Kahan Gaye Woh Log.. (Where have they gone?)

The excitement in the open air Key's High School auditorium was palpable. People had gathered to hear a young kid play a new instrument (new from a Carnatic music point of view), called Mandolin. The kid went by the name of Srinivas. He came, he played and he conquered everyone's heart. Those were the years when many ears heard the instrumentalists play. Those were the golden years for instrumentalists, both in the carnatic music field and in Tamil film music. It was late 1970s and most of 1980s when instrumentalists held sway. Let's have a nostalgic look at those times.

U.Srinivas was not the only prodigy who had exceptional skills on an instrument. Before him had come people like Veena Gayathri, on, what else, veena and Ravikiran on Gottuvadyam (which he later renamed as Chitraveena.) It was an exciting era when some experienced stalwarts brushed shoulders with exceptionally gifted youngsters. One one hand was the violin trio of Lalgudi, MSG and T N Krishnan, who between them had taken violin playing to a different level and were very much in demand as soloist. One the other hand were youngsters like Ganesh and Kumaresh, who provided the required excitement to the audience. On one hand were the veena veterans like Emani Shankar Sastry, Doraiswamy Iyengar. One the other hand were non tradionalists like S.Balachander and Chittibabu and the emerging talent of Ravikiran and U Srinivas. On one hand were Namagiripetai Krishnan and Sheik Chinna Moulana on nadhaswaram. On the other hand was Kadri, playing saxophone. Then there was Mali and his disciple N. Ramani. There was an excellent mix of staunch traditionalism counter balanced by experimental modernism when it came to instruments. There were staunch followers for every instrumentalist. There was variety, there was virtuosity and most importantly, there was great music from the instrumentalists of those time.

Some of the best concerts I have heard in the Key's High School auditorim, courtesy Kalasagaram, were instrumental concerts. Coincidentally, the ragam which brilliantly portrayed by multiple instrumentalists is Kambhoji. Ravikiran played an outstanding Kambhoji as the main piece in one concert here. He used to be a thin, lanky youngster, looking almost as if he was scared, but his playing was perfection personified. The Kambhoji, which he painted so effortlessly, was majestic and moving. My fellow listener, who was a great Madurai Mani Iyer fan, remarked while hearing this Kambhoji, "Mani Iyer's spirit must be hovering around here." High praise indeed, since he considered no one can sing Kambhoji like Mani Iyer. Ganesh Kumaresh played another great Kambhoji. In the kalpanaswaram section, they did some raga malika swarams. Ganesh was playing Mohanam and before he could end the Mohanam part, Kumaresh started playing swaras of Ranjani. After the concert, when we went to congratulate the brothers on their playing, I overheard Kumaresh tell Ganesh, "I just though I should play Ranjani. I didn't think it will come out so well." Such was the experimental spirit of the brothers. The other Kambhoji I heard was a serene one from T N Krishnan. Every phrase oozing with raga bhava, it was a Kambhoji I will not forget in a hurry. The annual Kalasagaram program used to feature quite a few instrumentalists. The instrumentatlists held sway for almost a decade or slightly more and many of the practioners drew more audience than the vocalists. How did this happen?

Charismatic vocal artists like Semmangudi and MS had started reducing the number of concerts they gave. People like Balamurali were also reducing the number of concerts they gave and probably were also pricey. While the next generation of vocalists, (after Semmangudi, GNB and Madurai Mani Iyer) had redoubtable talent, they did not possess the charisma and the crowd pulling ability of their seniors. You cannot question the talent or music of the great musicians like DKJ, KVN, M D Ramanathan, S Kalyanaraman, Nedanuri etc but it must be accepted that halls did not overflow when they sang. The same was the case when it came to female vocalists. Their seniors like MS, DKP, MLV and Brinda had blazed a trail which was very difficult, if not impossible, to emulate. Added to this was the fact that the number of 'colorful' vocalists, who could add the required excitement to a concert were limited. (Santhanam would later pull in the crowds and T N Seshagopalan would add color to vocal concerts.) Everything was set for instrumentalists to take over and they rose to the challenge.

Instrumentalists provided the much need color, excitement and variety which the vocalists did not provide. There were people like S.Balachander, who loved controversies and thrived on them. He was a very colorful personality indeed. He was also a lovely veena player. Not many people may know that he also sang quite well. I remember attending a lec dem of his, at the Madras Museum Auditorium, where he sang a lovely thanam in Naatakurunji. It was a very sedate thanam and when it ended only a few of us clapped. He then said, "You should all clap. You have become so used to rabble rousing that only if all the percussions bang together and raise a lot of dust do you people clap. You should clap for sedate music like what I sang." Needless to say everyone clapped. Chittibabu was another very colorful personality whose veena playing was loved by lot of people. U Srinivas drew large crowds, initially due to the fact that he was a prodigy and later due to the fact that he was virtuoso when it came to handling the mandolin. People also came to hear Kadri since Saxaphone was an instrument very new to Carnatic music. Mali was not heard too often those days but N Ramani was a regular fixture in almost all festivals. A concert of his on AIR National Program is still etched in my mind both for the amazing melody he generated and for T N Krishnan's superb accompaniment. Nadaswaram too was heard quite a lot with people like Namagiripettai Krishnan and Sheik Chinna Moulana being famous. The overall competence was very high with the percussionists also at the peak of their careers. Imagine a concert of N Ramani with Lalgudi and Sivaraman. Each a master in his own right. Kadri with T V Gopalakrishnan, Lalgudi with Karaikudi Mani, T N Krishnan with Ramabadran. It was great instrumental music that we heard.

