Aayiram Taamarai

Some how, the songs that I listened to during my teens are the ones that stand out in my mind. Here is one. Aayiram Taamarai.

We were driving back from Gatlinburg several weeks back and were listening to film songs at random. After a long time.

First came the claps.

Then the mridangam in trisram, leading the to the veenai in almost an imitation of the ‘aadu paambe’ tune, and then an extremely high pitched chorus.

Then S. Janaki comes in with a short phrase that she hums.

Then the percussion drops out.

With a vigor, it comes back again when S. Janaki starts with ‘Aayiram taamarai’.

The beat is groovy and keeps your feet tapping.

It has all the semblence of a folk song with classical overtones.

Until,
until,

the strings come in in the first bgm adding a totally new dimension to the song. Here is where you sit up.

Then there is a short dialogue between two instruments that keeps going on in the background (all along when there is a superb groove being maintained on an arry of percussion) with a shahnai in the foreground.

Then an almost waltz like transition punctuated by the phrase ‘panigarisani’ on the plucked strings.

Enter SPB.

The entire charanam showcases an alternation between SPB and Janaki at one level.
At another level it is an alternation between two sets of percussion, one dominated by the tabla and the other with a prominent, mridangam.

The 2nd bgm starts with a rich violin transitioning into a choral humming leading to the 2nd charanam.

The strings are sparse, the flutes are very well used. There is something very special and heavy about this song. So much so that you observe something new, everytime you listen to it after a long time.

Listening to the song in the car brought back so many memories of the 1980s. In my first listening of the cassette, Aayiram Taamarai was not #1, kaadal oviyam was. It slowly climbed the charts. With Alaigal and Panneer pushpangal getting released almost simultaneously, it was a bonanza in the late summer of 1981.

Needless to say, it is one of the best songs tuned, orchestrated and delivered by Illaiyaraja.