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Can hariharan be considered an able successor of SPB ?

Topic started by vijay (@ 129.252.29.219) on Wed Jun 10 19:08:42 EDT 1998.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

With hariharan getting to sing a song in almost every film including films done by IR there is a popular notion that he might be the next SPB.But my doubt is whether he would create the same impact that SPB had in the last twenty years, or would he fade away soon? also is he capable and versatile enough
of holding the top spot in TFM ?awaiting your opinions.

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Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: Hrishikesh.R (@ 202.54.33.210) on: Mon Jul 27 23:36:29 EDT 1998
  
  Dear fellow Tfm Commentators,
  I feel both of them are good but the better is Unnikrishnan simply becos he can sing songs like Uyirun Neeya(Pavithra),Hai Rabba(Jeans),both of different styles nonchanantly.He is the best!!!!!!!!1
  
  
• From: pg (@ gate02.merck-medco.com) on: Tue Jul 28 07:58:49 EDT 1998
  
  Listen to SPB in 'kAdhalin deepam ondRu'. There is nobody in the past/present & future of TFM who can sing the song like that.
  
  SPB (and TMS) set the standard in TFM. There is nobody else to match even 75 % of their singing.
  
  
• From: eeov (@ horus.erlm.siemens.de) on: Tue Jul 28 10:02:25 EDT 1998
  
  Haaa...
  
  Its really nice to see a very good "fight" of different nature after the IR vs ARR & VM Vs Kannadhaasan!
  
  But tell me one thing: Can you prove that laddu is better sweet than tirunelveli halwa? mullaiyai vida malligaikku vaasam adhigam endru yaarEnum niroobikka mudiyumaa? mayilai vida maan thaan azhagu endru thaan kooravum mudiyumaa?
  
  athE pOl thaan comparing
  
  1) spb & hariharan,
  2) IR & ARR
  3) kannadhaasan & vairamuththu
  4) kamal & rajini
  5) ur mom & ur wife!
  
  eeov! ==> enakkethukku oor vambu
  
  
• From: Kitcha (@ dhcp232-172.eel.ufl.edu) on: Tue Jul 28 12:06:37 EDT 1998
  
  eeov:
  
  For someone as "single" minded as me...there is no problem whatsoever !! In making a choice that is.
  :))
  
  I dont eat laddus...thekattum...I love the TirunelviHalwa!!
  
  And looking at your list in the same vein...
  
  1) SPB
  2) IR
  3) Kannadhasan
  4) Rajini
  5) My mom (I am still single,folks!)
  
  :))
  
  
• From: eeov (@ horus.erlm.siemens.de) on: Tue Jul 28 23:39:36 EDT 1998
  
  Oh kitchA,
  
  u got my point! ;-)))) I took sometime for me whether to put Rajini Vs Kamal OR Kamal Vs Rajini..
  
  Anyway... Lets see ur preferences after ur marriage! ;-)
  
  eeov
  
  ;-))
  
  
• From: Tamilian That Tells True (4T) (@ 202.188.184.212) on: Wed Jul 29 04:38:40 EDT 1998
  
  From my view Hariharan is a talented + lucky singer.Most of his songs HIT and touched the audience.That's why he is so "Busy" and Popular.
  
  But there is a truth that still SPB is the greatest.Even Hariharan said this before.SPB can change his voice to many rythm but HH only can sing with his normal rough voice.
  
  But all this not important to us.We(as Tamils) can proud of HH that he is a Tamilian that get back the Tamil touch to us after TMS and SGR.Even though Udit also another Tamilian but his Tamil is ??? here.
  
