Poove Sempoove - Mellifluous Waltz

I wonder what incentive Raaja had to come up with a song as mesmerising as Poove Sempoove for the movie Solla Thudikuthu Manasu. The apt adjective to describe this number would be 'Mellifluous' as it's incredibly sweet possessing a flowery smooth flow and full of soul. It's so pleasing for the aural senses and simply creams you over.

What I especially adore about this wonder is the Waltz beat which keeps going 12 12 12 perfectly synchronising a 3/4 time signature played on melodic minor scale in Gowri Manohari ragam. There are so many triumphant transitions that simply shake you over and it might be quite a mystery to know they all appear as part of the same song though when individually heard may connote something totally different.

For the love of the Waltz beat in this vintage composition, just tried something slightly off beat by playing it like in a guitar mode by strumming along as the melody keeps mellowing. I just hope it drifted along fairly well and was not way off the mark.

Pranava Manthiram - Vaikasi Visakam

Lord Murugan is believed to have manifested from the Third Eye of Lord Shiva & Parvathi in the solar month of Vaikasi with the Nakshatra of Vishakha visible in the skies and when the full moon (Pournima) was in operation. He is connected especially to the number 6 since he was incarnated as 6 divine sparks to destroy the three demon brothers Soorapadman, Singamuhan & Tarakan thus bringing balance and restoring parity to motherland. The 6 faces of the Lord represent mastery over Anger, Attachment, Desire, Ego, Greed and Jealousy. Thus prayers offered to the Lord help sharpen the mind and control the senses. There are also 6 famous abodes dedicated to Lord Arumugam at Thiruparankundram, Tiruchendur, Palani, Swamimalai, Tiruttani and Pazhamudircholai. Adding further, the sacred mantra of Sage Agasthya 'Sa Ra Va Na Ba Va' also comprises of six syllables known for curing illnesses and granting positive health.

Other than Vishakha or Visagam which is considered to be his birth star ruled by Indragni ('Indra+Agni') he is strongly affiliated to Krithika (Karthigai) star ruled by the God of Fire 'Agni' and also Pushya (Poosam) star ruled by the God of Wisdom 'Guru'. The Krithika star also has reference because it is believed that the Lord as an infant was nurtured by the 6 Krithika Maidens thus also garnering him the moniker of 'Kartikeya'. Skanda is also connected to the star of Uttara Phalguni (Uthiram) as that was the Nakshatra which was in occurence during his divine marriage to 'Deivanai', the daughter of the Chief of Gods 'Indra'.

The Navagraha Mars is also associated with Deva Senapathi and so is the Vara of Tuesday (Chevva Kizhamai) which is specifically ruled by the planet Mars. Mars is known for the significations of Victory & War and hence appeasing Lord Kumara helps in overcoming and winning your battles both inwardly and outwardly. For those afflicted with Mars Dosha, seeking refuge to Subramanya can act as a great counter relieving measure. The symbol 'Vel' or spear is used as his primary divine weapon to conquer and emerge victorious in tandem with also denoting wisdom and being wise.

As alluded earlier about #6, the sixth Tithi of both the waxing & waning phase viz 'Shasti' is connected to Lord Shanmuga. Also the Karana 'Vishti' linked with the animal cock is ruled by Saravana. The other animal connected largely to the Lord is the Peacock which he rides known as 'Paravani' symbolising destruction of pride & ego. The Yoga of 'Siddha' formed in association of the combined degree longitude of the Sun & Moon is also ruled by Velava.

On this divine birthday of the 'Lord of Everything' on Vaigasi Visagam, playing a small portion of a lullaby 'Pranava Manthiram' associated with Lord Guhan denoting the softer side of our all encompassing almighty Tamil Kadavul. May his name be ever chanted and get resonated with pride. Let the belief be steadfast and ever faithful.

Celebrating 50 years of Music and Maestro

This day 14th May 2026 marks 50 years since the introduction of Isaignani Ilaiyaraaja in the annals of mainstream music. It was on this special date etched in time on 14th May 1976 that witnessed the official arrival of Maestro to the world of music and what a remarkable journey it has been spanning a milestone of 5 glorious decades.

To take a medium like music and create such an everlasting impact lasting half a century is simply mind boggling. Years, generations, centuries and eras may pass but I'm sure the music will live on for eternity. Grateful for all the wonderful musical creations and enriching our lives in ways more than we can ever imagine.

For any kind of situation, mood, feeling, emotion or theme an Ilaiyaraaja number always comes in handy. I don't believe in hero worship but I worship music and Isaignani Ilaiyaraaja is truly one of its greatest custodians. A genuine byword when it comes to music and extremely blessed to have been a recipient of all the majestic music unleashed from his eximious oeuvre. Celebrating 50 years of the man, the Maestro and the magic of music on this historic landmark golden jubilee day.

