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Lyrical sense of MDs

Topic started by Guru (@ 129.49.80.172) on Sun Sep 29 07:09:39 EDT 2002.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

Quality of film songs has gone down: Lyricists
Our Staff Reporter
Chennai, Sept 29:

Leading film lyricists who participated in the centenary celebrations of lyricist and poet Udumalai Narayanakavi organised by the Sahitya Akademi and Kavya Circle in the city yesterday were unanimous in their opinion that the quality of film songs has degenerated. While veteran lyricist Vali candidly remarked that films had nothing to do with aesthetics or arts and that it was purely a business, popular lyricist Vairamuthu blamed it on the changing times. However, poetess Thamarai provided some comfort to those seeking improvement in film songs when she said lyricists should not bow to the whims and fancies of producers and directors who expect abject verses from them. Thamarai said she declined to pen a song on fashion shows and beauty contests recently. Although she had earned a bad name by such acts, she had successfully avoided writing vulgar and obscene lines. Lyricists should have social responsibility as films and its songs have considerable impact on the people especially youth, she said in a soft but determined tone. Film industry was not purely a business and it had artistic value too, she observed. She hailed Narayanakavi as a poet who propagated rationalism and social reforms and vowed to follow in his footsteps.

Thamarai said all Tamil poets from Ilango who created the epic Silappadhikaran were emotionally attached to Cauvery. Cauvery is not only a river. It is our cultural symbol and the origin of of our civilisation. Poets should be in the forefront of an agitation to secure the release of Cauvery water, which is our right, Thamarai said.

Vairamuthu who spoke later said the deterioration of films songs was a reflection of the changing times. He speculated that he would have penned good songs with quality in both content and form if he was in the film industry four decades earlier. He came out with a revelation that the most popular lyricist Kannadasan had planned to take up journalism after he returned from US (where he died) suggesting that the most successful lyricist who reigned supreme in the Tamil celluloid world was not able to cope with the pressures of modern film industry.

Vairamuthu justified English words in Tamil songs saying that they were used only for humour and fun. Only Tamil words were used for serious situations, he said.

Unlike Vairamuthu who offered several excuses and tried to defend the lyricists, Vali who spoke earlier said film songs were penned for loaves and fishes. Those who claim that they are doing yeoman service to arts and literature by producing films are deceiving people. It is all defrauding the common man. I am in this field for more than 45 years and I know what is happening, he observed.

The other lyricist Muthulingam who also spoke, attributed the deplorable standard of film songs to the lack of Tamil literary knowledge among music directors, producers and directors. Apart from Ilayaraja who is well versed in Tamil literature, no music director understands simple Tamil words leave alone poetry, he remarked.

Muthulingam recalled the achievements of the Justice Party and the association of Narayanakavi with the Dravidian movement. Earlier, a book titled Udumalai Narayanakavi written by K Shanmugasundaram was released by Vali and the first copy was received by Lion V Balakrishnan. Muthulingam also released Udumala Narayana Kaviyin Paadalgal, a collection of Narayanakavis songs. Malayalam writer S Gitendranath delivered the introductory address.

http://www.newstodaynet.com/29sep/ld8.htm

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Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: vengayam (@ 203.200.84.67) on: Fri Oct 4 06:42:00 EDT 2002
  
  my reply to :-) has disappeared. I wonder why? I'll ask the q again when & where did I say anything derogatory about Tamil nattu padal.
  "But your comment (cheey!) against the natupurapattu is the symbol of our (assumed and established) social and cultural factors which has to be deeply analyzed from the root. That's what veLi rangarajan also talks about in that article". your above sentence is baffling. kindly elaborate??!!??!
  
  
• From: s0 (@ 163.181.250.2) on: Fri Oct 4 09:48:18 EDT 2002
  
  To add more fuel to fire, here is an excerpt from an old interview of Raaja:
  
  "Unfortunately, we can never dream of having all-out musicals as Hollywood had the Broadway tradition. But in the old times, we could boast of musical literature, which, perhaps, they can't. Take for instance books like 'Panjamarapu' written around 10 AD which outlines the singing styles, characteristics of the singer and of the 5 orchesteral sections: woodwind, strings, percussion, brass and vocals. Even the statistics for an auditorium with ideal acoustics and orchestral proportions are there!"
  
  
• From: To Mr.Vengayam from :-) (@ 67.241.76.89) on: Fri Oct 4 11:48:08 EDT 2002
  
  
  athikara varkam matrum mathiyathara varkaththin mathippeedukaLE kalacharam enRa peyaril mun niruthapapadukiRathu. koothukaLinidaiyil velippadum pAlilyal thanmaikaLai kaNdu mukam suLikkum pArvaiyALarkalin monOpAvam pairsseelanaikkuriathu (from thiNNani article)
  
  Whether you like or not 'kuruvi kodaincha koyapazam', 'vAdi en kk' both are nattpuRapAttu varikaL. When mari mari ninE(sindu bairavi) is considered as CS and 'singara velena'(or take 'nalanthAna?') as naAttiya song(both are from cinema) why cant be VEK nattupuRapAttu? If we move in this direction it could be easily established. But that's one end. I dont want to get into that as I know the meaning of bad lyrics. Another end is rejecting everything including VEK in the name of bad lyrics! Now your comment gives me the opportunity to look at this side and question peoples' manobhavam(mentality), period!
  
