One song at a time - 24. Naadamaya E Lokavella
(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. This song from the movie 'Jeevana Chaitra' is set to music by Upendra Kumar. (My friend and musician @MDPallavi informs me that this song was based on an archival M.Ranga Rao tune.) Based on one of the toughest ragams to adapt to movies, 'Todi'.
In the course of his mammoth lecture series on the melakartha ragas, based on Mahavaidhyanathan Sivan's magnum opus, when he arrives at the 8 melakartha raga, Todi, S R Janakiraman exclaims, " The majestic Todi, the mighty Todi, the magnificent Todi. You can give whatever adjective you want. When you start singing Todi, involuntarily you feel joy". The raga retains its carnatic flavour a lot and when you try to 'lighten' it, you suddenly lose the colour of Todi and ragas like Sindhu Bhairavi start creeping in. This song follows the carnatic Todi very closely without trying to 'lighten' it. The only 'cinematic' Todi (if I may call it so) that I have heard, is Illayaraja's "gangai karai mannan adi". There we do lose the colour of Todi a bit in the interludes.
Dr.Rajkumar sings like a veteran classical musician. A lovely alapanai starts the song. He brings out the essence of Todi very well. When I heard this the first time on TV I was blown away by the singing capability of Dr.Rajkumar. The song morphs into a ragamalika towards the end and here too Dr.Raj does a wonderful job, both in changing the ragas and singing the kalpana swaras. No wonder this song won him the National Award. Very deserving win indeed.
(The only problem with the song for me is that when I see the song, I feel depressed. Nothing to do with the song. The Himalayas in the background keep telling me, "Why the hell are you in front of a computer typing some nonsense instead of being here".)
As my friend Madhu says in his blog, "Thanks for reading thus far". As a bonus for having read thus far, here is the Todi, as tuned by Illayaraja. I am not giving the movie clip but the song as sung by a contestant in a singing program. As per me, this is the best rendition of _any_ song in any singing competition. Sung by Roopa, the initial aalap is enough to give goosebumps. No wonder Unnikrishnan was enamoured by this aalap that he asked for a repeat. The judges are ecstatic. Even if you don't understand Malayalam, you will understand the comments!! A video worth savouring.
Comments
regards
madhu
It is indeed true that many outside of Karnataka do not know that Dr.Rajkumar is a singer and a very good one at that.
Regards,
Ramki.
You learn something new all the time. Didn't know you were from Surathkal!!! Always associated you with Kerala !!
I can easily see why this song would be a favourite of inter college competitions. In our times it was 'Shankara' from Sankarabaranam :)
Thanks for sharing this lovely song.
And yes, come to think of it,i now wonder, how come Ilaiyaraaja didnt compose many Thodis, be it in films or even in his non-film ventures!
Not many have really tried giving Todi in the film scene. When it appears it appears as a regular Todi in a classical setting. (Ex: 'alapanam' from Gaanam)
The 2nd video.. she did an amazing job. I dont care if she wins or loses that contest (given the commercialities these days,in competitions),but i seriously hope she goes far in her talent! brilliant rendition!
That's an old video. Luckily she went on to win the competition that year (probably 2 or 3 yrs back). She then sang in a few Malayalam films. Not sure what/how she is doing now.
Wanting to test the real appreciation for music(some people simply pretend ), he made a musician sing in his court with a caveat to the Audience:
'People shaking or nodding their heads-Be ware! Your heads will be chopped off'.
The musician sang Todi.The audience- caring more for their heads than for their hearts- sat like statues.Suddenly one gentleman moved his head vigorously and said to the King 'I don't need a head which can't even move for Todi'!
Needless to say that the King declared him as the 'real rasika'.
That is the beauty of this ragam.
The song -which I am hearing for the first time-brings out the essence of Todi.Did it win an award for the composer too?
As usual a lovely nugget from you. Comments from people like you, Ramki and Kamal add a lot of value to the posts. A very enjoyable story. I am sure I would have got my head cut given my propensity for shaking it at a very high frequency :)
Thanks for the post. Could you tell what other ragas are sung in the "Nadamaya" Song ? I thing the raga changes from Todi to some other raga at the end. Can you tell ?