Little known things about well-known songs

  • Duet is not the best film K. Balachander has made. A remake of Cyrano de Bergerac, with assorted additional nonsense and a dash of Alibaba thrown in for good measure, the movie never really manages to get itself out of the way and reach the heights it could. It is, however, one of the most

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  • Yet another gem from Ilaiyaraja, from the movie Nenjathai Killadhe. The picturization involves Mohan and Suhasini jogging together, and the song plays in the background. What’s amazing is how much of the visualization has crept into the piece itself. For one thing, the singers (SPB and Janaki) sound like they’re shivering in the cold morning

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  • Beautiful, beautiful song. Written by Kannadasan, composed by Ilaiyaraja and sung by K J Yesudas. One of the greatest songs of all time. To me, it’s one of the finest examples of pathos expressed in a song. Yesudas’ voice is perfectly suited to this sort of mood. However, what I didn’t realize until a friend

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  • Strange chords

    This series of posts is aimed at educating the teeming millions reading my blog (okay, three people including me, if I’m optimistic) on some lesser known aspects of well-known songs. Things like an odd instrument playing an odd note somewhere in the background that adds something to the song. Read on, and you’ll find out

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