'Music Magic'

Yes, music can kill our time. Not just our time, it can freeze time and space. A beautiful composition has the fine ability to bring back some past memories. We flow through a bygone period that may never return into our lives. 

Some songs take us into a timeline. In the internet age, it is easier to listen to favourite songs. There was a time we waited a week or more to listen to a five-minute cinema song. We had to wait another seven days to get a glimpse of that song once again. But we never complained. We were children and songs were our enjoyment. 

I used to wake up listening to the cassette records of village temple. As the records stop, my father would start the tape recorder. He would place the cinema cassette in the recorder. A cinema cassette compiles a set of pre-recorded songs from a film or a collection from different movies. Some songs mean a lot. I used to drop tears when I listened to 'Mazha peytaal' from the Balachandramenon film named April 18. It hurt me because the song was about the pain of a child who loses his/her mother. The child complains to the god about the mother's untimely demise but with no effect. I imagine myself as the friend of that child. I view myself in the uneasy task of listening to the pain of the child.  

But it is hard. The emotion of a sad moment is visible in the music. It's sung in a child's voice. The sadness in songs did not go anywhere when I aged a bit. Not that I shed drops of tears but I feel the pain of a song. The voice of a singer or the instrument or that moment has that innate ability to bring out your true emotions. I am referring to songs like 'Madhuram Jeevamrithabindu' and 'kanneerpoovinte kavilil thalodi.' 

Some songs that talk about the idea of separation have frozen me every time. 'Ammamazhakkaarinu' from 2008 film Madambi is one and 'Innale ende nenjile' from 2003 film Balettan is the another such song with that magic touch. The connection is that the composer is the same - M Jayachandran. 

As we recount pieces of music, we are not causing harm to others but rejoicing ourselves by recalling some favourite emotions. Songs not only take us back into sad phases. I relish the joy of childhood If I listen to 'Vennilachandanakkinnam' from Azhagiya Ravanan (1995). There is such sweetness in that song about our tender years, a love letter to a time when we used to play and develop innocent relationships with our friends. We still do embrace the goodness of such moments. It was an innocent phase, a rare and earnest emotion to find in today's world. 

'Varamanjaladiya' is a song that reminds me of my dreamy self. The stanza 'Kili vannu konjiya jalakavadil' is that absorbing part which captures the 'sinless beauty' of an old self. This song has got a separate fanbase in Kerala. I connect some of my past dreams associated with romantic living in this layered song. The small pleasures of life in a quiet village with harmony, peace and bonding reverberates as I listen to it all alone. The other song that breaks into my hopeful living and leaves me in splits is the ever-so-memorable 'Aaro kamazhthi vecha' from Yesudas and Vidyasagar. 

I imagine that some of the dreams may reappear in our life in the form of a reality. Sometimes it did. Sometimes it failed. Yet, a song is a delightful reminder that you have possessed a particular nature and you can revisit by going back into time. 

Love in the air

'Marannittumenthino' from Randam Bhavam was released when I was a school child. It was the second love song that created such dearness in mind. There is one note that appears at the beginning of the second stanza. It captures the essence of a special time. I love it dearly for its simplicity. 

The second such melody that I cherish from childhood is 'Oru raathri koodi'. I absorb into the skin of the characters as I listen this song. It is a special melody associated with romance and rejection. I was barely five when I first listened to this song one evening. It was played on Surya TV as I was standing in the bedroom where our TV was kept. Here too, there is a musical note that captivates the raw emotion before the start of the first stanza. 

The third song in my romantic playlist is 'kodamanjin thaazhvarayil.' The song happens to be shot near a mountain range covered with fog. Dr KJ Yesudas sir and KS Chithra have the sublime quality of absorbing the earnest emotion present in a song and reproduce them with new improvisations. 'Kodamanjin' starts with a folk touch and later switches to a romantic melody. 'Ninakkente Manassile', 'Aalilathaliyumaay varu nee' and 'Maaleyam Marodaninju' are few other songs that I listen with rapt love and affection. 

 A music is an art of creation. Every kind of music has got its own unique value in the mind of an admirer. It is not easy to pick our favourite songs and to write about their impact. When we start writing there are chances that it might not end but keep flowing like 'music'. 

We associate a part of ourselves in musicals, imaginary and real!  A piece of good music is a window to our different interests - music, films, composing, instruments, literature, emotions, acting. This is the reason film songs are not irrelevant in today's times. They make sense, evoke sensations and create a sensational touch when we devour our mind to this unique piece of creation. I cannot love a person with the same affection I have for songs. It is probably because some songs are not just songs, but a part of our self memory.