Whenever Raaja touches the raga scale 'Kalyani', there is an eerily divine human intervention that is so magical and totally transports you to experience an elevated phenomenon that simple feels out of this world. Every stroke of it is seeped in mastery that exudes magnificence.
The thing with Kalyani songs of Ilaiyaraaja is that they also tend to be experimental at times. Kalyani is a very pure ragam and used to denote auspiciousness especially. It doesn't really offer scope for twitches as it can go woefully wrong when not handled in the right fashion. But that's not applicable to the Maestro at least.
He has used it in it's most pristine form as well as broken the mould to convey various emotions through this mellifluous ragam that harps largely on the Prati Madhyamam (second Ma). The two songs showcased are not refined Kalyani's by any stretch of the imagination but yet the base of the ragam comes out in full furore due to the strong foundation created.
'Sundari Kannal Oru Seidhi' uses an alternative phrase of Ga and changes to 'Kosalam' for a wee bit which is a pretty rare ragam especially from the film songs parlance. 'Nee Oru Kadhal' breaches upon the Hindustani angle and borders on something called 'Shyam Kalyan' which has a robust Kalyani pedestal yet infuses it's own independent flavour.
Just attempted a little portion of the charanam of these songs that can be christened exceptional experimental 'Kalyanis' with a twist. The music played maybe pretty amateur but the brilliance is certainly unquestionable.
