Music Review of Guru-Malayalam movie-Ilaiyaraja

In 1997, Maestro Ilaiyaraja composed music for a malayalam film called "Guru." It had malayalam superstar Mohanlal in the lead role. The music of this movie was simply scintillating to say the least. The unique thing about this movie was that the orchestration was played by the famous Budapest Symphony Orchestra. So most of the songs were recorded in Hungary. This made the music even more magical. It had the following 5 songs:
1. Thatharam-This is my favourite song from this movie. It is sung by M.G.Sreekumar & Chorus. It starts with a beat sound created by a unique instrument and gradually becomes a full-fledged symphony song. the tune and the background music are just what a genius like Ilaiyaraja would compose.
2. Aruna Kirana Deepam-This song is considered to be one of the best songs ever in Indian cinema in terms of it's mind boggling orchestration. It is sung by Padmashree K.J. Yesudas. Ilaiyaraja has used so many instruments in this song that when you hear them in unison, you will be transported to some other world.
3. Guru Sharanam-This is a classical based chorus song which is very melodious and it grows on you after continuous listening. It is sung by Venugopal & Chorus.
4. Devasangeetham-This song is another masterpiece composed like a symphony. It is sung by Yesudas & Jyotsna.
5. Minnaram Maanathu-This is a very melodious song sung by Sujatha. It has excellent violin pieces.
The best thing about this album is that each song is very different and covers almost all the genres like western classical, classical, light music etc. Though Ilaiyaraja has composed 3 songs in Western classical orchestration, each of them is different and great to hear. Any fan of music should not miss this soundtrack, after all it is composed by Ilaiyaraja.

Song Discussion

Today, I would like to discuss 2 songs both of which are Tamil songs.

1.Velli Nilave-This song is composed by Maestro Ilaiyaraja for the movie Nandavanatheru. It has been sung by the magical singer Shri. S.P.Balasubramaniam. It is an amazing song, very different from the normal run-of-the-mill stuff that we hear. The unique feature of this song is the wonderful tune and the combination of instruments that Ilaiyaraja uses. There is a continuous off-beat kind of bass strumming which I have never heard before. The talent of composers is shown when they do something radically different, it can be something very small but its effect will be big. That's called genius and Ilaiyaraja shows through this song why he is one of the best composers ever in India. Mention must be made about the wonderful singing by S.P.B. the emotions he brings to his voice is unbelievable. Please don't miss this one-of-a-kind song!!!

2. Ennuyir Thoziye- This song is composed by another genius A.R.Rahman. This song was not noticed much because the movie-Kangalal Kaidhu Sei, vanished in no time. It is sung by Unni Menon & Chinmayi. It is set in predominantly in Raag Aarabhi. It's so melodious and soothing with the piano counters. According to me this is one of THE best songs composed by ARR, but sadly it did not get the accolade it deserved. The tune in the charanam is so innovative that first you would feel you are listening to some other song. Added to that Chinmayi's ghatkas before the 1st paragraph are too good.

These 2 songs are great in their own ways and they just show what legendary composers are made of. Ilaiyaraja and Rahman are the 2 doyens of Tamil Music (of Indian music itself!!), whose tunes are timeless.