Mother's Day Special - Amma Endru & Chinna Thaayaval

Love exists in multiple varied forms but when interwoven with the feature of purity, nothing really beats the Love that is associated between a mother and child.  We celebrate Love stories of different kinds be it Romeo & Juliet, Laila & Majnu or even the likes of Radha & Krishna, Rama & Seetha but there are hardly any tales eulogizing the love that percolates between a Mother and child. 

There need not be one particular day to celebrate as Mothers Day since they are in effect the backbone of our very existence. This is a relationship that transcends beyond the layers of Love and especially the term sacrifice can never be better defined than what a Mother does for her child.

On this Mother's Day, I am paying a humble homage to 2 compositions that visually depicts and decorate the role of a Mother in all it's splendour. Both these songs have touched the inner most of the soul and have left an indelible impression from within. Incidentally both these two songs feature Superstar Rajinikanth and coincidentally came about just months apart from each other with Thalapathi releasing on 5th Nov 1991 (Deepavali) followed by Mannan on 14th Jan 1992 (Pongal). The similarities don't end there as both these 2 lilting lullabies glorifying the mother were penned by Poet Vaalee and set to tune by Maestro Ilaiyaraaja.

A Mother's Day may come up just one day in a year but they deserve to be celebrated every day of the year. A Mother's Love is simply the greatest there can ever be. Dedicating a small portion of these 2 emotional tearjerkers to God's ultimate creation - "The Mother".

Memory recall as a new dawn unfolds in Tamil Nadu Politics

About 25 years back around 2001-02 much before all those sprawling apartments and star hotels had cropped up in MRC Nagar c/o Pin Code 600028 (prior to the surfacing of Leela Palace, Somerset, 174 and many other properties), we used to regularly play cricket in that neck of the woods. I recall vividly one day after finishing playing, we were walking back when a crowd had congregated a portion of that area. I was curious as to why the formation of people that too during the peak summer hour and hence asked someone there as to what was happening. The person quite bemused with my question quoted the following "Deivam munnadi irukam podhu yaaru nu kekreenga" translated as "When God is here right beside you, how can you even ask who it is!". Then I turned for a bit and took a glimpse to see a young actor on a bike shooting for a movie. That was my first tryst with crazy fandom and was long before the advent of social media. I believe that was also the first time I was seeing a celebrity Live in Person although it was just for a blink and miss moment. That young actor by the name of Joseph Vijay who was back then only in his 20s is now appointed to take charge as the Chief Minister of the state of Tamil Nadu.

I am not in any way a fan of the man or his movies but this golden memory is entrenched within me. He will no doubt be facing the music in times to come but what he has done by breaking the bastion and emerging victorious over the 2 dynasty parties who have been exchanging power for the last 6 decades is quite epoch making to say the least. May a new revolution in Tamil Nadu politics begin and wishing Vijay all the best as he embarks on this exciting new venture of heading and leading the ever cultural and traditional state of Tamil Nadu.

Soulful Love - Kanna Kanmaniye / Deewana Deewana

AR Rahman has this uncanny ability of coming up with gems from time to time. Many a time, it might be just a minor bit portion from out of the blue but he times it so well that it resoundingly goes out of the park.

This particular composition Kanne Kalaimane or Deewana Deewana has a small verse sung by Isai Puyal himself whose strains are so addictive that I couldn't but resist trying it out.

It is basically a swara portion sung as a sargam which comes interlaced within the interlude that adds a pristine touch to the composition. The alternative use of the Dhaivatams leading to a 3 phrase chromatics is truly the signature special of this tune. 

The way it flows and branches to the main melody is simply sublime. It feels so tailormade and created exclusively for ARR to sing this composition and he has done full justice to this scorcher of a song. The man continues to conjure class since time immemorial.

Grilled Vegetarian - The Greenhouse Barbecue

There is nothing new when it comes to the concept of barbeque. It has been a tried & tested model and been in existence for almost 2 decades in the food circle of Chennai. Even to this day, the restaurants serving those grilled stuff over those charcoal boxes have found favour especially for office lunches/dinners or even family gatherings.

However what strikes out in The Greenhouse Barbeque is that they have catered it into an all vegetarian enclosure and it looks like they've been pretty successful going by the looks of things. Must say they have pulled it off really well. Traditionally these kind of barbeque restaurants are more associated with non vegetarian grills making the hardcore vegetarian population a little apprehensive especially the older generation sit in because of the over powering smell of meat hovering over despite plenty of options available on the green side of things as well. So there have always been reluctant starters to this brand of food by a certain section. This has now been addressed with an exclusive herbivorous spread.

