Alchemy in Aprons — When Ilaiyaraaja Turned Kitchens into Concerts...
" A four-rāga ragamālika and the transmigration of a melody across time"
By Dhinakar Rajaram, 2025
Préface — On Transmutation, Time, and the Memory of Melody
Some compositions are born, bloom briefly, and perish with the films that cradle them. Others are written, recorded, and then exiled into silence — casualties of circumstance rather than failure of art. Yet a few rare melodies possess afterlives. They sleep like seeds beneath forgotten soil, awaiting a kinder monsoon to remember them. When time ripens, they rise again — not as echoes, but as resurrections.
Such is the story of Samayal Paadame from the unreleased Manipoor Mamiyaar (1979). Composed for a domestic interlude — a playful conversation between a young man and a group of hostel girls — it was meant to simmer gently between laughter and melody, a vignette of life’s lighter moods. But fate intervened: the film never saw the light of theatre, and the song was consigned to silence.
Nearly a decade later, Ilaiyaraaja — ever the alchemist of memory — retrieved that dormant melody from his inner archive. He did not merely reuse it; he refined it, burnished it, and released it anew as Enna Samayalo in Unnal Mudiyum Thambi (1988), starring Kamal Haasan and directed by K. Balachander.
Interestingly, the melody was originally intended to feature in the Telugu Rudraveena soundtrack. However, it was not used there. This brief foray into another linguistic and cultural canvas left an invisible imprint: the skeletal structure, the playful contours, the ragamālika order — Kalyāṇi → Mohanam → Vasantha → Madhyamāvati — remained intact, waiting for its destined cinematic body. Thus, the melody’s first unfulfilled venture becomes the seed of its eventual flowering, proving that even abandoned ideas carry the DNA of future creation.
The transformation is nothing short of astonishing. What once served as convivial kitchen chatter now becomes a spirited duel of minds — Kamal Haasan and his sister, played by Tharani, rising to a challenge thrown by their irrepressible sister-in-law, the inimitable Manorama. The same melody that once evoked the fragrance of cooking now vibrates with the tension of conviction; what was once laughter becomes logos.
But this is not mere recycling — it is metempsychosis musicalis, the transmigration of a melody’s soul across time, context, and sentiment. The tune does not repeat; it reincarnates.
At its luminous core lies a ragamālika — a garland of four rāgas: Kalyāṇi, Mohanam, Vasantha, and Madhyamāvati.
Each raga, like a cardinal direction, guides the listener’s inner compass:
Kalyāṇi — conviction,
Mohanam — joy,
Vasantha — play,
Madhyamāvati — peace.
Together, they form a microcosm of existence itself — the journey from assertion to acceptance, from laughter to light, from sound to silence.
Ilaiyaraaja’s genius lies not merely in melody but in contextual re-engineering — the art of adapting emotion to circumstance without diluting musical truth. He does not transplant tunes; he re-aligns emotional architecture. Thus, Samayal Paadame becomes Enna Samayalo not by alteration of notes, but by alteration of meaning. And in that transformation, we witness not composition, but transmutation — time alchemised into melody, melody into memory.
I. The Two Songs — From Samayal Paadame to Enna Samayalo
Ilaiyaraaja’s genius lies not merely in melodic invention but in contextual re-engineering — in the way he repurposes the emotional architecture of a tune to suit an entirely new cinematic landscape. He does not simply lift a song from one film to another; he reconstructs its emotional climate. The same sequence of swaras is reborn with new temperature, tone, and temperament — much as a familiar rāga can acquire a different rasa under another poet’s gaze.
In Samayal Paadame (1979), the melody is intimate and communal: a conversation between a young man and a chorus of hostel girls, lightly teasing, unselfconsciously warm. It exists in the sphere of laughter and leisure, where music mirrors the clatter of cutlery and the hum of shared chores. The ragas here behave like domestic aromas — wafting, gentle, affectionate.
In Enna Samayalo (1988), that same melodic skeleton finds itself reborn in a setting of challenge and wit. What was once convivial becomes dialectical — a dialogue of conviction, pride, and principle. Kamal Haasan and Tharani (as the brother-sister duo) respond to Manorama’s provocation not with words but with melody. The kitchen transforms into a moral amphitheatre, and the rhythm of banter becomes the rhythm of debate.
