Sahana is one of those ragas which has so much inherent classicism in it that it is very difficult to mould it to the needs to film music. K V Mahadevan did a wonderful job of morphing Sahana enough to fit it into film music with the 'parthen sirithen' song in 'Veera Abhimanyu'. It has since then remained the gold standard as far as Sahana in Tamil / Telugu film music. Later, Deva did a take on Sahana in 'Avvai Shanmugi'. The song was 'rukku rukku rukku'. A fun song but a cliched Sahana. There are traces of Sahana in Rahman's "kannamoochi enada" but there are too many ragas mixed in that song, not just Sahana. Raja, surprisingly, hasn't given any major song in Sahana. I hear that in some ragamalika song of his, Sahana appears and as background music in 'Unnal Mudiyum Thambi' but no full song in this raga. Another song by Rahman, 'anbe sugama' from 'Parthale Paravasam' also has Sahana touches but I wouldn't say it is completely Sahana based. On the other hand, V.S. Narasimhan's 'indha veenaikku theriyadhu' for the TV Serial 'Rail Sneham' is a very nice Sahana. (There have been Sahana based songs prior to KVM's song but I don't recall them now. G S Mani had spoken about those songs in his Lec Dem tape on 'Ragas in Carnatic Music'. )
Malayalam film music is a rich treasure house for raga based film tunes. We will find the music directors using a lot of uncommon ragas, from film music perspective, and using it very well. In one of the early posts in this series, I had spoken about how Dakshinamurthy Swamy dealt with Begada and gave us a wonderful melody. (You can read that post here. ) In case of Sahana too there are a couple of nice melodies in Malayalam light music. One, which I was very impressed with was M.G.Radhakrishnan's 'jayadeva kaviyude'. This is from his 'lalitha sangeetham' collection. M.Jeyachandran provides a nice Sahana in modern setting in the movie 'Perumazhakaalam'. The song being 'chenthar mizhi'.
The song we will talk about today is from the film 'Kaliyattom': 'ennodhenthinee pinakkam'. Written and set to music by Kaithapram. Sung beautifully by Bhavana Radhakrishnan. The song portrays the 'viraha' feeling of the woman in question. Someone who knows Tamil can understand these lyrics easily. Kaithapram's lyrics in simple words capture the pain of separation effectively. The tune is extremely melodious but also conveys the intended emotion. Ofcourse being a film song we can see the song deviating a bit from Sahana in some places, (in some places in the first interlude you almost get a Dvijawanthi feeling) but overall the feel of Sahana is well maintained. The orchestration is in keeping with the theme of the film.
Enjoy this lovely Sahana, thanks to Kaithapram and his team
Long back I had written a few posts on ragamalikas in Carnatic music and promised that I will write about ragamalikas in films soon. So here is the post, though it is not 'soon' now. (My posts on 'Ragamalikas in Carnatic music Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3)
There are many situations in which ragamalikas are used in films. Today I will concentrate on ragamalikas in bhakthi films. In essence I am going to speak about two things which have almost disappeared from films. Bhakthi films and ragamalikas.
In an earlier era, we have seen a stream of bhakthi and mythological films hit the screens in South India, especially in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh (I think it was the case in Kerala and Karnataka too.) With the changing demographics of the viewers the bhakthi and mythological films lost their allure. In earlier days, film watching was a family exercise. The number of films watched with parents in those days was more than those watched with friends. The mythologies were the genre which could easily bring the family to the theatre. These were 'clean' films and in addition they thought you the value of belief in religion and God. Releasing a bhakthi film during festival season was a sure fire way to success for the producer. With the buying power of the youth increasing and with movies being made for multiplexes, these movies lost their charm. The mythologies / bhakthi genre shifted to the TV. (There are movies of this genre which come out once in a while but they are few and far between.)
The ragamalika has died a silent death in movies. Nowadays with the need for 'catchy' and 'youthful' tunes you cannot expect ragamalikas. The only ragamalikas you get are when the music director accidentally shifts to another raga or to add some spice a song will briefly change the raga. Ragamalikas were used in multiple scenarios: singing on stage, competition between two singers, lovers singing in various locations etc.
