Ranam Sugam - A Review

Ranam Sugam – Pain is Good

Coincidences happen a lot – Tamil World Conference started from Wednesday and I have been reading and listening to a tamil book and music! ;)

A Tamil musical Novelette by Padhai is a new concept which interested and impressed me a lot. Firstly I would like to thank them because after long time I got to read tamil and refresh my reading skills in this language ;)

Am sure you would have seen the promo’s and even a chapter’s translation in Sree’s Blog and the Music Review in Meghana’s blog.

So after reading this book and listening to the 10 tracks, here I come with my review – my take on this musical novelette.
Before Reading any book, I have the tendency to read the back cover to know the gist of what am about to read – “It’s a story of 5 College Friends and their Music Band, set up to win the title of a competition judged by A.R.Rehman”
Ranam Sugam did look like a promising read and it sure didn’t disappoint me!

A very simple story, written in simple tamil(thankfully :P) with some lovely music!! :D

The book is written from the point of view of Naren, the main character in this book and his journey along with his friends in the quest of his search for his love and his goal.

The start itself, the introduction of Characters: Siva, Chandru, Shameer, Divya and Naren (himself) from Naren’s point of view was pretty good and laid a good foundation for the whole story. They are all different, but friends bound by common interest – Music. Each friend has different taste of music but still they form a group. And then Ramya also joined their group.

On one side is the story of Naren and Ramya who become more that just friends but never tell each other.

On the other side is the music group and their quest to participate and win the competition judged by A.R.Rehman. In between these two stories comes the ways how relations turn sweet and sour, be it among couples or friends.

This is a story of love which actually never took off, despite the fact that both liked each other. The hesitation from guy’s point of view in expressing his love till the end is pretty natural.
This is a story of how friends stick to each other despite their difference of opinions.

I personally expected more on the band’s quest to win the competition which was short-lived because of a fight among friends. But then this part simply stopped here.

The ending was too good. It said it all about life as he compared it with a child who was playing and gets hurt. He starts crying initially but after sometime again goes to play though his pain is not completely gone. Whatever pain you come across, you move on with your life feeling that pain always. Sometimes Pain is good too.

Coming to music- Each chapter had a track. First I just read the book and then listened to music. With a musical novelette that’s not fair. I then listened to each track as I read each chapter and that gave me the real feeling of this musical novelette! 
I have to say that the music at times seemed inspired by Rahman’s music but then that’s not surprising especially with the mention in the book about each character’s love for different music.
I loved all the tracks. Lyrics were equally good. Thought and written well for each of the track to suit the situation.
Track 1 – Yaar Aval - foot tapping number..loved the feel of it..where the guy is mesmerized by a girl..we surely are mesmerized by the song! :)
Track – 2 – En Nanbane - Soulful music..with the girl’s voice sounding a tad in lines of Bombay jayashree. Awesome composition! :)
Track – 3 – Thedi - Bharathiyar lyrics mixed into fusion. It was very good attempt. The chapter describes on how they want the music to sound when they compose this music. And it was good!! They didn’t disappoint!!
Track – 4 –Nilayum Thoongalam – Awesome one..loved it..I could imagine myself along with the band in the balcony with no light except the moon light!
Track – 5 – Veyil Mazhai – Nice feel good song :) Lovely music!!
Track – 6 – Paathiyil Vilaguvathu – This has dialogues in between. The friends are drunk and revive their friendship back and the guy is opening up to them telling about his love. The dialogues for some reason reminded me about the dialogues coming in movies like Goa. Maybe the recent movies too had the similar effect. The dialogues made me laugh more though the song was supposed to be full of feelings!
Track – 7 – Ranam Sugam - The girl is gone forever from the guy’s life and hence the situational song of “Pain is good”. Lovely music. I have been humming this tune from the time I heard it. Again another awesome composition!!
Track -8 –Vaazhthai Thavarivittal – Another awesome number. You can feel the sorrow in the singer’s voice relating to the situation of the guy who feels that his life is gone forever.
Track – 9 – Ranam Sugam Remix – Remixes do tend to spoil the original but this wasn’t to be in the case here. Ranam Kuda Sugam Thaan line and the tune itself makes you feel yourself that Pain is good in your life too.
Track – 10 –Music – No lyrics. Has the same mood that I felt in the whole album. Lovely music again.

Overall the album has sad song and music only to go along with the theme of the book but its awesome. Do listen to it. But to appreciate it more, you should read the book 1st! :)
I would love to hear Paadhai perform these songs live!!

While Reading the book and listening to the music, I could imagine all the scenes happening just before me. Hats off to Paadhai for “Ranam Sugam”!

Eagerly waiting more from Paadhai!! :D