MSV : His Music and his times - Part 17: His legacy

In this final part let us examine the legacy of MSV.

First, along with Ramamurthy, he was instrumental in modernizing Tamil film music. We have discussed a lot about this earlier. Later, MSV kept changing his style to suit the modern trends. In the 60s we saw how he embraced a more western style of orchestration. Later there was a slight change in style to take on the Hindi influence which was seeping into Tamil film music. As I had earlier indicated, MSV was probably the only one who was able to challenge the Hindi invasion. (Though I call it invasion, I personally feel that any good music coming from anywhere is fine.) He did his bit to give hit songs during those times and partially succeeded.

His most important contribution to Tamil film music were ofcourse his melodies and the impact they left of the listening public. Not only on the listening public, they also had an impact of the MDs who followed MSV. We have already seen how Raja had to tune many songs in the MSV mold in his initial days. Such was the influence of MSV's sound that almost all producers / directors felt that any good Tamil song should have the MSV sound.

More than Raja, it was Rahman who was influenced by MSV's melodies. While Raja did tunes which resembled MSV's tunes outwardly, he was consciously moving away from MSV's style and the soul of Raja's music was far away from that MSV. We have seen this in an earlier post on how the musical philosophies of Raja and MSV were poles apart. Rahman's musical philosophy, on the other hand, was closer to that of MSV. Let me try and explain this via a few examples.

Here is what I wrote about Rahman's entry in a different forum. "The second dramatic break was that of Rahman from Raja. As I said, Rahman approached music differently. He got in many of the pop music ideas into TFM. He got some outstanding recording equipment. Very catch rhythm loops started coming in, the melody was suitably simple, keeping with the pop style requirement, new voices came in and crystal clear sound was heard. The richness of orchestra of Raja gave way to synthesized sounds, the complex harmonies gave way to simple ones. The effect was opposite to that of Raja. The break was definitely dramatic and disruptive."  (You can read the whole thread here: http://ilayaraja.forumms.net/t116p75-why-ir-is-not-simply-someone-between-msv-time-arr-time )

In the initial years Rahman used different song structures. One of them was that of a song suddenly reaching a crescendo, as in 'nadhiye nee aanal' in 'pudhu vellai mazhai song'. He also had a different structure for the pop rhythm based songs like 'mukkala muqabula', 'oorvasi oorvasi'. It was in the soft melodies that we can see MSV's influence on him. You can see the influence in two aspects of his style wrt his melodies: the song structure and the way he approached a raga. Both of them had the MSV influence.

Let me start with simplicity of the song structure. I had already spoken about the simple structures of both Vishwanathan Ramamurthy and later of MSV. (I am not saying simple is easy. Nor am I saying that simple is not good. It was an aspect of their style.) Here is one of the songs.

Here is 'mampazhaththu vandu' from 'Sumaithangi'



Here is the song which launched Rahman



Concentrate only on the way the tune flows and you will find both of them being very simple in their structures. The way the charanam flows is like a river flowing in the plains. No major twists and turns. A sort of straight line approach and a gentle joining with the pallavi. Ofcourse Rahman brings in his own rhythm and soundscape to this song but the way the tune flows is more like a MSV tune.

Or take this song which was a super hit. 'margazhi poove' from 'May Madham'. Once again the soundscape is typical Rahman but if you concentrate only on the tune, you can fins the simplicity of MSV -TKR. You can observe the simplicity of tune in the pallavi as well as the charanam



Or you may want to listen to this song which was also a mega hit those days and once again check out how the pallavi and charanam flow.



To give you an idea of a complex tune, here is 'siru ponmani asaiyum' from 'Kallukkul Eeram', a 1980 movie. Music by Illayaraja. This is more like a river rolling down a mountain slope. You don't know where it will jump next. The pallavi itself is such a great treat of complexity.



The next aspect of Rahman was the way he approached ragas. His approach was more closer to MSV's approach and you can see that clearly in some cases.

Here is Rahman's Mayamalavagowla from the Hindi movie, 'Pukar', 'sunta hai mera khuda'



The soundscape is Rahman's alright but the Mayamalavagowla soul of this song derives from this song of Vishwanathan Ramamurthy, 'kallelam maanikka kallagumaa'



There is a Telugu singing reality show called 'Padutha Theeyaga' for which SPB is the judge. In one of the episodes, when a participant sang 'malargale malargale' from 'Love Birds' SPB sang 'ilakkanam maarudho' and pointed out how the ending of the pallavi can easily merge with 'malargale malargale'. Listen to both of the songs and decide for yourself.

Here is 'malargale malargale' from 'Love Birds'



Here is 'ilakkanam maarudho' from 'Nizhal Nijamagiradhu'



There are some songs of Rahman who affinity is instantly discernible from the pallavi itself. Like the 'enna vilai azhage' pallavi sounding very similar to 'thanga padhakathin mele'.



Or 'roja roja' from the same film, 'Kadhalar Desam' sounding close to 'enmanadhai nee ariya naan koduthen' line of 'Sippi Irukkudhu' song.

Rahman himself has admitted that MSV and KVM were big influences on him. Later ofcourse Rahman went on to try 'structureless' songs with varying degree of success. I was talking mostly about his initial 5 to 6 years in Tamil films and I feel that many of his melodies have MSV influence.

(Edit: I also need to point out that the musical thinking of early Rahman was also very similar to MSV. Rahman believed in giving freedom to his singers and instrumentalists, his interludes were not fully integrated with the melody and many of his tunes were simple in structure. Like MSV who had the genius of Kannadasan with him, Rahman benefited a lot due to his association with Vairamuthu in his early days.)

Thus MSV was able to influence a generation beyond the Raja generation. The remix generation is keeping MSV's legacy alive now . (MSV hated remixes though)

The other important contribution of MSV to Tamil film music are the singers that he groomed. It is well known that L R Eswari owes everything to MSV. Later MSV groomed SPB, Jesudes and Vani Jayaram, all three who can be considered all time greats of Tamil film music. He gave them great songs and ensured they improved on their craft. He used to sing the song when he taught them and each one of them says that it was almost impossible to reproduce the sangathis that he sang. This was a great contribution of MSV. By the way, he also introduced Malaysia Vasudevan and Swarnalatha though both their achievements are more with Raja. Similarly he gave a good number of songs to Jeyachandran as well.

MSV's tunes were such that even popular music directors from other languages respected him a lot. SPB says that Naushad was a great fan of MSV and would buy any record that came out with MSV's music. Raveendran Master, the famous Malayalam music director, tells how he was inspired by 'malarndhum malaradha' song. The Malayalam and Telugu film industry had great regard for him.

The main legacy of MSV would be that for a couple of generation his music is what made their memories. Along with memories he has left behind a huge treasure of tunes for the future generations to enjoy. He has an everlasting place in the list of great artists of Tamilnadu.