For the uninitiated, E.M.H aka Nagore Haniffa.. is the pioneer of tamil islamic songs(at least thats what i believe la).. those from the 80s to now all know at least one of his songs ( remember "iraivanidam kaiyaenthungal" ?).. my mom listens to him almost religiously but personally i cant tolerate him.. His groggy and husky voice coupled with ripped off tamil song tunes and sometimes the arrogance in his voice.. if only this guys listens to himself...i bet he will agree... another irritating factor is the music, everything is designed to be loud and jarring.. maybe thats why everyone listens to it.. they have no choice i guess..the music paves the way to your ear drums and his voice makes the grand entry. I go running for mufflers when his songs are on..
Now coming to my Favourite... A.R.R... now this guy is a genious.. he has the soothing voice, the mastery in melody and this god given talent to make hair stand on end with his music (not coz its jarring ah ok).. his personal albums all are hits, like vande maathiram , but too bad he hasnt forayed into the islamic song market.. the only song closest to the genre, is the song "zikr" from the movie Bose the forgotten Hero ... just waiting for the day he is gonna make a religious album and oust all the competition.
food for thought: wats gonna happen when EMH collaborates with ARR and a single called " ganniya kalaimaanae feat ARR" is released... hope it neva happens.. if it did .. dun tell me.
food for thought: wats gonna happen when EMH collaborates with ARR and a single called " ganniya kalaimaanae feat ARR" is released... hope it neva happens.. if it did .. dun tell me.
PS: anyone knows the singer Kailash Kher?
10 comments:
It's not fair to compare E M with A R. In all respect, E M was in the islamic music field before A R did. And he was still there when A R was using his talents making complan and close up ads. No doubt it is jarring, loud and very old fashioned. BUT he put across messages to the Indian Muslim community which knows it's tamil songs better than the first few verses of the Quran. So the message got across only in Tamil music format. Now everyone knows some basic stuff (at least the fact of ask God for your needs instead of going crazy and he won't refuse? Iraivanidam kai yenthungal, avar illai endru solvathillai?)For the people in 70's and 80's E M was the A R. Now that we rich spoilt kids with MP3s are around, we just have to wait for A R and the likes to do something. Till then, I rather listen to E M. Have some respect for all that he has tried to do for the love of his religion man. Cocky, arrogant? I dunno la but definitely a God loving man in my eyes.
Ya and I want to add some more. Have you ever listened to the words of any of his songs? Do you know how much of religious knowledge that man has? He might even be a Ustad in his own right. Try listening to the words then you will know what I am talking about. I believe everyone also knows that he can't sing and he uses tamil movie tunes and even repeats his tunes. BUT he has a lot of fans among the Indian Muslim world because he has powerful words. He sings about Islam, about the prophet (s.a.w), about his companions, about all the people whom we should know about. Think about it. A man who can't sing and has no music talent who comes forward to sing and cut albums just to spread what he knows. Who is that daring? All these in Tamil Nadu where Hindus are a majority. Here we are. So scared to even talk outside our religious circle for the fear of what people would think of us and for the fear of being ostracized or misunderstood. E M was a man who crossed all that and bravely made his own songs not bothering about how the others would see him.Even non mulims know about him and some even listen to his songs.Who knows? Maybe A R does not have his guts. A man who could cut songs about his nation doesn't cut songs for his religion which he believes so strongly in. I do not wish to speculate further on this as I don't know what's his position. Saying E M may be arrogant....do you know when he came to Singapore, he performed at a few Community Centres including West Coast Community Centre for a few dollars per person. There was a large crowd to see him. If he was arrogant, he would have performed in Kallang Theatre and charged high and I'm telling you, still it would have been a crowd puller. I have nothing against A R. and A R is my favourite and I am not really a fan of E M. But E M has my respect.
suddenly i really miss my disclaimer pop up.. its kinda funny tho, when i disclaim, ppl tell me "jus get to the point, we know its jus a perspective, no offence held.. etc...etc..etc.." and somehow i have managed to handle far more sensitive issues without tugging at anyones nerve ( well yashila, if u gonna say that i didnt strike any nerve of yours.. well lets jus say, in my perspective ur reply sure did look as i struck some nerves .. haha..)as for the cockiness and arrogance...i used the same tone comparison like how we wud use on every other tom dick and harry.. like" hey, she sounded rather cocky and arrogant when i spoke to her on the phone" and i still stand by wat i said.. his voice does sound rather arrogant to me ( i said TO ME!!!!!) . I am not condemning him, i simply am sayin that he doesnt appeal to me and this being my blog, decided to put it in a more straight forward manner.. thats abt it.
