unnai kaanaadu naan

[VK RAMAN]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ0LEFx44bY - what is the ragam or ragams for this melodious rendition by Shankar Mahadevan. I am hearing dwijavanthi and kaapi. How about you all?

[Sivaramakrishnan]

It is a nice blend of a few ragas as you have observed.
Add Behag too.
The Sarangi accompaniment is outstanding.

[vasanthakokilam]

It is dwijavanthi indeed ( mostly ). I was not sure before but I was at a concert yesterday and the RTP raga malika swaras featured dwijavanthi and the resemblance to 'unnai kaanaadu naan' was quite striking. ( I do not get that with Akhilandeswari, for example ).

[rshankar]

Truly melodious song...BUT... I do not like these exercises much, because the rAga keeps changing so quickly...except for the refrain/pallavi - unnai kANAdu nAn - I do not think dvijAvanti shows up in such a recognizable form. What is the rAga at ~3 minutes?
Who has recited the naTTuvAngam/and ultra-fast lyrics sections? Is is Kamal Hasan? Whoever it is has done a great job...and as an aside, I liked the lyrics of the song even more than the music arrangement. Who is the lyricist?

[vasanthakokilam]

If we need to see where the seed material for that song potentially comes from, here is one small example, an easier one to consume for most people. A good music director can build a whole palace on top of this little theme

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... EhBM#t=168
Start at 2:48 just for the next few seconds, the instrumental interlude. Again at 4:28 same thing. And in the vocal too, but the instrumental portion is brighter providing an equivalent vibe. I am sure there are tons of other examples to draw from.

[Ranganayaki]

My two cents..

I don't think it is Dwijavanthi because the Ni doesn't match. I think it is a N3, making it a janya of Shankarabharanam.. and from my best guess of arohana and avarohana and the delineation in the song, it seems to be hamsavinodini. Please listen to a tillana in that raga that shows up on a search and let me know if you agree.

[vasanthakokilam]

Ranganayaki: I searched in youtube and found this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvY73knzBQI

I do not know how to decipher the swaras but by listening this does not seem to have much commonality with the song. If you are hearing very obvious similarities that are easy to hear, let me know. I will make another attempt.

[Ranganayaki]

VK and all, I am amazed at how my impression is different now, I've never experienced such a discrepancy! I stand corrected, and thanks for responding. I don't know how to explain it.. I agree with you.

Sorry.

[HarishankarK]

The nattuvangam and the verse words in between are sung by Kamal Hasam himself and he is also the lyricist of the song.
This song is very interesting because the lryics are completely in tamil but tuned in pure Kathak dance music style; even for the fast-paced bols in between the song Kamal Hasan has used tamil lyrics only.
I think this is the first time that this has been accomplished.
I don't know why but am reminded of T M Krishna's song of Surdas in ragam Kambojhi which he sung in Jaya tv MMU (i think). Usually in carnatic music bhajans are employed in hindustani based ragas like desh, behag, madhuvanti, jog etc, etc, and not Kambojhi !