MSV : His Music and his times - Part 9: The melodies

Last week we saw some of the westernized songs which MSV composed. These songs have stood the test of time and these are the songs through which lot of current day youngsters associate MSV with. These songs also helped MSV make a second transition. The first was when along Ramamurthy he transitioned out of the G Ramanthan era. The second transition happened when he transitioned out of the Vishwanathan Ramamurthy era and established his own unique style.

This style was not limited to the 'western inspired' songs. The style was also evident in the melodies he composed during those time. These melodies shed their melancholic tone and became celebratory melodies. This was the major shift after he moved away from Ramamurthy. These melodies had more 'in your face' approach and were able to instantly catch the attention of the listeners. I will be dealing with the melodies he produced in the 1966-1971 timeframe. We will take a look at the later day melodies in a different context.

Let's start our look into Vishwanathan's melodies. A great place to start is this wonderful song which was a humongous hit in those times. 'muthukalo kangal' from 'Nenjirukkum Varai'



The melody is a typical MSV melody in the sense that it is very difficult to fix a ragam to it. It has a classical base alright but it transcends that base and gives us an outstanding song. (Since it involves K R Vijaya I leave it to you if you want to take the risk of watching this song.)

I have a feeling that Pendyala Nageshwar Rao ws enamored with this song and under its influence created this beauty. The songs are definitely close cousins. Pendyala's song's instrumentation is more classical in nature. This song was a major hit in Telugu and even today it is performed in stage shows and reality singing shows.



I had already posted this song in a different context in this series but I cannot leave this out when writing about MSV's melodies. A typical MSV bright melody brimming with sweetness. Once again it is classical and yet modern. (Nominally it is based on Abheri I think). This is a melody which everyone thinks of when they think of MSV. 'poo malayil' from 'Ooty Varai Uravu'.



I have heard it said that MGR was very impressed by 'yeh jo mera prem patr padkar' from the RajKapoor film 'Sangam' tune by Shankar Jaikishan and that he wanted MSV to tune a song in that mold. MSV came up with a beauty of his own though you can hear the inspiration of 'yeh jo prem patr' if you hear carefully. Though the basic raga structure is taken from the Hindi song, MSV builds a lovely melody which is all his own. 'kunguma pottin mangalam' from 'Kudiyirundha Kovil'



MSV did not use the voice of S.Janaki much. He chose P.Susheela and L R Eswari and in later days Vani Jayaram. But when he did use Janaki he gave her some nice songs, like this melody from 'Avalukkenru Oru Manam'. 'unnidaththil ennai koduththen'. The charanam takes us back to the Vishwanathan Ramamurthy days with the constant beat and the light melancholy which is reflected effectively in Janaki's voice.



Here is one of those MSV songs where you cannot mistake the raga. There have been many Bageshree based songs in Indian film music history and this song can proudly stand up to any of them. 'nilave ennidam nerungadhe' from 'Ramu'. The sadness of Bageshree in the heart melting tone of P B Srinivas. The way the song is tuned, the Hindustani ragam used, the use of sitar and shehnai and the manner in which the tabla is played all give this song a ghazal type touch.



In the same year, MSV came up with another such melancholic touch, though it was for a love song. This song from 'Kodimalar' we have already seen in a different context but is worth publishing here since it should definitely be counted as one of MSV's great melodies. 'mouname paarvaiyaal'



Here is a melody with a folkish touch. While it is a sort of happy song the tune per se doesn't convey the happiness fully held back by a bit of inherent sadness. This fact helps MSV a lot when the tune turns sad. Here is the happy version.



And here is the sad one.



No such sadness exists in this song. It is a happy go lucky song and is a sort of archtype for the latter day 'I don't care a damn about the world till I meet the hero' based heroine songs. (Think Jyothika in 'Kushi'). 'chittukuruvikkenna kattupadu' from 'Savale Samali' This song also fetched P.Susheela the national award.



I have a feeling that MSV may have been inspired by the Shankar Jaikishan melody, 'sayonara sayonara' from 'Love in Tokyo'. Well listen to it and decide.



Here is a lovely duet. 'manikka vendugiren' from 'Iru Malargal'.  A nice melody.



We will round off the song list with this beauty sung by a very young S P Balasubramaniam. 'iyarkai ennum ilaya kanni' from 'Shanthi Nilayam'. A nice contrast of voices. Susheela's experienced vocals against an upcoming and still finding his feet Balu.



MSV did a lot of films in the 1965 to 1970 timeframe. Unlike the 5 years of Vishwanathan Ramamurthy, these 5 years were a combination of hits and misses. Some great albums combined with some middling albums. The consistency of Vishwanathan Ramamurthy was surely missing but the fact that MSV could generate those magical melodies kept him in demand and he was definitely the top music director of those times. He almost had no worthy competitors. This would hurt Tamil film music.

We did see some of the Hindi music influence showing up in MSV's work. The influence of Hindi film music on Tamil film music listeners in the 70s would not come in the form of MSV's work but it would come directly in the form of Rahul Dev Burman. Though he had hit films to his credit in late 60s, it was in the early 70s that the full impact of R D Burman would hit everyone in India, upto a laborer working in deep South of India,

We will see the impact of RD Burman's music on All India level and how MDs across south tried to counter it.