  
  
• From: Madhavan (@ peso.ntu.ac.sg) on: Thu Jul 30 04:54:05 EDT 1998
  
  Dear Friends,
  
  Whatever u guys may say about Hariharan or SPB.. Unnikrishnan is the best.. Unnimenon, MG Shreekumar, Srini, Jayachandran are amazing too.
  SPB is good, but not as good as hariharan.. SPB improvises.. sure..but it's either giggles or some cat-calls during rendition..but Hariharan improvises with gamakas ..listen to Malargale ..malargale.. Can SPb sing that?? Can SPB do a Krishna nee beganae in colonial cousins ?? Have u guys heard Shankarabaranam ?? SPB was thoroughly exposed in that.. he came across as a pathetic novice.. who does not know ABCD of classical music..If he cant sing classical, y venture into it ?? His main flaw is his false-voice.. Thyagaraja in his composition " Shobillu Shaptaswara" talks abt voice production in the phrase " Nabhi hrith kanta rasana". Mantharasthayi is supposed to be produced from the naabhi ( naval). and the higher sthayis are to be produced from HRITH ( heart ) and Kanta( Throat) for tharasthayee. SPB's voice production is from the throat for all sthayees. This is a basic flaw.. inspite of this ...he has been effective.. which is commendable..but u ppl are glorifying him asthough he is the embodiment of all sangeetha gnyanam.. which is ridiculous..So what if he has won national awards..he has won it merely because of the amount of songs he has sung.. look at his success rate.. and look at Unnikrishnan's..
  Take for instance the hindi version of ROJA. Roja janeman has two versions, one sung by SPB and one by hariharan.. Hariharan's version is much much better than SPB's.. Another example would be Indra.. where SPB has sung a song called "thoda thoda malarndadenna".. The same has been sung in the hindi version of Indra (priyanka) by hariharan.. The song goes like "thoda thoda pyaar ho gaya". Listen to both the versions... You will know who's better..
  
  Madhavan
  
  
  
• From: NOV (@ 202.184.134.10) on: Thu Jul 30 06:40:57 EDT 1998
  
  Hi Kitcha - Annatheh here! :-)))
  
  I was just passing by and noticed many new players with similar arguments we had in the "olden" days. :-))
  
  Whilst we thought that comparing Ilayaraja with AR Rahman was wrong, people have progressed to comparing SPBala with Hariharan and (horrors of horrors) Kannadhasan with Vairamuthu.
  
  Well, to each his own.
  
  My preference? I think it is a sin to even begin comparing the greatness of SP Bala with anyone else, more so with a newcomer such as Hariharan. Not that I don't like HH's songs - I even have a "Best of Hariharan" album. :-))
  
  Gnianam pirakkindrathu nanbarey - I am beginning to understand why IR fans sometimes become fanatics.
  
  But guys, leave my pinaththals to me - do carry on with your discussion. Apologies for the interuption.....
  
  
• From: Shankar (@ webgate0.mot.com) on: Thu Jul 30 09:33:57 EDT 1998
  
  Madhavan,
  Has unni renedered any dappangoothu song,Adithadi song,Puratchi song (he tried once in Aravindan which was pathetic, to say the least),Seducing song etc.
  What he has done so far is sing some duets and some slow songs (most of them r average ones).
  
  His expressions r just horrible sometimes.Listen to Hai rabba ,check out the way he sings "nam kaadalai kavi paadave...".Pathetic!!
  
  If u know sthg about averages and consistency.u wouldn't have talked about success rate.
  Tendulkar has average around 40 in 197 one dayers.Say,some new player comes and hits 2 centuries consecutively.His average'll be pretty much more than 10dulkar.U can't claim he's a better batsman.
  Nobody here claimed Balu as "the embodiment of sangeetha gnaanam".
  We, balu fans, r just wondering how can a person with 0 carnatic knowledge render so many great and complex compositions of "living encyclopaedia of music" (IR) effortlessly.
  This is the reason why I'm still a fan of Balu.
  What's so great about unni singing a film song.He's a master in classical music.Film songs should be thanni patta paadu for him (which is not for Unni and HH,surprisingly)
  
  I 've listened to hindi version of thoda thoda malarndadenna.
  U had said" u'll know who's better"
  Obviously Balu is better........................is what i'd say.
  Man, these r all subjective.
  Check the records.Those guys who gave him so many national awards r not fools.
  Take the number of songs sung by TMS.How many national awards did he get????
  If hariharan has done a krishna nee begane, balu has done aayarpaadi maaligayil (though it's not so complex for his standards).That song will really make u sleep.Will krishna nee begane have some more effect than just being a good song???
  It's not that Balu ventured into carnatic.KVM found him better than anybody else (mind u,KJY and Balamurali krishna were around even in that period!!).
  Try to appreciate the person who has made so many innovations and has produced so many good songs and has played an important role in IRs musical career ( they complement each other),who has sung more than 30,000 songs without compromising on quality!!
  
