One song at a time - 15. Apara Sundara Neelakasham

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 Mahadevan used to sing the tune, Pugazhendi would write down the notes. SPB has great respect for Pugazhendi and has made it known in many of the programs that he conducts. Very recently, in one program, after one contestant sang a K V Mahadevan song, he remarked that one of the sangathis was a typical Pugazhendi sangathi. It is well known in music circles that it is Pugazhendi who recommended that SPB sing the songs in the movie 'Shankarabaranam' when everyone was searching for a classical musician to deliver the songs. (You can read a more elaborate article on Pugazhendi here.)

Pugazhendi has done music for a handful of films as an independent music director in Tamil and Malayalam. (He probably did more Malayalam films than Tamil.) You can clearly see the KVM touch in many of the songs. Today I will feature a lovely song tuned by Pughazhendi for the Malaylam film, 'Vithukal'. This is a well loved and well known song in the Mallu world which I discovered quite late. A very gentle melody sung superbly by Jesudas. The words of P. Bhaskaran paint a wonderful picture of nature. I love the very starting words, 'apara sundara neelakasham'. What is the ragam on which this song is based? Well, sounds like Arabhi to me, though at many places I can feel the effect of Suddha Saveri. (One of the sites mentions it as Suddha Saveri.) But when the singer goes, 'alagalil urayum vennuragal', the Arabhi feel is quite prominent. Anyway, why split hairs about the raga. We all know that a rose is a rose and all that.

So let's go ahead and enjoy this lovely song of Pugazhendi. It is very important that we document the efforts of such trusted lieutenants because isn't Ramayana as much about Lakshmana and Hanuman as it is about Rama and Sita?