‘Keeravani’ from Anveshana movie, composed by Maestro Ilayaraja, written by Veturi Sundararama Murthy, sung by S.P.Balasubrahmanyam and S.Janaki. This song remains as one of the most brilliant compositions of the Maestro, surely one of the shining feathers on his hat. After Sitara movie which is the combination of Ilayaraja and director Vamsy, Anveshana was released with lot of expectations as it was the same combination. No doubt that this album is one of their best gifts to all music lovers. This album was also dubbed in Tamil and was very successful.

I personally love the introduction of this song. This song starts off with an overlap of Swaras/Aalaps and followed by the song Keeravani which is beautifully sung by S.P.Balu garu. Even today, many of us have this song introduction as caller/ring tone in our mobile phones. Many music directors have taken this as an inspiration and tried to implement in their own way.

Keeravani literally means voice (vani) of a parrot (keera /Sanskrit, chilaka /Telugu). This song is also composed in Keeravani Raagam. And, heroine in this movie does research on interpretation of bird sounds/voices in a forest. Keeping all in his mind, legendary Veturi has started this song with 'Keeravani Chilakala Kolikiro Padaveme' sung by S.P.Balu garu. Similarly after the second stanza Janaki garu also responds by answering 'Keeravani Chilakala Kala Kala Padaledu'. This song is written for the tune. Writing lyrics for the composition is not so easy and in particular, the last line in the stanzas 'Salalita kalarutha swaranutha gathiyuta gamakamu telayakane Keeravani' is tough to write but Veturi has put his everything to come up with these lines. This needs a lot of research on the song situation and composition. It is inspiring!

In most of Ilayaraja songs, there is a wonderful combination of creative innovation and inspired orchestration. This is one of the songs where he used the basic Classical Guitar, Keyboard/Strings &Tabla for rhythm to create this wonderful classic piece. Also in regular duet songs, the overlap of female and male singers is very common but Maestro was the one who introduced overlap of same singer voice over voice. Of course, Ilayaraja has mastered in compositional training technics like Counterpoint and study in instrumental performance. If I re-call the back ground music (BGM) which comes immediately after the first section of the song, followed by the Swaras/Aalaps overlap, the start of first stanza sung by S.P.Balasubrahmanyam and perfect entry of the female voice sung by Janaki garu always makes me listen in repeat mode. The female portion of this song is composed in high pitch and Janaki amma as usual was flawless.

Keeravani is considered as Ilayaraja, Veturi, S.P.Balasubrahmanyam and S.Janaki all-time Telugu hits. This is what happens if great musicians put heart and soul into one song. It touches millions of souls and will forever be cherished.

 

-Lasya

Email: lasya.sn@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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