Enough of the prelude. Let check out some ragamalikas in mythologies today. In later posts I will cover ragamalikas in love songs and in other scenarios.
People loved to see as many holy places as possible in the movies. Many such holy places were showed as part of song. Since the holy places were many, the song was long and it was a perfect for a ragamalika. The greatness of each holy place will be extolled in one raga. Here are a few examples:
The first song we will hear is from the movie 'Kandan Karunai'. Sung by Seergazhi Govindarajan, the song talks about the six famous temples of Lord Muruga, collectively known as 'arupadai veedu'. K V Mahadevan has set tune to the lyrics of Kannadasan. The master that he was of words, in just two lines Kannadasan casually tells the story of each of these temples. Lovely tune, outstanding lyrics and spirited singing made this song an evergreen one.
If the earlier song was a major hit in Tamilnadu, this song is still heard all over Andhra Pradesh. It is almost like a signature tune for Ghantasala along with the legendary 'Sivasankari'. Lyrics by Arudra and music by Pendyala. Gantasala delivers the song as only he can. This too talks about the singer visiting multiple shrines and each shrine is covered by one raga.
In the late 70s or early 80s, the film 'Jagadguru Adi Shankaracharya' was very famous. It was a Malayalam movie which was dubbed in Tamil and was a major hit in Tamil. It had many good tunes. The ragamalika song was 'Shankara Digvijayam'. As the starting words indicate, it is about Adi Shankara visiting multiple shrines. Jesudas is at his peak, words by Bhaskaran and tuned by Dakshinamurthy Swamy, who was a master in composing ragamalikas.
Another standard use of ragamalika was when slokas were recited in praise of the lord and Ghantasala was undoubtedly the master in this genre. Here are two superb sloka recitals of his.
The first one is from 'Kalahasthi Mahatmiyam' which was simultaneously made in Telugu and Kannada. Rajkumar acted as the hero in both the version. (It was called 'Bedara Kannappa' in Kannada). Here too multiple shrines are invoked. Music by R.Sudarsanam and R. Govardanam.
One of the most famous slokas recited in Telugu films must be 'Manikya Veena' in the film 'Mahakavi Kalidasa'. The sloka of Kalidasa is set to music by Pendyala.
A sage or Narada walking around singing about the Lord was one more situation which came in handy for tuning ragamalikas. Here is Sivaji Ganesan as Naradar from the film 'Saraswathi Sabadham'. Lyrics of Kannadasan, tuned by K V Mahadevan and sung by T M Soundarrajan, this is an iconic song.
One area where ragamalika is used a lot are dance songs. I am just giving one sample here. I will write more about them in another post. This ragamalika is from the film 'Narthanasala'. The film deals with the Pandavas 'agnyatha vasam' period. Sung by Ghantasala and Janaki, this is a lovely ragamalika composed by S.Dakshinamurthy (He is different from Dakshinamurthy Swamy, who was a Malayalam composer). Words by Samudrala.
Finally two versions of the same song. This is a straightforward devotional sung in Ragamalika. From 'Kalahasthi Mahatmyam' and 'Bedara Kannappa'. Two different singers singing the same song.
First, Ghantasala singing 'madhuram siva manthram'. Lyrics of Toleti. Music by Sudarsanam & Goverdhanam
The Kannada version of the song from the movie 'Bedara Kannappa'. Sung by C.S.Jayaraman. Words by S.Nanjappa. Music by Sudarsanam & Goverdhanam. ( C.S.Jayaraman was a Tamil singer. So you can hear the Tamil accent a bit in the singing.)
As an exercise, you can try and figure out the ragas in each of the ragamalikas.
Let me first confess that the title is not rigorously valid. The first song I am going to post is not exactly Devamanohari but gives that flavor when it starts. The second one is not a 'modern' Kedar but rather a standard Kedar with 'modern' arrangements. Cut me some slack here because sometimes you need a catchy title to get people interested.
