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Showing posts from October, 2008

Kamban - A few random thoughts

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On Friday, NRR called me to check if I would be interested in attending a Harikatha performance by T N Seshagoplan. I was and we both attended the performance, which was a good one. When I heard Seshagopalan sing, I thought I should write about him in my blog. As the katha progressed and he started quoting from Kamba Ramayanam, I decided that I will write what I know about Kamban. Which, you will discover, is not much. (Did that ever stop a blogger? All that you need to blog is an blog account, internet connection and time. I have all three in abundance this lazy Diwali afternoon.) First thing that impressed me about Kamban's poetry, as I heard TNS recite it, was how wonderfully it captured the particular scene and made it jump right in front of your eyes. The poetry enabled you to visualize it as if you were watching it on a screen. This aspect of Kamban's poetry was first brought to light to me by my mother. She recited parts of Narasimavataram (yes, Narasimavataram in R...

"Yugandhar" - Music which passed me by

It happened accidentally. I came to know of a 2003 Telugu movie called "Shambu" which had music by Illayaraja . I wanted to hear the songs of this movie and so on the Tamil Film Page (yes Tamil Film Page for a Telugu Album) www.tfmpage.com I asked a member called 'Rajasaranam' for the songs of this movie. Now, 'Rajasaranam' is a collector with a difference. He loves sharing his music and he immediately uploaded these songs. When I went to this site I also saw that he had uploaded the songs of an old Telugu film 'Yugandhar' in another folder. I downloaded it as well and when I heard it I was stunned. A bit of background will help in understanding why I was stunned. 'Yugandhar' is a 1979 movie starring N T RamaRao, Jayasudha, Jayamalini and others. It was a remake of the wildly popular Hindi movie 'Don'. This was one of the movie which ensured Amitabh's super stardom. This was remade in both Tamil and Telugu. Tamil movie went by the ...