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.  

Heres the video!

Remember – Anjali Anjali from the movie Anjali? thats the same raagam.

Anyways, have a look at the link and if you get time play the pure version sung by Balamurali krishna and also one of my favorite AR Rahman track using shankarabharam raagam. This is one of rahman’s very few tracks where he retained the raagam but added toms,percussions, pads and basslines to give that awesome feel. This is a tamil track sung by srinivas in the movie en swaara katre ( the warmth of my breath..loosy translated)

enjoy..and sorry if this bored you guys….just wanted to share this note. When such tracks are played on TV/CDs we switch it off and when we hear the same being performed by foreigners we are exited ( i am!) .Something i remember discussing with someone for a longtime…

slumdog effect??