gets bored coz of excessive pampering. He says he is a very successful businessman, running his own television company, very rich and happy in life. Both of them can clearly see that they are lying to each other, but both don’t want to give up in front of each other. They don’t want to regret that had they been married to each other, situations would have been different or rather better for both. In between the conversations, she asks him for Tea and he says okay. She goes to her kitchen and makes Tea for him, singing loudly in the kitchen trying to show like as if she is really enjoying making Tea and hence loving her house, her married life, daily routine, etc. He observes that and feels happy that she still has her childhood habits. They again get into conversations. Not willing to regret and not ready to accept, they both lie to each other more and more and portray happiness in their individual lives.

In between there’s a twist. She asks him for lunch and he agrees. She says, she needs to go out and buy food for him since she is lazy to cook and the servants are on leave. She leaves him inside the house. He is sitting and smoking in her living room. She has left to buy food for him. Suddenly the door bell rings again and a man pops in. He claims to be the landlord of the house. Mannu ends up having a conversation with the landlord, only to discover that Neeru and her husband are big time into trouble, the house rent was not being paid from almost a year, Neeru’s husband is a fraudulent businessman who has debts to pay, an alcoholic who comes home only late nights to escape from debts and people, to top it, they both give their living room for hire to a furniture shop fellow who keeps his furniture every night and takes them back to his shop next morning, which is why their living room looks so lavish. The landlord is pissed off coz of this illegal business and says that he has filed a case in the court and will be throwing Neeru and her husband out of the house soon. The landlord asks him to see the rest of the house apart from the living room, so as to make him aware of the actual situation. Mannu hesitates initially but then takes a look at the house – which is extremely filthy, barely anything that is in a usable condition, not even a proper vessel in place and is taken aback. Shaken by this harsh reality, he decides to pay her house rent with the little money he would’ve borrowed from his friends. The landlord is more than happy to get 3 months rent and moves out. Neeru comes back with food and serves him. Mannu eats and stealthily leaves the house rent receipt and a letter for near the sofa, stating that he has paid the rent.

They depart. After returning, Mannu finds something in his raincoat pocket. Neeru would’ve kept her (very few) marriage jewels in his raincoat since she ends up reading the letter from his raincoat – the same letter which he had carried to his friend’s house requesting for money. She realizes that he is in dire need of money. And there ends the story.

Nice isn’t it? Kept me thinking for long.

• Neeru could've given her jewels to her husband as well, but she dint.
• Mannu feels extremely bad for Neeru, and does the least he could for her, without even thinking twice.
• Neeru still felt jealous when Mannu mentions about a lady secretary in his office.
• Mannu feels terribly guilty when the landlord tells him the reality and also mocks at Mannu for being a loser, who could not get his lover, and instead trying to show his concern after she has landed in such a soup.
• Neeru's immature materialistic ambitions did not lead her anywhere.
• In the end, Neeru is still as helpless and unhappy as Mannu.
  
  Every woman has desires, different kinds of desires. Some pursue them diligently, some get trapped blindly. Either ways, struggle will always be there in different ways. Sailing through the storm and again charging up to face the next storm is what life is all about. :)

Happy weekend!

Songs of Eternity – All for Cheeni Kam

I must say that Shreya Ghoshal is one lucky singer who has got to sing some of the classic compositions of the great Ilayaraja in his upcoming so called musical comeback in Hindi films – Cheeni Kam. With Tabu looking so aesthetic, Amitabh looking so stylish, the dialogues sounding so witty, the songs being so full of romance, I wonder how the movie will turn out to be! Reviews say that this is a comedy cum romance between a 64 year old chef and a woman in her early 30’s, with the love factor not being deliberate! I have always had a fetish for movies that weave around conversations full of quick wit, sarcasm, humor, banter, and coy bundled with romance to die for. :) One such movie that I comes to my mind is ‘As Good As It Gets’ starring Jack Nicolson and Helen Hunt. What a movie!