The metamorphosis is not superficial but structural. Ilaiyaraaja adjusts tempo, texture, and orchestration with a film-maker’s intuition. The earlier song simmers in acoustic simplicity — tambura, flutes, and soft strings — whereas the latter crackles with mridangam precision, orchestral layering, and brass warmth.
Even the rāga contours are subtly polished: Kalyāṇi glows with greater assertiveness; Mohanam sparkles with brighter clarity; Vasantha teases with more defined rhythmic gait; and Madhyamāvati descends like benediction after battle.
Through these refinements, Raaja demonstrates that the soul of a melody can survive total transfiguration. Samayal Paadame and Enna Samayalo thus stand as mirror-images across time — one reflecting laughter’s innocence, the other, conviction’s dignity.
In this dual incarnation lies Ilaiyaraaja’s rare gift: the ability to recompose meaning without altering music — to make the same tune smile in one age and philosophise in another.
2. Samayal Paadame (1979) — The Unheard Kitchen
🎧 Listen:
The unreleased original, sung by S. P. Balasubrahmanyam and S. P. Shailaja with a female chorus, stands as one of Ilaiyaraaja’s most charming sketches in domestic informality. It is a composition of warmth rather than grandeur — a musical vignette painted in the hues of everyday life.
The orchestration is deliberately modest: a light lattice of hand percussion, soft strings, and flutes that flutter like the chatter of hostel girls. Every instrumental voice seems drawn from the kitchen itself — the rhythmic clink of ladles, the gentle stir of vessels, the playful hum of shared routine. Raaja builds not a studio recording but a soundscape of habitation — one can almost smell the sambar simmering between the beats.
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Texture: Warm, acoustic, and airy — no electronic clutter, only the honest breath of wood and skin.
The tonality recalls early evening light spilling through a kitchen window, translucent and gold. -
Rhythmic Gait: The rhythm follows a lilting mishra chāpu-like swing, fluid and conversational.
It is as if the music itself is stirring — every beat a circular motion of wrist and ladle. -
Timbre: SPB’s voice teases and cajoles with unforced humour, his laughter barely restrained between lines.
Shailaja’s youthful brightness answers him with sisterly grace, and the chorus of female voices giggles in reply — creating the sonic illusion of community.
Ilaiyaraaja employs conversational phrasing that dissolves the boundary between speech and melody. Lines are tossed like dialogue; rhythm arises from banter itself. Each “samayal paadame” (teach me to cook) becomes both phrase and refrain, lyric and percussive device — an early experiment in musical colloquy.
Beneath the playful surface, however, Raaja embeds rāgic integrity. The song flows seamlessly through Kalyāṇi → Mohanam → Vasantha → Madhyamāvati, each raga capturing a distinct shade of interaction — instruction, teasing, laughter, and gentle closure. Even in levity, Ilaiyaraaja never compromises musical grammar; his mirth is disciplined, his humour harmonised.
Had Manipoor Mamiyaar reached theatres, Samayal Paadame might have been remembered as a minor masterpiece — a model of light-classical domestic comedy, music as natural as breath. It is the musical equivalent of steam rising from rice pots at dusk — ephemeral, fragrant, and incandescent in its ordinariness.
3. Enna Samayalo (1988) — From Banter to Benediction
🎧 Listen:
In Unnal Mudiyum Thambi, Ilaiyaraaja does not merely retrieve the melodic skeleton of Samayal Paadame — he reanimates it with a new moral anatomy. What once simmered in mirth now sizzles with conviction. The kitchen, once domestic, becomes dialectical; the ladle turns sceptre.
This is no longer a casual interlude but a musical duel — Kamal Haasan’s melodic riposte to a familial challenge thrown by his irrepressible sister-in-law, played by Manorama. His sister, portrayed by Tharani, joins him in counter-challenge — what begins as culinary jest transforms into philosophical contest.
The instrumentation mirrors this evolution. The arrangement blooms into symphonic articulation:
sharp mridangam strokes drive the pulse; layered violins and lower strings create harmonic tension; clarinets and flutes dance in contrapuntal mimicry; a confident brass undercurrent underscores the argument’s seriousness. It is no longer kitchen acoustics — it is orchestral architecture.