The first song is by an Irish group called 'Corrs'. Mostly made up of talented females. I watched 'Corrs' first on a MTV Unplugged show. I was very fascinated, especially by the drumming. I had forgotten all about them until a Tamil movie called 'Sakkarakatti' arrived. It had a song called "Elay" and there was a discussion on a bulletin board about the violin section in that song being taken from 'Corrs'. That made me revisit the 'Corrs' and I keep hearing this song often.
This is an Irish folk song and I see from youtube that lot more folks have covered it. The initial part, to me, sounds like Devamanohari. After the initial part, the song takes its own route. The percussion instrument which looks like an oversized kanjira and I love the way she plays it . The violin player is terrific as well.
That was an unplugged performance. Here is a standard electric performance of the same number by Corrs. That kanjira is replaced by normal drums and the piece sounds bit more 'rockish'.
Today I got a link from my twitter friend Praveen, checking with me if a certain piece was based on Kedar raga. (Kedar is North Indian counterpart of Hameer Kalyani.) It was indeed based on Hamir Kalyani. Unlike many of the fusion pieces I have heard recently, this one did not do fusion just for the sake of it. The orchestration supports the main melody very well and doesn't intrude. Very enjoyable piece which resembles 'humko man ki shakthi dena' in some places. The lady has a very strong voice. (I have no idea about this group. Any info will be highly appreciated. )
And if you have heard these two songs, kindly give this song a listen as well. A modern day Qawali from the same group as above which gave the Hamir Kalyani piece.
Rajesh Khanna, the first 'super star' of Hindi films, passed away recently. He was responsible for the pleasant memories of a whole generation. As expected, his passing away made people sad. At the same time it made them nostalgic for those innocent days, when the music was melodious, the singers were titans and then there was the charm and charisma of Rajesh Khanna.
There have always been Director-Music Director, Actor-Music Director combinations which have given great music. RajKapoor-Shankar Jaikishan, Vijay Anand - S D Burman, Hrishikesh Mukherjee - R D Burman in the Dir-MD combo and Dev Anand-S D Burman, Shammi Kapoor - Shankar Jaikishan in the Actor - MD combo come to mind immediately. Similarly Rajesh Khanna - R D Burman - Kishore is what comes to mind immediately when one thinks of Rajesh Khanna. While this trio gave us some extraordinary music, I feel Rajesh Khanna inspired other music directors as well to give him the best. Unlike Raj Kapoor or Dev Anand, Rajesh Khanna doesn't seem to have much say in the music of the film. Atleast going by the later record, I am sure the music which happened during Rajesh Khanna's peak period did not have much input from him. Yet, his charisma was such that it led music directors to create some outstanding melodies for him. It was just as if his presence in a movie was enough to bring the best out of the music directors.
To give evidence to this theory of mine, I am going to point to songs which were not composed by R D Burman or S D Burman. For Rajesh Khanna has always been tied to R D Burman and I want to show how even other music directors gave their best for him. Rajesh Khanna's stardom lasted from 1969, when 'Aradhana' was released to till around 1975. Not a long period and yet the songs of that period are indelible in our minds.
Let us start with the film which everyone quoted from, sometimes wrongly calling him 'babu moshai'. (That's not what Rajesh Khanna is called in the film. That's what he calls Amitabh!!). 'Anand' was a huge hit. Music by Salil Chaudary. 'maine tere liye hi'. Here it is not Kishore but Mukesh who is the voice of Rajesh Khanna.
Now let us check how he inspired Kalyanji Anandji. To aid Rajesh Khanna's charisma they came up 'jeevan se bhari tere aankhe', almost matching the greatest song they had composed for 'Saraswati Chandra', "chandan sa badan". Kishore's deep vocals and lovely lyrics by Indivar, make this an everlasting melody. Safar also had that 'zindagi ka safar'. Another unforgettable song.
