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TFM Stories, Tit-Bits and Anecdotes

Topic started by Sathiya Keerthi (@ panorama.nus.edu.sg) on Mon Apr 6 02:26:53 EDT 1998.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

The aim of this thread is to collect, at one place, interesting
stories, anecdotes, tit-bits etc, related to TFM. A newcomer to
the forum will find this collection very interesting to read. For
example, Ramki mentioned the following story in another thread:

Do you remember the 'vizhiyil vizhundhu' (alaigal oyvadhillai) song?
Andha situation BRkku suddenaaga thondra, VMkku outdoor shootingil irundhu
phone seidhu kettuLLaar. VM phoneliye lyrics solla adhai tape seidhu
udanae IRkku anuppa, IR Janaki, Shailaja, PS ellariayum koppitturkkar
but no one was available. BSS mathram dhan mattirkkanga so avangalukku
adichadhu adhirshtam. The whole song was done in just 2 hrs time.
Annikke song shoot panni mudichittaangalaam.

Folks, please share any such stories, anecdotes and tit-bits that
you know, in this thread. If TFM Group thinks it is sufficiently
interesting, they could even place it in Permanent Topics.

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Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: Sathiya Keerthi (@ synergy.nus.edu.sg) on: Sat May 30 04:48:17 EDT 1998
  
  closing italics
  
  
• From: Madhan,Goa (@ 202.41.117.55) on: Sat May 30 13:21:05 EDT 1998
  
  Friends,
  
  A few years back I was travelling by train from New Delhi to Chennai in a Second Class compartment - I met a guy who introduced himself as one Mr.Srikanth - he was a flutist by profession and an Andhraiite. He was staying somewhere in Vadapalani,Chennai, and working for Maragadhamani (alias M.M.Keeravani in Telugu and M.M.Kreem in Hindi) in his troupe. He narrated an incident to me - once he was given a chance (call sheet) to play the flute for an IR's composition - he had felt absolutely delighted and when he reached the recording theatre, he was handed over the music sheets with the notes for flute written on it - since he was not aware of Western classical notes, he became nervous and was feeling a lot embarassed - not hearing the flute piece, Raja wanted to know what went wrong and was told about our friend's plight - out stepped IR and went over to our distraught flutist and played the flutes (Mr.Srikanth had around thirty different kinds of flutes of different sizes with him and IR played almost all of them !!) to him with all the intricacies of the tune intact - summaa asandhu ponaaraam, namadhu nanbar - thereafter, throughout the journey, we discussed nothing but film music and music in general - what I came to know from Mr.Srikanth was that, it is the dream of every musician(instrumentalist) in Chennai to play for IR at least once. He also told me that IR had some problems with K.Vishwanath (of Shankarabharanam, Sagara Sangamam fame) - that is why K.Vishwanath was not working with IR for a long time since 1990, but came back to work with him again in 1997.
  
  Thereafter, I tried keeping in touch with Mr.Srikanth, but lost contact.
  
  
  
• From: KR (@ mailserver01.sb.com) on: Sat May 30 14:27:12 EDT 1998
  
  Madhan, that's a great incident which narrates the genius of IR. The anectdote that I relish of IR is that when he went to Prasad studios for the "poojai" for a movie is that he was stopped from entering his studio because Jayalalitha was coming. He promptly went back without attending the function. This started the fallout between IR and GV (who tried to twist IR's arm on behalf of Jayalaitha). The thing I like about this story IR had the guts, the courage to stand up to the nonsense of Jayalalitha and her stupid tantrums and the likes of GV and has chosen to live with the consequences. Any self-respecting man should be proud of IR for that.
  
  Interstingly, once before, Ithink in '91 GV tried to similar stuff to Rajni. He was blackmailing Rajini to campaign for Rajiv Gandhi and Congress by threatening to lash IT raids on Rajini. For which Rajini told him "Unnale enna m....i pidunga mudiyome pidungiko".
  
  I love when people stand up to the arrogant likes of Jayalalitha, GV, K Balachander and Bharatiraaja.
  
