Music And Movies

Some carnatic ragas have inherent resistance in adapting to film music. They cling to their carnatic character tightly. Ragas like Begada, Sahana, Bilahari, Kedaragowla, Surati, Anadabhairavi, Bhairavi etc. are examples. (I have spoken about this in a earlier post as well.) Film music has its own set of genius music directors who were able to adapt such 'tough' ragas to film music successfully. We have earlier in this blog discussed Dakshinamurthy Swamy's adaptation of Begada , S.Rajeshwar Rao's adaptation of Bilahari and Illayaraja's take on Todi . Today we will talk about one more such 'tough' raga: Natakurunji. This raga also clings tightly to its carnatic character. The added challenge is the fact that it is easy for this raga to stray from this raga into other ragas under the flimsiest of pretexts. (Whenever I try singing Natakurunji I stray easily into either Shankarabaranam or Neelambari!!! Ofcourse that says more about my singing ability than...

(Dandapani Desikar) 'salilam varshaya varshaya' sang Muthuswamy Dikshithar and heaven opened up providing succor to the drought hit Ettayapuram. The lamp wicks in Akbar's court caught fire when Tansen sang Raag Deepak and  the heat generated was offset by cool rain that fell when Tansen's daughters sang Miya-Ki-Malhar. Flowers blossomed when Jeyadeva sang, a dead person got up on hearing Tyagaraja sing 'Naa Jeevadhara'. Such stories abound in India. Whether we believe in the stories or not, we do believe in what these stories want to convey: the power of music. One of the most interesting stories which relates to music and devotion is that of 'Nandhanar'. Those who do not know about Nandanar can read this Wikipedia article . In this story, Nandanar, belonging to the low caste, is not allowed inside a Siva temple. He stands outside and wants to have a glimpse of the Lord, but the Nandi blocks his view. So he sings to Nandi to move a bit so th...