Crossing the Boundaries down South - 1
It was I in a earlier post who wrote about the difficulty of music crossing boundaries and it is going to be me who will now write about music directors who crossed boundaries rather easily !! While I would still argue that musical barriers are more difficult to break compared to other arts, it must be accepted that only in the case of music is language redundant !! If a Japanese person like the same American movie that you do, it will be very difficult to convey what you liked about the movie if there is no common language. In case both of you liked the same English song, you just need to sing it and communication is immediately established. I have seen this when we went to a karaoke in Tokyo along with our Japanese client and sang 'Hotel California' together. None of those who sang that day had any clue on how to sing a song but that didn't stop us enjoying the song together. In that way, music is a language by itself.
In India, film music is most common language in the country. To be more specific, it is Hindi film music which dominates. The domination of Hindi film music is not as high as it used to be in the 50s to 70s era. In those days almost everyone heard Hindi film music and many a popular Hindi tune was copied into the regional films. Hindi film music, in turn, was enriched by music directors who came in from different parts of our country, especially from the eastern part of our country. People like Anil Biswas, S D Burman, Salil Choudary, R D Burman, Hemant Kumar are a few of the Bengal Brigade who left an everlasting impression on all Indian hearts with their mesmerizing melodies. People like Sudhir Phadke and Vasant Desai from Maharastra have also contributed greatly to Hindi film music. (I may be missing out some great directors who came from other regions and contributed greatly to Hindi film music. It is due to my ignorance of the history of Hindi film music that I mention only a few names). A R Rahman from South is the latest trail blazer, who came from the South, to change the face of Hindi film music. Infact Rahman is the first and also the only music director from the south who made it big in Hindi film music. Various other music directors from South have composed for Hindi films including people like Emani Sankara Sastry (!!) but none of them achieved the sort of success that Rahman has achieved.
Since I have no idea about the film music of areas other than the South, let us look at those people who came from 'outside' and enriched the film music of South. The person who comes immediately to my mind is K.V.Mahadevan. I guess anyone who grew in Andhra during the Seventies and Early Eighties cannot but remember this great man. KVM or Mama, as he was fondly called, was a Tamilian. It is said that he moved to the Telugu film industry because Vishwanathan and Ramamurthy were extremely dominant in the Tamil film music scene. He went on to become one of the great music directors of the Telugu film industry. Many of his songs are all time classics. Be it the upbeat "Chetilo Cheyyesi Cheppu Bawa", the sadness of "Manasu Gathi Inte", the tenderness of "Totalo Na Raju", the amazing melody of "Jummandi Nadam" or the classicism of 'Ragam Tanam Pallavi', Mahadevan left behind an enduring legacy of which all Telugus are justifiably proud of.
Rajan Nagendra, who came from the Kannada film industry, left behind some amazing melodies in Telugu, though their total output was not very high in Telugu. I know they used many of their Kannada tunes in Telugu films. Still they came in like a whiff of fragrant breeze into the Telugu film industry and songs from films like 'Pantulamma', 'Intinti Ramayanam, 'Pooja' are deeply ensconced in the memory of all the Telugu speaking people.
Music directors from Hindi film world have come to the Telugu film industry once in a while like Shankar Jaikishen, Laxmikanth Pyarelal, R D Burman and Bhappi Lahari. They worked on only a limited number (in some cases, only one) of films. Vishwanathan Ramamurthy and later .S.Vishwanathan worked in many Telugu films but most of their scores were just reworking of their Tamil fim scores. MSV did a lot of movies of Balachander in the late 70s and early 80s , where the movie as well as the songs were remade from Tamil to Telugu and both of them became hits in their own right here. The notable exception to this trend was 'Maro Charitra' which Balachander made in Telugu first. (He didn't make the Tamil version instead made the Hindi one!!). All the songs of this movie were major hits, with 'Bale Bale Mogadivoi' and "Ye Tega Poovu' hogging the airtime. My favorite song is 'Vidhi Cheyu Vintalanni', which was heard the least on radio.
A similar 'shifting of places' as KVM happened with G.K.Venkatesh. Though a Telugu, GKV achieved great success in Kannada Film industry. He created some amazing songs in Kannada. One of my all time favorites, "Yaava Janmada Maitri", in the voice of S.Janaki was his creation. I will anyday include this song amongst the five best songs of Janaki. GKV didn't achieve as much success in Tamil and Telugu as he did in Kannada, though one of his songs remains till date a favorite song of many in TamilNadu well as in Andhra Pradesh. The song: "Then Sindudhe Vaanam" in Tamil and "Mrogindi Veena" in Telugu.