  
• From: Madhan,Goa. (@ 202.41.117.3) on: Sun May 31 05:41:39 EDT 1998
  
  Dear KR,
  
  The GV -IR affair is (or was) a popular one - thanks for reminding me about it, because I have something else to share about GV
  
  After GV's tiff with IR, he had planned to promote Michael Jackson's tour of India - planned big things like a giant screen of 100 foot height in Marina Beach, Rs.100/- per ticket in a closed temporary arrangement in Marina , showing live telecast of the MJ show held at various centres throughout India - GV Enterprises were making lot of hype about this.
  
  Suddenly, MJ decided o skip the tour - GV was in soup - he started shouting - kuyyo muraiyyo yendru kaattu kathhal kathhinaar - MJ vai courtukku izhuppaen yendru sabadham ittaar - he also filed a case - I believe the case is still pending, or, GV got only a small share of what he wanted . Anyway,GV burnt his fingers badly -
  
  I understand that GV has had trouble with Kamal also.
  
  
• From: S.Suresh (@ dwarpal.wipsys.soft.net) on: Mon Jun 1 02:26:59 EDT 1998
  
  Hi,
  
  I remember one anecdote about Kannadhasan.
  
  Once Kannadhasan came very late to a program. The audience was very restless. Kannadhasan started his speech by saying "Silarukku Hindu madham pidikkum, silarukku Christuva madham pidikkum. Ennakku thamadham pidikkum". The audience was very pleased and their anger evaporated. I had heard Kannadhasan once in Hyd and he was terrific speaker.
  
  
• From: mfm (@ 203.120.115.1) on: Mon Jun 1 04:22:54 EDT 1998
  
  Hi Madhan,
  
  What a terrific incident you narrated? What other instruments IR can play? To know more about IR, we should try to open up some channels with those in IR's troup, which I think should be many(though it is hard to get a chance and IR performing).
  
  A few years back I happened to hear to an incident mentioned by a person from IR's troup. For one of the BGM recording, IR was working with almost 50 violinists. Group was trying quite hard initially and IR more or less was arriving at what he wanted. But one violinist(an old man in 50's) was playing slightly wrong. IR got furious and he scolded him like anything calling him something like Old dog(and other words I do not want to mention). IR's is known for his high strictness and discipline and almost every single person will become nervous when IR approaches them closely. That person also mentioned IR is quite reasonable and he will not torture people, but he is very strict.
  
  
• From: mfm (@ 203.120.115.1) on: Mon Jun 1 04:25:44 EDT 1998
  
  I also heard from another person in IR's troup that G Amaran is an allrounder and he can play almost all instruments and fair no. of them quite well also.
  
  mfm
  
  
• From: Madhan,Goa. (@ 202.41.117.54) on: Mon Jun 1 10:14:42 EDT 1998
  
  Friends,
  
  i forgot something else which Mr.Srikanth (my train co-passenger) had told me - it seems that IR holds the unknown, unpublicised record for BGM - normally, the BGM for a movie is very painstaking - you have to see each and every scene ,understand the mood , meaning and spirit of the scene and compose, refine and then finalise and record - in case of a stalwart like IR with the kind of reputation he has, his responsibility is manifold times more - he has to maintain his standard , not be repetitive, do something unpredicatbly creative to take the audience by surprise and yet be good enough for everybody to understand and appreciate - but, despite all this while other MDs take weeks to compose BGM, Raaja takes a week at the maximum for the same, with some very rare exceptions like "Kaala Paani" for which IR had taken soem two weeks or more.
  
  Sometime during the late 80s or in 1990, in a sudden outburst of music, IR had finished the
  BGM for five movies in less than 10 days'time - that is at the rate of two days per movie BGM -
  THIS IS AN UNPUBLICISED RECORD OF OUR RAAJA -
  
  BTW, no harmful intent - ARR took one full month or more to compose "Mayaa machindra" in "INDIAN" !!!
  