  
• From: Gundan_fan (@ alpxy1.att.com) on: Thu Jul 30 10:11:06 EDT 1998
  
  Hi Guys,
  When u compare SPB and HH or for that matter any TFM singer with another dont bring in his prowess of classical music as THE point of contention. Its agreed that most of the singers are much better of learning classical music for thier own betterment and this knowledge need not be acquired by formal tutelage alone could also be gained by experience, interaction etc. Chitra was a classical singer before she entered TFM what do u guys say for that. TFM needs a good classical base for the singer to sustain but needs a lot of improvisation, modulation etc to make a song hit. Not many classical songs have been compesed to bring out the rasaas in life except for Bhakthi. But FM is totally different ball game. Thats why people termed it "light music" which is unfettered by the norms of the classical world. Its a well known fact that SPB does not have formal training in carnatic music, maybe thats the reason why u guys could go ahead and say that he lacks, but had this not been known, I think things would have been different. As SPB himself says that "All his life he has been considering KJY as his leading light and its his wish and that of his fathers to atleast performa full scale carnatic katcheri". As somebody mentioned before can Unni sing a song like "Pattu Kannam" with that effortless laughter at the end of the pallavi. Notwithstanding all these facts about SPB listen to "Nandha nee en Nila" and do tell me whether he really lacks the "ghamakkas" that u should find with a classical singer. The whole point is that Unni may be a great classical singer but simply cannot match the versatility of SPB. U cannot possibly listen to Unni singing "Sivarathiri thookam edhu".
  
  
• From: Bharat (@ isdbsd1-inet.ci.mil.wi.us) on: Thu Jul 30 10:25:08 EDT 1998
  
  Madhavan:
  
  I feel you are evaluating TFM singers from a Classical-music perspective. Hariharan may improvise gamakams, but SPB becomes no less for perfectly rendering the MD's instructions. Moreover, Shankarabharanam was a film intended to popularize Carnatic music. (In fact, I remember Semmangudi's statement that this film had done more for the popularizing of Carnatic music than the Academy had in a long time.) So it's no wonder that SPB was chosen, he must have been the perfect "bridge", with a smooth voice that made Carnatic compositions appealing to the masses. Film songs are completely different, requiring a lot of "vocal acting" according to the situation, and the comparison to Carnatic music is very unfair.
  
  
• From: Udhaya (@ 205.218.142.217) on: Thu Jul 30 14:13:42 EDT 1998
  
  NOV, Regarding the issue of comparing different artists, that is hard to get away from in this forum so what we can do is stay away (which would mean very little participation in most of DF) or pitch in with a fair objective analysis to dignify the discussion, or in the least announce who your favorite is before building up or cutting down an artist. About the Kannadhaasan and VM comparison--that's being done on a very objective basis on a given set of topics to see the strengths of both poets. You would be surprised how well VM fares when objectivity rules.
  
  My response to Madhavan is, TFM is pop music. HH is not a good pop singer most of the time because he is flexing his brigas and doing Ghazal style slides and climbs in his voice when rendering a simple pop song. IMHO pop music is not an appropriate arena to show vocal prowess.
  One of the best examples of this I can give is the great tenor Pavarotti singing the very simple pop song "Singing in the Rain". He sang it with such relish that it sounded great. If he had tried to break into an operatic high pitch in the middle of the song, it would have killed the joy of that simple song.
  Limited as his range may be SPB is perfect for TFM where pronunciation, ease of delivery, and mood are crucial.
  
  

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