Music And Movies

Last week I spoke about some lovely songs not getting their due because of being overshadowed by other hit songs from the same movie. That is atleast better. Many a times artists don't get their due because they are overshadowed by other artists of equal stature who are more popular. If the overshadowed artist has the required quality, he / she will have to keep working hard and wait patiently for their time to come. And come it will. Whatever I said above, applies to many artists but the person I had in mind was S.Janaki. She was an extremely talent singer but during the 60s and for most of the 70s, she was in the periphery as far as Tamil and Telugu films were concerned. She did have a decent run in Kannada and Malayalam films but success in Tamil and Telugu films eluded her. The most dominant music directors of those days, Vishwanath-Ramamurthy and later Vishwanathan in Tamil and Rajeshwar Rao, Pendyala, K V Mahadevan in Telugu all swore by P.Susheela. To her credit, Susheela

My roommate Siva was slowly waking from his afternoon slumber when the announcer on the radio said in Hindi, "The next song is from the film Madhumati. Written by Shailendra and sung by Lata Manageshkar, the song is..", "Aaja re pardesi", I said. "..zulmi sang aankh ladi" said the announcer. I turned to Siva and said loudly, "What?".  I thought I knew all the songs of Madhumathi. How could you not since each was a major 'hit' in its own right. The lilting "Suhana Safar" in Mukesh's voice, the poignant "Aaja Re Pardesi", the funny "Paapi Bichuva", the sad "Toote Hue Khwabonein", and very rhythmic "Dil Tadap Tadap" and "Ghadi Ghadi More Dil Dadke". But I had not heard of this "zulmi sang". So I asked Siva, "Why the hell aren't they airing 'aaja re pardesi'? Which song is this?" "The best song in that movie", retorted Siva. "What?&

(Dr.Rajkumar) "Does Rajkumar sing?" asked the assistant. The music director nodded, "Muthuraju? Yes, he sings." "So why don't we ask him to sing this song in the movie?" suggested the assistant. The music director wasn't sure but the assistant persisted. Finally the music director agreed, Dr.Rajkumar sang in that movie and as the cliche goes, the rest was history. The music director was G.K.Venkatesh and the assistant went by the name of Rasayya. He would later be rechristened by Panju Arunachalam as Illayaraja!!! During my school days I had a classmate who used to love Rajkumar's voice and would tell us that Rajkumar was a great singer. It was not until I moved to Bangalore that I first heard Dr.Rajkumar's voice and the first song that I heard was a stunner. That was 'Nadamaya E Loka'. Later I came to know that this song won Dr.Rajkumar, affectionately called 'Annavaru', the National Award for the best singer. T

(Ustad Abdul Karim Khan) We saw earlier in this series how Gurudev Tagore was inspired by Muthuswamy Dikshtar and composed a song based on Dikshitar's "meenakshi me mudham dehi". One more great personality from North, Ustad Abdul Karim Khan was also so enamoured by Carnatic music that he learnt and recorded a few krithis!! You will understand why this is something unique if you know about Ustad Abdul Karim Khan. He was a great musician and was, what the Hindustani people call, the 'khalifa' of Kirana Garana. You can understand the impact his style had on Hindustani music by looking at the 'shisya parampara' of his gharana. Sawai Gandharva, Hirabai Barodekar, Bhimsen Joshi, Gangubhai Hangal, Sureshbabu Mane, Basavaraj Rajguru. All of whom were top class and influential musicians. Abdul Karim Khan was a revered musician of those times and it is indeed surprising to know that such a man took pains to learn and render krithis in a musical form which was qui

I personally feel that no one emanates stronger signals than a woman in love. Generally the only person whose receiver is shut off from these signals is the male of the species for whom the signals are meant!! Everyone else can easily spot a girl in love except that special person!! If you think I am joking, first look at this song. Then I will give you my views on the song after you watch it. First observe the woman. Every small gesture of her's oozes love. Can anyone have any doubts that she is in love with the gent in the picture? The half smile, the faraway look which break into a sudden smile and the smile which turns into a faraway look, the sudden glance, 'from the corner of the eye' look. Shoba is a such a delight. As someone commented in the youtube comment section. "How can someone not fall in love with Shoba?" How indeed!! Now observe the gentleman in question. You have no clue if he is tuned to the same frequency as Shoba. His whole se