Coming back to the Music of Cheeni Kam

The title track – Cheeni Kam Hai aka Mandram Vandha Thendralikku – should I say anything about the song? The tune is an unrivaled masterpiece. While IR has retained the essence of the song to a great extent with a change in the music in between the paragraphs (anupallavis) and a very teeny-weeny modification of tune in the anupallavi ending - probably to suit Shreya’s voice range, unlike how SPB could stop at very high notes. Shreya’s voice and the sensuous beats haunt your soul. This has a pathos version as well that sounds okay.

Baatein Hawa Hai Saari aka Kuzhaloothum Kannanikku – Somehow I cant get over Radha running in between the lush green trees in white saree. However, this song has 2 versions – one with Amitabh’s sarcastic anecdotes, and one without. Believe me you if you are the one who loves men with husky sophisticated voice, this is one man who will bowl you over completely! Again the music in between the paragraphs (anu pallavis) is different and new. Sounds nice. I like this song.

Jaane Do Naa aka Jotheyali (from kannada movie Geetha) – A blockbuster hit song in Kannada way back in late 80’s, this song is still the favorite among most of the people when asked about romantic favorites. That’s the magic of this song. It is my favorite song too, though I have my own reasons for it. Again a priceless masterpiece by IR. In Hindi, the lyrics sound very apt and very good. I like this song the best, among all the three. Shreya’s magic mantra that worked for Jadoo Hai Nasha Hai in Jism seems to be working in this as well. Surely to become a hit number.

Rest are all BGM’s that sound very melodious. If you want to feel nostalgic and if you are curious to see how IR has cleverly managed to use his best compositions so judiciously to impress the Hindi audience, do listen to the songs. Definitely worth a listen.

Adiya, thanks for the inspiration! :)

Born singers

For those who think they cant sing, have no regrets, we all are born singers, well versed in ragas! All of us have sung in Bilawal Raga since childhood!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you– Did you know that this is in Bilawal raga aka Shankarabharana? And similar is the tune of our National Anthem – Janaganamana. Most of the nursery rhymes belong to this raga category. The notes are easy to be played on keyboard, since it is the Do Re Mi Fa notes. I call it quite an English raga. :)

Throwing some light on Bilawal raga

Bilawal is a Hindustani Raga, a typical morning raga. It belongs to Bilawal Thaat (like our Melakartas) and consists of complete seven notes that are all shuddha swaras. It is equivalent to 29th Dheera Shankarabharana Melakartha Raga in Carnatic.

MSS celebrated friendship in her old age by cutting cake!

Here is a very cute event from MS Amma's life, found this somewhere while browsing:

Apart from music, M. S. is known for her many good qualities. The late Sri K. S. Mahadevan (KSM), a music critic, wrote in his book about how M. S. valued friendship.

To celebrate 50 years of friendship with KSM's wife, M. S. and her husband T. Sadasivam had ordered for a cake with inscription 'Kunjamma and Chinnani - 50 years of friendship'. The baker erroneously wrote '60' instead of '50' - that was a different story. But Kunjamma (M. S., as she was affectionately called in her family) maintained the friendship till her last days.

Now isn't the so sweet? With whom will I celebrate this kind of friendship in my old age? Just wondering....:)

Thillana - Raaga Dhanasri - Sri Swati Tirunaal

Like adding a twist in a tale, carnatic musicians add twists in concerts by singing varieties like the abhang, javali, ugaabhoga, or even a thillana. Although the Thillaanas are pre-dominantly used for dance performances, they are purely enjoyable in music concerts simply because of their coalescence with rhythm (taala).

A common thillana rendered by famous musicians including M.S.S is Geethadhunikuthaka in raga Dhanasri, a hindi composition of Sri Swati Tirunaal, the well known connoisseur of music, post trinity period. Bowing humbly to this great musician, here is a little write up.

Sri Swati Tirunaal

It is known to everyone that Sri Swati Tirunal was a linguist well versed in 13 languages. Adding to his brilliance was his sound knowledge of both Hindustani and Carnatic music which is seen in his wide variety of compositions that includes:

• Thappas, dhrupads, abhangs, thumris – the classic Hindustani / north Indian variety
  
• Keerthanes, swarajathis, javalis, padams – the typical flavours of Carnatic south Indian music.