It is Kishore again, this time under the baton of Hemant Kumar singing the lyrics of Gulzar and creating magic. This Kalyani / Yaman laced melody is a personal favorite of mine. A melancholic song which benefits a lot from the vocals of Kishore Da
Madan Mohan isn't a music director whom you would instinctive associate with Rajesh Khanna. Yet, he came up with some lovely melodies in the movie, 'Bawarchi'. Here is Manna Dey becoming the voice of Rajesh Khanna. As is Madan Mohan's wont, he takes up a relatively rare Kaushik Dhani raga (aka Bhinna Shadaj) and tunes the pallavi in it. The charanam is in Ahir Bhairav (Chakravagam). Not a 'typical' Rajesh Khanna song I would say but an excellent melody nevertheless. This movie also has 'bhor aayi gaya andhiyaara', where Madan Mohan does fusion of sorts
And here are Rajesh and Kishore urging Laxmikanth Pyarelal to give out their best. From the movie 'Mehboob Ki Mehndi', many a times I feel it has a RD Burman touch, especially the pace of the song. (During those times R D Burman was exerting a lot of musical influence, especially in songs meant for Rajesh Khanna.) Lyrics by Anand Bakshi. I love the 'jaane kya maine sun liya, tune kuch kaha nahin'. A fetching Leena Chandravarkar is an added bonus if you watch the song.
A couple of more Laxmikanth Pyarelal songs, which sound very typically like Rajesh-RDB-Kishore songs. Here is this sad song from 'mere naseeb main hai dost' from "Do Raaste". The pace and orchestration are very similar to R D Burman. And if you are an old timer and I tell you the video features Mumtaz, you will obviously watch it immediately.
The next LP song comes from the film 'Daag' and again you will be excused if you thought it was R D Burman melody. Another super hit song from Rajesh Khanna's peak period. Shair's lyrics and Sharmila Tagore with him
Let me close this tribute with a very atypical Rajesh Khanna song. From the movie, 'Aavishkar', lyrics of Kapil Kumar and music by Kanu Roy. It is a very typical soft Bengali melody. Sung by Manna Dey.
All the songs above give a glimpse of what it was musically in the late 60s and early 70s. That was the peak period of R D Burman, Kishore and Rajesh Khanna. They inspired other music directors as well, who came up with some amazing melodies. By late 70s Rajesh Khanna's super stardom was fading. A lanky lad called Amitabh Bachan was taking over. Amitabh could never inspire the music directors like Rajesh Khanna did and the melodies started fading. And Hindi film music went downhill from thereon.
External intervention is sometimes required to boost the sagging spirits. It happens in life and it also happens in film music. Like how Rahman's Tamil film songs gave a new direction to Hindi film music in later part of 90s, even before Rahman himself entered the fray in Hindi. The same thing happened to Telugu film music in the late 70s and early 80s.
To me the Telugu film music of late 70s and early 80s was a bit stale. Giants like Rajeshwar Rao and Pendyala were slowly fading away and the music scene was dominated by Chakravarthy, whose music was mediocre, if I have to put it lightly. K V Mahadevan's music was bright in patches. The music was outstanding when he did movies with directors with an artistic bent of mind like K.Vishwanath and Bapu and had a tired feel when he had to do the normal 'masala' movies, where he had to compete with Chakravarthy. Ramesh Naidu and Sathyam came up with good tunes now and then but they were not 'commercially' very successful. It was during such times that Rajan Nagendra entered from Kannada movie field with their Kannada tunes. It was as if on a very hot day, a gust of cool breeze suddenly caressed your body. My friend always feels that two music directors from outside the state, Rajan-Nagendra from Karnataka and Illayaraja from Tamilnadu gave freshness to Telugu film music during those times. I fully agree with him.
