Music And Movies

( You can read the earlier parts here:  Part 1 ,  Part 2 ,  Part 3 ,  Part 4 ,  Part 5 ,  Part 6  ,  Part 7 ,  Part 8 ,   Part 9 ,   Part 10 ,  Part 11 ,  Part 12  & Part 13 ) Versatility - Part 2 In the last post, we looked at some songs which showcase the versatility of SPB in singing modern songs, high energy songs, emotional climax songs and songs that needs a softness of touch. That was quite a range but that was not all. In this post we will look at some more aspects of SPB's singing with the songs he sang for Raja in the 1980s are examples. A genre of songs which SPB was famous even before he started singing for Raja was the comic songs genre. We had in one of the initial posts observed how SPB would mimic the voice of a comedian like Allu Ramalingiah. Raja used SPB for many comic songs. Let us look at a few of them here. 'randi randi randi' from 'Rudraveena' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlbRxxnmzII...

  ( You can read the earlier parts here:  Part 1 ,  Part 2 ,  Part 3 ,  Part 4 ,  Part 5 ,  Part 6  ,  Part 7 ,  Part 8 ,   Part 9 ,   Part 10 ,  Part 11  & Part 12 ) The versatility 1 As I stated in the earlier, SPB of the 80s was a well formed,confident singer with a unique style of his own. His association with Raja in the 80s helped him in two ways: One, he got to sing a lot of popular numbers, which ensured he took his rightful place in the hearts of the people. Two, Raja gave him songs which pushed him hard and ensured that SPB was able to showcase his versatility to the world. In this article we will talk about how Raja used SPB versatile singing to give us some everlasting numbers. Before I begin the analysis, let me also state that though SPB was the foremost singer in Tamil, he did dominate the Tamil film music landscape the way he did in Telugu and Kannada. Raja loosely followed this pattern of giv...

  ( You can read the earlier parts here:  Part 1 ,  Part 2 ,  Part 3 ,  Part 4 ,  Part 5 ,  Part 6  ,  Part 7 ,  Part 8 ,   Part 9 ,   Part 10  & Part 11 ) We have seen the emergence of Illayaraja in an earlier part. By the beginning of 1980s he had established himself as the foremost music director of Tamil film industry. Veterans like MSV were fading and the other music directors of that era like Shankar Ganesh, Chandrabose and others could not match up to the quality that Raja was delivering.  In the 1980s, SPB had also found his style. This was the culmination of more than a decade of singing. SPB was now extremely confident of himself and his style. With the veteran actors slowly fading from both Tamil and Telugu film industry, SPB, who was the voice of the new generation of actors, was in high demand across languages.  In the next couple of posts, we will not have much to discuss about SPB's singin...

  (SPB with Salman Khan) ( You can read the earlier parts here:  Part 1 ,  Part 2 ,  Part 3 ,  Part 4 ,  Part 5 ,  Part 6  ,  Part 7 ,  Part 8 ,   Part 9  & Part 10 ) K. Balachander made 'Maro Charitra' in Telugu and it became a super hit, not only in Andhra Pradesh but also in Madras. The songs of MSV were top class. He had used four female singers in it. Susheela, Janaki, Vani Jayaram and L R Eswari. The lone male singer was SPB. Balachander now wanted to remake this in Hindi. Since MSV was not well known in Hindi, he had to chose a popular Hindi music director. He chose Laxmikant Pyarelal as the music director. Balachander wanted SPB to sing for Kamal in Hindi as well. Balachander had always been a great supporter of SPB. Over and above that since Kamal was playing a role of a Tamil boy who did not know Hindi, he probably felt that SPB would be the apt singer. The only problem was the LP, as Laxmikanth Payarelal were kn...

( You can read the earlier parts here:  Part 1 ,  Part 2 ,  Part 3 ,  Part 4 ,  Part 5 ,  Part 6  ,  Part 7 ,  Part 8  and Part 9 ) K. Vishwanath was a man who made most movies based on classical music and his themes were quite similar. Vamsi, who had worked as an assistant to K Vishwanath, was an eclectic director. His themes varied a lot. He could cover serious movies, comedies, thrillers, classical music based movies and so on. He had a streak of craziness in him which reflected in his movies. Illayaraja seems to have loved this streak in him and he also gave eclectic music for the films of Vamsi. It was almost an unwritten rule by then in the Telugu film world that the male lead singer would always be SPB. 'Sitara', the first film that Raja and Vamsi combined together had some wonderful melodies. It is difficult to pick any single one from this. Let us hear 'kuku kuku'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8TlKkqN_B8 SPB's voice suits t...

 (SPB - K Vishwanath) (You can read the earlier parts here:  Part 1 ,  Part 2 ,  Part 3 ,  Part 4 ,  Part 5 ,  Part 6  ,  Part 7 , Part 8 ) As I said in the last part, the Illayaraja - Vishwanath and Illayaraja - Vamsi combination created some amazing music in Telugu film world in the 1980s. In both cases, the female singers were varied but when it came to the male voice, it was always SPB. Let us first take up the Illayaraja - Vishwanath combination. This combination made a total of four movies together: Sagara Sangamam, Swathi Muthyam, Swarnakamalam and Chinnabayi. The last movie was not well known the first three are considered classics in Telugu cinema. K V Mahadevan was Vishwanath's regular partner when it came to music and he has given amazing music for Vishwanath, be it 'Siri Siri Muvva', 'Saptapadhi', 'Jeevana Jyoti', 'Seethamalakshmi' or that all time hit, 'Sankarabaranam'. So when Vishwanath came to Illayaraja for 'Sagara Sang...