  
• From: :-) (@ 67.241.76.89) on: Fri Oct 4 11:54:02 EDT 2002
  
  Hope I answered you, now answer my questions:-)
  
  
• From: kiru (@ 192.138.150.249) on: Fri Oct 4 14:16:09 EDT 2002
  
  Karthik..surely..I am referring to the 'veLLai niRathoru poonai' part.
  s0 ..could quote. I am not surprised that IR can quote things like this.
  I do not want to go further, in the interest of time, but cannot stop but make a comment on people who think appreciating somebody's talent in 'ven sAmaram veesuvathu'. What can I say, the culture in our state, has gone down so low, even if people fall at somebodys feet out of respect we feel he must be doing it for the 'petti' full of money, or a MLA or MP ticket or some such favor :( :( :( Too many sycophants ..too little good people. There is no surprise we lost the ability to distinguish between genuine sense of appreciation and flattery.
  
  
• From: kiru (@ 192.138.150.249) on: Fri Oct 4 14:17:02 EDT 2002
  
  I mean 'good quote' when I said 'could quote'.
  
  
• From: hihi:-) (@ 128.111.113.76) on: Fri Oct 4 20:18:58 EDT 2002
  
  kiru: you are correct about that veLLai niRaththoru pUnai. about five or six charaNams from that pATTu are mixed and matched by IR to create the coherent film song.
  
  
• From: OISG (@ 193.188.97.152) on: Sun Oct 6 07:20:49 EDT 2002
  
  Kannamma en Kadhali -GR /Panthulu picked the best part for Kaatru veliyidai-PBS PS duet.
  
  Nenjil uramumindri and Velli pani malayin -the same way.It is really a great piece of thinking by GR that he made Velli pani malayin as a pallavi when Bharathiyar did not use it as a pallavi.
  
  Almost all the Bharathiyar songs were done this way in movies.-CRS s "Chinnanchiru Kiliye",MSV s "Nallathor veenai" and "Theertha Karayinele",GA s "Suttum vizhi chudar than"
  
  The black spot is "Varthai thavari vittai" as a starting piece in "Ennadi Meenakshi".Disgusting!
  
  Kiru
  
  Kodambakkam has the high success rate of killing talented personalities by mere sycophancy.I have heard about the Sivaji s coterie which made trash like Dharmaraja,Justice Gopinath,Pilot premnath,General chakravarthy etc.What happened to Sivaji happened to IR.The trouble is at that altitude very few had maintained the distance with "anne(brother)" Kumbal.The fall is then just logical and sadly,inevitable.
  
  
• From: Bals (@ 209.245.37.28) on: Sun Oct 6 20:58:50 EDT 2002
  
  The BlackSPot actually is...
  
  Alai Payuthe with western beats is another disgusting piece.
  
  Vande matharam song which we used to listen on AIR was so graceful. This ARR version is another disgusting piece.
  
  In the name of innovation he is killing such classic songs. Not even one song of him have meaningful lyrics.
  
  
• From: OISG-is-a-loser (@ 66.176.161.168) on: Sun Oct 6 21:20:58 EDT 2002
  
  Black spots? By someone other than IR? No way.
  
  No - the "Sutrum" Vizhi Chudar by Hariharan in Kandukondain Kandukondain ain,t a black spot - no sir. Just the apt use of Varthai Thavarivittai by IR. How dare he? Him that unseated MSV hath no right to do anything at all.
  
  
  
  
• From: Karthik (who still thinks OISG is a loser) (@ 66.176.161.168) on: Sun Oct 6 21:30:38 EDT 2002
  
  Getting back to the topic, although Raja's love/knowledge of Tamil literature is possibly unparalleled among Tamil music directors, it must be said that he didn’t use that knowledge to good effect when it comes to lyrics. During the 80’s and early 90’s, when the Raja assembly line was in full flow, Raja turned a blind eye towards the pathetic lyrics that populated his songs. Even the best of lyricists will have trouble coming up with poetic masterpieces every other day. With the clout he enjoyed, Raja could’ve introduced numerous new lyricists. Instead he persisted with the chosen few (Vaali, Vairamuthu, GA et al). In large measure, the deterioration in Tamil lyrics should be attributed to Raja’s period (with Raja being responsible for it to a large extent). Rahman is just continuing what Raja started. And with Rahman’s own Tamil being extremely suspect, it is going to be hard to expect anything better from Rahman. But Rahman is known to be willing to listen … (While on this subject, I have read that S.A.Rajkumar is known to take a keen interest in lyrics, and sometimes even corrects his lyricists)
  
  
• From: Awe (@ 65.69.56.61) on: Mon Oct 7 00:23:31 EDT 2002
  
  Karthik still it is too much to compare IR with ARR. ARR's lyrics is fully populated with English words to suit his copied hip hop tunes. Illayarja gave so many songs with good lyrics atleast average lyrics unless ARR. Kannadasan wrote lots of lyrics for IR. Let me tell you one thing. If VM is not influenced by Music Director why is that he didn't write Muqabala, Figure Figuredhan type of songs for IR? Ofcourse IR never allowed him to write such lyrics. Only after ARR's entry lyrics started becoming absoultely bad as ARR didn't care what the lyrics are. He can just drown the lyrics with his trial and error musical arrangments. He can also distract the listener from focussing on lyrics by giving the songs to junk singers like Udit Narayan(Only in Tamil), Shankar Mahadevan. Love is Muqabala? anyone knows what it is... Those days there would be just one or maximum 2 gang songs and peppy songs in a movie. Nowadays all the songs are peppy so what is the point in having lyrics like "thamarai mele neer thuli pol thalaivanum thalaiviyum vazavadenna" . IR is the only complete music director TFM has ever seen. When you take lyrics, tunes, grace, musical arrangments, re-recording, vocals all into account IR has met the requirement more than any other MD.
  
  
• From: OISG (@ 193.188.97.152) on: Mon Oct 7 00:52:31 EDT 2002
  
  Isn t it wonderful that a self-proclaimed winner and a deemed loser talking on the same lines.
  
  Karthik s post at the time when he still felt that i was a loser .....Vazhimozhimigiren!
  
  

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