Dharmavathi is the 59th melakartha ragam. Sa Ri2 Ga2 Ma2 Pa Da2 Ni3 Sa as arohanam and the converse as avarohanam. It is the prathimadhyamam of Gowrimanohari (23rd melam). About couple of years ago Rahman tuned a superb Dharmavathi song in vandicholai chinnarasu. The song is sugam sugam vendum. I think the singer of the song is Vani Jayaram. It is one of the best songs that Rahman has tuned in his short career so far. It is a very sexy song. He starts the tune in the madhyama sthayi like Sa Ga Sa Ga, with a very very prominent chord sequences in the background. While another song from the same movie became a good hit (senthamizh naatu thamizhacheeyae sung by the late Shahul Ameed), this lovely song based on a pure classical ragam did not become a hit. Earlier, Rahman has tuned one more Dharmavathi in the movie gentleman. The song is ottagathai kattikko, which came as an unbelievable melody in that movie with a fantastic rhythm played in the pukka south indian instrument "thavil".

Of course, Rahman had exhibited the usual (predictable) "cinema musician's tendency" of deviating from the ragam by using some foreign swaras in both the above songs. Even though there is predominant use of Da2 in sugam sugam, in the charanam he uses Da3 Ni3 prayogam like Neethimathi ragam (60th melam). In ottagathai kattikko, he very liberally uses both Ni2 and Ni3, making it difficult to bring it under either Hemavathi (58th melam) or Dharmavathi. For our purposes to discuss Dharmavathi, I called ottagathai kattiko as Dharmavathi in this essay.

Rahman said in one of his early interviews that he avoided listening to contemporary music as did not want to get influenced by that music. He wants his music to be original and new! Alright bro, make music without the influence of your forefathers! Let us see, if you can!

This is an ever changing world. People are born constantly and people are dead similarly. We all have come into the world not like Mr. Jesus Christ without a father. We have our roots strongly based on our immediate previous generation, and less significantly on the innumerable generations in-between from the ages of origin of man to now. Newtonian concept of gravity was put to disuse by the "nascent" Einsteinian concept in the 20th century. The important thing to remember and appreciate is that Newton did prominent work on gravity before, and his ideas pre-existed the period of Einstein. If it were not for Newton to intrigue Einstein, the latter would not have become such a great scientist. If it were not for the stimulus of advaitha of Sankara, neither would have Ramanujam come up with his visisht advaitha, nor Madvacharya with his dvaitha philosophy. Nature requires a pre-existent state to progress to the next state. It sends Nagesh first in the time window to do his comedy and then Vadivelu. It sends Chatruhan Sinha first and then later Rajnikanth. We are all a small part of the continuously self-propagating enormous force that originated in the big bang. Nobody can molt the profound ancestral influence to become a "new" creator (in absolute terms).

Ilaiyaraaja too, has tuned wonderful Dharmavathi's. His first was probably in the movie vikram. The song is meendum meendum vaa. S.P.Balasubramaniam and S.Janaki! He starts his song in madhya sthayi like Sa Sa Sa Sa (meendum meendum) and then all of a sudden jumps one octave to the thara sthayi Sa (vaa). He has used Mridhangam as a wonderful rhythm support in that song. In the charanam the tune is just excellent. Pa Pa Pa Ma2 Da2 (thekku marathil) Pa Pa Pa Ma2 Da2 (sedhukki vaitha) Pa Pa Ma2 Pa Ga2 Ma2 Pa (dhegam idhu thaana). Even in the charanam he frequently jumps from madhyama sthayi Sa to thara sthayi Sa. To me, it seems like Rahman got the idea to tune his sugam sugam from meendum meendum vaa. Both are very sexy, romantic playboy channel duets! Both of them are great in their own aspects.

Ilaiyaraaja's possibly second Dharmavathi is illam cholai poothadha in the movie unakkagavae vazhgiraen. This was not a big hit like kanna unai thedu giraen vaa in the same movie. However, illam cholai is one of the mile stones in his career. I would say that it is one of his top bests. It has been sung by S.P.B. He starts like Ma2 Pa Sa (illam cholai) Sa Ri2 Sa Ni3 (poothadhaa). He prolongs the kaakali nishadham and beautifully gives a gamakam and then travels down to panchamam. Initially he uses tabla for accompaniment and then in the charanam there is wonderful mridhangam, the usage of which is very typical of him. Listening to this song is one of the best musical experience that I have had in my life! In varusham padhinaaru his "aeh, ayyasaami" is a kind of Dharmavathi with lot of mixture of Ma1. In veera, his konjikonji is quite a pure Dharmavathi. Maragadhamani has given a very pure Dharmavathi in thaththithom in azhagan. He has excellently used keyboard with fantastic gamakams in that song.

