When one digs at Maestro Ilaiyaraaja's oeuvre, it won't be a surprise to find that majority of his compositions would largely be set to tune in the ragam Sindhu Bhairavi. Even otherwise, that trademark resemblance (சாயல்) would be very evident. Probably it's a no brainer that this Ragam should definitely be one of his top most favourites. Incidentally he also composed for a movie titled by the same raga name of 'Sindhu Bhairavi' in the year 1985 which to date is considered one of the finest classical based soundtracks ever in the annals of Tamil Cinema.
A standout feature of this Raga is that it is very flexible and tends to take in a lot of twists & turns. The curves and jumps across notes adds a sublime touch to it. Of course it's also based on the ability of the composer since if not used properly it can end up distorting the composition to a major degree and can stain the raga. Maestro however is a master craftsman and plays with it splendidly thus also ensuring to not dilute the austerity. It is also a raga which tends to touch upon almost all the 12 notes of a scale including the 2 Ri's Ga's Ma's Da's Ni's along with the foundation notes Sa and Pa.
One of my favourite Sindhu Bhairavi compositions of Maestro happens to be the 1993 release 'Ejaman' that had the song Oru Naalum sung resplendently by the evergreen pair of SP Balasubramaniam and S Janaki. It's an absolute pearler of a Sindhu Bhairavi where the notes traverse across octaves and the phrases intertwined unmistakably give the essence of this wonderful raga. The riffs & runs authorify and stamp this Raga in all it's embellishment. A small stab at playing portions of this scorcher of a Sindhu Bhairavi.
No comments:
Post a Comment