SPB : A Musical History - Part 9: Illayaraja - Vishwanath - SPB

 (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 Sangamam', the expectations would have been high. Would Illayaraja understand the artistic requirements of Vishwanath, who had his own aesthetics, and provide the same high caliber music that K V Mahadevan had provided till then? Illayaraja proved beyond doubt that he can score for the sensitive films of Vishwanath. 'Sagara Sangamam' is a milestone in not just Telugu film music but in Indian film music as well. SPB had a major role to play in this album.

Even if Illayaraja had scored only one movie in Telugu, and if it was 'Sagara Sangamam', he would have been immortalized. The music quality is such. There were songs for almost every emotion in this film. Vishwanath had always encouraged SPB by having him sing in his films right from when SPB was a young entrant to the film music industry. He gave SPB 'Sankarabaranam', which took SPB to a different league altogether. Now he gave him 'Sagara Sangamam', which would become another feather in SPB's cap. 

It is easy to see why 'Sagara Sangamam' would be a feather in SPB's cap. It pushed SPB hard and took him to his limits. It also gave him every kind of song. The classical, the funny song, the emotional, the dramatic and the romantic. In every song there was great intensity. It was almost as if every song was composed by the composer as if his life depended on it. (Raja would have composed them in his usual 5 to 10 mins style. That's a different matter). SPB too sang as if his whole career depended on this movie.

Let's have a look at the songs which SPB sang in this movie.

We start with the funny, 've vela gopammala' song. 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtPjwxSGJTI

This is a parody song. A song which makes fun of the standard 'stepsu' based film song picturization. SPB sings with that lightness of touch that is needed for this song. 

'Sagara Sangamam' also had one of the greatest love songs ever composed, 'mounamelanoyi' 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-J2YjDtBGs

If you think I am exaggerating about the quality of the song, let me remind you as to what SPB said about this song. In a program that he used to conduct, he said, "let any other music director score a song like this, I will give up singing". Vihswanath in one interview told that the specification he gave to Raja were something like this, "Imagine it is late evening time, there is a mild, cool breeze and that Geeta Dutt is singing a song. I want a song with that feel". Raja gave him that and more. That gentle breeze effect Raja took care via the orchestration. Janaki and SPB sang with the necessary softness to give the song the immortal status. (According to me, this song mainly belongs to Janaki. She is amazing right from the word go)

Then there was the classical music based dance number, 'nadha vinodhamu'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLwa6YEh5MQ

The song calls for an energetic delivery and SPB does a great job. The kalpana swaras in the middle, the change in ragams, everything is dealt with easily. The song sounds so nice but it is not an easy song to it. It requires a great singer to do complete justice to it.

Now we come to 'thakita thadimi'. Another stunner of a song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-qgOqg9kP4

The way the intensity of the songs increased as the film progressed is both a lesson in how to create situations and how to tune. If the earlier song had tested SPB classical music capability, this tests his capability of sustained singing. If you observe the charanam, there is no place to rest. It is a continuous and sustained assault. Added to it, SPB had to sing for a drunkard. Observe the way he sings the pallavi after the first charanam completes. Based on Shanmukhapriya, this is an absolute classic and in the voice of a less talent singer would fall flat. It requires extraordinary talent and discipline to sing this song. A sense of drama and at the same time a sense of restraint. Raja reigns in any extra emotion that SPB may have felt and that results in a tightly controlled song. It exactly reflects the scene where Kamal is dancing on the well. A slight misstep can lead to tragedy. It is the same with the song. It is so taut, that even a slight misstep in pace, emotion or melody can result in tragedy. 

Then we have the climax song, 'vedham anu anuvuna nadham'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50ig91HlODY

If you thought 'thakita thadimi' was intense, Vishwanath and Raja said, 'not so fast'. They together come up with one of the best climax songs in the whole of Indian cinema. Again, please don't think I am exaggerating. This intensity is out of the world. Vishwanath crafts a brilliant climax and Raja goes for the jugular right from the very first swara. The 'ga' in the upper octave establishes his intention beyond doubt. Then the song steadily increases its intensity with the help of SPB and Shailaja's singing, Vishwanath's picturization and Veturi's fantastic lyrics (He is beyond brilliant in the whole movie).

