Music And Movies

(Vieux Parka Toure) How different cultures and countries across the world use various ragams has always fascinated me. I had earlier posted about how Mohanam in available almost throughout the world and also about Azebaijani Todi . Yesterday late at night, my twitter friend Vipin Nair (@MusicAloud) sent me a clip of African music asking me if the ragam played was Madhyamavathi, Sree Ragam or Brindavana Saranga. (Vipin had got that clip from his friend @aiyerravi ) When I heard the clip, I was amazed by the playing of the guitarist (Vieux Parka Toure). The playing was crisp and every note sounded so clear. And very importantly, I heard a lovely Brindavana Saranga. This was a revelation to me. I have heard Madhyamavathi in various settings but Brindavana Saranga, to me, has been confined to Carnatic and Hindustani music.   Following some threads from the youtube clip, I came upon some Algerian music. In this I could hear Madhyamavathi. Ragas like Suddha Saveri, Suddha Dhanyasi

(M.S.Baburaj) A lot of South Indian Film Music directors were influence by Hindustani Music as well as by Hindi Film Music directors. You can find the Hindustani strains in lot of films songs of Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam. 'Karnan' (Tamil) is an excellent example of North Indian influence. The hugely popular 'Sivashankari' ('Jagadekaveeruni Katha') is another example. One of the music directors from Malayalam film industry who was very much influenced by Hindustani music and Hindi film music was M.S.Baburaj.  (I realized quite late that I have not written about this excellent music director. I had written about the other greats of Malayalam film music but somehow missed him. As they say, better late than never.) I first came to know about M.S.Baburaj through a piece on Janaki written by Saravanan in dhool.com. In that article Saravanan compared Baburaj-Janaki combination to Madanmohan-Lata combination. When such a comparison is done, it is bu

 (Lakshmikanth Pyarelal) The last song on the 'Chitrahaar' program was 'suno sajna'. We had all gathered in the TV room of or gymkhana to watch the program. Once it ended, the discussion started. Those were the times when we were learning to identify the signature of the music directors. Who could be the music director of this song? Was it Madanmohan or Roshan or Salil? Lot of names were proposed by Siva and me and were disposed off. Probably unable to overcome his hunger pangs, a vexed Krishnamohan said, "For all the debate, it may end up being a Lakshmikanth Pyarelal song." All of us laughed out loud. The discussion ended with us proceeding to the canteen for dinner. It was Lakshmikanth Pyarelal who had the last laugh. That song from the movie, 'Aaye Din Bahar Ke', was indeed tuned by them. The incident clearly indicates the image that Lakshmikanth Pyarelal had in our midst. We had grown up with lot of their songs and unfortunately could