Seeing the crowds throng in, it's pretty clear that they have been successful with this foray. It's always difficult to get a table here and they operate in different hourly shifts during both lunch and dinner. Apart from the plethora of starter options which is brought to the table, they have host of other items as part of the buffet spread including few live counters as well. They keep changing the menu also on a weekly basis by exploring with various variety.

For the vegetarian lovers, this is a welcome change from the renowned South Indian names and the exclusive multicuisine options as it options grilled food in addition to a buffet like setting with plenty to gorge over. The food as such is nothing to complain about. Choices in panneer, potato, mushroom, gobi, corn etc almost always hits the mark and even the fruity grills like pineapple, watermelon add a divergent flavour.

Other than all the barbecue bonanza, our last visit had live counters for dosa, pasta, chaat and even one for sushi and it was delectable to gorge over them. The sushi was not the run off the mill stuff - they had options of cream cheese, avacado and shitake mushrooms. The chaat had all the usual names with bombay sandwich added to the mix. Pasta varieties were plenty in number and so too was the case with dosas. The salad & dessert options were also quite a lot in number and you also get to have those roll based stone creations of ice cream. Even on the soup front we had 2 choices in the form of a Pineapple shorba and a potato leek variant.

The service is relatively quick and one good thing is they don't take off the grilled sticks till we finish our entire meal as opposed to removing them off before going for the main course. The pricing seems to be a little bit on the higher side setting you back by a well over 1000 bucks per individual. It tends to be a tad extra expensive during the weekends.

All in all, they've really attracted crowds in a big way in their short stint and been successful in creating an alternative choice exclusively for the vegetarian food loving afficianado. If you like to have a really elaborate lunch or dinner traversing through multiple options in the mix, definitely one can say that The Greenhouse Barbeque will not only satisfy but also satiate to your tummy and hearts content.

Markets in April - Recovery & Retracement Levels

After the much maligned market performance in March, there was a swift recovery seen across the bourses in the month of April. However there is still a direction lacking whether market intends to go on the top side and break the all time highs or meander back towards the lowest point in early April and go down even further. 

April however didn't start off on the right footing. After one felt that the March lows of 22,283.85 would not be shaved off and be held strongly came a sharp fall on the Thursday of April 2nd 2026 when the Nifty slit through all the support levels and slipped to a new low of 22,182.55. Miraculously after falling almost 500 points from previous day (April 1st) closing of 22,679.40, the market suddenly much against all odds moved at a steroid pace to ace up 600 points on the same session to reach a day's high of 22,782.30 before finally settling in at 22,713.10 and end the day in the green. Similar scenes were witnessed in the Bank Nifty also as it broke even the barrier of 50,000 to hit an intraday low of 49,954.85 before making a rapid sharp upward detour to close in the green. The Bank Nifty had almost shed 12,000 points from its recent high of 61,764.85 leading to tank almost 20% before the recovery started rolling in.

The fall on that day was expected due to soaring geo political tensions but the recovery on the same day was pretty sensational. Another day in April which saw high momentum was on Wednesday April 8th when the markets shot up almost 900 points intraday to touch the landmark of 24,000 on the back of potential news flow relating to the end of the war. The first 5 sessions of Nifty all ended up in the green in April which was a welcome relief considering the immense slaughter which the markets underwent in March. The highest point reached in April was 24,601.70 leading to a rise of over 2400 points from the low made of 22,182.55. The last week in April saw some profit taking largely on account of impending tensions again starting to invigorate in relation to the war leading to higher crude oil prices and also the currency again shaving off it's gains. 

The Nifty finally ended it's mark on the 30th April at 23,997.55. Coincidentally on the 8th of April when the markets hit a euphoria due to news trickling in on account of the war supposedly ending, the close was at 23,997.35. There were over 15 sessions after that and the Nifty closed absolutely ditto flat with no change whatsoever to end the month at 23,997.55.

Thus, to summarise the month of April we can say that the start of the month was very positive but it tapered off as the month proceeded and toned down without really indicating a direction. There are still renewed hopes of a revival with the Strait of Hormuz expected to be opened anytime ultimately resulting in the war officially coming to an end. However alternative statements being carried out are also causing fear with crude oil once again surging well past the $100 per barrel towards end of April and even almost hitting close to $120 at one stage. Thus market still seems directionless without not knowing which side to navigate.

With markets closing out April correctly at the ball park of 24,000 it's kind of right in the middle point from the all time high of 26,373.20 and recent April low of 22,182.55. Markets have to fall around 1800 points or 7 and half percentage to breach the low point. For gaining ground to reach the all time high touched on January 2026, markets have to climb up about 2400 points or approximately 10% from the current mark of 24,000.