Another such music director who moved to another land to achieve success was Vidyasagar. Thought he initially started in Tamil and Telugu, it was in Malayalam that he achieved great success. He is a well known music director in Malayalam. I haven't heard too many of the songs he composed in Malayalam but I was impressed with whatever I heard. One such impressive album was 'Pranaya Varnangal', where there was a lot of accent of melody.
Malayalam film industry saw people coming in from different places and contributing to it in earlier times as well. The most successful and the most popular film song tag in the history of Malayalm film music will go to 'Manasa Maine Varu' from Chemmen. (I doubt if there is even one Malayali who doesn't know this number.) It will be surprising to note that two Bengalis were involved in creating this everlasting number!! Salil Choudary was the music director and Manna Dey was the singer. Salil then went on to give some excellent numbers for Malayalam films and many of his creations are classics of Malayalam film music.
Ravi, popular music director in Hindi films, having given music to films like Waqt, Chaudvin Ka Chand, Nikaah, moved to Malayalam films in 1980s. Rechristened as 'Bombay Ravi' when he came to Malayalam industry, he had a successful innings in Malayalam films. I haven't heard much of his work in Malayalam to comment on the songs.
Tamil Film industry seems to have resisted the 'outsiders', though not external influence. Though there could have been an incursion or two of Laxmikanth Pyarelal, R D Burman, T G Lingappa, Mani Sharma etc, it has always been the Tamil music directors who have ruled the roost. Entry of 'outsiders' has been minimal and their contribution to Tamil film music legacy is not something to write about. If it was G Ramanthan initially, it was then Vishwanathan Ramamurthy, followed by Illayaraja and then A R Rahman who have dominated Tamil film music.
One of the most successful music directors of recent times, the whiz kid A R Rahman, somehow didn't venture too much into other South Indian languages much. He is well known due to the music of the dubbed films like Roja, Gentleman, Dil Se etc but he has not created many original work in other languages. He scored in Telugu for a Venkatesh movie called 'Super Police'. The movie and the songs sank without a trace. He scored for another Telugu movie starring Mahesh Babu, titled 'Nani'. (This was later remade as a Tamil movie by S J Surya). Rahman, in the days after his Roja success scored for a Santhosh Sivan's Malayalam movie titled 'Yodha'. I am not sure how successful the songs were. Last year Rahman scored for a Kannada film titled 'Sajani'. The film didn't make any waves at the box office. I haven't heard the songs of this film but I guess most of the songs in this period were probably drowned in the success of 'Mungaru Male'.
I am sure some of you must be wondering as to how I missed out one music director who has spanned all the four languages successfully and has produced magical moments in all four languages. That will the part 2 of this topic :)
In India, film music is most common language in the country. To be more specific, it is Hindi film music which dominates. The domination of Hindi film music is not as high as it used to be in the 50s to 70s era. In those days almost everyone heard Hindi film music and many a popular Hindi tune was copied into the regional films. Hindi film music, in turn, was enriched by music directors who came in from different parts of our country, especially from the eastern part of our country. People like Anil Biswas, S D Burman, Salil Choudary, R D Burman, Hemant Kumar are a few of the Bengal Brigade who left an everlasting impression on all Indian hearts with their mesmerizing melodies. People like Sudhir Phadke and Vasant Desai from Maharastra have also contributed greatly to Hindi film music. (I may be missing out some great directors who came from other regions and contributed greatly to Hindi film music. It is due to my ignorance of the history of Hindi film music that I mention only a few names). A R Rahman from South is the latest trail blazer, who came from the South, to change the face of Hindi film music. Infact Rahman is the first and also the only music director from the south who made it big in Hindi film music. Various other music directors from South have composed for Hindi films including people like Emani Sankara Sastry (!!) but none of them achieved the sort of success that Rahman has achieved.
Since I have no idea about the film music of areas other than the South, let us look at those people who came from 'outside' and enriched the film music of South. The person who comes immediately to my mind is K.V.Mahadevan. I guess anyone who grew in Andhra during the Seventies and Early Eighties cannot but remember this great man. KVM or Mama, as he was fondly called, was a Tamilian. It is said that he moved to the Telugu film industry because Vishwanathan and Ramamurthy were extremely dominant in the Tamil film music scene. He went on to become one of the great music directors of the Telugu film industry. Many of his songs are all time classics. Be it the upbeat "Chetilo Cheyyesi Cheppu Bawa", the sadness of "Manasu Gathi Inte", the tenderness of "Totalo Na Raju", the amazing melody of "Jummandi Nadam" or the classicism of 'Ragam Tanam Pallavi', Mahadevan left behind an enduring legacy of which all Telugus are justifiably proud of.
