Here is a song from the Malayalam movie Thirakkatha. The album marks the come back of music director Sharath to the Malayalam cinema after a break. This is a duet song and I did it myself. 🙂
Movie: Thirakkatha
Music: Sharath
Original singers: Nishad, Swetha
Covered by: Joseph Thomas (Jo)
In the second part of “Meet the Music Bloggers” interview series in Audio India, we have Azam Khan – a talented singer from Pakistan. Read about his interesting musical journey so far.
Blogswara has been featured in this year’s annual edition of Malayalam Vaarika, a popular literary weekly in Malayalam by the Indian Express group. In an article about New Media and it’s advantages, B S Biminith has drawn out the possibilities of new media in detail. He has written about Blogswara and original music production in the blogging world. I would like to quote some of the interesting (and valid) points he made in the article. Pardon any translation errors:
There are many people among us who compose and broadcast their songs through blogs. These music blogging efforts cannot be observed as a time pass art. Such popular trends may not please the traditionalists, but it doesn’t walk in the ways of popular music that is targeted at the market. When the concepts like Blogswara become active, it will re-write the very idea of popular music.
Since the current popular music is a market-oriented process they push their music through advertisements and the music programmes in various audio and visual media. But the groups like Blogswara are totally different from this. They don’t have to run after the trends because they don’t have any commercial interests. Also there are many opportunities to accept, reject or suggest changes, as there are no other influential barriers existing between the audience and musicians. In that way, such public platforms provide all the ingredients to form the real popular music. We can also observe that such platforms, which could become a threat to the stardom of the current music scene, as a chance for people from around the world who have musical interests to step to the public on their own. That is how this decentralized model of music challenges the traditionalism.
For those who can read Malayalam, click on the image below to read a portion of the article:
In 2007, I wrote a blog post about Mohan Lal’s promotional ads of a liquor brand. Mohan Lal had formed a business alliance then, with the owners of the same brand, Original Choice. When the news became controversial the defenders were of the opinion that Mohan Lal was only promoting ‘evening snacks’ under the same brand name (just like how Vijay Mallya is selling only soda and mineral water under the brand name King Fisher). Die hard fans and Mohan Lal himself had also argued that there would not be any raise in the number of drunkards just because the actor was promoting it, considering the fact that Kerala has the highest alcohol consumption in the country. The opposition’s concern was that the actor has high influence on people in Kerala, particularly the youth who see Mohan Lal as an icon and role model.
Now let us just casually say that Mohan Lal’s celebrity influence on the youth of Kerala was not going to boost the sales of anything – be it gold, lungies or liquor (you might ask then why would the commercial brands use celebrities for promotion and pay them millions for that, but let us just put it aside for the time being). In the last week, Mohan Lal has been granted the Honorary rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Territorial Army. This honor comes after Mohan Lal’s two successful Malayalam movies (Keerthichakra and Kurukshetra) in which he enacted the role of an Army Major. As per the Army Chief Deepak Kapoor, Mohan Lal will be yet another brand ambassador of the Territorial Army. Defense Minister A K Antony also said that, “this will be an inspiration for the younger generation to join the armed forces“. A CNN-IBN article on this says that, “Mohanlal’s role will be to inspire youth to join the armed forces“.
It is at this point that I have a question – As per the supporters of Mohan Lal during the time of Original Choice advertisement, his influence on the youth did not take any effect in boosting the sales of liquor. Has that changed all in a sudden? Now would Mohan Lal inspire the youth just because it is a good patriotic cause?
Skeptics say that youth is more prone to go under the bad influences first, than good ones.
PS: Some also say that considering the situation, Mammootty should be conferred an honorary position in CBI for his 4 successful movies as a CBI officer, or Suresh Gopi as an honorary Commissioner of Police for his numerous super hits as a highly ranked police officer. 😀
(Image source: Google Images)
I feel the pure bliss that only music can give when I listen to a melodious song from Ilaiyaraja. Thanks to Ramya, I got to listen to this beautiful song for the first time. This is my first duet with Ramya, who’s a good singer and got a beautiful voice.
Movie: Gopura vasalile
Music: Maestro Ilayaraja
Originally sung by: SPB, Chitra
Covered by: Ramya & Joseph Thomas (Jo)
Download “Kaadhal Kavithaigal (cover)” MP3 from here (6.94 MB)
Over at Audio India, we are starting a series of interviews of music bloggers. This will help you get to know more of the people behind the voices and their musical journey. Starting with the early stage music bloggers, we are now featuring Murali Venkatraman of Manappathivu. Go ahead and read it.
Radhika Sethumadhavan, whose voice had you mesmerized through this blog earlier, has started a music blog. To begin with, she has songs from several languages in her music blog. Do check it out and post your comments there.
It gives me immense pleasure to see that the spirit of Blogswara has given birth to similar concepts in the web. Today, the first free online musical album in Malayalam, Eenam, has launched. Four of the Blogswara members – myself, Kiran, Divya and Rashmi – have worked in this album along with the others. I have sung two songs in Eenam. Neelavaanin Mizhiyinayil, a soulful song, and Chatroomile Chandini, a campus kind of fun song. Please do listen to both the songs (click on the song names to go the song pages) and let me know what you think. Also listen to the other songs in the album.
Lohitha Das, one of the best scriptwriters that Malayalam cinema ever had, died today in Kochi. He belonged to a class of writers who found their raw material from the lives of ordinary people. Some of the best musicals in Malayalam cinema were penned by him, like “His Highness Abdullah” and “Bharatham“. Both Mammootty and Mohan Lal had some of their best characters in their acting career from Lohitha Das. He gave movies like Thaniyaavarthanam and Boothakannaadi to Mammootty and Kireedam and Bharatham to Mohan Lal. He introduced some of the best actresses in Malayalam – Manju Warrier, Meera Jasmin and Bhaama. Even though he enjoyed great success as a script-writer, his career as a director was not so bright. His last two directorial ventures had flopped in the box office. But he will be remembered for the characters and stories he had penned down in his life time.
RIP, Lohitha Das…
(Image sourced from Sify.com)
Like my friend Arun said in a comment to the previous blog post, Michael Jackson is a true musical legend in every sense. Be it song writing, arrangement, high-octave songs, the moves, the moonwalks, the charisma, the voice – he is truly a unique artist and remain unmatched.
I heard this song only today where Michael collaborated with some other great artists of our time, including my favorite singer Celine Dion. Check out the lyrics, enjoy the music.
Michael Jackson All Stars – What more can I give? (Lyrics below)
Billy Gillman: How many children will have to cry, before we do all we can?
Reba McEntire: If sending your love is all you can give
Nick Carter: To help one live Continue reading ‘What More Can I Give?’
