Illayaraja back with Folk Music again. Review on Karagattakari Songs

?Karagattam? is a traditional folk dance of Tamilnadu and the male who performs this form of dance is called ?Karakattakaran? and the female performing this art is called ?Karagattakari?. Usually it is performed in the streets of villages during festivals and functions.

?Karakattakaran? is a Tamil movie released in late 80?s which ran for 365 days and created an unbeatable record. The major reason for its success is its music by Maestro Illayaraja. Illayaraja is the one who introduced the traditional folk music in Tamil films. There is hardly anyone in Tamil film industry to compose folk songs at par with Illayaraja standards. The major reason is because he sticks to the authentic original instruments used in it and doesn?t allow any technology to intervene in the song. It will be rich in raw and rustic elements and of course obviously melody has its place even in his folk numbers. Who can forget his ?Manguyile Poonguyile? from ?Karakattakaran??

Did Illayaraja recreate his ?Karakattakaran? magic again in this album? The answer is partly yes and partly no. It is because of the lack of freshness. All the songs sounds like Illayaraja?s earlier numbers but when we compare to other recent scrappy irritating dappanguthu numbers, the songs in this album are far better in quality. It is definitely not a must album to buy but you won?t regret hearing the songs.

There are totally seven songs. Here instead of describing the songs one by one I would like to consolidate IR?s style of composing such songs and IR hasn?t deviated even a bit from his usual style in this album too.

~ The interludes of the songs have good haunting flute, Solo Violin and Nadhaswaram pieces that enhance the earthiness of the songs.

~ A brief flute piece appended at the end of each line of the vocal like a response in duet songs are there in this album too.

~ Mostly the background beats are with Thavil and Tabla which sets usual set of pulling rhythms to the songs.

~ Illayaraja quite brilliantly blends the pulsating guitar rhythms in the background with earthy folk songs which he has done before in ?Manguyile song? but it is so mild and doesn?t disturb the nativity of the songs.

~ There is a nice mix of all genres like a lullaby, duet, folk, teasing song, villupattu, and devotional song.

~ One thing which I noticed was he didn?t use his favorite violin orchestration anywhere in the songs and that makes it sound even simpler.

~ Though not all are catchy tunes, they are quite pleasing to our ears and registers in our mind easily.

~ The big relief in this album is that IR has used some new breeding singers leaving behind his usual singers, which gives a new sound to some extent to all these songs. In any particular time of IR?s career you can see his hangover to some particular singers who repeats in all his numbers. And of course we all know his combination with SPB and then with Hariharan followed by Unnikrishan and now singers like Kathik, Tippu and Vijay Yesudas seem to be his hot favorites, we hear them often in his music. But it is a welcome change.

Karthik gets the best song of the album and a beautiful melody ?Kattukuli? of this album. Manjari who has sung a lullaby and a duet sounds okay but nothing special about her voice. Tippu gets two earthy folk numbers and he yet again prove why he is most wanted singer today.

Vijay Yesudas voice is a clone of his father?s voice and he does a pretty good job in a melodious duet ?Sadamada?. It is nice to hear Mano back in IR song but the song in Villupattu style is very unconventional and purely situational.

Finally, ?Manmada Rasa? Malathi has reached her destiny by singing a number for Illayaraja. Though she starts with her usual open throat in the song, she comes down to a more melodious tone immediately after first two lines. She is a singer to watch out for with lot of potentials and her voice can be experimented a lot especially with melodies as Illayaraja has done it in the song ?Otha rooba paattu?.

IR himself has sung a devotional number ?Mookamba? with fast folk beats in the background and there is nothing much to write about it and a passable number. Bhavatharini comes back after a gap in his father?s music and she has matured quite a lot in singing.

Though I won?t recommend you to buy this album, it is not bad. Instead of hearing these songs, we can go back to his better old songs which have all the ingredients of music that this album has. Though I know that there is a lack of time as he is busy in his magnum opus public funded project ?Thiruvasakam in Symphony?, comparing his recent albums like ?Vishwa Thulasi?, this album could have been better.