It is a definite challenge for SPB. As I said, he has to start in the upper Gandharam. He doesn't have time to go up slowly. He has to hit the high note the moment he opens his mouth. The next note is the much higher Ma. Then it slowly comes down before climbing up again. A definite challenge. The tune, like 'thakita thadimi' is tightly packed. No space to breath. The orchestration is also breathless. Raja doesn't let the intensity sag even for a minute. The chittasawarams in the charanam and then the whole charanam itself is designed to be as taut as string on the bow of Srirama. Shailaja's entry too has that breathless feel. He give us some respite after that long phrase by Shailaja and then he becomes unrelenting again. In all this tautness he still give us a soft as a feather, 'nataraja padana' in between. Sheer genius. As the song ends in that slokam, 'jayantite', you see how wonderfully that slokam fits SPB.

The next Illayaraja - Vishwanath combination was 'Swati Muthyam'. Another wonderful musical. As in the earlier cases, the only male voice singing for the film was SPB.

The very famous, 'suvvi suvvi'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsuOontkJH4

SPB would have loved this song. There is a quite drama here. SPB had to sing for a man whose mental faculties have developed fully. Raja makes him go from the madhra sthayi to tara sthayi in the beginning. Then it becomes a lovely melody, as sort of folk song. SPB's voice fits so well for Kamala Hassan. (Janaki though is the highlight of this song)

The melodious 'manasu palike' 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHr2xqhRHIg

The songs on the lines of 'mounamelanoyi'. A silken smooth melody which both SPB and Janaki enhance with their feather touch.

The classical 'rama kanavemira' 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts-Y5qr307E

A harikatha based song, starting in Reethigowla. This gives SPB a good chance to display his voice mimicry skills, as he has to keep changing his voice. ( The way he speaks in the beginning reminds me of Gantasala talking in that 'Vagdanam' movie song). The tune keeps changing moving into folk territory. Overall a song that SPB enjoys and it shows. SPB himself says that this song requires a performance from the singer and that it was one of his favorite songs. You can hear him talk about the song here (Looks towards the end where he comments about the song) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hseQiRBlfg

The next movie of this combination was 'Swarnakamalam'. The songs of this movie are so good that I have to almost play you every song. I will, with great effort, restrain myself to two.

'kothaga rekkalochchena'. One of the many duets in this films. Except for one Janaki solo, all other songs were duets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJp2BBmG_zg

This is such a joyful song and SPB conveys that joy right from the beginning where he has to start at a high note. The way SPB and Janaki sing is like a competition between themselves. Each of them conveying the joy they are feeling immaculately. Raja's orchestration throughout keeps that sense of joy alive. Everything Raja does has an intensity associated with it. This is another song which needs two such tremendous singers to execute. (And Bhanupriya. Aaha. She looks so gorgeous in this movie)

Next I will play you this amazing classical song tuned for dance. 'koluvai unnade'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlcJ2fnCuGI

The classical nature of the song is established by the jatis that SPB sings at the start. Then the slokam, sung in Panthuvarali ragam. The song starts in Latangi ragam but in the charanam shifts to Hamsanadam and Simendramadhyamam. All the while providing an organic sound. It is not easy to sing such minor variations that Raja brings into the song but both SPB and Susheela do it with ease. Again, there is a wonderful contrast between the voice tones and singing styles of Susheela and SPB which enhances the song.

This is also a wonderfully picturized song. The whole lower middle class milieu is perfectly captured by Vishwanath. The playfulness of Bhanupriya, the activities around the house and the seriousness of Bhanupriya's father, everything is captured brilliantly. (And did I mention how gorgeous Bhanupriya looks)

The last film that Vishwanath and Raja collaborated was 'Chinnabayi'. The film was not a big hit and the songs did not become popular. The songs were nice but they did not reach the heights of the earlier movies. Let me play you one song. It is a lovely melody, which on its own is a nice song. Only when you compare with the Raja - Vishwanath songs you may rate it slightly lower. 

'ninna choosina udhayam kadhidhi'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj22MOH1hWU

Sujatha and SPB singing this wonderful melody. As you can see from the picturization, Vishwanath was trying to make a movie for the 'modern' audience and Raja had given the song accordingly. The way SPB enters the movie in both the charanams is so sweet. This song should have been heard more but unfortunately the trend of those times had changed by then. 

'jaji malli tella cheera'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EoTlNVnGv4

Here is a typical SPB ably supported, as always, by Chitra. This is another lovely melody. Again it is not remembered much unfortunately.

Here are SPB and Chitra singing the same song on stage. SPB talks about the song at the end of this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ko1U8_WSiw

As you can see from the songs here, SPB gave a lot to this combination. At the same time, both K Vishwanath and Raja pushed SPB to his limits and this pushed him to greater heights. SPB did benefit from such a great combination and he on his part gave his all to them. In the management parlance, this ended up being a win-win combination.

I though I would do both Vishwanath and Vamsi films in this part but Vishwanath itself took so much space. We will talk about Vamsi in the next part.