One song at a time - 2. Dhoni Saagali

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(Rashtrakavi Kuvempu)

One of the first things I did when I shifted to Bangalore a dozen years back was to visit a cassette shop nearby and to look out for some good old Kannada film albums. I had no clue on Kannada films but one tape cover caught my eye. It was titled 'Dhoni Saagali' and the cover said that these were poems penned by literary giants of Karnataka and were tuned and used in films. The names mentioned included Kuvempu, Da.Ra.Bendra, DVG, Narasimhaswamy. I couldn't resist picking up the tape immediately wanting to see how the music directors have risen to this challenge of tuning some literary masterworks. Luckily for me, each music director had risen to the occasion and the tunes were outstanding. (Later I had queried an RMIM member who knew about Kannada songs as to which tapes I should buy, stating that I already had 'Dhoni Saagali'. He replied back saying I have already picked the best one out there !!!) So it was a tape that I picked up on a whim still provides me great pleasure even now. I will be featuring other songs from this tape in this series but first let me feature the title song.

The poem of the Jnanpith award winner and a revered figure in Karnataka, Kuvempu, is to set to tune by R Sudarsanam for the movie, 'Miss Leelavati'. The whole tune evokes the mood on sitting in a slow moving boat on a lazy evening. I had this imagery of a catamaran floating on the sea against the backdrop of the late evening setting sun, whenever I heard this song. The tune and orchestration gave me such a picture. The picturisation differs from this perception though. Ofcourse some parts of the poem, like the 'cuckoo's song' would not make sense if the boat were at sea.

R Sudarsanam does a very nice job of setting the tune. Minimal orchestral arrangement coupled with the lovely singing of Janaki (and a male voice I cannot identify) and the emphasis on highlighting the poetry, does justice to this creation of Kuvempu. (We will be seeing more of both Kuvempu and R.Sudarsanam (who was a leading music director in Telugu films) in this series.)

So here goes 'Dhoni Saagali':



Someone more knowledgeable than me about Kannada film music is requested to comment. I am sure there are huge number of them out there.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Suresh,
Very NIce tune.

paatai parthadhum - Ninaivuku vandha place - THEKADI..

idhu romba periyaaaaaaaaaa Lake.

unga comment - " Ofcourse some parts of the poem, like the 'cuckoo's song' would not make sense if the boat were at sea. "

Thekadi - indha Lake la cuckoo sound kaeka mudiyum Suresh.

cuckoo sound um kaeten. yanai kootathiayum parthen...



Nice song. Thanks suresh.

Nature ai rasikavum - oru manasu venum.

Sudarsanam - Tamil film kkum seidhu irukar dhanae.

Waiting for your next post. heehe...

With Love,
Usha Sankar.
May 21, 2010 at 12:16 AM
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