Rajan Nagendra, who came from the Kannada film industry, left behind some amazing melodies in Telugu, though their total output was not very high in Telugu. I know they used many of their Kannada tunes in Telugu films. Still they came in like a whiff of fragrant breeze into the Telugu film industry and songs from films like 'Pantulamma', 'Intinti Ramayanam, 'Pooja' are deeply ensconced in the memory of all the Telugu speaking people.
Music directors from Hindi film world have come to the Telugu film industry once in a while like Shankar Jaikishen, Laxmikanth Pyarelal, R D Burman and Bhappi Lahari. They worked on only a limited number (in some cases, only one) of films. Vishwanathan Ramamurthy and later .S.Vishwanathan worked in many Telugu films but most of their scores were just reworking of their Tamil fim scores. MSV did a lot of movies of Balachander in the late 70s and early 80s , where the movie as well as the songs were remade from Tamil to Telugu and both of them became hits in their own right here. The notable exception to this trend was 'Maro Charitra' which Balachander made in Telugu first. (He didn't make the Tamil version instead made the Hindi one!!). All the songs of this movie were major hits, with 'Bale Bale Mogadivoi' and "Ye Tega Poovu' hogging the airtime. My favorite song is 'Vidhi Cheyu Vintalanni', which was heard the least on radio.
A similar 'shifting of places' as KVM happened with G.K.Venkatesh. Though a Telugu, GKV achieved great success in Kannada Film industry. He created some amazing songs in Kannada. One of my all time favorites, "Yaava Janmada Maitri", in the voice of S.Janaki was his creation. I will anyday include this song amongst the five best songs of Janaki. GKV didn't achieve as much success in Tamil and Telugu as he did in Kannada, though one of his songs remains till date a favorite song of many in TamilNadu well as in Andhra Pradesh. The song: "Then Sindudhe Vaanam" in Tamil and "Mrogindi Veena" in Telugu.
Another such music director who moved to another land to achieve success was Vidyasagar. Thought he initially started in Tamil and Telugu, it was in Malayalam that he achieved great success. He is a well known music director in Malayalam. I haven't heard too many of the songs he composed in Malayalam but I was impressed with whatever I heard. One such impressive album was 'Pranaya Varnangal', where there was a lot of accent of melody.
Malayalam film industry saw people coming in from different places and contributing to it in earlier times as well. The most successful and the most popular film song tag in the history of Malayalm film music will go to 'Manasa Maine Varu' from Chemmen. (I doubt if there is even one Malayali who doesn't know this number.) It will be surprising to note that two Bengalis were involved in creating this everlasting number!! Salil Choudary was the music director and Manna Dey was the singer. Salil then went on to give some excellent numbers for Malayalam films and many of his creations are classics of Malayalam film music.Ravi, popular music director in Hindi films, having given music to films like Waqt, Chaudvin Ka Chand, Nikaah, moved to Malayalam films in 1980s. Rechristened as 'Bombay Ravi' when he came to Malayalam industry, he had a successful innings in Malayalam films. I haven't heard much of his work in Malayalam to comment on the songs.
Tamil Film industry seems to have resisted the 'outsiders', though not external influence. Though there could have been an incursion or two of Laxmikanth Pyarelal, R D Burman, T G Lingappa, Mani Sharma etc, it has always been the Tamil music directors who have ruled the roost. Entry of 'outsiders' has been minimal and their contribution to Tamil film music legacy is not something to write about. If it was G Ramanthan initially, it was then Vishwanathan Ramamurthy, followed by Illayaraja and then A R Rahman who have dominated Tamil film music.
One of the most successful music directors of recent times, the whiz kid A R Rahman, somehow didn't venture too much into other South Indian languages much. He is well known due to the music of the dubbed films like Roja, Gentleman, Dil Se etc but he has not created many original work in other languages. He scored in Telugu for a Venkatesh movie called 'Super Police'. The movie and the songs sank without a trace. He scored for another Telugu movie starring Mahesh Babu, titled 'Nani'. (This was later remade as a Tamil movie by S J Surya). Rahman, in the days after his Roja success scored for a Santhosh Sivan's Malayalam movie titled 'Yodha'. I am not sure how successful the songs were. Last year Rahman scored for a Kannada film titled 'Sajani'. The film didn't make any waves at the box office. I haven't heard the songs of this film but I guess most of the songs in this period were probably drowned in the success of 'Mungaru Male'.
I am sure some of you must be wondering as to how I missed out one music director who has spanned all the four languages successfully and has produced magical moments in all four languages. That will the part 2 of this topic :)
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