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Nobody knows how and why a song becomes a MARANA (a tamil slang for DEADLY) HIT? It is also futile exercise to analyse, in retrospect, the popularity either. But it is interesting that The IIMs conducted a survey to find out this immense popularity.

Today “Why This Kolaveri? is 30^th among the Youtube 100 music videos. Whether you like the song or not, this is a fact!

But there could be some interesting facts about this song and that is what I wish to share with you all.

Is the Rhythm quiet new? No. Observe initial rhythm of Why this Kolaveri?

Now kindly focus on the initial beat of “Vaaraai Nee Vaaraai”, a very popular number from the film Mandrikumari (1950), tuned by the great legendary music director G Ramanathan. No doubt, this song could have been among Top 10 of Youtube 100 if we had this kind of media network in 1950!

Both the rhythms are very much similar.

Are the lyrics of “Why This Kolaveri?” great! Not really! Tanglish is not at all new to Tamil cinema. I do not know if the word “Kolaveri” used in any Tamil songs! (Readers, if you have come across, please share with us). Even Dhanush is quoted saying “this song is silly and forget it after just listening to it”.

Then, is there anything peculiar to this song? My observations are

1. Dhanush’s voice – A different raspy voice not musically bestowed.
2. My main and interesting observation is as follows

The song Kolaveri, is in minor scale and starts with the swaras (notes) ” Ri Ga (minor) Ri Sa | Ri Ga (minor) Ri Sa|

It is a rarity that a song in minor starts with either the swaras Ri Ga or Ri and to my knowledge not a single song in minor start with the note Ri Ga (Supertonic and minor third) or Ri (Supertonic) among the Top 100 Billboard songs of All time! (If a song slipped my notice please let me know!)

Any song in minor starts with the swara Ri Ga or Ri is a great hit in its respective music genre.

A few examples

1. Chakkani Raja – Kharaharapriya – Saint Thyagaraja – Starts with Ri Ga Ri Sa!!
2. Nada Tanum Anisam –Chittharanjani – Saint Thyagaraja – Starts with Ri Ga
3. Nannu brova nee – Abhogi – Saint Thyagaraja – Starts with Ri Ga
4. Yagnadhulu – Jayamanohari – Saint Thyagaraja – Starts with Ri
5. Kalikiyuntae – Keeravani – Saint Thyagaraja – Starts with Ri Ga
6. Vidamuseya – Kharaharapriya – Saint Thyagaraja – Starts with Ri
7. Sri Kanthimathim – Hemavathi – Muthuswamy Dikshitar -Starts with Ri
8. Evaribhodhana – Abhogi Varnam – Patnam Subramania Iyer – Starts with Ri Ga
9. Sri Valli Devasenapathe – Natabhairavi – Papanasam Sivan – Starts with Ri Ga.
10. Turkish March (Alla Turca) – A minor – Mozart – Starts with Ri (Marana Hit)
11. Podhuvaaga emmanasu thangam –Murattukaalai – Illayaraja (Marana Hit)
12. Jiya jale Ja jale –Dil se – A R Rahman (Marana Hit)
13. Vaseegara – Minnale – Harris Jayaraj (Marana hit).

This list is not exhaustive. There could be many famous Indian film songs.
From the above list, one could observe that Saint Thyagaraja is the real innovator!

Last week Quiz Answer:

The theme song from the film Charade. Music by one of my

favourites, Henry Mancini.

Quiz for this week: Who is the tunesmith of the very famous song “Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram?

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‘Bale’ Sampat, a Chartered Accountant and a Carnatic Musician, lives in Chennai and teaches Piano.

Email: harsat9503@gmail.com, Mobile: 9884412230

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