Raga Yaman Kalyani (and some Yaman/Kalyani too)

The carnatic raga Yaman Kalyani is a very close variant of Kalyani. That is, Yaman Kalyani is a janya raga (derived raga) of the melakarta raga Mechakalyani. The derivation is a result of addition/deletion of swaras (notes --sa, ri, ga, ma, pa, da, ni) to the characteristic pattern (Arahonam/Avarohanam) of the Melakarta raga. Other interesting janya ragams of Kalyani include the beautiful Hamir Kalyani (or Amir Kalyani), Saranga, Mand (or Maand), Behag (or Bihag), Mohanam (the latter ragas could have alternatively been derived from another hugely important raga Shankarabharanam).

The poetic liberties taken by the modern music directors often make it difficult to discriminate the raga for film songs and this is particularly true for close ragams like Kalyani, Yaman Kalyani (or Hamir Kalyani and Saranga, Madhuvanti and Dharmavathi -- which will be the subject of a later post).

One very popular Kannada kriti "Krishna Nee Begane Baro" set in Raga Yaman Kalyani is frequently sung in carnatic music concerts as "Thukkada" (a tiny piece). This one is sung by maestro Maharajapuram Santhanam.

Here is a fusion music piece of the same kriti "Krishna Nee Begane Baro" in Yaman Kalyani sung by Hariharan in a Live Concert.

The song "Thamizha Thamizha" from the movie Roja sung by Hariharan is one of those songs where shades of Kalyani and Yaman Kalyani make it hard to discriminate:

The song "Varaaga Nadhi" from the movie Sangamam sung by Shankar Mahadevan is set to Yaman Kalyani.

Here is a nice elucidation of Raga Yaman (the hindustani equivalent of Kalyani and indubitably the rationale for the existence of the carnatic Yaman Kalyani) by the Sarod Virtuouso Ustad Amjad Ali Khan. In this clip, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan illustrates his vocal talents too:

Raga Kalyani

Raga Kalyani (also known as Mechakalyani in the Melakarta Raga Classification scheme) is one of those Gana ("heavy") ragams that is not only rendered in great depth by traditional carnatic musicians but also is very popular in film music. Gana ragams in some sense represent the richness that is inherent in classical music . The fundamental character of the raga is abstractly represented by the "Arohanam" and "Avarohanam" -- the ascending and descending phrases that are unique to a Raga. Albeit the Arahonam and Avarohanam remains the same for whatever song/kriti based on a specific raga, the subtle variations of the individual notes (also called Gamaka) and emphasis on some subsets of phrases can make two songs based on the same raga being perceived quite differently.

Nowhere is the diversity of the same raga more apparent than in film songs based on classical music -- the richness inherent in the raga enables the brilliant music director to show different aspects of the same raga in completely different ways that the casual listener is duped into thinking each song is completely different.

Since Kalyani is such a popular raga, we will show several examples from the last several decades.

Here in "Mannavan Vandaanadi Thozhi", P.Susheela renders a great adaptation of the Carnatic Kalyani Ragam in the movie Thiruvarutchelvar (starring Sivaji Ganesan and Padmini -- a rather corpulent Padmini at that).






G.S. Mani Iyer's LecDem (Lecture Demonstration)tape is a big source of inspiration for this blog. We will use several examples from his LecDem but will try to augment them with music from the 80s, 90s and contemporary films as well. His selection for Kalyani Ragam is G.N.Balasubramanian's (GNB)rendition of the Great Maestro Thiagaraja's kriti Vasudevayani. We use the rendition of the same kriti by virtuoso Maharajapuram Santhanam.





The film song "Sinthanai Sei Maname" from the movie Ambikapathi has a striking similarity to Vasudevayani.

Here is a rendition of Kalyani by S.P.Balasubramanian (SPB) -- Song: Vandaal Mahalakshmiye Movie: Uyarndha Ullam

The duet "Nadhiyil Aadum" set in Kalyani from the movie Kathal Oviyam sung by S.Janaki and SPB.

The climax song "Dorakuna" sung by SPB in the telugu movie "Shankarabharanam" is set to Kalyani (though this song is typically sung in Raga Bilahari, the music director K.V.Mahadevan decided to render this in Kalyani).

Another K.J.Yesudas song "Amma Endru" from the Rajanikant movie "Mannan" set to Kalyani:

A more recent Kalyani is the song "Kaatril Varum" from the movie "Oru Naal Oru Kanavu":

The Hindustani equivalent of Kalyani is Raga Yaman. One can see the similarity from K.J.Yesudas' rendition of "Jab deep jale" from the Hindi movie Chitchor.

Now for a long piece on Kalyani -- Violin Maestro L.Subrahmanyam's Ragam Tanam Pallavi