Dharmavathi has two very melodious janya ragas. One is Ranjani. Sa Ri2 Ga2 Ma2 Da2 Ni3 Sa; Sa Ni3 Da2 Ma2 Ga2 Sa. The best song in Ranjani in cinema is muthupandhalil rathina oonjalil sung by T.N.Seshagopalan in the movie thodi raagam. Kunnakudi has tuned it in an unparalleled manner. MSV has used Ranjani in few of his cinema raga-malikas (aezhuswarangalukkul has a bit of Ranjani in aboorva ragangal, and also "ranjaniyai azhaithaen" in the movie mrudhanga chakravarthi). The other popular janyam of Dharmavathi is Madhuvanthi. There is a subtle Ma1 usage in this ragam. In the movie nandha en nila, obscure music director V.Dhakshinamurthy has tuned one excellent Madhuvanthi song. The song also starts like "nandha en nila". My Houston room-mate Karthik used to repeatedly listen to this song again and again for hours. If you listened to this song, you will know the addictive potential of this song. Like "heroin addict", "ganja addict", we can proudly call ourselves as "nandha en nila addict"! It is one of the best ever recorded Thamizh cinema song!

The 10th chakram (in other words, the 4th chakram of the prathimadhyama melaragas) has probably the more popular ragas among the prathimadhyama melams. The 55th is Shatvidhamargini, 56th - Shanmukhapriya, 57th - Simhendra Madhyamam, 58th - Hemavathi, 59th - Dharmavathi, 60th - Neethimathi.

Ilaiyaraaja has given a lot of Shanmukhapriya songs. Thamthanathamthana thalam was his first Shanmukhapriya (in Bharathiraja's pudhiya vaarpukkal). One of his very early classical ventures that proved to the Thamizh cinema world what kind he was! It is a very fast song sung by Jency. In his earlier days he seems to have really liked tuning fast songs (like mazhai varuvadhu in rishi moolam)! In thamthana song, the thabla rhythm, veenai and flute interlude are mesmerising. His other Shanmukhapriya songs are kaadhal kasakkudhaiyaa (aan paavam), thakita thadhimi (salangai oli), ooru vittu ooru vandhu (karagaattakaaran), sollaayo vaai thirandhu (moga mull). We have to remind ourselves of the earlier music directors contribution in this ragam that includes pazham nee appa (thiruvilayadal), muththaitharu (arunagiri naadhar), kurangilirundhu (thookuthooki), maraindhirundhu (thillana mohanaambal). Devendran has tuned kannukkul nooru nilava in vedham pudhidhu. One interesting thing to note is that even Thyagarajaswami has given only one krithi in this important ragam, while cinema fellows have been handling it quite often, the maximum number being by Ilaiyaraaja!

Shanmukhapriya uses Ri2, Ga2, Ma2, Da1 and Ni2. If we change the Ni2 to Ni3 we get Simhendra Madhyamam. Probably, his first number in this ragam came in panneer pushpangal. The song is aanandha raagam. This song has got one of the most abnormal starts! It starts in thaara sthayi Ga! It goes likes this: Ga2 Ri2 Sa (aanandha) Sa Ri2 Ri2 Sa (raagam). A beautiful start and a wonderful job by Uma Ramanan! His second song in this ragam came in Mukta Sundar's debut film kodai mazhai. The song is kaatrodu kuzhalin naadhamae. The song has been sung by Chitra. A highly classical song. The heroine gives a dance performance on stage for this song. This song also starts in a very high pitched Ga2 of thara sthayi! I first listened to this song while watching the movie in the theatre, and the song was just gripping! His next Simhendra Madhyamam came in oruvar vaazhum aalayam. The song is nee pournami. He starts this song in middle octave Ri2! The song goes like this: Ri2 Ga2 Ri2 Ga2 Sa (nee..) Ga2 Ma2 Pa Ma2 Pa (pournami). The swara structuring of this song is just marvellous. He uses groups of swaras up and down like a thrilling roller-coaster ride, and later in the end of the song he starts presenting alternating swaram-sahityam sequences that are just wonderful! His last Simhendra Madhyamam song is thaaj mahal thevai illai in gopura vaasalilae.

We have discussed Hemavathi ragam in our earlier essays. Nobody has tuned Shatvidhamargini or Neethimathi in cinema! These are extremely rare ragas even in classical sadas. If we just change the Ga2 to Ga3 in the ragas discussed above, we get all the important ragas of the next (11th) chakram. 63rd - Lathangi, 64th - Vachaspathi, 65th - Mesakalyani (commonly, called as Kalyani). We know that Ilaiyaraaja was the most prolific music director in tuning Kalyani in cinema. Did anybody think that he would use the other important ragams from this chakram in the nineties?!

