Music is Life

That is the name I gave to my wireless network. Infact, given by my friend prakash when he set up the router. But last week has got a 'notice' for the musicclass I have been practising for more than 6 years. Yes, 6 years of teaching carnatic music in qatar has come to an end. Now I realise, for every start there's an end. I am totally touched and moved by reaction and response my students and parents gave me. Most of them don't know the real reason as I am not in a situation to reveal. We all know that in this hard world, only music can give solace. Even a desperate terrorist would soften up (at least temporarily) when he listen to some kind of music.
However, thanks to technology, no one can stop singing in the net.........

Raavan A Big Dissappointment

Much awaited film is a big disappointment. Watched both the versions just to compare the performance of actors. Vikram has done more justice than abhishek in hindi. The real hero of the movie is kerala's prestigious Athirappilly vaazhachaal location and santosh sivan's cinematography. ARR is another wasted talent in this movie and couldn't pick any one of the songs as memorable.

Sooryanaaytazhugi-Father'sDay Gift | Upload Music

It’s very rare to find songs dedicated to father rather than mother. There are plenty of songs praising mother ! This gem is from malayalam film ‘Sathyam Sivam Sundaram’ composed by Vidyasagar , lyrics by kaithapram and rendered with full emotion and touching our soul by Chitra is the best dedication to a father.

My best friend Balamurali has programmed the entire orchestration in his KORG and this is one of my old recordings. Bear with the jarring vocals because of some problem in mixing.

Film : Sathyam Sivam Sundaram (Malayalam-year 2000)
Original Singer : K S Chitra
Track by : MohanKumarIyyer
Music : Vidya Sagar
Lyrics : Kaithapram Damodaran Namboodiri

Orchestration and keyboard programming by Balamurali

Karhtika Vilakku celebrations at our Thrissur House

Celebrated Kaarthika vilakku pandigai with Appa Amma in our Thrissur House. Deepa sruti helped lighting and preparing the lamps for kaarthikai pandikai

Happy Karthikai greetings to all.

Starting to Sabarimalai tomorrow by the blessings of lord Ayyappa with Sruti.

Sixth Sense

SixthSense is a wearable gestural interface device that augments the physical world with digital information and lets people use natural hand gestures to interact with that information. It was developed by Pranav Mistry, a PhD student in the Fluid Interfaces Group at the MIT Media Lab.
The SixthSense prototype is comprised of a pocket projector, a mirror and a camera. The hardware components are coupled in a pendant-like mobile wearable device. Both the projector and the camera are connected to the mobile computing device in the user’s pocket. The device projects visual information, enabling surfaces, walls and physical objects around the wearer to be used as interfaces; while the camera recognizes and tracks the user's hand gestures and physical objects using computer-vision based techniques. The software program processes the video stream data captured by the camera and tracks the locations of the colored markers (visual tracking fiducials) at the tip of the user’s fingers using simple computer-vision techniques. The movements and arrangements of these fiducials are interpreted into gestures that act as interaction instructions for the projected application interfaces. The maximum number of tracked fingers is only constrained by the number of unique fiducials, thus SixthSense also supports multi-touch and multi-user interaction.

LataMangeshkar turns 80 - A Great Legend

On September 28, 2009 India's Great Legend Lata Mangeshkar turned 80. A wonderful singer, Lataji is the second vocalist ever to have received the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour.

I am posting a wonderful moment of lataji sharing with Javed Akhtar on CNN-IBN for a special interview telecast on her birthday. Lataji was referring to the old system of recording and how difficult was in those days to record one song. Her first hit was perhaps the song sang for Madhubala in 1949 in the film Mahal called Ayega Aanewala. At the time of recording lataji was told that the first part should sound as though the voice was coming from far away. At that time, recording techniques were not as advanced as they are now. lataji was made to stand a good distance away from the microphone and while singing she came closer and closer to it. Finally when the Ayega bit came she was supposed to stand next to the microphone to get the right effect. She had to do the entire process some 25 times to get it right.