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Vocal Design:
SPB leads with assertive phrasing — his voice muscular yet good-humoured, the tone of one who debates with affection. K. S. Chitra and Sunandha respond in agile counterpoint, their voices weaving laughter and logic. The trio create a living dialogue: a call-and-response of intellect and play. -
Structure:
The song assumes the logic of a fugue — question and answer set to rhythm, motif and response chasing one another like verbal repartee. What begins as speech modulates into melody; what begins as jest matures into philosophy. -
Mood:
Gone is the culinary chatter of Manipoor Mamiyaar. In its place rises creative combat — an exchange of minds articulated through melody.
Ilaiyaraaja even reshapes the swara contours within each rāga to fit the evolving dramatic need.
Kalyāṇi, once ornamental, becomes lofty and declarative — the raga of conviction and moral clarity. Mohanam lightens the discourse with radiance and renewal. Vasantha enters to temper intellect with warmth, turning argument to dialogue. And Madhyamāvati concludes not to soothe but to sanctify — the music itself offering reconciliation where words might have failed.
Thus, Enna Samayalo is not a remake of a melody but its second philosophy — a reincarnated idea, matured through time and purpose. The kitchen becomes courtroom; the utensils, instruments; the melody, testimony. It is Ilaiyaraaja’s courtroom of conscience — where the verdict is harmony itself.
4. The Rāga Tetrad — Grammar, Rasa & Respiro
Ilaiyaraaja’s ragamālika in these twin compositions is not a mere sequence of scales but a philosophical progression — a sonic pilgrimage through emotion, intellect, and resolution.
Each raga is a chamber within a single edifice of feeling; together, they constitute an architecture of consciousness.
The order — Kalyāṇi → Mohanam → Vasantha → Madhyamāvati — forms not just a melodic pathway but a moral parabola: conviction, joy, play, and peace.
I. Kalyāṇi — The Luminous Zenith
Grammar:
Heptatonic, resplendent, the 65th Melakarta, distinguished by its prati-madhyamam (M₂).
Ārohaṇa: S R₂ G₃ M₂ P D₂ N₃ Ṡ
Avarōhaṇa: Ṡ N₃ D₂ P M₂ G₃ R₂ S
Rasa & Psychology:
Kalyāṇi is the apex of luminosity — the raga of exalted calm and moral grandeur. It unites Śānta (tranquil sublimity) with Vīra (heroic dignity). It does not seduce; it uplifts. Its radiance is architectural, not decorative — a spiritual geometry of sound.
In the listener’s psyche, Kalyāṇi expands the inner horizon. Its prati-madhyamam gleams like a polished conscience. One feels the chest open, the breath deepen — as though melody itself were posture, urging the listener to stand taller in spirit.
Ilaiyaraaja’s Alchemy:
In Unnal Mudiyum Thambi, Kalyāṇi functions as the armour of conviction. Kamal Haasan’s musical riposte glows with integrity and quiet confidence; the orchestration — full-bodied strings, measured brass, and percussive punctuation — mirrors his ethical steadiness. Here, Ilaiyaraaja does not merely compose a tune; he constructs a moral architecture. Each note is an argument; each cadence, a statement of principle. It is grandeur made audible.
II. Mohanam — The Aureate Dawn
Grammar:
A pentatonic rāga radiant with optimism.
S R₂ G₃ P D₂ Ṡ :: Ṡ D₂ P G₃ R₂ S
Devoid of Ma and Ni, Mohanam is a clear blue sky of sound — sunlight unfiltered by shadow.
Rasa & Psychology:
Mohanam embodies Ānanda (radiance), Hāsa (joy), and a mild Vīra (cheerful heroism). It is the music of renewal, of a morning untainted by memory. Its clarity declutters the psyche; it washes the listener clean of mental sediment.
Physiologically, it lightens the breath and enlivens the pulse. Psychologically, it restores innocence — joy without irony. It is the smile before thought, the sound of beginnings.
Ilaiyaraaja’s Alchemy:
In Samayal Paadame, Mohanam evokes the bustle of domestic life — the laughter of hostel girls, the clinking of ladles, the fragrance of camaraderie. In Enna Samayalo, it sets buoyancy before the moral contest — a clearing of the emotional stage before the duel. SPB’s phrasing dances with childlike agility, while Chitra’s responses glimmer like sunlight through steam. Mohanam, in Ilaiyaraaja’s hands, becomes auroral music — the musical equivalent of first light upon brass vessels.
