MSV : His music and his times - Part 3: The consolidation years

If 1961 was the breakthrough year, the next two years were the years of consolidation. These were the years that their dominance was established beyond doubt leading to a terrific and a varied 1964.

In the last part we spoke about the 'sound' of Vishwanathan Ramamurthy's music and I had mentioned that their sound had a slight tinge of melancholy attached to it. To a large extent we can say that the kind of films that they did in 1961 needed that sound. Most of them were melodramatic films: 'Paalum Pazhamum', 'Paava Manippu', 'Paasamalar', 'Bhagyalakshmi'. Bhim Singh who directed three of these four films was known for making highly sentimental films. Hence the music was in keeping with the requirements of these films.

While Bhim Singh - Vishwanath Ramamurthy collaboration would continue to give some outstanding albums, 1962 marked the entry of director Sridhar into the career of Vishwanathan Ramamurthy. Sridhar's collaboration with Vishwanathan Ramamurthy first and later with MSV would produce some unforgettable tunes. In 1962 itself there were three movies of Sreedhar for which Vishwanathan Ramamurthy gave music to: 'Sumaithangi', 'Nenjil Oru Aalayam' and 'Policekaran Magal'. From scoring for 5 Tamil movies in 1961, they jumped to 14 Tamil movies in 1962. This clearly reflects their fame and importance at that point in time and their growing popularity.

While Bhim Singh, Sridhar and others did provide the stage for Vishwanathan Ramamurthy to display their command over melody, it were MGR's films which gave them an opportunity in displaying their variety. While MGR films did have lot of melodious songs, there was an additional requirement for songs which were energetic in nature. The energy was need both for projecting MGR's larger than life image and also for projecting his politics. MGR had worked with Vishwanathan Ramamurthy earlier and had given equal importance to both Vishwanathan- Ramamurthy and K.V.Mahadevan when it came to the music for his movie. (Later the balance was tilted in favor of MSV).

In 1960, they had created the iconic, 'acham enbadhu madamaiyada' for 'Mannadi Mannan'. (This is widely played even today, especially in Dravidan party meetings). While the tune is good I would say it is still a 1950s type of tune and while some aspects of Vishwanathan Ramamurthy music are heard, it still follows the needs of the earlier times.



In 'Paasam' (1962) , a very similar rhythmic and song structure is now modernized in yet another iconic song. Right from the guitar strum and violin usage of the prelude, the accordion sound in the interlude and TMS's singing style, we can observe how this horse cart rhythm had left behind the earlier horse cart rhythm. This is  "ulagam pirandhadhu enakkaga'



Not only political songs, even the romantic songs of MGR were more vibrant and in accordance with the needs Vishwanath Ramamurthy adopted a more modern approach when it came to these songs. Here is a famous song from 'Panathottam', 'paseuvadhu kiliya'.



Once again we hear a modern prelude and the pallavi starts with the bongos (or is it congos. I am always confused). Love the way the pallavi ends with 'cheranukku urava, senthamizhar nilava'.

While the 'Panathotam' song is modern, it is still a very Tamil melody with the tabla carrying the song in charanam. They went a step ahead in 'Periya Idaththu Penn' and made the whole song western. There was no usage of tabla in this song. The complete rhythm arrangement is based on western rhythm, in accordance with the cha cha dance (which is a Cuban based dance according to Wikipedia), In this we see the initial efforts of Vishwanathan Ramamurthy to go beyond our borders and get some world music to us. (Those who think world music came to us only in 1990s may want to rethink their assumption)



It is a proof of Vishwanathan Ramamurthy's versatility that the same movie had 'paarappa palaniappa' a rustic melody which was in keeping with MGR's pro poor image while the earlier song projected his suave handsome man image.



If you not convinced about the versatility part, this movie also had 'kattodu kuzhalada' and that ends all arguments.

( The other film of MGR which released in 1963, 'Ananda Jyoti' had songs which were more in tune with the Sivaji / Gemini movies: songs like 'ninaika therindha maname' and 'pani illadha maargazhiya'. )

If you think that only MGR's films gave Vishwanathan Ramamurthy room to display their versatility, Sivaji's 'Bale Pandiya' will make you think again. This was another movie which Vishwanathan Ramamurthy hit out of the park with their versatility. First we take up the most famous of all comic songs, 'neeye endrum unakku nigaranavan'



Honestly there is nothing in the way it is tuned which can be termed humorous. A straight 'Suddha Dhanyasi' throughout, Yet the ending swaras plus jathi part and the acting of all involved (especially the over the top M R Radha) provides the intended humor.

This movie also had 'naan enna sollivitten', 'athi kaai kaai' and the life affirming 'vaazha ninaiththaal vazhalaam'.

While these movies proved their versatility, the other movies from these two years cemented their reputation as excellent melody makers and as music directors who could tune some of the best tragic songs.

How much more tragic can you get than 'satti suttadhada' from 'Aalayamani':



Or say 'sonnadhu nee dhana' from 'Nenjil Oru Alayam'



Or 'aval parandhu ponale' from 'Paar Magale Paar'



The list of wonderful songs they gave during these two years is enormous. Films like 'Alayamani', 'Padha Kanikkai', 'Nichaya Thamnulam', 'Padithal Mattum Podhuma', 'Paarthal Pasi Theerum', 'Sumaithangi', 'Nenjam Marappadhillai', 'Karpagam' and many more were released during those two years.

Before I end this post, let me play you a couple of superb songs from 'Policekaran Magal' and highlight another aspect of their music.

First, this lovely Kanada based song.



The voices of PBS and Janaki are so apt for this song. What a wonderful melody this song is. If you compare 'mullai malar mele' to this song, you can see how different the approach to Kanada is now. A sort of text book example of how to use a carnatic ragam in film music without compromising on the 'film' part.

The next song is based on Kalyani and this was a major hit in both Tamil and Telugu. Again PBS and Janaki.



Once again I have to point out the Kalyani is very incidental. First and foremost it is a lovely film tune.

(As an aside, this film was made in Malayalam in late 1970s as 'Vyamoham'. The director roped in Raja to score the music for that movie. I am sure Raja would have been inspired by this Kalyani number of Vishwanathan Ramamurthy that he too created a different sort of Kalyani for that film. You can listen to that below)



The one aspect of Vishwanathan Ramamurthy's music which I wanted to highlight using the two songs of 'Policekaran Magal' is the simplicity of their song structure. The pallavi's were generally simple and the charanams were equally simple in nature. There are no major twists and turns in either the pallavi or the charanam. This enables the song to flow freely and most importantly they are easy to sing along from a common man's perspective. The simplicity also ensures that we take in the structure of the song very easily. Aided by the memorable words of Kannadasan, this sort of structure is easy to grasp and that is why even after so many years people effortlessly recall both the tune and the words of these songs.

( As an example of a structure which is complicated, where the tunes pace seems to vary. you may want to listen to this Salil Choudhary number from the film 'Parakh', which was released in 1960. )



In the next part, we will examine 1964, where they scored for a diverse set of films and 1965, the year they split.