As far as I know, almost all the Rajan Nagendra songs in Telugu seem to have Kannada counterparts. I found this later but even if I had known it during those time I wouldn't have cribbed. Some of the songs I have enjoyed the most and are still very memorable happen to be Rajan Nagendra's tunes. Songs like 'poojalu seya poolu thechanu', 'siri malle neeve', 'ennenno janmala bandham', 'intinti ramayanm', 'mallelu pooche', 'manasa veena' are still loved by everyone. The melodic structure and the instrumentation sounded very fresh when compared to the then prevalent sounds in Telugu film music that we embraced these songs the very moment we heard it. Rajen Nagendra are a part of every Telugu music fan who grew up in the later 70s and early 80s. They didn't do music for too many Telugu movies but what they did in movies like 'Sommakkadidhi Sokkokkadidhi', 'Intinti Ramayanam', 'Pantulamma', 'Pooja', 'Nalugu Stambalata' has ensured they will enshrined in the pantheon of Telugu film music directors.
I would have loved to link their 'manasa veena' from 'Panthulamma' which is a great ragamalika. Unfortunately youtube doesn't have it. SPB had many good things to say about this song and how even Susheela balked at the difficulty of this song. Instead I am going to give you another interesting song. Interesting in a different sense. Raja Nagendra first made this song in Kannada. Then they brought this song to Telugu. Later Nadeem Shravan took it to Hindi. The song was a hit in all three languages.
Here is the Kannada version from the film 'Bayaludari'
Here is the Telugu version from 'Naalugu Sthambalaata'
Here is the Hindi version from the movie, 'Deewana', a song which kick-started Shah Rukh's journey to super startdom:
For those who want to listen to 'manasa veena', the 47th song in this link:
I don't know much about their work in Kannada films, where they did have a great impact. Those who know about their contribution to Kannada film music may kindly comment.
There are some songs which almost everyone likes in the first listen and then continues liking even after a long time. Some songs catch our attention in the first listen but we slowly lose interest in it after multiple listens. Some songs catch the attention of only a few people while some songs, (massive hits when released) are slowly forgotten after a certain period of time. There are only a few songs which remain as fresh as when they were released and which are even now loved by everyone. To this category belongs the song of today, 'chandan sa badan'.
I saw and heard this song for the first time when the movie 'Saraswathi Chandra' was screened on Doordarshan. Those were the days when every movie screened on TV was watched as TV was still a novelty. Saturday and Sunday evenings were reserved for movie watching on TV, irrespective of the quality of the movie screened. When I heard this song the first time I was fascinated. Mukesh used to be, and still is, a favorite singer of mine. So I doubly happy when I heard this melody. I have since then heard it in almost all Mukesh collections and I still don't tire of this song. I guess it is the same for many of you who have heard this song earlier.
The music of this song is by Kalyanji Anandji. I always think that their musical output was very similar to another duo, Lakshmikanth Pyarelal. Some memorable tunes and lot of ordinary stuff. They had scored music for some very successful movies like 'Safar', 'Don', 'Qurbani', 'Mukkadar Ka Sikandar', 'Johnny Mera Naam', 'Dharmatma' etc. Yet, the number of songs of this duo I like is a very small percentage of their output.
The charm of this lies in its simplicity. It is a fairly uncomplicated tune, with uncomplicated orchestration, sung in a very uncomplicated, straight from the heart mode by Mukesh. The lyrics of Indiwar are simple. You hear them once and the words embedded themselves in your heart.Black and White is always fascinating. Added to it you have Nutan on screen. The Kalyani ragam (or Yaman) is used very effectively in this song. No wonder it captured the hearts of a generation and still continues to. I can safely say that all those associated with the song, Kalyanji-Anandji, Indiwar and Mukesh achieved immortality through this song.
As a bonus, I give you another song of Kalyanji Anandji I like a lot. I love the lyrics and the way Kishore and Asha deliver the song. This is a slightly rare song, compared to many of the other 'hits' of Kalyanji Anandji. from the film 'Mahal' starring Dev Anand and Asha Parekh.
Last week, one of the famous music directors, Ravi, passed away. He had two names, Ravi while in Bombay and Bombay Ravi, while in Kerala. I like Bombay Ravi more than the Ravi without the qualifier. Ravi composed many Hindi songs which are everlasting. Songs such as 'Chaudvin Ka Chand', 'O Meri Zohra Jabeen', 'Baar Baar Dekho', 'Dil Ke Armaan', 'Neele Gagan Pe Tale' : to give a few samples.
