'Kalyani' with a Twist - Sundari Kannal Oru Seyidhi & Nee Oru Kadhal Sangeetham

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.

Perfect Play of Beauty & Divinity - Sri Ranga Ranga Nathanin Padham

'Hamsadhwani' is an eternally ethereal ragam. It is a simple pentatonic scale comprising just 5 syllables 'Sa Ri2 Ga3 Pa Ni3' derived from Shankarabaranam but immanently feels like a variant of Kalyani as it is steeped in divinity which more or less falls in the heavenly hegemony of the latter. It has a contagious charm to it and seems like the apt scale to light up an occassion due to it's auspicious effect. Many of us have the habit of inaugurating any new work we begin with a Ganesha symbol and in the same vein most of the kritis pertaining to the Lord tend to usher in only from the resplendent and full of fervour ragam that is Hamsadhwani.

This particular song however is lyrically penned in veneration to Lord Sri Ranganatha Perumal. The Lord's birth star is believed to be Revathi Nakshatra and it's also the star in which Venus gets exalted rightfully at the feet of the Kalapurusha as that's where Goddess Lakshmi, consort of Vishnu is always set to reside and hence becomes extremely powerful. It's a perfect play of beauty and divinity going hand in hand.

The song Sri Ranga Ranga Nathanin though predominantly set in Hamsadhwani uses slight traces to deviate from the same especially in the pallavi portion. But however there is no such compromise in the charanam which is pristinely pure Hamsadhwani and you can starkly feel the essence of it in all it's glory. I attempted a small hand at the middle tranche of this number from where it connects back to the Pallavi. In no way is it anywhere near the verve that this number connotes but I've always wanted to try this miniscule segment out and on what better day I suppose than when the moon lit sky be adorned with the fulcrum of delicacy depicting Revathi Nakshatra invoking the divinity of Hamsadhwani raga and seeking the blessings of Lord Vishnu.

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Hamsadhwani is an eternally ethereal ragam. It is a simple pentatonic scale comprising just 5 syllables 'Sa Ri2 Ga3 Pa Ni3' derived from Shankarabaranam but immanently feels like a variant of Kalyani as it is steeped in divinity which more or less falls in the heavenly hegemony of the latter. It has a contagious charm to it and seems like the apt scale to light up an occassion due to it's auspicious effect. Many of us have the habit of inaugurating any new work we begin with a Ganesha symbol and in the same vein most of the kritis pertaining to the Lord tend to usher in only from the resplendent and full of fervour ragam ie Hamsadhwani. This particular song however is lyrically penned in veneration to Lord Sri Ranganatha Perumal. The Lord's birth star is believed to be Revathi Nakshatra and it's also the star in which Venus gets exalted rightfully at the feet of the Kalapurusha as that's where Goddess Lakshmi, consort of Vishnu is always set to reside and hence becomes extremely powerful. It's a perfect play of beauty and divinity going hand in hand. The song Sri Ranga Ranga Nathanin though predominantly set in Hamsadhwani uses slight traces to deviate from the same especially in the pallavi portion. But however there is no such compromise in the charanam which is pristinely pure Hamsadhwani and you can starkly feel the essence of it in all it's glory. I attempted a small hand at the middle tranche of this number from where it connects back to the Pallavi. In no way is it anywhere near the verve that this number connotes but I've always wanted to try this miniscule segment out and on what better day I suppose than when the moon lit sky be adorned with the fulcrum of delicacy that is Revathi Nakshatra invoking the divinity of Hamsadhwani raga and seeking the blessings of Lord Vishnu. #Sriranga #Mahanadhi #Hamsadhwani #ragam #divine #beauty #eternal #ethereal #blessing #1994 #Kamal #IR #evergreen #goodoldays

A post shared by Rajiv Shankar (@rajiv_revel) on Apr 21, 2020 at 6:58am PDT