The 1979 movie starring Rajinikanth titled Aarilirunthu Arubathu Varai is still one of the best movies starring Rajinikanth and one great song from Ilaiyaraaja. Yes, life can be unfair, harsh and lopsided and there are plenty of examples in this movie. Poster source: Awesome Machi
I have actually done a posting on this song back in September 2020 but somehow I felt that the newer rendition of the song by Illayaraaja in his concert in Singapore did not do proper justice to this song. In the newer rendition of the song, the vocals basically screwed up the song but that was understandable as this is not a controlled stage unlike in a proper recording studio.
That is until the multi-talented Lydian Nadhaswaram, his sister Amirthavarshini and his father Varshan came up with their own rendition which beautifully captured the individual instruments and the vocals by Amirthavarshini and Varshan (who interestingly has the same Ilaiyaraaja like voice) simply hits the right notes and stayed close to the original.
We now can actually see the actual musical instruments used for this song and that increases the respect for the Maestro. The electric guitar starts off the composition followed by high pitched piano keys and then the violin. The vocals by Amirthavarshini and Varshan are really soothing, balanced and full of emotions. There was no struggle to get the vocals out, unlike the time at the concert in Singapore.
The composition before the first chorus is simply amazing with the flute with the bongo in the background and then for the composition before the first chorus is replaced by the Nadaswaram and Thavil which signifies marriage in the movie scene.
The clarity of the recording and presentation of this song is really good and you can actually hear (and see) the various instruments. A job well executed by Lydian Nadhaswaram, his sister Amirthavarshini and his father Varshan and we really appreciate the effort and time that they have put in for this rendition. It is not easy to have the musical instruments played by the same person and then combined into one, seamless and good video.
The editing and sound mixing is simply top-notch and of high quality. Obviously, it would have taken them hours of editing and mixing work to get this just right. We wish that Lydian Nadhaswaram and his team will do more renditions of Maestro’s 1970s and early 1980s song that is no longer be heard in good quality. Someone should look into modernising Maestro MSV compositions as well.