SPB: A Musical History - Part 5: Sankarabaranam and the tryst with classical music
In the year 1980, a film was released which had all the necessary requirements to be a huge disaster at the box office. The hero was an unknown drama actor, a middle aged man. The heroine, an unknown dancer, again playing the role of a middle aged woman. Subject of the film: Carnatic music. The only two well known faces were those of Chandramohan, a middle tier hero and Nirmala, who acted as his mother. Neither of them were box office draws. The music was heavily classical music based, an anathema for Telugu film music of those times. K. Vishwanath, who had directed the film had a tough time releasing it as no distributor wanted to touch such a sure shot disaster. Finally somehow the film was released and the first week proved that whoever had shied away from buying this film were correct. Then a miracle happened. The next week on the film picked up and within no time everyone in Andhra Pradesh wanted to watch this movie. The film, 'Sankarabharanam', went on to become one of the biggest hits of Telugu film industry.
The current generation would have experience the 'Bahubhali' phenomenon. This was a combination of special effects, over the top budget, suave marketing and good old story telling. Everyone wanted to see the film and they came to theaters in droves. I would say that not everyone was impressed or satisfied with the movie but the ability to create a buzz in this social media world is easy. Compared to this what K Vishwanath achieved in 'Sankarabharanam' is unthinkable. There was almost nil marketing except for the posters and the songs being broadcast on AIR. The number of theaters it was released was limited. Yet, by simple word of mouth publicity, the movie went on to create history. The other major difference between this movie and 'Bhabhubhali' was that no one came out unsatisfied. Everyone was moved. (Chandramohan, who had acted in this movie, remarked, "After the first week, the film picked up so much that no tickets were available. In government offices clerks used to say, "Can you get me tickets for 'Sankarabaranam'? I will sign your papers immediately". It was such a big hit)
One of the major reasons, apart from K.Vishwanath's direction, Balu Mahendra's cinematography and Jandhyala's story and dialogues, was music. When it was decided that the tunes will be carnatic raga based, K Vishwanath and K V Mahadevan decided to look at the Carnatic music maestro, Balamuralikrishna. K V Mahadevan's assistant, Pugazhendi though, had different idea. He was insistent that SPB sing for this movie. For that to happen Pugazhendi had to convince one person. That person was SPB. Initially SPB was not sure if he would be able to do justice to the songs since he was not a trained classical musician. Pugazhendi refused to back down. He trained SPB regularly and soon enough, SPB became confident and sang for 'Sankarabaranam'. That would become one of his landmark films, for this was the first of the films which fetched him a National Award for the Best Playback Singer. SPB's name became known beyond the Vindhiyas. SPB has never failed to mention the role Pugazhendi played in making him sing for 'Sankarabaranam'. He has related this is more than one TV program and whenever possible he spoke highly of Pugazhendi's compositional skills.
K V Mahadevan based all the songs of this movie on classical ragas with Veturi writing the lyrics. There were three kinds of songs in this movie. K V Mahadevan composed one, standard classical tunes and one song which was a mix of both. It is worth hearing some of these to showcase how SPB delivered these songs.
Let's start with 'omkara nadanusandanamu', based on 'Sankarabharanam' raga. Vishwanath uses this song to highlight the emotional nature of his protagonist and also uses this song for a major twist in the movie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha1BQP3ACoc
When I first heard this song on AIR before the film was released, I was blown away. SPB sounded so different. Even my mother was surprised. "He sounds so different in this". That is when I decided I had to see the movie. I went to the movie the very first weekend and the man at the counter was happy to see me and my friend.
Structured like a Carnatic krithi, with the mridangam and ghatam accompaniment, this set the tone for the whole movie. It was structured like a krithi because it was being sung on the stage by a famous Carnatic music singer, as per the movie. Later you see that the song has been released as a record. Janaki joins towards the second half of this song. (Vani Jayaram too got a National Award for singing in this film). The swara singing towards the end would have been practiced endlessly by SPB to get it right for in those days they recorded with live orchestra and it had to be in one take. No cut and paste then.
The song which became the most popular from the movie was 'sankara nadasareerapara'. The words meaning that for Lord Shankara, his whole body was nadam. (Of course, it was first expressed by Sarangadeva in his prayer slokam of 'Sangita Ratnkaram', which ends something like, 'vande shankaram, nada tanum'. Tyagaraja took inspiration from that to open his Chittaranjani krithi as 'nada tanum anisam shankaram' )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZACVIMSbOM
This song was definitely belonged to SPB's alley. The song needed some energetic singing and there was lot of drama involved. KVM's tune captures the drama perfectly, especially in the second charanam. SPB revels in singing that part. The star of the song, though, is Veturi, who wrote these wonderful lyrics.
You can also observe this if you listen carefully: SPB modulates his voice to give it more depth and suit the middle aged hero. Yet, when it comes to fast phrases and the top registers, the voice changes to the standard SPB voice. You can hear the change at, "dikarindrajitha' in the first charanam and almost whole of the second charanam. The tone is not exactly consistent throughout. Yet, it doesn't sound unnatural. Even today this song is sung in singing competitions regularly.
