MSV: His Music and his times - Part 12: Early 70s melodies

As I said in the last part of this series, it is not right to assess MSV's music of the 70s just by the RD Burman influence. MSV did continue to give lots of hit melodies in his own style in the 70s. We will take a look at the melodies he gave in the first half of the 70s.

Let us start with a song which can be taken to be the very definition of a humongous hit. It blared in the radio, it blared in what we call 'patti thotti', it blared in those 'kuzhai' speakers during festivals and to this day remains a major hit. From the movie, 'Pattikada Pattanama', 'ennadi rakamma'



Any modern music director will immediately see the 'remix' potential of this song. (I checked youtube and yes it has been remixed. And no, I am not giving you the link). The energy is infectious and TMS rocks.

This was in 1972. MSV followed this with another super hit song in 1973. This was an equally big hit. This is not an high energy song like the previous one but the melody caught everyone's attention. It is a strange song in many ways. It has shenai bits, a bit of mid eastern touch with the mandolin, the tune has a more carnatic touch. Whatever be the case the very first phrase of the pallavi line caught everyone's attention.



You can know the impact the song would have created if you hear this Telugu song. Adinarayana Rao and Sathyam transported this song to Telugu. 'aakasam dinchala' from 'Baktha Kannapaa' (1976). This was a big hit in Telugu.



Talking of Telugu movies, the super hit Telugu movie, 'Mooga Manasulu' starring Savitri and Nageswar Rao was remade in Tamil as 'Praptam'. The songs of the Telugu movie were super hits. Music was by K V Mahadevan. The music of 'Praptam' was by MSV and he gave some very nice songs for this movie.

Here is the Telugu song, music by K V Mahadevan.



Here is the song from 'Praptam' for the same situation.



You can hear a bit of melancholy in K V Mahadevan's tune. In case of MSV's song it is sheer joy. Based on Madhyamavathi. (Somehow I am always reminded of this song whenever I hear the 'thenmerku paruva katru' from 'Karuththamma'. That song is also based on Madhyamavathi)

This film was later remade in Hindi and Laxmikanth Pyarelal had a different song for the same situation. The film was titled 'Milan' and here are Lata and Mukesh singing 'saawan ka mahina'



The song was hit in all three languages but unfortunately the movie was a hit only in Telugu and Hindi. It was a major flop in Tamil. Savitri produced this movie and it is said she was heartbroken due to its failure.

Now let us turn our attention to another aspect of MSV here. It was in the early 70s that he introduced SPB and Yesudas to the Tamil film music world. Technically SPB was introduced by K V Mahadevan in 'Adimai Penn' via that wonderful 'ayiram nilave vaa' but it was MSV who gave SPB a lot of hit songs during this period. Similarly I am not sure who introduced Yesudas into Tamil (he was already a well known singer in Kerala) but it was MSV's songs that made Yesudas popular in Tamil Nadu. Both of them would reach their full potential under Raja but the foundation was laid by MSV.

We already saw 'iyarkai ennum' song of SPB in an earlier part. Here we hear him as the voice of Sivaji. It was almost a sacrilege those days if anyone other than TMS sang for Sivaji. I am sure even (Sivaji insisted on TMS) So it must have been quite revolutionary during those times to select SPB as Sivaji's voice. This song and songs like 'iyarkai enum' suited SPB well and these tunes gave us a different dimension of MSV. The infusion of new voices was a welcome change.



While MGR was also a major fan of TMS, he did encourage both KVM and MSV to use SPB. Here is another MSV melody in the voice of a young Balu. You can hear a commonality in the tunes of these songs.



MSV seem to have identified the versatility of SPB very early and gave him this fun song. Here SPB sings for Gemini Ganesan.



That Yesudas had a terrific voice was known to everyone and he had sung some classics in Malayalam. MSV gave him some classics in Tamil as well. The superb melody in Yesudas's voice perfectly complemented MSV's tunes and when it worked it was a match made in heaven.

In the previous article I had compared the title songs of 'Yadon Ki Baraat' and 'Nalai Namadhe' and felt that the Hindi original was more 'cool'. At the same time it must be said that as far as melody was concerned it is difficult to imagine R D come up with a tune like 'neela nayanangalil'. An excellent melody in the voices of Yesudas and P Susheela.



'Ulagam Sutrum Valiban' had lot of hit songs. TMS was given the lion's share with 'lily malarukku kondattam', 'pachahi kili', 'panjaye' and 'nilavu oru pennagi'. MSV gave one song each to SPB and Yesudas and those songs turned out to be outstanding melodies.

Here is SPB with 'aval oru navarasa nadagam'



Yesudas got this beauty, 'thanga thoniyile'



(You will find it interesting when you compare SPB's rendition and Yesudas's rendition. You can see that SPB is still learning the ropes while Yesudas sings like an expert singer, which he was)

Another major MSV melody in the voice of Yesudas was 'vizhiye kadhai ezhudhu'. This is an unforgettable song of Yesudas and always figures whenever someone talks about Yesudas's early Tamil songs. The charanam with its mridangam is vintage MSV



Yesudas also had the hit from 'Aval Oru Thodarkathai, 'deivam thanda veedu' and also 'adhisaya ragam' from 'Aboorva Ragangal'. In K Balachander movies MSV seems to have had more freedom to pick his singers and you hear a lot more of Yesudas and SPB in them.

If MSV introduced SPB and Yesudas in this period, he also introduced Vani Jayaram in this same period. Not only did he introduce her, he gave her such an outstanding song that the Indian government had no choice but to give her the national award. (That the Indian government never found MSV fit enough to be given a National Award is a different sad story). The ragamalikai based 'ezhu swarangalukul' from the movie 'Aboorva Ragangal' with the glorious lyrics of Kannadasan.



'Aboorva Ragangal' was released in 1975. A year earlier, in 1974, itself MSV gave Vani Jayaram the song which would define her. A song which she sings on stage till date. 'malligai en mannan mayangum' from 'Dheerga Sumangali'



The introduction of Yesudas, Vani and SPB added a different sheen to MSV's music. At the same time he was giving some lovely numbers to MSV like this one from 'Siriththu Vaazha Vendum', 'konja neram ennai marandhen' nominally based on Saranga. The combination of TMS and Janaki is not a common one as GiRa the uploader of the video notes in youtube.



In this period we had this typical MSV melody, based again on Madhyamavathi. From the movie, 'Ennai Pol Oruvan', 'velale vizhigal'



I will leave you with another not oft heard combination of singers in MSV's music, Yesudas with Janaki here:



In the next part we will see how the Tamil music scene was in the early 70s and what MSV's contemporaries did in that period.