Saraswati stotram

This is a beautiful musical prayer for Goddess Saraswathi, the goddess of Knowledge Science and Arts. The reference of Saraswati is as old as RIG VEDA.
According to Vedas, Maha Saraswati is the presiding "Goddess of the Final episode of Devi Mahatmya". Here she is believed to be a part of the trinity of Maha Kali, Maha Lakshmi and Maha Saraswati.

Golu2009EventonSept20th2009

On Sept 20th Golu invitation was given to all our freinds. My sishyas rendered keertanams on diff dieites. Highlight was keerthanam on Guru by Rangasree and SreeRangaPrasad.

Navarathri 2009 BommaGolu

Navarathri 2009 Bommagolu was prepared by Sept 17th Thu and Sept 18th Fri being Amavasi day. Srutimma was the designer for the golu stand and she prepared the banner in her computer.

dorakalyanam

Presenting the highlights of DORAI's Kalyanam held at Madurai on Sept 2nd (THIRUONAM NAAL) 2009. Event covered by Deepa thru Apple IPHONE 3GS.

Onam Ponnonam 2009

Wishing all of you Happy Onam !

PaadasmaranaSukham in Lathaangi ragam

Recorded this song as I got lot of spare time. First of all it's ramadan and moreover, deepa and sruti left for a short vacation to attend marriage in Madurai. Lathaangi is a rare ragam used in films.

A Great Classic song composed in rare ragam (in filmworld) lathaangi. Please excuse the quality of the track I got in analog is not at all clear but still wanted to do this as this is one of my favourite songs.

In my limited knowledge, in mal film only dakshinamoorthyswami has composed in lathangi for an unreleased movie sung by (who else) ganagandharvan yesudas staring ‘swarangale sapthaswarangale’ not so popular as the film was not released.

Other than this, in Tamil Maestro ilayaraj composed a super hit song ‘chinna raasave chitterumbu…’ in lathangi. He has presented an incredibly pure Lathangi in a “tappaanguthu kind of format” in this song. It was a mega-hit song reverbrating throughout the Thamizhnadu, from the slums to the elite! Prabhu Deva (became famous thru this song) and Sukhanya danced for this song in the film ‘Walter Vetrivel’. Classic example of maestro’s intelligent use of a hardcore classical raagam and becomes wonder-struck! Ilayaraja has tuned another Lathangi in eeramaana rojavE (adhO mEga oorvalam).

Film : Sallapam
Lyrics : Kaithapram
Music : Johnson
Singer : K J Yesudas
Karoake track by: MohanKumarIyyer (as offering to great ganagandharvan who's done a marvellousjob (as usual)).

Apple iPhone 3GS

Getting Apple iPhone 3GS is like dream come true. Apple released this only in Hongkong as SIM FREE and thanks to Apple, finally got a SIM Free official Apple iPhone on Aug 16th. The phone is real SMART Phone. The interface is stylish and very easy. Attractive features are Voice command, Video , and video editing and sending to Youtube or facebook directly.

Now using Apple iPhone 3GS as Mobile Broadband device with Nokia E90 Communicator.

Thiranurayum in Nattakurinji

When I heard this song for the first time itself, it was registered and became crazy on this. Recently when I checked my ipod it showed this song played more than 500 times. Our great ganagandharvan's rendered this song so beautifully that no one can do full justice to the song. The song is composed in Nattarkurinji which is rarely used.

Tried to sing to the best of my abilities, but found the magic touch given by wizard KJY is missing.

