| Moondram Pirai | |
|---|---|
 Original album cover | |
| Soundtrack album by | |
| Released | 1982 |
| Genre | Feature film soundtrack |
| Language | Tamil |
| Producer | Ilaiyaraaja |
Moondram Pirai is the soundtrack album to the Tamil film of the same name. The music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja, with lyrics by Kannadasan (in his last credit as lyricist), Vairamuthu and Gangai Amaran.
The soundtrack was released through the record label Agi Music. [1] [2] The number "Kannae Kalaimane", which is based on the Kapi raga, [3] was written by Kannadasan in about two or ten minutes' time, after listening to the film's story and the situation for the song. [lower-alpha 1] [4]
Both Mahendra and Thyagarajan felt Kannadasan would be the right person to write "Kanne Kalaimaane". [5] Kannadasan, who was unwell at that time, was present at the recording session of the song, which took place in September 1981. [6] Thyagarajan said that, during the recording, Kannadasan called his assistant and told him to write down the lines, "which flowed from him like water from a stream" and he "gave us four options for the pallavi and we all loved Kanne Kalaimaane the best and froze it. For the charanam, he gave us so many options and asked us to pick and choose whatever we liked and left". [5] It was the last song which Kannadasan wrote before his death in October 1981. [7] According to Kannadasan's daughter Kalaiselvi, the song was written with his wife in mind; the lines "Kaathal kondaen kanavinai valarthen ... kanmani unai naan karuthinil niraithen ... unakke uyiraanen ennaalum enai nee maravaathey..." were meant for her. [8] "Poongatru" was based on the Sindhu Bhairavi raga. [9]
The original soundtrack edition of Moondram Pirai does not include the song "Ponmeni Uruguthey", but re-releases of the soundtrack on iTunes and Raaga.com do so, as the fourth and third tracks respectively. "Poongaatru Puthithaanathu" is incorrectly listed on the original soundtrack edition as "Poonkatru Thalattudhu", but this mistake was corrected in the iTunes re-release, while at Raaga.com, it is simply listed as "Poongatru". In all the three soundtrack editions, "Kanne Kalaimane" is the first track, while the track numbering for the other songs vary. [10] [1] [11]
The songs "Kanne Kalaimane" and "Ponmeni Uruguthey" were re-used in same tunes by Ilaiyaraaja in its Hindi remake Sadma (1983), while "Poongatru Puthithanathu", which was replaced by "Ae Zindagi Gale Laga Le", an original composition for the remake. [12]
Composer A. R. Rahman (then known as Dileep Kumar) worked as an assistant on the film as a part of Ilaiyaraaja's team. [13]
The soundtrack received positive critical reception. The song "Ponmeni Uruguthey" that was picturised on Kamal Haasan and Silk Smitha developed cult status. [14] G. Dhananjayan, in his book The Best of Tamil Cinema called the music "outstanding", [15] further saying that the songs contributed significantly to the success of the film. [16] Hari Narayan of The Hindu said, "The lullaby "Kanne Kalaimane" sees the tranquillity reach a crescendo." [17] Another critic from The Hindu, Shankar, called "Vaanengum Thanga" a "dream song". [18] On the song, "Kanne Kalaimane", Balu Mahendra said that it "stirs you to this day". [4] In July 2011, D. Karthikeyan of The Hindu singled out the film's re-recording and ranked it alongside the music director's other films such as Mullum Malarum (1978), Uthiripookkal (1979), Nayakan (1987) and Thalapathi (1991). [19]
| No. | Title | Lyrics | Singer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Kanne Kalaimaane" | Kannadasan | K. J. Yesudas | 4:09 |
| 2. | "Vaanengum Thanga" | Vairamuthu | S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, S. Janaki | 4:34 |
| 3. | "Narikathai" | Vairamuthu | Kamal Haasan, Sridevi | 4:01 |
| 4. | "Ponmeni Uruguthey" | Gangai Amaran | S. Janaki | 4:32 |
| 5. | "Poongaatru Puthithaanathu" | Kannadasan | K. J. Yesudas | 4:18 |
| Total length: | 21:34 | |||
Kannadasan was an Indian philosopher, poet, film song lyricist, producer, actor, script-writer, editor, philanthropist, and is heralded as one of the greatest and most important lyricists in India. Frequently called Kaviarasu, With over 5000 lyrics, 6000 poems and 232 books, Kannadasan is widely known by the sobriquet Kaviarasu and he is also considered to be the greatest modern Tamil poet after Subramania Bharati. including novels, epics, plays, essays, his most popular being the 10-part religious book on Hinduism, Arthamulla Indhu Matham. He won the Sahitya Akademi Award for his novel Cheraman Kathali in the year 1980 and was the first to receive the National Film Award for Best Lyrics, given in 1969 for the film Kuzhanthaikkaga. Like many great poets he also suffered from cyclothymia, which comes under bipolar disorder spectrum.
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Moodu Pani is a 1980 Indian Tamil-language psychological thriller film written, directed and filmed by Balu Mahendra. Starring his then wife Shoba and Pratap, with N. Viswanathan, Gandhimathi, Mohan and Bhanu Chander in supporting roles, it is based on two novels: Idhuvum Oru Viduthalai Thaan (1978) by Rajendra Kumar, and The Collector (1963) by John Fowles. The film follows Chandru (Pratap), who has a strong hatred towards prostitutes and would kill any such woman he encounters. He falls in love with Rekha (Shoba) and believes marrying her will end his psychological distress.
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T. G. Thyagarajan is an Indian film producer. He made his debut as film producer with critically acclaimed film Moondram Pirai. He is the founder of the production and distribution company Sathya Jyothi Films. He has produced over 30 films and few television series with the production studio. His father Venus Govindarajan was also a reputed film producer.
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