Lets look at the upsides to watch out for and downsides to safeguard for the Nifty

Nifty All Time High: 26,373.20

April Low (2nd April 2026): 22,182.55

Difference in Points: 4190.65

Levels on Upside:
23.6% Retracement: 23,181.55 (22,182.55 + 4190.65*23.6%)
38.2% Retracement: 23,783.35 (22,182.55 + 4190.65*38.2%)
50.0% Retracement: 24,277.85 (22,182.55 + 4190.65*50.0%)
61.8% Retracement: 24,772.35 (22,182.55 + 4190.65*61.8%) 
78.6% Retracement: 25,476.40 (22,182.55 + 4190.65*78.6%)
100.0% Retracement (Current All Time High): 26,373.20 (22,182.55+4190.65*100.0%)

Based upon April high registered of 24,601.70, Nifty already surpassed the 23.6%, 38.2% and 50.0% retracement levels and was well on course towards 24,800 levels which is the 61.8% retracement levels but however a sharp pull back towards the latter end of the trading month brought down Nifty just sub under 24,000 levels.

Levels on Downside:
- Current Low on April 2nd 2026: 22,182.55
- Psychological Barrier mark: 22,000.00
- Tariff Day Low Apr 7th 2025: (Previous 52 week low): 21,743.65
- General Election Results Day Low on Jun 4th 2024: 21,281.45
- Lowest point of year 2024 (24th Jan 2024 during Adani Saga): 21,137.20
- Bear Market Territory 20% downside from top: 21,098.60
- Close on the heels is next psychological figure of: 21,000.00

As of end April, Nifty is well above the low which it registered at the beginning of the month. However caution needs to be exercised since if the war crisis continues to elongate, it will result in excessive oil prices perhaps even breaking record all time highs. The Indian currency also has again gotten weaker again getting back to 95 levels and not too far from reaching the 3 figure mark. The foreign institutional sell flows also need to be curbed. If all of these continue to compound in the negative zone, it may just open up the flood gates for the markets to crate heavy holes on the downside. Last year the low was hit on April 2025 and this year so far the low has been hit in April 2026. We have to wait and watch the direction markets take and how things will eventually pan out.

The Bloom of Love - Ennavale Adi Ennavale

The formative years of AR Rahman in tinselville were really special. The tunes were laced with melody in copious and soaked with soul in abundance. The sounds were rich and those intricate bits which were seeped as layers in between many of his compositions were simply exemplary. The Gamakas which come out in fulminance all of a sudden adds a subtle touch to the brilliance

One such number which always has a soft corner within me is the love dripping composition Ennavale Adi Ennavale from the movie Kadhalan. It was the first ever song rendered by Unni Krishnan which also incidentally rewarded him with a national award. It was ARRs second film for director Shankar after the rip roaring success of Gentleman and the master composer delivered yet another scorching album of the finest finery. The soundtrack was infused with songs based on different genres with all of them receiving a thunderous thumbs up from the audience. This album signaled the ushering of AR Rahman making him truly arrive and catapulted him further as a name to firmly reckon with.

Tried a small stab at this song beginning from the lilting charanam part and traversing it back to the opening portion. This song evokes so many vintage memories from over 3 decades aback and will always remain an evergreen favorite capturing the essence of love blooming in all its austerity.

Pathos conquering Chakravagam - Nee Paathi & Ee Nadu Vidiponi

The ragam Chakravagam evokes feelings of Pathos like no other. When used in its pristine format, it can simply make you melt and burn from the inside with emotions getting the better of you. The poignancy captures the pain in its truest sense.

I've picked up 2 Maestro Compositions in this Raga that have incited strange kinds of feelings that are hard to describe in words viz one from Kollywood and the other from Tollywood hinterland.

Nee Paathi Naan Paathi from Keladi Kanmani pricks your heart in such a way soaked with pathos oozing in from all corners. 'Eenadu Vidiponi' is a divine composition from the Telugu movie 'Sri Kanaka Mahalakshmi Dance Recording Troupe'. I recall being simply mesmerized when I happened to listen to it for the very first time many years back. It's pretty sad that this song probably never got the recognition that it truly deserves and remains an under the cover gem.

These two numbers exemplify the masterclass exposition in handling this raga by Maestro bringing out the flavours, taste and juice in all its esteemed essence. It's a wholesome package and the subtle nuances give it the requisite finer touches elevating the compositions to another level. This Raga incidentally is categorised as part of the Agni Chakra and how apt as it simply burns you with raw emotions fulminating in glowing fashion.