the other thing is that u said "..he has a lot of fans among the Indian Muslim world because he has powerful words. He sings about Islam, about the prophet (s.a.w), about his companions, about all the people whom we should know about. Think about it."
you see ma, i didnt mention anythin abt his content, onli his methods (which are the jarring loud music and that irritatin voice which do not appeal to me!) as for the powerful words.. dei we come from a heritage that has mastered its language to its highest efficiency," yen iniya thamil makkalae" to "vaanam poligirathu boomi etc etc..."
you see ma, we can drag this topic to an extent where its gonna boil down to the classic " since u know better, why not do somethin abt it rather than pin pointin" but like the famous saying goes.. "everyone's a critic".. i never question EMHs charitable nature for u to state his CC performance as case studies.. neither did i question his courage for u to state his daringness to sing even tho he cant sing..
jus to end it off .. i am not against anyone.. jus that i dun like his music...
and just to add on...actually i forgot wat i wanted to say.. haha..
aiyo! bring the disclaimer back la! such a heated response...i cant remember if i've heard Mr Haniffa but prob on radio sometime ago. i think its unfair to expect musicians to cut a religious album just because they belong to a religion la. AR maybe a committed muslim but he is also in a very secular market in which he will raise more eyebrows than anything. i dont think he can make a islamic album one day and the next day make music for s j suryah. wont make sense. plus i find he makes many sufi based songs in his movies which might be his best option now to keep everyone happy, including himself as a muslim.
Yes A R can't. So that's why I said dun have to VS him with E M. E M shoudl be VS someone else in the same field. There is no comparison! Jalsa, you did struck a nerve when you used words such as irritating and arrogance. No doubt you didn't mention about his lyrics but you did mention tone of voice to be arrogant which implies the person to have arrogance. So I had to let you know some arumai perumais of his so that anyone reading your post could at least know a bit more about him than what's written by you.
Yup, its YOUR blog and you are entitled to your opinion. Likewise, its MY comments and I am allowed to disagree and state further details on your topic if I deem it necessary. No need for disclaimers, if you don;t want to know about what tugged at people's nerves, then just don't allow comments.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you're watching this live, know that this is a true display of the intricacies of free speech. As Mills said long before he died, let truth and falsehood grapple with each other! Let EM Haniffa sing a song for AR or vice versa! Let Jalsa have no disclaimers, for his speech is challenged by Yashila's counterspeech! Let the Blogosphere thrive! (Where's my EM Haniffa Cd when I need one)
eh, eh, eh , eh ( raguvaran style)
yenna 8-kum , 10-kum naduvulae maathiri? kaetaena, BUNS commentary kudunu kaetaena?
anyway back to topic.. like i said yashila, ur reply does seem heated and charged with emotions.( in my point of view of course, with no offense intended to anyone living or dead or just in a mood to wack me up). guess calebs reply is testament to that.. and yesh maaps the disclaimer IS on its way back..
ok, first of all, my topic EMH vs ARR, was not intended to be a critique/comparison between both the "superstar-s" capabilities.. it was meant to be more like an avid cartoon maniac going like what if ah " transformers vs street fighters", u see it was meant to be a what if that happens kinda situation.. u can obviously rebutt by saying that too is an unfair comparison by stating that transformer is made of metal la, S.Fighters are human la, how to win?. etc etc etc.. i can't help that..the topic was never meant to be a comparative/recomendation review (prayin that i dun get wacked for this)wat eva commentary i made, were reasons for me not likin his music, i didnt imply anythin on him or his POWERFUL lyrics...
For a moment u seemed like one of those tamil movie henchman going like " yevanda avan? yean thalaia pathi thappa paesunathu, avaru yea religionuku yenna yenna pannunaarunu unakku theriyuma? yeduda aruvalae, vaettaamae uda maatae!!!" dun be too quick to jump to conclusion la ( if u are gonna deny/justify this action, then let me state that this too is a P.O.V)
and BUNS, bro, truth and falsehood can grapple or even grope each other, i believe the problem here was perspective.. and ya man , wud like to hear ARR and EMH square off ( i said square off and not feature each other in their songs)
not bad.. its been interestin so far
Not bad ah Jalsa, your last comment had so many disclaimers in them that you have outdone yourself in the area of "how many disclaimers can there be in a single continous speech" Well done! :p
Mr Bun - What do u mean you can't find the cd? Lost it issit? (Takes the aruvaal that was put down after deciding not to chop Jalsa)
i think your comments are highly disrespectful and ugly. i will politely urge you to remove this piece. i am not a fan of EM haniffa but because the message and lyrics of his songs are sacred, you have to respect it. by simply picking on the way he sings and his music, you are indeed being greatly insensitive and obnoxious.
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