The saying is, "To the dead we owe only the truth." So let me confess that I have never been a great fan of Ravi's work in Hindi films. Yes, I like some of the songs listed above but overall I have never been too fascinated by the songs he composed in Hindi. Somehow I couldn't relate much to the big hits like 'Neele Gagan Pe' or 'Chalo Ik Baar'. The tunes did not hold much fascination for me and the fact that Mahendar Kapoor was involved made it even more difficult to appreciate the song. In essence, the percentage of his work in Hindi that I liked was not very high.
Bombay Ravi on the other hand is someone I like. Ravi came down south and gave some songs which have become part of almost every Malayalee who was a teenager in the 80s. Bombay Ravi, as he was called in Kerala, had an excellent association with Hariharan / M T Vasudevan Nair combine and they produced some excellent movies and great melodies. Movies like 'Nakakshathangal', 'Panchagni', 'Vadakkan Veera Gatha', 'Sargam' are classics and the music in them has great enduring quality. As I said, Bombay Ravi's music during this phase is something which the Malayalees will not forget anytime soon.
I like a lot of songs Ravi gave for Malayalam films. Yes, we have to agree that he operated within a restricted range in Malayalam, a few songs sounding very similar to each other. (My twitter says that Ravi became template based.) He had a penchant for ragams like Mohanam and Pahadi and kept using them often. Inspite of that, the songs he gave in Malayalam tend to move you. Also this ensured his style was easily identifiable. I could discern a lot of North Indian touches in the main melody but overall he was able to hide the North Indian influence quite well. (For example, if you listen carefully you can see that 'neeraduvan' is like a reworking of 'chaudvin ka chaand'.)
I will now give a list of songs which will help you understand why Bombay Ravi is so famous in Malayalam. The songs you will hear are gentle melodies which you can easily associate with Malayalam films.
Let's start with this song which gave Chitra a National Award.From the movie, "Nakakshathangal", this a delicate melody.
This K J Jesudas song from 'Panchagni' was a major hit as well. I can discern the Northern influence in the way the tune moves and in the interludes but overall this melody is a big hit in Kerala:
While I like a lot of Bombay Ravi songs in Malaylam, this Hindolam based number sung by Jesudas is my personal favorite. From the movie, 'Mayookham'
A Darbari Kanada melody. Rendered superbly by Chitra, as usual. Words of ONV Kurup. 'indhu puspam' from 'Vaishali' :
This song is what I would call a typical Malayalam melody. A soothing melody. Jesudas, as usual sings it wonderfully. From the movie, 'Oru Vadakkan Veera Gatha', "chandanalepha sugandham': (This song reminds me of the earlier song he gave, 'aareyum bhava gayakan')
I will round it off with this song 'Pravahame Ganga Pravahame' from the movie "Sargam'. My friend Ramki wrote to me saying that you can't tell Bombay Ravi was not a Malayali if you heard the songs of this movie. They were so steeped in South Indian classicism.
Ravi's songs in Hindi will be around for a long time. His works in Malayalam will around longer.
P.S:
One aspect which I heard many people say in his tribute is: "So many songs of Ravi people have enjoyed without knowing it is by Ravi." This is very true and brings us to the topic of style. I associated Ravi with songs like 'Neele Gagan', 'Kaun Aaya', 'Neele Gagan Pe' and as I said I was not too fascinated by this style. At the same time Ravi has done many songs which have no semblance of his style at all. To give you a couple of examples, 'Baar Baar Dekho' and 'Yeh Raatein Yeh Mausam' and even 'Chaudvin ka Chand'. You can tell somone that 'Baar Baar Dekho' is by some other MD, say O P Nayyar and 'Yeh Raatein' is by Burman Da and 'Chaudvin Ka Chaand' is by Naushad and people would believe you. Infact people may not believe you when you say these are by Ravi. This is the danger when morph too much and don't leave behind your signature. It may be so generic that you will not get credit for it.