III. Vasantha — The Playful Equinox
Grammar:
A vakra (zigzag) rāga — derived from the 17th Melakarta, Suryakāntam.
Ārohaṇa: S M₁ G₃ M₁ D₂ N₃ Ṡ
Avarōhaṇa: Ṡ N₃ D₂ M₁ G₃ R₁ S
Its curved ascent and descent create a gentle asymmetry — melodic meandering that feels organic, like vines curling toward sunlight.
Rasa & Psychology:
Vasantha embodies Śṛṅgāra (affection), Hāsya (laughter), and a touch of Karuṇā (tender melancholy). It is the musical personification of spring — warmth tinged with wistfulness. The psyche responds with curiosity and delight; one feels both alert and comforted. Its phrases flirt rather than declare, inviting the ear to follow their undulating grace.
Ilaiyaraaja’s Alchemy:
Raaja employs Vasantha as his musical scherzo — the play-movement in this four-raga symphony.
In Samayal Paadame, it colours the banter among hostel friends — light-hearted, impish, unburdened.
In Enna Samayalo, it animates Tharani’s challenge to Kamal Haasan — a teasing yet affectionate provocation. The raga’s vakra movement mirrors the verbal fencing of the scene; its melodic detours are emotional ripostes. If Mohanam is the morning breeze, Vasantha is the sunlight that follows, refracted through laughter.
IV. Madhyamāvati — The Benediction of Dusk
Grammar:
A pentatonic janya of Kharaharapriya, symmetrical and spacious.
S R₂ M₁ P N₂ Ṡ :: Ṡ N₂ P M₁ R₂ S
Rasa & Psychology:
Madhyamāvati embodies Śānta (peace), Bhakti (devotion), and Karuṇā (compassion). Traditionally reserved for Mangalam — the auspicious closure of Carnatic concerts — it is the raga of resolution and release.
But why does it evoke such profound calm?
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Even note-spacing & pentatonic clarity:
The five-note design leaves air between tones — uncluttered, luminous. Each swara has room to breathe, avoiding emotional congestion. -
Gamaka-centred expressivity:
Its essence lies not in rapid runs but in the microtonal oscillations, the tender slides between notes — the very gamakas that whisper serenity. -
Psychic effect:
Associated with purification, Madhyamāvati “washes away” preceding agitation, leaving the psyche in a state of quiet absolution.
It is the Carnatic analogue of the Latin requiem aeternam — or the French adieu whispered at dusk. It does not end the narrative; it reconciles it. It does not shout; it sighs. It does not blaze; it blesses.
Ilaiyaraaja’s Alchemy:
By concluding in Madhyamāvati, Ilaiyaraaja dissolves rather than ends. The raga descends like evening light over resolution — SPB’s modulation softens, Chitra’s timbre mellows, the percussion yields to silence. What began as contest ends as communion. The melody forgives itself, and the listener feels redeemed.
In totality, these four ragas constitute Ilaiyaraaja’s sonic cosmogram —
Kalyāṇi the light of conviction,
Mohanam the laughter of innocence,
Vasantha the play of affection,
and Madhyamāvati the silence of grace.
They are not four movements but four states of being — a journey from assertion to surrender, from dawn to dusk, from melody to moksha.
5. What Each Rāga Does to the Listener’s Psyche — Rāga–Rasa Psychology
Each rāga in Ilaiyaraaja’s ragamālika does not merely occupy a tonal region; it occupies a psychic province. Together, they trace the emotional geography of human experience — from exuberance to introspection, from assertion to absolution. This is not raga sequencing; it is rasa architecture — the mapping of emotion through sound.
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Kalyāṇi — The Flame of Conviction
The journey begins with Kalyāṇi, the raga of radiant righteousness. Its prati-madhyamam gleams like polished brass; every phrase affirms dignity and discipline. It embodies vīra rasa — valour, moral clarity, courage without arrogance. In the listener’s psyche, Kalyāṇi straightens the spine. One feels ennobled, cleansed of ambivalence. It is the sound of ethical light — the music of integrity standing tall amidst confusion. -
Mohanam — The Smile of Morning
After Kalyāṇi’s gravitas, Mohanam enters like cool air after incense smoke — innocent, unpretentious, open. Its pentatonic clarity offers ānanda rasa, a joy that is radiant yet childlike.