Another song in this movie which caught everyone's fancy was 'Ragam Tanam Pallavi', a ragamalika.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqL9FEYvwOk
SPB was no stranger to singing ragamalikas. In the last part I had mentioned two ragamalikas that he had sung, 'cheekati velugulu' and 'manasa veena'. This was different in the sense that every line had the name of the raga in it and the change was over every avartanam. In those days, this was the most often picked song to sing in a competition.
The climax song, based on Kalyani, was again down SPB's lane because there was more drama in this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWzIMlh6czk
The initial words, 'dorakuna ituvanti seva', were taken from a Tyagaraja kriti in Bilahari. Having taken that phrase, Veturi weaved his own lovely poetry suiting the occasion. K V Mahadevan tuned it in Kalyani and SPB had to heighten the drama by ensuring he sang as if his voice had crocked and then had to cough and sing. SPB was a master in this and he must have enjoyed it.
The movie also had 'samaja vara gamana', the Hindola ragam krithi of Tyagaraja. KVM retained the pallavi and the charanams were typical film music charanams. We will skip this song and listen to the Mysore Vasudevachar krithi in raga Khamas, 'brochevarevarura'. Sung by SPB and Vani Jayaram.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBCBtSJVtdY
This song too was well received. I remember reading an article where the author traveled in Hyderabad in a cycle rickshaw and heard the rickshaw puller singing this song. SPB and Vani Jayaram deliver a lighter version of this Carnatic song.
(M S Subbulakshmi's rendition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZaUnN1smIs Definitely not for comparison of singers. Only to understand the difference in requirements of krithi singing in classical music setting and in films. You can't put the MS rendition in a film or put the 'Sankarabharam' rendition on concert stage)
When I look back now, I wouldn't say that these were the best carnatic raga oriented songs that KVM had composed. He has done much better job in some of the Tamil classics of director A P Nagarajan. The songs belong more to the filmi classical music genre than classic music genre. Having said that, I do not see that as a drawback. KVM delivered what was required for the movie. The reach of the songs is proof of that.
Wanting to ride on the success of 'Sankarabharanam', Bapu made the movie 'Tyagayya'. The music arrangement was by K V Mahadevan and Bapu chose SPB again to sing all the krithis. J V Somayajulu, the hero of 'Sankarabharanam' was chosen to play Tyagaraja. 'samayaniki tagu maataladane' from the movie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSd3QO2u7KI
The movie was not received well. People could not accept Somayajulu as Tyagayya. Nor could they accept SPB singing standard issue Carnatic music krithis. (This reminded me of Einstein's quote, 'A good joke should not be repeated'). Some old timers felt that this movie did not match up to the 1946 version of Nagaiah. They felt that SPB could not match upto the singing of Nagaiah. I saw that film much later and I sort of tended to agree with them.
K V Mahadevan and Vishwanath combined to make 'Swati Kiranam' much later. They again made SPB sing classical music. Though KVM was listed as the music director, the actual music director was Pugazhendi, according to SPB. SPB used to sing the songs from this film in his stage shows.
Here, in the raga 'Nattai', 'pranati pranati pranati'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbWelWFol3w
This is a nice song as were other songs from this film.
'Sankarabharanam' gave SPB the confidence to take on more classical oriented songs to the extent that he did a movie in which he had to sing Hindustani music. While SPB did justice to every song given to him in films, classical or otherwise, I must mention that when Yesudas and Ghantasala sang classical oriented songs, they seemed more at ease.
In the next part we will talk about SPB and Raja in the second half of 70s.
In the meanwhile, if you can understand Tamil, here is SPB talking about 'Sankarabharanam' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIq0O23Ub3w
Comments
I was studying at Kollam, kerala.. Heard that at Grand theatre, this film was taken as a midweek arrangement for three days from a tuesday to thursday ( these were hearsays, which spreads in our circles) ..on the last day there were no tickets available and people were returning.. Surprised by the respinse through person to person publicity, thr theatre management, extended it for another four days.. Finally seeing potential thry bought distribution rights for the entire district... I was not at all interested and was not in its telugu music too.. But the invincible bless such gilms, that somr distributor dubs it in malayalam retaining same music in telugu, and in same wsy after two months i saw that film at Kappithans theatre Karunagapally, a distant place from ny then home at Kundara only due to a mandatory companionship to a relative... Stunned i was when I watched the film.. The hippie style youngsters all fell into the classicaltouch of the film music.... Everlasting songs... Still close to my heart
BMK took too much time to decide whether he was going to sing for the film which prompted KV and KVM to approach SPB. BMK wasn't pleased once the film released and publicly chastised SPB and the makers for making a novice sing sacred Indian classical songs thereby polluting it. SPB as per usual took it in stride with humility and grace saying that these are the blessings he has received from "his father in the world of music" and will try to hone his skills. He also said in a later interview that once he retired from playback singing, he would like to serve BMK as his disciple and learn the rudiments of Carnatic music.
Years later, BMK graced the grand finale of a reality show SPB was hosting and spoke highly of SPB on the occasion saying ""The world has seen the best of both Balamuralikrishna and Balasubrahmanyam. My son and my most favourite disciple Balasubrahmanyam has grown in stature by leaps and bounds. Today, Balu can sing like Balamuralikrishna. But Balamuralikrishna can never sing like Balu..."