One song at a time - 17. Mudala Manaya

-
(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. Only when I stepped out of the room, did I realize what a stupid move that was. It was dawn and the music made by nature was such that there was no way you can compete with it using any man made music. The birds chirping all around and the soft glow of the early morning. I discarded the mp3 player immediately and it was one of the most enjoyable walks that I ever had. 

Today's song also features the dawn. This is one more instance of where a great poet's poem has been set to music. The movie is 'Belli Moda'. The poem of the great Jnanpith award winner Da.Ra.Bendre is set to music by Vijaybhaskar. The tune fits the mood of the day very well. A very soft tune which Janaki sings superbly. Lines like 'elegaLa mele hoogaLe oLage amrithada bindu' so joyously convey the sense of dawn. Vijaybhaskar keeps the orchestration minimal and lets the song be carried by the lyrics and the tune. 

Time was us to enjoy this immortal song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqrslXQJnQE

Comments

Raj said…
A pleasing song and a nice introduction as usual!

Any idea of the year of release?Vijayabhaskar's style sounds very different from that of his '70s songs.

A Pahaadi without any alien swara!

Talking about the 'Dawn songs',I am reminded of 'MalargaL Nanainthana paniyaale'of MSV and 'Kaalaipaniyil aadum malargaL' of our Raaja.'Senthazhampoovil' gives that feel too...
September 9, 2010 at 11:56 PM
Suresh S said…
Thanks for the comment Raj.

According to Wikipeadia, it is a 1966 movie of Puttanna Kanagal. Vijayabhaskar has done some nice numbers in Kannada.

Thanks for the raga info. I somehow can never get the hang of Pahadi fully, though I know a lot of songs in that raga.
September 13, 2010 at 12:23 PM
Raj said…
'MalargaL nanainthana..'(Idhaya Kamalam)was composed by K.V.Mahadevan and not by MSV.Sorry for the confusion!!
September 13, 2010 at 9:51 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

One song at a time - 24. Naadamaya E Lokavella

-
Image
(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
Read more

M S Subbulakshmi : Who misunderstood her?

-
Image
In the October 1st 2015 issue of Caravan, Vidwan T.M.Krishna wrote a lengthy article about M.S.Subbulakshmi titled, 'MS Understood' with the subtitle 'The Myths and Misconceptions around India's most acclaimed musician'.  This is a long read and spans 10 pages. You can read the complete article here Krishna, as his wont, makes lot of sweeping generalizations and hand waving arguments. I just want to react to a few aspects of his article. First, Krishna starts with a straw man, with some unknown singer stating that MS was a hoax. Then Krishna goes on to elaborate on how critics never considered MS to be a great singer and thought that she was just a singer with a ‘good voice’.  Krishna then traces MS’s origins and talks about how her music changed, how the society affected her and how she could not realize her complete potential and so on. You can read all that in the article. Once you have read the article you will understand what I am saying here more cle
Read more

SPB: A Musical History - Part 1 : A Legend called Ghantasala

-
Image
Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao (Photo source: Quora) I plan to do a multi part series on SPB, tracing his music career in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada film music. I will not be concentrating on other aspects of SPB like his acting or dubbing career. I will occasionally be making reference to some of the singing shows he did for different TV Channels. You must be surprised as to why the first part of this series is titled, ' A Legend called Ghantasala'. The idea is to give you a picture about the Telugu film music scene when SPB made his appearance. He recorded his first song for 'Sree Sree Maryadaramanna' in Dec 1966 (according to Wiki). The movie is listed as a 1967 release. So we can say that people heard SPB first in 1967. In 1967, the leading stars of Telugu films were N T Rama Rao (NTR) and Akkineni Nageshwar Rao (ANR). Actor Krishna was making his mark. The popular music directors included K V Mahadevan, S Rajeshwar Rao, Pendyala Nageshwar Rao. Other music directors li
Read more