Film : AnandaBhadram (2005)
Music : M.G. Radhakrishnan
Lyrics:GireeshPuthancheri
Singer:K.J.Yesudas
Karoke sung by : MohanKumarIyyer

NakshatraDeepangal

NakshatraDeepangal | Online recorder

This song is from the 1978 film 'Nirakudam' starring Kamalahaasan and Sridevi (B/W movie directed by bhimsingh). It had music by Jayavijaya (disciples of Chembai vaidyanatha bagawatahar). The song was so popular and even today no body dares to sing this song on stage and even if they attempt the singer and the performers are seen struggling in the charanam as it is quite difficult. A great composition. It has got the Double swarams of chembai in the charanam, which yesudas has handled in his own inimitable style. It's quite difficult to sing that portion.

Interesting fact is although this song mentions chembai singing in Navarathri mandapam, he never performed in the navarathri mandapam concerts and also yesudas hasn't performed in the mandapam till date.

Blip

A nice animation by Irish students of Animation. 

Blip from Sean Mullen on Vimeo.

Paying Tribute to RafiSaab

Mohammed Rafi, that name will never be erased from the music world. He's a true genius personified. Rafi's association with Naushad helped the former establish himself as one of the most prominent playback singers in Bollywood. Songs from Baiju Bawra (1952) like "O duniya ke rakhwale" and "Man tarpat Hari darshan ko aaj" furthered Rafi's credentials. Naushad, began favoring Rafi as the male voice in almost every song composed by him. Rafi would sing a total of 149 songs (81 of them solo) for Naushad. 

One of my favourites by Rafi saab, which was not featured in any movies, is this song 'Jis Khwaab ke raat ..'. The tune is really haunting and has got an emotional touch. The original track is much slower. I have used the track of malaylam song (which Naushadji composed in 1989 and became superhit duet of that time sung by Yesudas and PSusheela). 

Presenting this song to the memory of Rafisaab who lives and will always live in our hearts and soul. 

D K Pattammal passes away

Another carnatic music doyen passes away. Heard the news in the evening. She passed away on July 16th Thursday noon.

Hailed as one of the “women trinity” – M.S. Subbulakshmi and M.L. Vasanthakumari were the other two — of Carnatic music, Smt. Pattammal carved a niche for herself, which was marked by an uncompromising adherence to tradition, deep engagement with technical nuances and emphasis on bhava and rakthi.

In the unique timbre of her voice and unmistakably clear diction, compositions of Subramanya Bharati and Papanasam Sivan reached the masses. She had the honour of performing at the foundation-laying ceremony of the Bharati Memorial at Ettayapuram.

Smt. Pattammal’s background that was steeped in orthodoxy, but her contributions were progressive — from being one of the earliest women to give vocal recitals on a concert platform, to becoming one of the first women artists to handle the ‘Ragam-Thanam-Pallavi,’ traditionally considered a male bastion.

Smt. Pattammal was also one of the earliest Carnatic musicians to sing in films, beginning with ‘Thyaga Bhoomi’ and later, for others, including ‘Naam Iruvar.’ As someone who popularised patriotic songs, she was invited by the All India Radio to sing on the eve of Independence. She was a recipient of several awards including the ‘Padma Vibhushan’ and the ‘Sangeeta Kalanidhi,’ which she received from The Music Academy in 1970.

Srutimma's Trophies

On July 12th Sunday 2009, BPS Cultural Fiesta winners were awarded the prizes. Sruti got first prize in Classical and Light music. Also she was awarded as Best performer among Junior Boys and Girls. 

 

Lal 's excellent Performance in BHRAMARAM

Was waiting for the movie release as this was blessy's 5th installment and after Tanmaatra, blessy-mohanlal film. Went to Gulf cinema on Sat evening with deepa and sruti with much expectation and it was well maintained. 

Bhramaram is a genre breaking movie. A new kind of thriller genre to malayalam cinema. Shot on eight locations within 54 days, most of the story takes place between Coimbatore and Munnar.Blessy the director  has successfully managed to build in the necessary tension and suspense around the lead character, which pushes the movie till the interval. And the second half is a real splendour with one of the best performances from the versatile star in Lal. He, with the help of fabulous frames and interesting dialogues, propel the movie toward the climax, which is a real stunner.