Hey Friend,
What a lovely write-up !!! Thanx a lot ... you are greattttt !!!
I salute our Boss for his divine music !!!
Harshal Chavan
(www.mibajirao.blogspot.com)
"wipe out the phrases like "Chalta hai" from your vocabularies" - boss
A.R.Rahman "
----- Original Message ----
From: Dasun Abeysekera <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: arrahmanfans@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2008 6:05:49 PM
Subject: [arr] Uyirum Neeye - ARR's Shot at Painting the Creation of Mother
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As promised, here's the write-up on Uyirum Neeye.
I just wanted to share this awesome experience about one of my all-time
favorite songs. Some of you may have already felt this sense of jubilation, but
I wanted to share my process of discovering the magnificence of this divinely
inspired song.
Rano, once in this forum, mentioned the beauty of the song Azhagu Nilave from
Pavithra (1994). In the process of going through Pavithra's songs on the iTunes
Music Store to find Azhagu Nilave, I found Uyirum Neeye as well, in my opinion,
easily the best song of the album; and I came to that conclusion with no
knowledge of what the lyrics meant. It was a purely gut response to the
scintillating music and Unnikrishnan's enviable voice. Unnikrishnan apparently
won the 1995 National Award for Best Male Playback singer for his rendition of
this song along with another incredible song - 'Ennavale' from Shankar's
Kaadhalan; and Ennavale was his first film song? Unbelievable! Divine
interventions aside, the music spoke of something special that I was so
determined to discover, for I knew well by then, that there is something deeper
than the notes and Raagas which ARR tries to convey through his music; and if
the intuitive discovery of that, as is well known,
takes time, the intellectual discovery, for the crazy Rahmaniac who yearns to
dive the depths of his imagination, takes even longer! I must have posted a
couple of requests on this forum begging for a translation of the song, but did
not get one for a while.
Then on 6/3/06, one of our members here posted the translation. I usually write
down the date and source when I make a copy of anything, but unfortunately, in
this instance, I forgot to write down the name of the member who posted it; so
my apologies for not crediting the source. Please do let me know your name if
you see this message.
After I read the lyrics, my wonderment of this song reached new heights. It is
a given that the poetry by Vairamuthu is in a class of it's own. Wikipedia
states Pavithra and Karuthamma (both with ARR's music) fetched him the National
Award for Best Lyrics in 95 as well (I don't care much for Filmfare Awards, but
a National Award carries merit!). What the lyrics expressed was obvious. It was
a grand tribute to a mother; but, the music was not the usual music you hear in
a typical son-to-mother song. So, I listened carefully to what the music was
trying to say for the longest time. Usually, most music directors will get the
inspiration for the song from the first verse (mukhda); so I focused on the
mukhda and how ARR might have thought about capturing this in the music.
Uyirum neeye, udalum neeye, uravum neeye...thaaye (II)
Thun udalil sumandhu, uyirai pagirndhu, uruvam tharuvaai neeye (II)
Un kaNNil vazhiyum oru thuLi podhum, Kadalum urugum thaaye (II)
Un kaaladi mattum tharuvai thaaye, Sorgam enbadhum poyye
* source = http://www.geocities.com/promiserani/tamil/t1036.html
My life, My body, My binding...my Mother (II)
Bearing me in your self, bestowing your life to me, and embodying me (II)
A single tear drop from your eyes and oceans drown (II)
Gift me your feet and the heavens seem a lie.
* source = member of this group
First I thought the guitar introduction was inspired by the phrase, 'a single
tear drop from your eyes,' as the first two notes of the bended B and the F#
feels like a drop of tear as it escapes the corner of a mother's eye and lands
to drown an ocean; and that phrase does bring out a beautiful change in line 3
of the mukhda as well. I wish I can give you a musical analysis of this, but my
knowledge of Raagas is almost non-existent. I know the song is based on Raag
Kamas. If someone can provide that, it will be awesome and I would be very
grateful! I'm trying to analyze the music with my knowledge of western music,
which might not be the best way to approach the musical analysis, but it will
be interesting to see the results. I'll share it when I have it ready.
I kept thinking about the teardrop inspiration, but the flamenco-influenced,
but Carnatic-flavored guitar solos interspersed with the Saraswathi Veena were
too mesmerizing to be inspired by only a teardrop. I have not yet seen the
movie - Pavithra, so I don't know how this song had been picturised. Sometimes
the picturization can offer hints about how the music was inspired. So, I stuck
with the lyrics and moved on to the second verse (anthra).
PeNNai padaithaan, maNNai padaitthaan
Katrum, mazhaiyum, oliyum padaitthaan (II)
Boomikku adhanaal nimmadhi illai (II)
Sami thavitthan...
Sami thavitthan thaayai padaitthan
He created the skies, He created the sands,
The winds, the rains, the light, He created,
Yet, peace reigns not on Earth,
He struggled in anguish...
He struggled in anguish and created Mother
This anthra is as powerful lyrically as the mukhda with a magic touch added
with the pause and the single F# on guitar playing following 'Saami thavitthan'
to portray God, the Master Perfectionist, in anguish sensing that something was
missing in his creation...and then creating mother, the source of creation
itself! If the teardrop served as the catalyst within the mukhda for the music,
the Creation of Mother was the catalyst within the anthra.
Then one morning, I realized that it is Creation that ARR is trying to capture
in the background, possibly from the bended first note itself! If you close
your eyes and try to imagine God's hand painting earth on His canvas, that is
what the musical depiction appears to me now! This might have been also
inspired by the 16th century Renaissance painter/sculptor Michaelangelo
Buonarrotti's masterpiece - The Creation of Adam - which is painted on the
ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, Italy.
The bended B that starts the song now feels like God giving a moment of thought
before he starts creating the earth, slowly laying down its framework. And then
while He is in the process of creating, a son pays a tribute to his mother. The
second interlude on Guitar and Veena suggests that God is now heavily involved
with the process of creation, with the rapid Guitar lines depicting His
incredibly fast hands moving across the framework to paint various things of
magnificent colors. And then the Veena backed by the Thavil strikes five mighty
brush strokes anticipating the anthra's first two lines... creation of the
skies, sands, wind, rain, and then light!
Incredible imagination on Vairamuthu's part; and just what he needed to give
ARR to come up with unbelievable music. Talk about integrity in music and
lyrics!!! What magnificent creativity! Michaelangelo, what say you?
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