Nandha@Kelvikuri Absolutely true. One of my favorite songs in Nalinakanthi Ragam is Manam Virumbuthe. Quite a lot of his songs have Sufi bases, including Salomiya and Vithavithama Soapu. @sargru90
Sarguru@ionhandshaker @Kelvikuri I think the Sufi influence is through gana. Mugavari is another wonderful album (ignoring 2 blatantly plagiarised numbers) with that tone.Imho he is rightly credited for making gana mainstream in Tamil cinema but he has this street smart music sense which is very rare, that makes him tick in every form of music. Sadly very few see that.
@sargru90 He has also used a lot of classical music in the background score of Avvai Shanmugi and synced it beautifully. Kalyanam Katchery song, check at 1:19 here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfcFvMenUYQ
And then, watch this. Dance of the Cygnets by Tchaikovsky.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GsajWIF3ws
He'd keep using Raghuvamsa Sudha for BGM whenever Gemini Ganesan comes up on screen. Extremely versatile and street smart, as you say. @Kelvikuri
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfcFvMenUYQ
And then, watch this. Dance of the Cygnets by Tchaikovsky.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GsajWIF3ws
He'd keep using Raghuvamsa Sudha for BGM whenever Gemini Ganesan comes up on screen. Extremely versatile and street smart, as you say. @Kelvikuri