  
• From: Udhaya (@ 205.218.142.217) on: Mon Jun 1 13:47:02 EDT 1998
  
  Beethoven took for ever to write a single symphony. Mozart composed almost instantaneously. But when I hear their music, I only hear their music.
  
  
• From: Madhan,Goa. (@ 202.41.117.44) on: Mon Jun 1 14:22:31 EDT 1998
  
  Dear Udhaya,
  
  Onnumaey puriyavillai - neengal sonnadharkku arthham yenna ?
  
  
  
• From: Udhaya (@ 205.218.142.217) on: Mon Jun 1 15:14:21 EDT 1998
  
  Paathaigalo
  athan dhoorangalo
  edukkum naerangalo
  kanakkillai,
  
  karuvarayail geetham
  thangiya naeramum poruttillai
  
  kaatru desathil
  gaana kuzhanthai
  thavazhnthu varumbodhu
  
  thazhuva thudikkumae thavira
  en sevigal
  thaamathathai ninaippadhillai
  
  
• From: Kanchana (@ spider-td091.proxy.aol.com) on: Mon Jun 1 15:32:18 EDT 1998
  
  Udhaya:
  Who is the kavignar who wrote the verses you've quoted? Thanks in advance.
  
  
• From: Udhaya (@ 205.218.142.217) on: Mon Jun 1 15:38:39 EDT 1998
  
  Kanchana, enna kindala? Neenga vera.
  Naanthan etho puthu kavithaiyila konjum kindi paarthen. Unmayilayaee pudichiruntha, rombathan pullarikka vechuteenga ponga.
  
  
• From: Ravi (@ envy.cs.umass.edu) on: Mon Jun 1 16:03:52 EDT 1998
  
  Udhaya: unamyilEyE unga kavithai super. A new addition to the ranks of DF poets. :-).
  
  
• From: Kanchana (@ spider-td104.proxy.aol.com) on: Mon Jun 1 16:10:00 EDT 1998
  
  Udhaya, kiNdal illai. dhArALamAgap pullarikkavum :-)
  
  
• From: Udhaya (@ 205.218.142.217) on: Mon Jun 1 18:46:42 EDT 1998
  
  Kanchana and Ravi, thanks a lot for your appreciation. I hope my digression didn't subvert this thread's focus. Please continue folks.
  
  
• From: NaNbaN (@ barcache1.caribsurf.com) on: Mon Jun 1 22:57:38 EDT 1998
  
  I maybe totally wrong. But as far as i know, these "incidents" are true.
  
  Incident 1.
  
  It was IR's first song recording (Annakillee)
  
  Panchuarunachalam had barely managed to get the orcehstration group for playing the IR's song(i am not sure of the song). When, everything was set
  to rehearsal and IR was about to realize his dream and baout to tate hi music . That DAMN thing happened ! Guess What?
  
  POWER FAILURE ( Oh! no)
  
  And, you know what, one musical "genius" in that rented troop came up with (Ofcourse sarcastically)
  
  "NALLA SANGUNAM" (How True???)
  
  It didn't stop there, after the power resumed, they were supposed to rehears and record.
  They did it. But the another DAMN thing did happen, it didn't get recorded in the cassette. Later they came to know that it was the recording guys fault.
  
  Atlast...... they manage to do everything right.
  It was such a .... right. IR was "Undisputed King" for two decades. Funny incident isn't it?.
  
  (Think of the musician who passed the sarcastic comment after that incident )
  
  Folks i have to go... I will add some incidents later... Sorry about that.
  
  Endrum NaNbaN
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• From: Geetha (@ gatekeeper.oracle.co.uk) on: Tue Jun 2 04:36:43 EDT 1998
  
  I read that at a music programme which used IR, ARR and MSV, recently, AR came onto stage and put a ring on IR's finger as a mark of respect, but IR took it off and returned it without a single Thank You.....What was going on? Is it true that he's one of the most arrogant people around in the film industry, similar to Kamal? Someone, please clarify this incident, Thanks in advance.....It's not nice to 'throw a gift horse in the mouth'......
  
  

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