One of my good friends sent me a youtube link of students of Wesleyan university performing Sri Kamalambike of Dheera Shankarabharam Raagam. Basically whites singing a Carnatic track, perfect to the T.Almost.
Shakarabharam raagam happens to be one of the most favourite and reliable start point for many south indian composers. Ilayaraaja started it and Rahman took it to the next level. You can find countless songs of Ilayaraaja that follow Shankarbharanam, while Rahman usually mixes it with several other raagams for his anu-pallavis ( usually the cresendo portion of a song). This has made life a bit tough for the purists, because rahman not only mixes it, he adds several layers of synths,basslines and chorus that give this ambient appeal, but the underlying backbone is a derivative of the Shankarbharanam Raagam, or any other Raagam. You have heard it, you just don’t know which one was it. [click to continue...]
When it comes to making a killer track on a beautiful lady, there is only one man here in india. You know who! Be it Aditi,Urvasi,Rukumani, Cindrella or any other metaphor, Rahman succeeds gracefully in getting it into the poetic lexicon. And now its Masakali. An innocent track with a pigeon as a prop is buzzing the nation’s speaker systems.Needless to say there are countless remix versions blasting through woofers and tweeters. I have heard to some 35 odd remixes of Masakali and they also sounded the same! Same four-bar beats, same trance synths and same everything else.