(Sardar Malik) The Familial link Some families are musical families with the offspring taking over the baton from the parent and proving himself / herself to be an equal. In some cases the offspring is either uninterested or not upto the task. Many such cases exist. The third variety is a bit rare. The parent, a talented musician but unfortunately not getting due recognition but the offspring going on to achieve lot of fame. The most classic example of this would be R.K.Shekar and his son. R.K.Shekar, though a very talented music director, never made it big commercially. His son Dileep on the other hand went on to achieve international stardom. Ofcourse, you would know Dileep as A.R.Rahman. We will talk about one more such talented music director, who unfortunately did not get his due from the film industry. His name is Sardar Mallik. His son Anu Mallik later became a very popular music director in the Hindi film industry. The song I want you to listen to today is 'saranga ter

Update: One of my good friends, who is a also a musician, wrote to me to say that the rock songs that I had quoted do not strictly follow the scale of Mohanam and the suddha madhyamam and nishadam do peep in. In other words they are not strictly following the pentatonic scale. I wouldn't doubt his take on this subject. I could 'hear' Mohanam in them so I put them there but someone technically may make out that this is not the pentatonic scale. I would still leave these clips here for two reasons: One, they are nice songs. So no harm hearing them, even if they are not pentatonic. Two, it sort of tell me that I still have a long way to go when it comes to matters of music. // End Update Some scales / ragas seem to affect all of humanity. Mohanam is one such ragam which is found in different musical systems. I had written about this briefly when I wrote the article on Kalyani and Mohanam: The versatile cousins. Today I want to give you some examples and convince you that M

(Panju Arunachalam) Almost anyone who is out of his / her comfort zone longs to be back to the comforting lap of familiarity. It was the same with me in Hyderabad in the olden days as far as Tamil film songs were concerned. I used to listen to Telugu and Hindi songs throughout the day. And seven days a week. And I loved those songs. Yet, Tamil film songs, by the sheer familiarity of the language, sounded additionally sweet to my ears. Especially since they were not easily available. I used to tune in at 4pm on Sundays when Madras AIR would broadcast the latest songs and also at 10pm on Monday evening, when the same radio station would broadcast old classics. The Sunday songs were not a given to me since we would go out to play some sports but my ears were glued to the radio on Monday nights. I did not want to miss out hearing those great songs. To give credit where due, whoever chose the songs had great taste and here is where I heard all the standard classics of Tamil film

(Music Director Satyam and SPB) It was Sampath teacher who first 'discovered' my singing talent. We were in 7th standard and Vatsala teacher came to our Tamil class to call my friend Kumar to participate in a group song. She spotted me and promptly asked me to come as well. The group song was for the school annual day and the song chosen, unsurprisingly, was the national anthem for schools, 'ham ko man ki shakthi dena', the Vasant Desai tuned song which literally put Jaya Bhaduri on stage. We were taken to an empty classroom in order to practise. As is my wont, I was putting in my best effort. After we sang the song a couple of times, Sampath teacher arrived to check out the rehearsal. We sang for her. "Someone is not singing in pitch. Sing again." So we sang again and she frowned. "All of you stop." We stopped. "Suresh, you now sing alone." So I started, "hum ko man ki.." "That's enough. You can get back to the class.&

One of the important reasons our movies succeed is because they create an ideal world for the viewers. And in creating this ideal world, music plays a very major role. There have been many songs which talk about an ideal world, a world where everything is in place, good things happen to you and you look forward to living a life filled with happiness. I can probably call this as a separate genre of songs and we have had many such songs in Indian Film Music. "puthiya vaanam puthiya bhoomi", "putham pudhu bhoomi vendum", "suhana safar aur ye mausam hasin", "muthyamantha pasupu", the song I featured earlier, "moodala manaya" and many many more. No wonder these songs become very dear to us because of their message that life is good. If one music director has been called repeatedly to create such an utopian landscape through his music, it has been Ilaiyaraja. There are countless creations of his which do this magic. We will examine some of

Sometimes in the most unexpected of places you hear an unexpected melody. Cruising at around 30,000 feet or more above sea level, I was listening to the Hindi Channel on British Airways flight, as I was returning from an official trip to Japan. I did not expect much from that channel since I though they would be playing some popular songs. They proved me wrong as someone with good taste seems to have been at the helm for choosing songs. After a couple of nice songs, came this song which I had not heard earlier. Or maybe I had heard it earlier but it never registered with me. Now it is completely fixed in my mind. The song was 'Nuktacheen hai gham-e-dil', a ghazal of Mirza Ghalib for the movie, well, 'Mirza Ghalib'. I still clearly recall the mesmerizing Kalyani tinged notes floating through the ear plugs and providing me immense joy. The joy of discovering a classic. I had heard 'Dil-e-Naadan tuje hua kya hai' from this movie quite a few times since that song

