Raagam "MettiSavitriYaasi"

Lazy sunday morning almost always dawns at 11:00 am for me. With a hot cup of coffee in my hand was reading "The Hindu" online of course; while my prodigious collection of Illayaraja's best was playing in the background. This one song "Metti Oli kaatrodu..." from the movie "Metti" was playing. I was amazed at Illayaraja's genius, such a smooth melody with no fuss yet sounding like sweet honey to the ears. Illayaraja has sung the song himself, from what I've heard Illayaraja doesn't seem to have all that control over his voice, in the sense, he's not very comfortable when it come to tunes with lot of gamakas, birkas and complex sangathis. But he keeps it simple and almost always chooses songs that suit his voice. This is one such song where the tune is very simple and Illayaraja does an excellent job of rendering it. The song is so good that it sometimes stimulates some unexplainable parts of the psyche and creates this overwhelming sence of delight.

The song initially sounded like "Sudha Dhanyaasi", but I was not too convinced for my instincts kept saying that there is some difference. Though I don't profess to be an expert when it comes to identifying ragams, I can do a decent job of guessing. As my Guru always says that you can guess ragams but guessing gets only close and doesn't help you in really hitting the nail on its head. My Guru, has always wanted me to figure out the arohanam and avrohanam from the song and then try to map it to a ragam, which in reality helps in getting the closest possible match. So, I decided to do some research.

First thing was to figure out the arohanam and avarohanam. The process involves humming the song over and over again and trying to looks for places where the song goes from the lower Sa to upper Sa, otherwise called a "sancharam" which manifests the ragam's nuance in order to find the arohanam, similarly, upper Sa to lower Sa for avaroham. Though this song didn't have any such easy/complete "sancharam", it did have enough to figure out the arohanam and avaroharam. For example, the lines "Kodhai malar poompaadam vaa vennu dhe...." translates to "P P N2 S G3- G3- M G3 M G3 M P M G3 S" and also the initial "naaaa nananana nananana..." helps in figuring out the arohanam. Thus, we get the arohanam as "S G3 M P N2 S". Now, consider in the caranam "Vaazh naallem unnodu thaan Vaazhnthaale poodhum" here "Vaazhnthaale poodhum" transaltes to "N2 S N2 P M G3", which make the avrohanam as "S N2 P M G3 S". So whats the ragam ? it's certainly not sudha dhanyasi for it's arohanam/avarohanm is "S G2 M1 P N2 P S - S N2 P M1 G2 S". Wait a minute, then why in the world did it sound like sudha dhanyasi ? because predominantly matches sudha dhanyasi and differs just in the gandharam(G2/G3).

Since we have the arohanam and avorohanam we can easily find the ragam. I have a poor memory(excuse,with toungue in my cheek) and cannot possibly remember the Ar/Av (I am tired of typing arohanam/avarohanm) of those innumerable janya ragams. Thanks to the internet, someone has patiently compiled a list of Janya ragams. A quick look up for our Ar/Av fetches a match... Voila ! its "saavitri" S G3 M1 P N2 S - S N2 P M1 G3 S a harikaambhOji (S R2 G3 M1 P D2 N2 S - S N2 D2 P M1 G3 R2 S) janyam. I've never come across this ragam before. Quite interesting, would IR(I am sick and tired of typing Illayaraja) have thought about this ragam and composed the song ? don't know but if he had indeed wanted it to be "saavitri" then he has comitted a blunder. Well, calling it a blunder would be too harsh for sometimes the rules are not that strict. Sometimes it is a practice to include "Annya"(Alien) swaram as an embelishment to the ragam and make it sound more pleasing to the ears.

Where did our friend introduce the "Annya" sawaram ? Consider this piece, "Metti oli kaatrodu..." translates to "P P M G2 G2 M G2 M G2 S" which is "vakra"(crooked) in behaviour. G2 was not there in our original Av !! so the new Av is "S N2 P M G3/G2 S" and as usual I've never come across anything that even barely resembles this one, given the fact that my knowledge on ragams is very very very to the power of very limited. Now again the question; why did it sound so close to sudha dhanyasi ? because both share the same Av.

Incidentally, there is also another ragam with the same Ar/Av as Sudha Dhanyaasi. Udhaya Ravi Chandrika same S G2 M1 P N2 S - S N2 P M1 G2 S, I've some across discussions before with some saying "Entha Nechinaa.." is Udhaya Ravi Chandrikaa and others Sudha Dhanyaasi, should we say both are correct ? I don't have the knowledge to make a call here. But, why then have 2 different ragams with the same Ar/Av ??????

May be there is some difference in ragam "sanchaaram" perhaps there is some unique "sancharam" that distinguishes the two.

Anyways, end of the day I am left wondering if "metti oli" is sudha dhanyasi or savitri. Sure is a better "savitri" than a "sudha dhanyasi" but is not "savitri". Otherwise "savitri" is not wrong but is not correct either...aarghhhh OK, here is a plausible conclusion.

The song "Metti oli" is raagam "MettiSavitriYaasi".