Psychologically, it releases emotional tension, unclogs the breath, and restores buoyancy.
The listener feels reset — as if laughter has replaced argument. It is the raga of uncluttered happiness, music that reminds the heart of its own lightness. -
Vasantha — The Music of Springtime
Vasantha tiptoes in like a smile half-born — śṛṅgāra and hāsya entwined, tenderness laced with wit. Its vakra contour, with curved ascents and teasing detours, mirrors human playfulness itself — the emotional zigzag of affection and challenge. Psychologically, it induces alertness mixed with delight: the mind dances, the pulse quickens, the lips curve involuntarily.
Vasantha is that fleeting balance between affection and amusement — love rehearsed as laughter. -
Madhyamāvati — The Benediction of Stillness
Finally, Madhyamāvati descends like dusk over a temple courtyard — serene, symmetrical, forgiving. Its pentatonic simplicity embodies śānta rasa, the rasa of peace and closure. The psyche exhales; the body slows; the spirit settles. In Carnatic tradition, this raga is reserved for Mangalam — the act of purification at journey’s end. In Ilaiyaraaja’s architecture, it functions as musical redemption: the note of grace that pardons all prior turbulence. It is the musical equivalent of twilight prayer — requiem aeternam rendered in raga.
Thus, the ragamālika of Enna Samayalo is not an exhibition of craft but an emotional architecture: each raga a chamber, each transition a corridor, each swara a brushstroke on the fresco of feeling.
It is as though Ilaiyaraaja built a cathedral of emotion, where melody and psychology intertwine — Kalyāṇi the dome, Mohanam the corridor of light, Vasantha the stained glass of play, and Madhyamāvati the sanctum of silence.
6. Ilaiyaraaja’s Grammar — Notation, Gamaka & Cinematic Syntax
Ilaiyaraaja’s genius is not confined to melody; it lies equally in grammar — not grammar as dry notation, but grammar as continuity of aesthetic thought. He composes as both musicologist and dramatist, translating Carnatic grammar into the syntax of cinema.
In Enna Samayalo, the transitions between ragas — for instance, from Kalyāṇi to Madhyamāvati, or from Mohanam to Vasantha — occur not abruptly but organically, as if the song itself were inhaling and exhaling emotion.
Each modulation is timed to coincide with a lyrical inflection or characteric gesture, so that the raga-shift feels less like a change in scale and more like a change in thought. This is where Ilaiyaraaja transcends convention: he transforms musical modulation into narrative modulation.
His orchestration serves as a semantic bridge. A brief nadhaswaram flourish, a violin glide, a mridangam pause — these are not ornaments but grammatical commas and colons in his musical sentence.
He uses them to signal transition, to punctuate emotion, to give breath to structure. In Kalyāṇi, the orchestra blooms — a harmonic cathedral of violins and brass that expands the moral scope of the scene. As the melody glides into Madhyamāvati, the texture thins; percussive strokes retreat; the flute or nadhaswaram assumes prominence, restoring intimacy and repose. Thus, the rāga-grammar becomes cinematic grammar, each modulation corresponding to a shift in narrative temperature.
Equally remarkable is Ilaiyaraaja’s gamaka intelligence — his ability to respect the soul of a raga even when reshaping it for screen flow. He never over-ornaments; every oscillation, every slide is functional, never indulgent. His gamakas are like brushstrokes in an Ajanta mural — measured, purposeful, emotionally specific. Where a classical rendition might explore the raga expansively, Raaja compresses its essence into cinematic brevity — the distilled perfume of a full rāga-alāpana within a bar of film time. This dual fidelity — to rāga grammar and to cinematic necessity — defines his compositional ethos. He writes not as a traditionalist borrowing cinema, nor as a film composer dabbling in Carnaticity, but as a bilingual thinker fluent in both languages.
To the untrained ear, Enna Samayalo may sound spontaneous, effortless.