Unfortunately, by the late 80s and early 90s, the scene was to change. Some of the masters, like S.Balachander, Chittibabu, Emani, Namagiripettai passed away. Many like Lalgudi, MSG reduced the number of assignments. Some like Ganesh Kumaresh took a different direction and did not reach the heights some felt they would reach. Some like N Ramani and Kadri slowly lost the large following they initially had. New instrumental talent was not to be seen on the horizon. While some like the sons and daughters of the violin trio played the violin, they did not rise in stature to the level of their fathers.

The scene today is not very encouraging from an instrumental point of view. Some instruments, like nadhaswaram, have almost disappeared. There are very few solo violinst today. Ranjani and Gayathri, who were good violinists have switched to vocal music. U Srinivas does not draw the same crowds that he did some time back but people like him and Ravikiran manfully continue. Veena players rarely get a chance in the sabhas though there is still a lot of talent in this area. The annual festivals mostly feature vocalists, who are now very dominant, and you rarely get to hear top class instrumentalists. Hope this trend will reverse and we will see some good instrumentalists soon.

It was a very similar case in Talim Film Music industry as well. The late 70s saw the coming of Illayaraja and with his coming started the golden era for the instrumentalists. It was not that instrumentalists were not required earlier. It was just that Illayaraja took them to a totally new level. There were two reasons for this. The importance that Illayaraja gave to preludes and interludes in the songs. And the importance he gave to the background scored. Coupled with this was his fascination of Western Classical Music and all this led to some superb instrumental scores for films of 80s and early 90s. In many songs before the advent of Illayaraja, the main melody was dominant and the interludes were short and sometimes the same interlude was repeated in between the multiple charanams. Illayaraja changed all that. In his songs every interlude was different. I can't think of many songs where he uses the same interlude between mu;tiple charanams. He built lot of complex preludes and interludes and the instrumentalists had to rise to meet the challenge this man was throwing at them. Guitar Prasanna, in one of his articles says that Illayaraja was responsible for elevating the musicianship of the instrumentalists of Kodambakkam. He says that he saw a large gulf between the instrumentalists of Tamil film industry and the Bombday folks, especially with respect to the string section. You can read the full article by Guitar Prasanna here.

Illayaraja used a lot of instruments in his songs. The violins of course were there due to his fascination with Western Classical Music. Guitar were used like they have never been used in Indian film music. The bass guitar was elevated to divine heights. The sax, the nadhaswaram, the shenai found their place in the sun. And what can say about that mesmerising flute? Words fail you. The percussion section too had their say with acoustic drums, bongos, mridangam and tabla having a field day. Guitar Prasanna makes a special mention about the acoustic drumming in Raja's songs. Those were the crazy days when Illayaraja could churn out hit after hit after hit after hit with a frightening regularity. Just think of songs like, 'Poon Kadave', 'Pani Vizhum Malar Vanam', 'Nee Dhane En Pon Vasantham', 'Andhi Mazhai Pozhigirathu' , 'En Iniya Pon Nilave', 'Vedam Nee', 'Illaya Nila', 'Kundalile Megam' and immediately you can see how many different instruments he had used in these songs. And these songs were not even the tip of an iceberg.

The paradox was that Illayaraja raised the standard of instrumentalists without allowing them any freedom!! They had to play exactly what he wanted them to play. He wrote out their parts so well that just by ensuring they played as he wanted, their own skill level increased. Guitar Prasanna wonders how they managed to play some of the pieces!! (Digression: Probably the tabla players had a much better time under the earlier music directors like MSV, who gave them a lot of scope to experiment. When questioned by SPB in a TV program, a leading tabla player, 'Pedda Prasad', said that under MSV he could play as he wanted, while Raja would want him to play only in a certain way. I remember reading an article during late 70s about Jesudas not singing for MSV. This was due to the fact that Jesudas did not like the way a tabla player played and wanted him changed. MSV put his foot down and said that this person has been with him for a long time and he wouldn't change him. A miffed Jesudas refused to sing for MSV for some time.)

Though Illayaraja had used synthesizers earlier, it was with the advent of Rahman that synthesizer took the center stage and sounded the death knell of the instrumentalists. Slowly the recording room of Illayaraja that held a large number of instrumentalists wore a deserted look. Sarang Dev, a music director, who recently released a fusion album, was lamenting the fact that it was very difficult for him to find capable instrumentalists. Now everything can be done on a synthesizer. A writer called Pa.Raghavan on his blog wrote on how Vijay Anthony came with his synthesizer and composed all songs without need for real instruments. He says that they had to fight hard with him and insists that he get real nadhaswaram players to play a nadhaswaram bit!!! The interludes in the songs have also started depending more on the synthesized beat and in many case the instrumental phrases played sound very simple. There is not much complexity. So, even the real instrumental players come and play some simple stuff. What has changed is that their names appear in the sleeve notes. 'Sound' has taken prominence over music. Illayaraja could not buck the trend and he too uses the synthesizer. It has always been a matter of great debate amongst his fans about Illayaraja's use of synthesizer but I guess in the current environment there is no choice. Still he does give some nice interludes with real instruments when he gets a chance. The songs of 'Uliyin Osai' and the songs of 'Naan Kadavul', (especially "Kannil Parvai", where, in the interlude, he beautifully does a graha bedam from Rasikapriya to Mayamalavagowla) are examples which show that he is still the master when it comes to giving such interludes. Ofcourse, 'Tiruvasagam' stands as a testimony of how he can write lovely parts for the instrumentalists but it was played by Hungarian musicians and not our local musicians.

As in carnatic music, instrumentalists are facing a decline in Tamil Film Music. Will this trend reverse. I am not too sure but I wish it does, both for the sake of the instrumentalists and the listener. Else we will all be left askin about the instrumentalists, "Kahan Gaye Woh Log..?"