This site attempts to showcase the Indian musical genius - Ilayaraja and his work with both Western and Indian Classical music over the last 5 decades.
This is very uncommon even with Raja’s work. I am yet to find a film track where he has used this technique. This involves using male voices to sing swarams for chorus parts.
Scanning through Raja’s work of 4 decades with film songs, I could not find a single example that meets this category’s criteria. However, thanks to Kamal, who found the 3-in-1 track that Raja performed during the Andrum Indrum Endrum show of 2005, Raja got male chorus singers to sing carnatic swaras.
This is not very common with Raja’s work. This requires both the male and female voices to sing to a ragam the main composition is based out of. There are a few examples I could think of. None of these are perfect examples. Readers can contribute to this category as I could not find exact matching songs.
Andela Ravamidhi - Swarna Kamalam (Telugu 1988) – Shades of Ranjani and Dharmavathi. The ragam is hard to nail and has the regular Raja twists, according to Suresh.
Let's hear Andela...
Guru Charanam from Guru (Malayalam 1997) – Harikhambhodi. This track is hard to nail it under one category. However, Raja sticks to the main ragam with all the male/female chorus he includes in this track. Listen to this song carefully. The first part of the clip has human voices arranged by the ‘Carnatic Raja’. The second part (interlude 1) is the violins and the background violins with the Oboe arranged to the same perfection by the ‘harmony Raja’. The third part is the second interlude where he puts on both hats!
Let's hear the ludes of Guru Charanam...
Paartha Vizhi from Guna (Tamil 1992) – Paavani. This is probably the only film song in this ragam. The background music before the song itself starts off in this ragam. The chorus that is present throughout the track sticks to the ragam as well. The song has more chorus parts than the time for the main singer!
Let's hear Paartha Vizhi...
Isaiyil thodanguthamma from Hey Ram (Tamil 2000) – Set to Saranga tharangini and sang by the Hindustani classical expert Ajoy Chakraborthy, this song has some fantastic mixed choir arranged in a North Indian style arrangement.
This is very uncommon even with Raja’s work. I am yet to find a film track where he has used this technique. This involves using male voices to sing swarams for chorus parts.
