A unique song...

I have always felt the word "Unique" come to my mind whenever I have listened to "Sandhosha Kanneere" (Dil se re in Hindi). Rahman has never quite composed a song like that after that. In fact no composer has composed a similar song. It is the ultimate song of contrasts and contradictions. I have not been able to slot it into any genre of music. It has got some unbelievably energetic and full throated bursts where you get so breathless on even listening to it. And as if ARR required a break when singing with such intensity he suddenly mellows down to render such lilting and moving lines "Kanneere, sandhosha Kanneere....". There is one total "yekkam" and "parental sublime love" when he sings that "Penne, penne, pesaa penne" lines. Even the BGMs in the song are totally unique, especially the guitar bits in the second BGM that are so contradicted by those booming drums. Its almost like the two layers of music even within a BGM seem to contest each other's feel, leave alone the contrast between parts of the song. The visuals also puzzle me, with dancing kids and random people celebrating and so on.
The only part of the song that has been repeated by ARR in his subsequent and previous films is that delightful overlap between the chorus and ARR's restrained singing in the pallavi that comes after the second charanam. The chorus so beautifully sings the lines ("Sandhosha kanneere" onwards) in lag with ARR's vocals. This has been repeated most memorably in Theendai (it got released very close to Dil se - Another trait of ARR that seems to be observeable, he seems to repeat a particular technique/ fad he likes in his works in a particular time. Enough of the digression though. Anyway, Theendai had very little to do with chorus singers, so the digression stops here). Actually, a single major scoring point of ARR when compared to Ilayaraja is his taste in Chorus singers. If only Ilayaraja's chorus singers did not have that jarring and irritating tinge in them! If I were to indulge in a digression where I mention the song in which I most enjoyed ARR's chorus singers it has to be Madhuraiku pogaadhadi. ("Karpoora kannigaiye vaaraai" and so on - reaching a peak in "Nee indira maharaaniye" , beautiful rendition there!)
All in all, coming back to Sandhosha kanneere - it was one hell of a song that totally refreshed my spirits after a long work day. Listening to it in Big 92.7 FM actually made me experience the radio station's tagline "Kekkalaam, pesalaam, life kondaadalaam!!!"
Anyways readers, why dont you list other unique songs of ARR? I really want to go into another ARR rediscovery journey over the next few weeks. Keep posting, and sorry for the delay between posts!