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Ilaiyaraaja

Nostalgic Tamil Song 101: Mouna Ragam’s Hopeful Sad Mandram Vandha Song 1986

Mouna Ragam Mani Ratnam Revathi Karthik

One of three of Mani Ratnam’s classic, epic movies of the 1980s, and 1990s is the 1986 Mouna Ragam which means the Silent Symphony and stars Mohan, Revathi, Karthik & the very funny V. K. Ramasamy. It is a love story that has 2 parts –one is a current that tells of a forced marriage and another is a flashback tragic love story. Image source: Amazon.

Read More »Nostalgic Tamil Song 101: Mouna Ragam’s Hopeful Sad Mandram Vandha Song 1986

Nostalgic Tamil Song 101: Calling the Young Lovely Lord Kannan by Ilaiyaraaja 1977

Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna, M. Balamuralikrishna, Chinna Kannan Azhaikkiraan, Kavikkuyil, Tamil,

One of the highlights of this 1977 Tamil movie, Kavikkuyil which starred Sivakumar, Sridevi and Rajinikanth is Ilaiyaraaja’s music. The movie was presented in black & white and all the songs in the movie were a great hit, especially the one sung by the late M. Balamuralikrishna (he passed away in 2016). Poster source: Bollywood Direct / Shri.Viren Desai @ The Huffington Post India

Read More »Nostalgic Tamil Song 101: Calling the Young Lovely Lord Kannan by Ilaiyaraaja 1977

Nostalgic Tamil Song 101: The Painful Sad Poongatru Thirumbuma by Ilaiyaraaja 1985

Tamil Muthal Mariyathai Bharathiraja Sivaji Ganesan Radha Ilaiyaraaja

The 1985 Tamil movie, Muthal Mariyathai (which means the First Respect) was my late uncle’s favourite movie and he would be watching it at least once a day if he had time to watch the TV.

Well, it became one of my favourite Tamil movies as well. After all, in the hands of the great director, Bharathiraja and the acting prowess of the Nadigar Thilagam, Sivaji Ganesan, Muthal Mariyathai is indeed a great movie. Image source: The Hindu

Read More »Nostalgic Tamil Song 101: The Painful Sad Poongatru Thirumbuma by Ilaiyaraaja 1985

Nostalgic Tamil Song 101: Mesmerising Nallavarkkellam by Great Ilaiyaraaja 1978

T.M. Soundararajan TMS Tamil Song Stamp MSV

If you look at the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s Tamil movie scenes, T. M. Soundararajan (TMS) was the top male singer, singing a reported 10,138 songs from 3,162 films and over 11 different languages. Image source: Wikipedia

However, when Maestro Ilayaraaja came into the Tamil movie industry, TMS was not keen to sing for him. Apparently, he did not think highly of this “new” music director. If not mistaken, he only sang about 7 songs for the maestro so it is rather rare to find TMS singing for Ilaiyaraaja’s composition.

Read More »Nostalgic Tamil Song 101: Mesmerising Nallavarkkellam by Great Ilaiyaraaja 1978

Nostalgic Tamil Song 101: Mesmerising Kovil Mani Osai by Great Ilaiyaraaja 1978

Kizhakke Pogum Rail Tamil Song Kovil Mani Osai Ilaiyaraaja 1978

Kizhakke Pogum Rail (transl. Eastbound Train) is a 1978 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film, directed by Bharathiraja, starring newcomers Sudhakar and Raadhika. The film had a musical score and songs by Ilaiyaraaja and was released on 10 August 1978. Image source: Amazon

Read More »Nostalgic Tamil Song 101: Mesmerising Kovil Mani Osai by Great Ilaiyaraaja 1978