The Genius of Ilayaraja - I

Two exquisite songs - Jul 29, 2009 (re-posted here)

Just the other day, when I was driving down for the umpteenth time between BLR and CHN, Balu's rendition of two songs just enthralled me...so much so that I nearly ran into a vagabond motorist (drunk, I am sure; me with Balu's songs and him with 200 milli of naatu sarakku or sevutthu mutti).

One was "Mandram vandha ...thendral" from Mauna Ragam; the movie that made Karthik and Revathi and umpteen repeat sequences of lovers playing practical jokes with each other's parents..."Mr. Chandramouli"...
Anyway, back to the song...the pain, the senstivity, the "feelings" (as they say in Tamil!) expressed by Koman (Kokila Mohan...or Mike Mokan!) - the only movie he acted well - and all of that rendered brilliantly by the plump genius hit me like an errant lorry on NH46 with a tonne of bricks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v​=bKy6lO-TJvw

BTW, there is a recent adaptation in Chenni Kum sung by one of my favorite singers, Shreya Ghosal, which was exceptional as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v​=as78E5z6yHo&feature=related

The other song that I am referring to is "Jagada Jagada Chesesthaam"...from Gitanjali. Wow! Another Mani Ratnam movie (this time one of his more overrated ones)... But you guys got to listen to this in Telugu in the thin-as-a-wafer, clear-as-a-Swarovski-crystal, youthful-as-Maarkandeyan (today is my day of "Sidhu" similes) voice of Baalu, the great!! Mano, a singer I loathe with a psycho's single-mindedness, has actually raped, assassinated, and buried the same song in Tamil...and it still became a hit. Funny are the ways of the world.

(TELUGU) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v​=YoaDEwJXqm0

(TAMIL) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v​=mpnftBpk3Ug

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