The voice of Maharjapuram Santhanam and Bharathiyar's songs.

I have always been fascinated by his 'kavidaigal'.
I think it all started with 'Manathil Urudhi Vendum....'
Its a pleasure to listen to this one...There are millions of feelings that you go through you when you observe these lines.I simply admire the vision this man would have had when he wrote these lines decades back,
It goes like 'Pen Vidudhalai Vendum..Periya Kadavul Kaka vendum '.
Translation can do no justice to these.
No wonder Illayaraja used it to give life and soul for his music.
Speaking of this album, Its sung by 'Maharajapuram Santhanam' it has all those lovely tunes to Bharathiyar's famous verses.
'Chinnan chiru Kiliye' , 'Vellai Thamarai' , 'Suttum Vizhi Chudar' , 'mogathai kondre vide' and more...
These lines have been sung many a times by lots of people. The best part about his album is the carnatic touch here.
I love the way he says 'Chellama...' , 'Cholu', extremely soothing.
Im sure most of us must have heard 'Chinnan chiru Kiliye'.
Its the cutest song on planet earth. There is a line which goes like
'kannattil muttamiTTAl uLLam tAn kaL veri koLLudaDi'
You could easily picture a small cute kid giving you a peck on your cheek! :) . Too cool!!
There is a majesty in the voice which does absolute justice to the lyrics and the way it needs to be sung well in tune with the raagas.
My all time favourite of Bharathiyar's songs.....Its a mesmerising one! If you are a Barathi fan, you just should listen to this one!
'Ninnaiye Rathiyendru Ninaikirenadi Kannamma....'
You could easily find it on you tube.
Its been a effort for a quasi-tamil like me, to read and understand the true meaning of his lyrics. Having said all this, its an effort that i thoroughly enjoy !

Words can create a passion

" He seemed to pluck notes from an impregnable abyss; sewing them seamlessly into dazzling swaras with a tone so rich it moved people to tears."
These are lines from an article about the great musician T.R.Mahalingam, 'flute mali' as he is fondly called.
http://www.hindu.com/fr/2006/11/10/stories/2006111000680300.htm
I was touched when i read these lines. Rather i was fascinated by the author's involvment.Can music really make people cry?
I had never listened to instrumental music before that, especially flute.
The next thing i did was tried to go get a cd of 'flute mali'.
Being in bangalore,i went to Crossword, Music world, Planet M, and every other shop which looked like having a decent collection.I tried to look for a carnatic music section and realised that there was only a classical music section and that too was filled with Hindustani music cd's.I hardly did find anything in vocal or instrumental carnatic music.I decide to ask for some help and went to the man in the counter and asked him if he had a cd of TR Mahalingam. He looked at me as if i was asking for some alien inhabitant. 'Execuse me' was the reply i got.
I repeated 'T R Mahalingam, he plays the flute.'
'Oh... would u like to try Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia, he is amazing' he said.
'Mmm...sure, but not rite now, as i am looking for T R Mahalingam' i said and walked out. This was the reply or even worse in most of the places.
I logged on the Raaga and listened to his music. It was phenomenal.I really din kno, instrumental and that too flute could sound so exceptionally amazing.Well, thats really not it all.. theres so much more....
It got me to explore a whole new genre of instrumental music.
Now it seems plausible, it really can get u cry sometimes.....