One Song at a Time - 60 : Ennodenthinee Pinakkam

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(Kaithapram Damodaran Namboodri)

Sahana is one of those ragas which has so much inherent classicism in it that it is very difficult to mould it to the needs to film music. K V Mahadevan did a wonderful job of morphing Sahana enough to fit it into film music with the 'parthen sirithen' song in 'Veera Abhimanyu'. It has since then remained the gold standard as far as Sahana in Tamil / Telugu film music. Later, Deva did a take on Sahana in 'Avvai Shanmugi'. The song was 'rukku rukku rukku'. A fun song but a cliched Sahana. There are traces of Sahana in Rahman's "kannamoochi enada" but there are too many ragas mixed in that song, not just Sahana. Raja, surprisingly, hasn't given any major song in Sahana. I hear that in some ragamalika song of his, Sahana appears and as background music in 'Unnal Mudiyum Thambi' but no full song in this raga. Another song by Rahman, 'anbe sugama' from 'Parthale Paravasam' also has Sahana touches but I wouldn't say it is completely Sahana based. On the other hand, V.S. Narasimhan's 'indha veenaikku theriyadhu' for the TV Serial 'Rail Sneham' is a very nice Sahana. (There have been Sahana based songs prior to KVM's song but I don't recall them now. G S Mani had spoken about those songs in his Lec Dem tape on 'Ragas in Carnatic Music'. )

Malayalam film music is a rich treasure house for raga based film tunes. We will find the music directors using a lot of uncommon ragas, from film music perspective, and using it very well. In one of the early posts in this series, I had spoken about how Dakshinamurthy Swamy dealt with Begada and gave us a wonderful melody. (You can read that post here. ) In case of Sahana too there are a couple of nice melodies in Malayalam light music. One, which I was very impressed with was M.G.Radhakrishnan's 'jayadeva kaviyude'. This is from his 'lalitha sangeetham' collection. M.Jeyachandran provides a nice Sahana in modern setting in the movie 'Perumazhakaalam'. The song being 'chenthar mizhi'.

The song we will talk about today is from the film 'Kaliyattom': 'ennodhenthinee pinakkam'. Written and set to music by Kaithapram. Sung beautifully by Bhavana Radhakrishnan. The song portrays the 'viraha' feeling of the woman in question. Someone who knows Tamil can understand these lyrics easily. Kaithapram's lyrics in simple words capture the pain of separation effectively. The tune is extremely melodious but also conveys the intended emotion. Ofcourse being a film song we can see the song deviating a bit from Sahana in some places, (in some places in the first interlude you almost get a Dvijawanthi feeling) but overall the feel of Sahana is well maintained. The orchestration is in keeping with the theme of the film.

Enjoy this lovely Sahana, thanks to Kaithapram and his team




Comments

Jujubax said…
Nice Song Suresh! I enjoyed it.
Sahana is a lovely raaga in any case.
cheerz
madhu
March 3, 2013 at 6:29 AM
Sabitha said…
Loved the song! Know nothing about the raag though :) Is Shahana in Hindustani same as Sahana?
March 3, 2013 at 8:12 AM
Suresh S said…
Sabitha,

Thanks. I don't think there is a Sahana equivalent in Hindustani music. Atleast I haven't heard one. I know of a Sahana Kanada but that doesn't sound like Carnatic Sahana.
March 3, 2013 at 9:16 AM
bms said…
Pls check Abirama sailame Malaya Chalathile sung by KJ Yesudas and reert back if it is sahana though a devotional number
March 3, 2013 at 12:08 PM
Aakarsh said…
Nice song. Liked it.

