Paatu Paadava....

Thanks to Geeman for tagging me and hailing me as a musical connoiseur. I have been planning to write an blog on music for a very long time and this was just a start from my favourites. I have tried to list down the best romantic duets in tamil films and here they are:

TOP 10 romantic duets in tamil:

Ulavum thendral katriniley - mandhiri kumari

This was from the movie called mandhirikumari and this was one of the most romantic songs boat songs ever featured in B&W

era. Probably doordarshan might be the only owner of this movie/print but still i enjoyed the tune (composed on the raag

maandu which unfortunately tried in Iruvar's Narumugaye) and the tempo of the song set exactly as the tempo of the boat ride.
MK radha one of the yesteryear actors was playing the negative shade in this movie had a brilliant portrayal.

Maasile unmai kadhale - Alibaba and 40 thieves

This was undoubtedly a masterpiece from the eastman color genre. This was one of the rare AM rajah - MGR combo (if not the

only one) songs which i have heard. Banumathi at her best and song finishes with one of the best lines (anbanale ondru

serthom ingu naan inga vazhvil ellai kaanuvom)

Parthen sirithen - veera Abhimanyu

This is a class apart. Beautifully tuned by K V Mahadevan (affectionately called as mama) on Sahana raaga, this was an

everlasting masterpiece.The lyrics of kannadasana was ultimate with maintaining the "then" sequence throughout.

Athikkai kaai kaai Alangai vennilave- Bale Pandiya

This is another piece of art from kannadasan. Kaviarasu came out with a classical tamil lyrics and I loved every line of the

song particularly the lines of "iravukkaay uravukkaay engum indha aezhaikkaay neeyum kaay nidhamum kaay naeril nirkum

ivalaikkaay". This song was sung by two pairs (TMS-Susheela and PBS-Jamuna rani), but this was a timeless masterpiece with

lyrics and simple tune.

Sippi irukkudhu muthum irukkuthu - varumaiyin niram sivappu

This was an amazing piece of battle between MSV and kannadasan and eventually we got one of the classiest songs on earth.It

was also beautifully complimented by SPB and SJ (I consider that they did enough justice to provide the jeevan to this song)

and also romantically set in Kodai where this was shot. MSV - the king of melody played in front foot with the beautiful

guitar piece to start and taranas sung by SJ (particularly the ghazal style lines of "thevai paravai paavai). But Kannadasan

came back strongly with "kodutha sandhagalil en manadhai nee ariya naan uraithen" which was complimented by superb sitar

piece from MSV. A true delight to listen to this under the moonlights.


Poongadhave Thazhthiravai - Nizhalgal

This one is from the IRaja's Classiest stable, tuned on the traditional adi raga (MayamalavaGowlai - mother of all) was a Rare gem. I have listened to so many composers using this raaga till date both in filmi and carnatic, but i have never come across someone who has used this to a Dabbankuthu to a melody like this. Uma Ramanan and Deepan chakravarthy were at their best and this has one of the best intros again with beautiful Veena played by parthasarathy (father of Sriram Parthasarathy - of ilangathu veesuthey fame) and humming in the end for "poovai...pen paavai" was masterpiece - beautiful way to finish a song.

Poo malayeh thol seruma - Pagal Nilavu

I love the orchestration of this song of Iraja particularly the violins in the beginning of the start followed by occasional

flute piece and a sitar ending. One of the classiest composition on Shankarabaranam, SJ and IRaja had beautiful pieces of

[ilaiya manadhu (dheemthana dheemthana) inaiyum pozhudhu (dheemthana dheemthana)] which is very difficult to sing without

tracks and Raja was at his best in this song and i strongly believe that SJ was the best partner to sing along with him.

Sundari kannal oru sedhi - Dhalapathi

If there is song i would like to rate as "the best of Illayaraja" - I would be rating this. I never come across which has

technically so beautifully crafted than this song, where Raja starts with the violin strings followed by a flute piece and

the drums which i think was played by shivamani/Michael was class. The song was picturised on of the

Kanmani Andbudan Kadhalan Naan - Guna

I need not say anything about this song. The piano rendition in this song was amazing and the chords played were class. Shot in devil's kitchen (now officially rechristened as Guna caves), I had been to that place and it is next to impossible to shoot in those caves. The soothing piano music (played by karthickraja for IR) and candlelights on the caves and cinematography of PC Sreeram, what more you ask for a song to be a great composition. Last but not the least, the voice modulation of Kamal hassan in rendering the dialogues and Janaki's version of the song was amazing.

Pudhu vellai mazhai - Roja

This was one of the songs which has beautifully picturised song by Mani and santosh shivan combo.The song starts with the

Madhu's eyes widening to see the snow capped mountains and slowly the song picks up the tempo. Lyrics by Vairamuthu was apt

and Rahman to me was scintillating and weaves a magic with this everlasting tune. The song was beautifully supported by unni

menon and shrill voice of sujatha (particularly when she goes high with "nadhiye nee aanal karai naane"...). The visuals of

Santosh Shivan was another masterpiece.

Though there are not less than 100 songs to compare and pick the best 10, i have thought enough to pick songs where you had matchless quality in lyrics / visuals / structuring a song sequence by parts / orchestration. This may not be acceptable by many who read this, but this is more an equivalent of picking a world XI cricket team.