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.
Comments
Begada is a raaga that is currently out of my grasp. Perhaps it still didnt register itself in my system, probably because there are not many films songs in this raaga that i can relate to :-). But the song is very good. Mellow.
Did you know: Dakshinamurthy Swami taught music to both Ilaiyaraaja & A.R.Rahman.
Illayaraja's respect for Dakshinamurthy Swami is legendary by now. He sees him as his guru. Even after Raja became a music director, he has played sessions for Dakshinamurthy Swami. DS has sung for Raja in the movie called 'Marakatha Veena'. It is a Tyagaraja krithi which he sang with S.Janaki. DS and Raja also collaborated in a Malayalam movie called 'Kaveri'. They have joint MD credit for that movie. Very recently, in Raja's private album 'Ramana Saranam Saranam', there is a song composed by DS in raga Vasantha, which is sung by Sriram Parthasarathy.
Gangai Amaran in a TV show said that every kid from their family goes to learn from DS. Such is the respect for DS.
Didn't know about Rahman working with him. Knew about Raja and Rahman being disciples of TVG but not this.
I like the song from Maragatha Veenai: "Sudha Madhurya". And Kaveri is one of my favourite albums (Neelalohita is a classic). If I am not wrong, even Gaanam is actually a collaboration between DS & IR.
Reg ARR, my uncle's daughter-in-law, who happens to be a journalist once got to interview ARR and told him (off-camera) that my Uncle likes ARR's songs a lot.ARR asked whats my Uncle's name. My uncle's name is Dakshinamurthy & when she told the same, he remarked - "oh!thats the name of my guru,from whom i learnt music,a great composer too in Malayalam films."
That's nice information about Rahman. Didn't know about it. He did play a lot for the music director Arjunan, whom Rahman considers as his mentor and who was responsible for helping Rahman during a critical period.
I think Gaanam was credited only to Dakshinamurthy Swami and was not a collaboration, AFAIK.
"Nice post, Suresh. Made me curious to search if there are any more Begada film songs around, and I could find some by VD himself. This one is from a 1973 film Udayam, sung by S Janaki and Ambili, 'kalayude'. Pure Begada, easier to identify than the "Innale..." song :-)
"Haridas" (MKT movie) also had a Begada song "Nijama, idhu nijama, nee adimaikku kaatchi thanthathum nijama...".
Regards,
Ramki."
IMO one of Dakshinamoorthy's masterpieces was the movie "Marunaattil oru Malayaali" (1971, *ing Nazir, Vijayashree et al). Pretty ordinary movie, but each of the 5 songs is lovely - probably merits a separate post in itself!
Here is one of them (ragamalika set to 4 ragas):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T65vQ9_KD1E&encode=utf
Thanks again for starting this thread.
Cheers,
Ramki.
Just got the link to your blog from Madhu. Just want to tell you that I loved what I have read so far.
Btw, which is this YouTube song shared by Ramki? I am not able to follow the link.