To the trained rasika, it reveals a hidden architecture:
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transitions timed with dialogue beats,
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orchestral cues marking raga junctions,
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percussive punctuation aligning with lyrical logic.
This is Ilaiyaraaja’s quiet revolution: the transformation of Carnatic grammar into screenplay grammar — a syntax where emotion, raga, and narrative breathe as one.
7. From Kitchen Chatter to Moral Duel — Rāga as Narrative Agent
In Manipoor Mamiyaar (1979), Ilaiyaraaja composed within the soft radius of domestic life — a world fragrant with rasam and laughter, populated by hostel girls and youthful banter. Here, the ragas behave accordingly: Mohanam and Vasantha dominate, bright and blithe as afternoon sunlight on brass vessels. Their melodic gestures are circular, teasing, self-contained — mirroring the harmless flirtation of conversation around a shared kitchen hearth.
But when the same tune awakens nearly a decade later as Enna Samayalo in Unnal Mudiyum Thambi (1988), its soul acquires new gravitas. The kitchen is now a stage for a moral duel — a challenge thrown and accepted between intellects, not just between spatulas. The context has shifted from play to principle, and Ilaiyaraaja’s ragas adapt accordingly.
The ragamālika flows in its proper sequence — Kalyāṇi → Mohanam → Vasantha → Madhyamāvati — each transition mirroring the narrative’s emotional gradient. Kalyāṇi ignites the scene: grand, luminous, the sound of self-assurance. It is the raga of assertion, of moral clarity — Kamal Haasan’s musical articulation of resolve.
As the contest warms, Mohanam enters, cooling the intellectual fire with joy, returning wit to warmth. Its pentatonic sparkle reminds us that conviction need not abandon cheer. Then comes Vasantha, sinuously weaving playfulness with challenge — its vakra phrases echo the verbal fencing, every melodic detour a quick repartee between equals. Finally, Madhyamāvati descends, not as denouement but as deliverance — the calm after contest, the reconciliation of minds that have tested each other and found mutual grace.
In this structure, the ragamālika is not ornamental; it is dramaturgical. Each raga performs a narrative function, guiding the listener through mood, argument, and resolution. Were one to remove the ragas or misplace their order, the emotional logic of the scene would collapse.
This is Ilaiyaraaja’s particular genius — the ability to translate cinematic dialogue into raga architecture. Where another composer might have relied on leitmotif or rhythmic motif, Raaja uses raga progression as screenplay. His melodies do not merely accompany the story; they become the story’s bloodstream — modulating its temperature, tension, and tenderness.
Thus, what began in 1979 as domestic camaraderie transforms in 1988 into ethical conversation — and the same ragas, now differently weighted, convey the evolution from laughter to luminosity. Through them, Ilaiyaraaja demonstrates that in Indian film music, the raga itself can be a character — mutable, moral, and magnificently alive.
8. The Voices That Breathed Life — SPB, Chitra & the Choral Echoes
If Ilaiyaraaja conceived the celestial geometry, it was his singers who furnished it with breath, pulse, and personality — human warmth animating divine design.
In Samayal Paadame, S. P. Balasubrahmanyam and S. P. Shailaja transform a simple domestic vignette into an operetta of intimacy. SPB’s timbre glows with conversational ease — that signature blend of mischief and mellowness that could smile even in silence. His laughter, caught between notes, feels spontaneous, not scripted. Shailaja, in her youthful freshness, mirrors his warmth with sisterly vivacity; together, they turn the kitchen into a theatre of teasing affection.
The female chorus, meanwhile, is not ornamental. It rustles and giggles like an aural spice rack — voices rising and falling with the rhythm of ladles and laughter. It is less a backing group than an acoustic mise-en-scène: the ambience of camaraderie itself.
A decade later, when the same melodic essence re-emerges as Enna Samayalo, the conversation has matured. The voices now speak the language of philosophical play, not kitchen banter. SPB returns — older, wiser, his phrasing now imbued with gravitas beneath the gaiety. He is no longer merely the teasing friend; he is the playful philosopher, engaging in dialectic through melody.
K. S. Chitra, with her crystalline tone and impeccable diction, brings a radiant poise — her voice glides like silk drawn across temple stone, tender yet unyielding. Sunandha, appearing in brief but vital interludes, sprinkles laughter into rhythm — silvery, effervescent, like the shimmer of ghee poured over flame.