Once upon a time there was a director called as "P.Vasu"! He used to shoot whatever perversion that came to his mind during the most uninhibited of his dreams as films! He had the extreme fortune of getting "Ilaiyaraaja's kadaaksham" in most of his movies, and the films would be jam-packed with superb songs! Just because of Ilaiyaraaja, those films would "runno runnunu run" tirelessly in the theatres, with money "fallo fallunu falling" down the roofu! Mmmmm...... Did P.Vasu know that he got one of the two great Lathaangi songs ever tuned in one of his junk movies? The first popular Lathaangi is aadadha manamum undo in mannadhi mannan. The song has been sung by T.M.S and M.L.Vasanthakumari. Great song!

The other popular Lathangi came from the harmonium of Ilaiyaraaja! The movie is walter vetrivel. The song is raasavae chitterumbu. He has presented an incredibly pure Lathangi in a "tappaanguthu kind of format" in this song. It was a mega-hit song reverbrating throughout the Thamizhnadu, from the slums to the elite! Prabhu Deva and Sukhanya dance for this song. It is one of the songs, which, when a common laymen rasika listens, he just feels it as a "great" tune, while a knowledgeable rasika immediately recognizes the intelligent use of a hardcore classical ragam and becomes wonder-struck! Ilaiyaraaja has tuned another Lathangi in eeramaana rojavae (adho andha vaanilae). But, that song was not a big hit. He also gave a Vachaspathi in one of his songs, nikkatumaa pogattumaa neelakarunguyilae (?movie). A beautiful song. But, it was not a big hit. I don't think anybody else has tuned Vachaspathi in cinema.

Vijayanagari is a janyam of Hemavathi. Actually, this ragam was "discovered" by Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavathar in this century. He just omitted Nishadham in Hemavathi and called it as Vijayanagari. There is a famous M.K.T song soppanavazhvil magizhndhu in this ragam. Ilaiyaraaja tuned one Vijayanagari in paadaadha thaeneekkal. The song is vanna nilavae vaigai nadhiyae. He has beautifully used the Ma2 of this ragam. But, from puritans point of view, he has done a mistake. He has also used Ga3 to give a very sad appeal to the song. That is not permissible.

Vijayanagari is very closely related to Sivaranjani. While Sivaranjani is a janyam of the 22nd melam (Karaharapriya), Vijayanagari is a janyam of the 58th (the prathimadhyamam of the 22nd). Sivaranjani is also a very "soga" ragam. Kadalai urundai is called the poor man's meat, as it has reasonably all the essential amino acids as meat, but at a lesser cost! Like that, we could call Sivaranjani as the "cinema rasika's Mukhari or Bhairavi" as it has the same dose of "sadness", but, in a lighter form. Sivaranjani's arohanam and avarohanam are: Sa Ri2 Ga2 Pa Da2 Sa; Sa Da2 Pa Ga2 Ri2 Sa. Nowadays musicians liberally use Ga3 to add beauty to this ragam.

To list all the Sivaranjani songs of Ilaiyaraaja is impossible. To list a few that comes to the mind immediately: adi aathaadi (kadalora kavidhaigal), unnai thaanae (nallavanukku nallavan), poovannam pola nenjam (azhiyaadha kolangal), solai pushpangalae (?movie), kaathirundhu (vaidehi kaathirundhal), pon manae (oru kaidhiyin dairy), vaa vaa anbae (agni nakshatiram), valli valli aena (deiva vaaku), adhikaalai nera kanavu (?movie), kuyil paatu (en raasavin manasilae) etc. Also, Sivaranjani is one of the unique ragas in the sense that, it is probably the only ragam that has been handled by every Tom, Dick and Harry calling himself as a music director. Manoj-Kiyan tuned tholvi nilayaena (oomai vizhigal), S.A.Rajkumar tuned paatu onnu naan paadatuma (pudhu vasantham), Shankar Ganesh tuned aval oru menagai (nakshathiram), lately Rahman has tuned kannum kannum (thiruda thiruda), thannerai kaadhalikkum (Mr.Romeo). In karuthamma, Rahman has scored a fantastic song (poraalae ponnuthayee). It is also Sivaranjani based, with weightage given to Ga3 (like Mohanam) in the happy version, and to Ga2 in the sad version. This song unquestionably proves that Rahman is one among the most remarkable music directors in Thamizh cinema now.

The present continuous success in the Indian filmdom might make Rahman feel as though he has gone to the top of the globe. The total ouster of Ilaiyaraaja from the #1 position might give a feeling of superiority than other creators now. Perhaps, that is the reason why he said that he avoided listening to contemporary music! Ilaiyaraaja had the same status once upon a time. He behaved like a narcist then! He quarrelled with everybody in the cinema field because of his superioritic complex. He spoke ill of Vairamuthu on air when both he and Vairamuthu had been selected for national award! This behavior pattern is not unique to Ilaiyaraaja! Almost everybody who comes to the limelight for some reason seems to become gripped by the evil "conceit"! Jayalalitha performed the marriage of her step son in such a grand manner only because of "conceit"! The mind seems to constantly work with the central thought "I", "ME", "MINE"! Nothing else matters to the mind!