A great devotee of Lord Vishnu, most of his krithis ended with ‘Padmanabha’. He flourished Hindustani ragas like Behaag, Kaapi, Hameer Kalyani, and plenty more in his krithis.

Raga Dhanasri

Dhanasri is a Hindustani Raaga. It is an afternoon raga sung between 1 and 4 PM. The time is specific here since Hindustani music strictly follows the time theory – that a particular raga should be sung at a particular time only, although in Carnatic we don’t follow this strictly now.

The scale of Dhanasri is:

Sa Ga Ma Pa Ni Sa
Sa Ni Dha (very rarely used) Pa Ma Ga Ri Sa

This may seem very close to Abheri in Carnatic (20th Melakarta) except that in Dhanasri, Daivatha ‘Dha’ is seldom used and that is the main difference between the two ragas. Else the notes are very similar. Dhanasri in Hindustani belongs to the 10th Thaat.

Going back to 13th century period, where ragas were considered as males – husbands, and related ragas as raginis or wives, called the popular Raaga – Raagini system of music, Dhanasri is considered as ragini of Malkauns, a Hindustani raga. This is a raga of longing for love, typically depicted by a woman missing her lover.

Thillana Geethadhuniku Thaka

The song talks about a woman performing dance recital. The words, “Naach Rahe Gori, Tha Dhi Thai, Thom Dhi Thai” in the Pallavi means that.

The Anu Pallavi has 2 verses.

Verse 1 – “Baaje Payal Kaho, Jhanan Jhanan” – giving you the feel of the sound of paayal (anklets/ghungroo/gejje) through words like “Jhanan Jhanan”. Simply beautiful.

Verse 2 – “Thaan Gaave Thaka Tha Thai Tha Thai” is full of rhythm.

The Charana - “Padmanaabha Tumhaari Leela, kya kahoon main, saawaro, thaap sankat haranayo, soha mhaaro tumaharo” – lovely flow of words by Sri Swati Tirunal. He is talking about the greatness of Lord Padmanabha, and requesting him to take away all the pains, and confessing that Padmanabha is the ultimate happiness. This is followed by the Jathi – Tha Dheem Tha Dheem Dhirana…..

Geethadhuniku is bliss. So next time please listen more carefully.

Pls feel free to add on any other explicit information you come across on the krithi or the composer or the raga. Will be glad to accept your comments.

Pls do not misuse this information anywhere else since this purely belongs to me and only me.

Happy Weekend!

Onne Onnu Sollanum

Un Mughatthai Paarthu Sollanam, Thanimayi Konjam Kidaikka koodaadhaa.......:) What a high energy song from Kaaka Kaaka (Ennai Konjam Maatri...), just perks me out of all the blues and makes me energetic! Especially while driving my car, this is THE SONG that I enjoy the most! Waiting for those days soon..............:) I am going home! :)

By the way, in Jaya T.V - SPB's show - last week one girl literally murdered this song and made it seem so lifeless. Why is it that people dont realize that apart from singing a song, they need to feel it. Being able to present the mood of the song is so important, but some people just dont get it! :(

My research on Dhanasri is on....:) will be back soon.

Dharu

Today my friend and I were discussing about musicians in olden days who were appointed in King's court. Like, for example Harikeshanallur Sri Muthaiah Bhagavathar, who was in the court of Sri Krishna Raja Wodeyar. It is said that Muthaiah Bhagavatar visited Mysore during the Dasara festivities when he was about 50 years old. He gave a couple of concerts at the palace and earned the benevolent attention of Sri Krishna Raja Wodeyar. He secured a position of a prestigious musician in the court. During this time, HMB composed a Dharu in praise of the King's mother, equalizing her goodness to that of Goddess Parvathi. This is none other than the famous Maathe Malayadhwaja Paandya Sanjaathe in Khamach Raaga, Adi taala. From here my thoughts started pondering in varied directions.