There are some raagas, which have limited scope for improvisation. Sahana is one among them. Infact, i always felt even Hamsadhwani has that limitation (it requires a mastery to consciously avoid Vatapi feel and still bring out the raaga characteristic). But what baffles me is that - though a raaga like Hamsadhwani has been explored well, Sahana has not been explored that well.
Ilaiyaraaja indeed used it in the background score of Rudra Veena. Surprisingly, he did not composer any songs in that raaga. I wonder why! Because I believe that he is quite capable of bringing out its characteristics well, even within the confines of film music. If I ever make a film and if Raaja agrees to score music, these are the raagas I will ask him :-) The raagas that he has not explored.
March 4, 2013 at 6:14 AM
Suresh S said…
Kamal,

Thanks for the comment.

All the best to you for making a movie and Raja scoring for it :D
March 4, 2013 at 11:58 PM
Anonymous said…
You may want to double check. I read an article in Hindu that "intha veenaikku theriyadhu" was composed by Ilayaraja.

I think the real gold standard in Sahana is "Engo Piranthavaram" in Bommai composed by S.Balachander and K.V Mahadevan. But the song is a ragamalika with most of it in Sahana.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_W5u3U4FYQ

Venkat
March 9, 2013 at 6:03 PM
Suresh S said…
Thanks Venkat for the comment.

I have checked it and the 'Rail Sneham' song is indeed by V S Narasimhan.

I hadn't heard the 'Bommai' song earlier. Thanks to this post, lot of people directed me to this song. Nice one.
March 11, 2013 at 11:03 PM
Raj said…
Though, I do not want to be seen as bein partial to other ragas, the fact remains that my most favourite raga is Sahana. The feelings and the emotions evoked by this raga is unmatched.

A rakti raga most suitable for KaruNa rasam.

In film music, 'Paththiniye' by P.U CHINNAPPA from 'Kannagi' is a great composition.Set to music by S.V.Venkataraman, the song has the familiar Sahana phrases and some 'Daattu' prayogas too.

'Engo PiRandavanaam'(Bommai)composed by S.Balachander is a great Sahana until the first CharaNam after which it changes to Huseni.

As rightly mentioned by you, 'Inda veeNaikku' was composed by V.S.Narasimhan and not by ILaiyaraja(the author of that article in The Hindu is notorious for getting many details wrong!).

However, ILaiyaraaja has composed in this raga.Though it is part of a ragamaalika, he showed the dimansions of this raga in less than a minute in the 'Harischandran play' in 'ThuNai iruppaL Meenakshi'(1977). Apart from 'Unnal mudiyum thambi', he used the raga in the BGM of 'uLiyin osai' as well.

The Malayalam song posted by you in nice(have listened to it before) but surely not a pure Sahana.Yes, it has Jaijawanti touches and I hear even 'Kaapi' in the second interlude.

Thanks anyway for writing about my most favourite raga :).
March 14, 2013 at 5:51 AM
Suresh S said…
Raj,

Thanks for the elaborate comment.

I agree that this song is not a 'pure' Sahana. Lot of misram in it :) Yet, the overall flavor is that of Sahana.

I will need to check the 'Thunai Iruppal Meenakshi' song. I don't think I have heard. The other songs I have heard.

I did not talk about another lovely Sahana, which comes as the start of a ragamalika. From the movie 'Kavya Mela' (Malayalam) Dakshinamurthy Swamy gives an excellent Sahana in 'Swapnangal Swapnangale'.
March 14, 2013 at 7:28 AM
Raj said…
Suresh-Please check my yesterday's status update in FB :).
March 15, 2013 at 4:30 AM
Krishnamurthi Balaji said…
Thanks for this wonderful piece. very much impressed. I have heard the Rail Sneham song but only now I come to know that it is from TV Serial. I had all praise for the lyrics in that song. By the way , the song "varuvanillarumengorunaalumee" from Manichthrathazh,,,, Is it also Sahana? I find a little bit of deviation in the middle.
Sahana is a wonderful Ragam as such. Another lovely Sahana is 'AdhinAthan KEtkinraan' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SU2sBP67jI)
TDhank you once again for this !
Regards,
K.Balaji
November 30, 2013 at 11:05 AM
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