One song at a time - 4. Dakshinarmurthy's Begada

(V. Dakshinamurthy Swamy and K J Jesudas)

In Indian film music, one of the biggest challenges for the music directors of yesteryear was how to tune in classical ragas for film music. In early days, they didn't try changing the classical flavor much and the old Tamil songs for example, are almost like classical krithis. When film music turned more 'modern', the music directors put in an effort to modify the raga, to make it more 'lighter', give it a different flavour so that it can reach a larger audience. This is probably easier said than done for not all ragas are equal in this respect. Some, like Mohanam and Kalyani, are eminently suitable for this modification as innumerable songs based on these ragas prove. Some others like Begada, Bilahari, Yadhukula Kambhoji do not shed their classical cloak easily and it requires a genius to transform their image to suit the film music needs. And in V.Dakshinamurthy or Dakshinamurthy Swami, as he is called now, Malayalam film music found its genius.

Today we will see / hear the transformation of Begada in the hands of Dakshinamurthy Swami from being a traditionally bejewelled lady dressed in silk to a normal cotton saree wearing housewife. (It is very difficult to get Begada to being a jeans clad youth.) Dakshinamurthy Swami takes one of the most 'classical' of Carnatic raga and comes up with a very melodious film song. The first time I heard this song I took some time to recognize the raga because I was not expecting Begada in a film song!!! Actually this song is made of two ragas. The first part of the song based on Begada and the second part based on Kalyani. Dakshinamurthy has lot of excellent ragamalikas to his credit as well as many famous songs in Malayalam films. My first exposure to Dakshinamurthy was when I heard his name as the music director for the Tamil film 'Oru Oodapu Kann Simitugiradhu'. The song 'nanda nee en nila' was a famous one during those times. Later I heard his songs from the movie 'Gaanam', which was very famous for the classical bent of all the songs.

This is a very melodious song which you can enjoy even if you are not a person who can recognize ragas. In fact this is a song which many Malayalis will know by heart. I had once sent this song to a group of friends asking them to identify the ragas. My friend Ramki immediately replied, "Begada' and 'Kalyani', without bothering to open my attachment. He had grown in Kerala during his early days and this was a song that was burnt into his memory. So let us go ahead and hear this all time hit song from the film 'Sthree'.

The famous male version sung by K J Yesudas here.

Here is the female version of the song sung by S.Janaki. (Those of us who have watched actress Sharada in Telugu film will probably remember her as someone who always cries or makes other cry!!! Here you see her charming side. ) The female version is a slightly modified version of the male one.