Together, the trio enact a choreography of sound — question, counter-question, resolution — each phrase a melodic retort, each glide an emotional rejoinder. Their interplay exemplifies Ilaiyaraaja’s genius for dialogic composition: the capacity to turn music into conversation, and conversation into music.
Through these voices, his ragamālika transcends the written swara. It becomes sentient — a breathing organism of tone and temperament. The listener no longer “hears” the raga; he overhears a dialogue between souls. It is in that invisible exchange — between singer and singer, between sound and silence — that Ilaiyaraaja’s alchemy becomes audible. His composition smiles, exhales, and lives.
9. What the Listener Learns
For the attentive rāsika, these twin songs offer not merely delight but doctrine — a quiet philosophy of music, time, and artistic destiny. They remind us that art, when born in sincerity, is never lost; it simply bides its hour.
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Even an unreleased creation may await its destined dawn.
The story of Samayal Paadame shows that a melody denied its stage is not condemned to oblivion. It rests, like seed beneath soil, awaiting the right season. In Ilaiyaraaja’s cosmos, nothing composed with faith perishes; it merely hibernates in the vault of memory until context summons it anew. -
Rāgas, once invoked with sincerity, are timeless.
They do not belong to years or films; they belong to emotion itself. When a composer of Ilaiyaraaja’s calibre re-engages them, he is not “borrowing” but re-opening a channel — calling upon the same spiritual archetype that once moved his hand a decade before. In this sense, the rāga is not a tool but a sentient companion in the artist’s journey across time. -
Genius lies not only in invention but in remembrance.
To recall, after years, a tune’s pulse, its emotional hue, its buried potential — and to re-contextualise it with new moral and musical purpose — requires a rarer faculty than novelty. It demands continuity of consciousness, fidelity to one’s own melodic past. In Ilaiyaraaja’s case, memory is not nostalgia but method.
In Samayal Paadame, Ilaiyaraaja cooked with laughter — the flavour of life’s ordinary warmth.
In Enna Samayalo, he served philosophy — the nourishment of reflection. The same ingredients, differently tempered, yield different rasas.
And therein lies the lesson for the listener: that music, like life, matures with context. What once seemed playful can, in another light, reveal profundity; what once was domestic becomes divine.
Ilaiyaraaja does not merely compose melodies — he composes time itself, showing us that sound, when born of sincerity, will always find its resurrection.
Coda — The Continuity of Consciousness in Melody
To call Enna Samayalo a “reuse” is to misread Ilaiyaraaja’s cosmos — for in his musical universe, nothing is ever merely repeated; everything is remembered. The earlier Samayal Paadame was not abandoned in some dusty archive of failure, but preserved in a deeper archive — that of memory, awaiting rebirth.
Ilaiyaraaja’s compositional process defies the chronological. His music moves not through linear time but through spiral time, where the past is never past, and the future is simply a remembered possibility.
When he retrieves an old melody, he is not recycling — he is reincarnating. Like a yogi recollecting a forgotten raga from a previous janma, he breathes new prāṇa into its dormant swaras, restoring both life and purpose.
He remembers not merely the tune but its emotional DNA — the rasa that gave it soul. He alters form while conserving essence, like a sculptor who chisels anew from the same marble block, yet unveils a different deity each time. Thus, what slept in 1979 awoke in 1988 — melody as Smṛti (sacred remembrance), creation as Anamnesis (the recollection of what already exists within consciousness).
In this lies the true Ilaiyaraaja paradox: he composes in the present tense, yet his music breathes in four dimensions — past, present, potential, and eternal. His is not the art of invention but of continuity of consciousness — where each raga, once born, lives on as a resonant memory within the composer’s inner cosmos.
To listen, then, is to witness reincarnation in sound:
the same soul, clad in new flesh of orchestration;
the same essence, articulated through new circumstance.
Ilaiyaraaja’s melodies do not end; they evolve.
They move as consciousness moves — cyclical, recursive, luminous.
And in that spiral, art becomes immortality.
Epilogue — Listening as Pilgrimage
When you next listen to Enna Samayalo, do not approach it as a song. Approach it as a journey — a pilgrimage through melody, where each rāga is a shrine and each modulation a threshold.
