IR (Ilayaraja) in 70-80's had given a couple of excellent songs in rithigowla. "thalayai kuniyum thamaraye" from "oru oadai nadhi agirathu" and the classic "chinna kannan azhaikkiran" from "kavikuyil". The former one sung by SPB (S. P. Balasubramaniyam) andUma Ramanan; and the later by BMK (Bala Murali Krishna). Good show by the vocalists. Raja has kept it simple with not much variation, just confirming to textbook standards of the raagam.
20 yrs later Raaja comes back with an amazing number in the same raagam, with a complex rhythm pattern, kanda chappu thalam cycle, with a mind blowing orchestration, "meetadha oru veenai" from "poonthottam". It is very unfortunate that this is one of those songs which goes into the dark annals, unnoticed. Sigh!!!
ARR (A.R. Rehman), with his “azhagana rakshasiye” from “mudhalvan”, poses a stiff competition to IR, in showing their mastery over the raagam. The song is well supported with the visual support by Shanker and team. Simple orchestration, good chord progression and stunning vocals by SPB and Harini.
VS (Vidhyasagar), comes up with “Sudum Nilavu” from “thambi” sung by Unnikrishnan and Harini. Honestly, I was a bit disappointed with VS after listening to the song. It reminds me of “meetadha oru veenai” a lot. Except for the rhythm pattern, much simplified from the sound-alike by IR, the chord progression and the melody resembles the song from “poonthottam” quite a lot.
Rithigowla is the child raagam from karaharapriya. I should say it is complex inheritance from KHP, “vakra janyam”. Some of the carnatic songs in the raagam;