After post on songs based on Bageshree, I received some good comments, both in the comment section as well as through mail. Everyone had their favourite Bageshree and told me that I missed it in my post. There were some songs that I didn't know and some I had deliberately not put in keeping the length of the post in mind. Now that I have clear proof that people can't get enough of this raga, I will do an additional post now to cover the other songs. Ofcourse, even after this there will be many Bageshrees left behind. Don't blame. Blame the composers, who had a soft corner for this raga. Before we proceed further, I am sure many of the carnatic music aficionados  know that the carnatic raga considered closest to Bageshree is Sriranjani. This is as per the swaras but it is clear that the emotions they invoke are quite different. But don't be surprised if you hear a bit of Sriranjani in Bageshree. It is very much possible and is not a problem in your hearing!!! One son

(Da.Ra.Bendre) Nothing seems to inspire poets more than the dawn. One, for everything in the world is aglow with the slanting rays of the sun. Two, for dawn symbolizes a new beginning. Poets have written both about the natural beauty that dawn reveals and about the new beginning. Most of us city dwellers don't have much of a dawn to speak of. We do not get to see the trees, the flowers, mountains or the water bodies. Nor do we get to hear the sounds of dawn. Even if all these were present, in our own rush to meet some unknown deadlines we miss all of them. You will realize how much you miss this aspect of nature if you take a vacation to a place which is in the lap of nature. I had once been to Masinagudi, near Mudumalai, for a vacation. I woke up early and wanted to go for a walk. Our resort was surrounded by the forest. Deer and peacocks were roaming around. I started my walk, like any good 'cityzen' by wearing my headphones and switching on the mp3 player.

(C. Ramachandra) In case you are thinking I am going to write something about the actress Bageshree and her sorrow, perish that thought!! Just kidding. I am sure you know I mean the raga Bageshree. Bageshri is one of those ragas you can wallow in and never get out. It is as addictive as self pity. Unlike a raga like Subhapanthuvarali, where the pathos is almost unbearable, the sorrow that Bageshri carries has a sweetness associated with it. It is like going back in past and thinking of 'what if..'. An untold apology, an unexpressed love. Something you deliberately bring up to the surface, feel a bit sad, chew on it for some time and enjoy that mild sadness. Bageshree is a raga similar to that. It gives you a sweet sense of sadness. A sadness which you want within you for some time. This is a raga which has instant impact on the listeners and it will only be a person whose heart is made up of some non-corrosive metal who can escape the clutches of the raga. For some, it gnaws

Every epic needs its hero. And that hero needs a trusted lieutenant. (This lieutenant is often referred to as a 'side kick' or a 'second hero' in our films.)In the field of Indian film music one of the most famous trusted lieutenant was Pugazhendi. Pugazhendi, born Velappan Nair, was the most trusted lieutenant of K V Mahadevan. In all the movies where K V Mahadevan has scored the music, you will find the name of 'Pugazhendi' appearing as the assistant music director. His devotion towards 'Mama', as KVM was affectionately known, is legendary in the South Indian film music circles. He remained at Mahadevan's side till Mahadevan's demise and would take care of every need of Mahadevan. This is definitely surprising in the movie industry where the bond is tight onlt till the next hit. Pugazhendi was the person who wrote the notes for the songs, who arranged for the songs of K V Mahadevan. P B Sreenivas, in one of the programs said that as K V

Some incidents remain stuck in our mind inspite of them having absolutely no significance in our lives!!! These images pop up once in a while making you wonder why this got stored. Brain is a mysterious organ and we have no clue what algorithm it uses to store some images and discard others. One such incident happened to me when I was staying in Chennai. One evening I went to the Sharadamba temple in Krupa Sankari street, West Mambalam, which was close to my house. It was that mysterious evening time when the sun has finished his duty but the night has not yet taken over. The time of strange light. Accentuating this dusk hour were the oil lamps inside the sanctum sanctorium. There was no one around save the poojari and a mother-daughter pair. The daughter was young, dusky, short and had a round and pleasant face. Upon her mother's urging, standing in front of Sharadamba, she started singing an old Telugu melody, "Janani Sivakamini". Her voice was sweet and she sang qui