Listen not merely with the ear, but with the inward imagination — that sacred faculty through which sound becomes spirit.
Close your eyes and traverse:
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Kalyāṇi — the first illumination, the jyoti of conviction. It rises like the morning sun of conscience, clearing the mists of doubt. One feels steadied, upright, ennobled — as if melody itself were virtue incarnate.
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Mohanam — the smile of morning, laughter without agenda, the heart’s unclenching after light. It is music breathing, uncomplicated and kind.
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Vasantha — the soft laughter between affection and challenge, the emotional chiaroscuro of life’s play. It teases yet consoles, turning familiarity into gentle surprise.
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Madhyamāvati — the benedictory dusk, where all tensions dissolve into quiet grace. It is the sigh after effort, the forgiveness that follows comprehension, the silence that completes sound.
As the song completes its circular pilgrimage — from moral fire to innocent joy, from banter to benediction — the listener is altered.
Something within feels washed, realigned, redeemed. The intellect that entered analysing leaves feeling, as if an unseen hand had tuned its strings.
This is Ilaiyaraaja’s true sorcery: he turns listening into an act of purification.
His ragas do not entertain; they initiate. They teach the ear humility, the heart patience, and the mind stillness.
In his universe, the kitchen is not trivial but sacred — an acoustic sanctum where the sizzle of spice meets the silence of prayer.
Every clang of ladle, every laugh of SPB or Chitra, becomes part of a cosmic liturgy — a naada yajña, a sonic offering.
By the time the final chord fades, you do not applaud; you exhale.
Because in Ilaiyaraaja’s world, even kitchens become cathedrals, and melodies — like souls — are immortal.
Glossary (for the Discerning Rasika)
| Term | Meaning / Significance |
|---|---|
| Rāgamālika | A garland of rāgas traversed in sequence. |
| Audava / Vakra / Sampūrṇa | Five-note, zigzag, and seven-note raga structures. |
| Arohaṇa / Avarōhaṇa | Ascending / descending sequences. |
| Gamakas | Ornamental oscillations and slides that shape emotional texture. |
| Mangalam | The concluding benediction, traditionally sung in Madhyamāvati. |
| Rasa | The aesthetic essence or emotional flavour evoked by art. |
| Rasa-architecture | Using raga transitions to sculpt emotional progression. |
| Metempsychosis musicalis | (Lat.) Reincarnation of melody — musical transmigration of soul. |
| Anamnesis | (Gr./Lat.) Recollection of innate memory — a melody reborn. |
| Élan vital | (Fr.) The vital life-force animating art and creation. |
Copyright, Authorship & Illustration Notice
© Dhinakar Rajaram | 2025 | All Rights Reserved
This essay — Alchemy in Aprons — When Ilaiyaraaja Turned Kitchens into Concerts — is an original literary and analytical work authored by Dhinakar Rajaram.
It represents independent research, aesthetic interpretation, and critical appreciation of Ilaiyaraaja’s compositions, examined through the prisms of Carnatic music, acoustic science, and cultural philosophy.
No portion of this publication — textual or illustrative — may be reproduced, transmitted, or adapted in any form (digital, electronic, print, or AI-generated) without the author’s explicit written consent.
Short quotations may be used for academic citation or review purposes, provided that clear attribution is given to the original author.
All rāga analyses, metaphors, and interpretive insights are the author’s intellectual synthesis, developed through personal study, attentive listening, and comparative reasoning.
The essay is written purely for cultural documentation and educational appreciation, with no commercial or derivative intent.
Poster & Illustration Disclaimer
The accompanying poster or visual header is a conceptual artistic illustration — not a reproduction of any copyrighted photograph or proprietary artwork. It is designed solely to evoke the spirit of Ilaiyaraaja’s music through symbolic imagery: sketch renderings, veena silhouettes, vintage kitchen motifs, temple corridors, and golden tonal palettes.
No commercial likeness, unauthorised portraiture, or celebrity endorsement is implied.
The artwork is an interpretive homage, intended solely as an aesthetic and educational tribute.
Any resemblance to copyrighted images is purely coincidental and unintentional. Reproduction, modification, or redistribution of the illustration without written permission from the author is strictly prohibited.
© Dhinakar Rajaram | 2025 | Chennai, India