What is a Dharu?
A Dharu is a varnam format that typically consists of Swara, Jathi, and Saahithya - all in one, along with the usual pallavi, anu pallavi and charana. The swara-jathi-saahithya pattern normally follows after anu pallavi followed by the charana. Sri HMB is supposed to be the first among musicians to come up with this pattern.

What is the significance of a Dharu?
While a dharu gives ample scope for a musician to sing and tests his swara, jathi, saahithya gnana, thaala is an important aspect to it since it is a varnam on its own. Also, dancers use Dharus for performing since the saahithya is filled with bhava, ample scope for Abhinaya - a very important aspect for dancers.

What is the difference between Dharu, Padha, and Thana Varnam then?
Categorizing varnams based on thaala - like Adi taala and Atta taala varnam, may not be completely correct since there are varnams in Jhampe taala, Khanda Triputa, Roopaka, Tishra Eka, etc.

A Padha varnam is the one that consists of saahithya throughout - meaning, consider what we sing these days, for example, Ninnukori - in Adi - Mohana Raaga - Has saahithya in pallavi, followed by chitteswara, and charana where we sing 2 lines of saahithya and then jump to first charana composed only of swaras, sing the saahithya, and continue till we complete the 4 charanas. However, a Padha varnam consisted of saahithya in the entire charana as well! So, every charana has saahithya, and this format was sung in olden days. Since it was rich in saahithya, mostly conveying feelings of love (i believe), it gave lot of scope for abhinaya hence for dance performances too! Padha varnams are also called Chauka varnams / Ata varnams.

As music developed, it got customized and polished and we sing what we sing today - Thana varnams!

So that is the difference.

Have I learnt Dharu?
Yes I have learnt Maathe many years ago, and I have also sung this for my sister's bharatanatyam rehearsals (only), :( with my music teacher ofcourse :) since I was a little kid then. Trust me, with accompaniments like the nattuvangam, this krithi is a total bliss to sing!

There ends the tale of Dharu.

I also learnt that to compose varnams / thillanas one needs to have very good mridhangam knowledge. This increases the laya sense and is useful in composing varnam. In fact, Sri Muthaiah Bhagavathar had also trained under Vidwan Sri Narayanasamappa of Tanjore in mridangam. He possessed an accurate knowledge of rhythm which explains the excellence of his tillanas and dharus.

If you notice, among the trinity, Sri Thyagaraja and Sri Muthuswamy Dikshitar have composed keerthanes/krithis but not varnams, as known to me. Whereas, Shama Shastry has Swarajathis to his fame. So somewhere he must have had a deep knowledge of mridangam or the kelvi gnana.

If you come across any contradicting or complementing information, pls feel free to comment.

I will next speak about Swati Thirunal and his Thillana in Dhanasri in my next post!

Chimney Sweep!

Did you know that a Chimney Sweep is one among the lucky charms? Especially in places like Austria, Germany, Hungary, Italy, France, U.K, Chimney Sweeps are considered auspicious omen of good luck especially when you meet them on New Years day or when they visit a house to chimney sweep!

I really did not know this until I received a ‘Petit Ramoneur Sabogard’ – A doll of a chimney sweeper, a petite girl carrying a rope and a ladder – a surprise gift from France! I was told that it is considered as a lucky charm. I was surprised. Now I simply love this doll and I tried to get some history behind this.

The chimney has been a part of family life since the early Romans first realized that it was better to live in a nice, fire-warmed home than in a chilly one. They needed a way to funnel off the smoke the fires caused. Centuries later, in medieval times, fireplaces were invented to heat individual rooms and provide a safe place for indoor cooking. Folks soon learned that fireplaces and their chimneys needed a cleaning once in a while. A house full of soot and fumes isn't healthy. And so, chimney sweeping developed into a necessary profession. And a good one. People liked having the chimney sweep pay a visit. He brought clean, fresh air back to the home. Sweeps are associated with hearth and home, and thus domestic bliss. Chimney Sweeps became a sign of good health and prosperity.

In Vienna, there is a Chimney Sweep Museum itself! There are people who get trained for almost 6 years to do chimney sweeping!


Here's one such lucky charm! But the one I have is much better! ;)