MELLIFLUOUS MAANDU AND MORE!

There are few ragas that remind us that they are not performed as often as they should be and Maandu is one of them. For some reason, I find Maandu short, sweet and crispy. Its Hindustani equivalent is Maand ( Maandu is how it’s called in carnatic terms). It is beautifully structured with the following aarohanam and avarohanam:

Aarohanam: S G3 M1 P D2 S
Avarohanam: S N3 D2 P M1 G3 R2 S

A couple of days back, some of my friends and I were in the music room, baffled. Well, we’re always stuck when it comes to choosing songs for a performance. It became more difficult because it was for the fresher’s day. For other occasions, we are relatively quick in selecting songs. But this performance was for the students and more so, freshers, who hadn’t had the faintest idea of what happens at college before! So it had to be different and interesting!

We were rest assured that majority of the freshers would enjoy film songs. It went without saying for us! *Sigh* Still, we represented the c.l.a.s.s.i.c.a.l club, and the classical flavor had to be kept intact thereof! After a brain storming session, one of them suggested the song ‘Sowkiyamaa’ from ‘Sangamam,’ an ARR’s composition in Maandu raga. And then we added on, “How about a fusion? We’ll find another song from the same raga and fuse it! That might click!” Another friend immediately came up with an idea, “Muralidhara Gopala? Sounds good for a fusion right?” All of us in unison said, “Sounds perfect, finally!” So we set about sandwiching Muralidhara Gopala between Sowkiyamaa, and it did click just as we expected! Incidentally, in one of our performances post freshers day, the dancers of our team performed for the song ‘Narmugaye’, another ARR’s number set in Maandu! It all seemed like a, ‘Maandu’s in the air’ effect. :)

I am embedding a thillana set in Maand raga, sung by Charulatha Mani, with this blogpost. Happy hours listening!