Slices of Raja - 4

Last night on my drive back home Raaja kept me company, as he does most days. This time he brought along this number for company. If you can disregard the visuals of Mohan in really short swim trunks, this song is an absolute poolside musical treat beginning with the Jalatarang-ish prelude. To top it off the beat is kept exclusively with the aid of the syahi in the pallavi and minimalistic use of the cymbals and bongos in the prelude/interludes and charanams. The resultant effect seems to magnify the effect of large drops of water falling off an emerging swimmer onto his/her skin. There is so much going on in this song and yet being a sucker for melody, my favorite portions of the song were the lines " தள்ளாடும் தேகங்களே, கோயில் தெப்பங்கள் போல் ஆடுமோ?" - in the first charanam by S.Janaki (this woman's voice is the source of so much joy in my life) and " கள்ளோடு பூ ஆடுது, வண்டு தாகங்கள் கொண்டாடுது " by S.P.B in the second charanam. Until yesterday.

I discovered something in this song that nearly caused me to runover a pedestrian in my excited distraction. The bass guitar lines for this song sound like finger pulled notes on a cello or double bass augmenting the already "wet" feel of the song. Raaja reinforces that cliche'd saying of being drenched in a musical shower.