Strawberry Flavored Cleverfolk

This category has folk lyrics with a CCM raga based melody. This is a very popular Raja flavor and the CCM raga is mostly ignored due to the rhythm arrangement and folkish lyrics.

There are countless tracks of Raja that have the Carnatic touch to a folk lyric. I will list some top of mind examples. All ragams are courtesy of Vel Ramanan.

1. Chitira Chevvanam from Kaatrinile Varum Geetham (1978) set to Savithri ragam.
2. Megam Karukuthu from Ananda ragam (1982) set to Abheri ragam.
3. Aathadi Paavadai kaathada from Ponvilangu (1984) set to Laavantika ragam.
4. Paadariyaen Padipariyaen from Sindhu Bhairavi (1986) set to Saramathi ragam.
5. Arumbagi Mottagi from Enga Ooru Kavalkaran (1988) set to Charukesi ragam.
6. Thaana Vandha Sandhaname from Ooru Vitu Ooru vandhu (1990) set to karaharapriya ragam
7. Kottukali kottu nayanam from Chinnavar (1992) set to Mayamalavagowlai ragam
8. Adukkumalli from Avarampoo (1992) set to Karaharapriya ragam
9. Vanam Ellam Shenbagapoo from Nadodi Paatukkaran (1992) set to Madhyamavathi ragam.
10. Aalapol Velappol from Ejaman (1993) set to Shankarabharanam ragam.
11. Chinna rasavey from Walter Vetrivel (1993) set to Lathangi ragam
12. Azhagana Manja Pura from Ellame En Raasathaan (1995) set to Madhyamavathi ragam.

All the tracks listed are fantastic melodies but have a folkish lyric. Most of them are runaway hits of Raja and he seems to have used a lot of this technique in the early 90s – nice flavor to folk lyrics. While several composers have attempted to do this strawberry flavoring, no one has succeeded as much as Raja as he has the deep knowledge of both the systems – folk and Carnatic.

The clip below is a folk raagamalika with the following ragas Savithri (Chitira Chevvanam) followed by Charukesi (Arumbagi Mottagi) followed by Karaharapriya (Thaana Vandha Sandhaname) and finally ends with Madhyamavathi (Azhagana Manja Pura).