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V.Kumar: Malarum NinaivugaL

Topic started by bb (@ 24.6.231.170) on Wed Jul 7 00:37:21 EDT 2004.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

Saravanan is starting a new series on V.Kumar, titled 'V.Kumar: Malarum NinaivugaL'. He has been in touch with V.Kumar's wife and son and is planning a comprehensive series of articles on V.Kumar. I am sure this will be a treat for VK fans. This will also feature unique introductions to the songs by V.Kumar himself, in his own voice. Thanks to Govind and VK's family for their help on this.

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Responses:

• From: Kupps (@ 24.0.236.246) on: Wed Jul 7 00:47:35 EDT 2004
  
  wow! what a wonderful thing.
  
  I can't wait for it. Sara, quick quick! :)
  
  
  
• From: bb (@ 24.6.231.170) on: Wed Jul 7 00:54:07 EDT 2004
  
  

  Song of the Day: Start of 'V.Kumar: Malarum NinaivugaL' with two clips from ethir neechal.
  

  
  - Saravanan is starting a new series on V.Kumar, titled 'V.Kumar: Malarum NinaivugaL'. He has been in touch with V.Kumar's wife and son and is planning a comprehensive series of articles on V.Kumar. I am sure this will be a treat for VK fans. This will also feature unique introductions to the songs by V.Kumar himself, in his own voice. Thanks to Govind and VK's family for their help on this.
  
  Saravanan will be writing this series in a new thread here: http://newtfmpage.com/forum/3842.00.37.21.html
  
  Whenever we have something a rare or a worthy song, we will put it over in SOTD.
  
  To start off,
  
  1. V.Kumar's introduction to the ethir neechal song:
  
  http://www.newtfmpage.com/cgi-bin/stream.pl?url=http://www.dhool.com/sotd/vkumar/enintro.rm
  
  2. vetri vENdumaa pOttup paaradaa ethir neechal:
  
  http://www.newtfmpage.com/cgi-bin/stream.pl?url=http://www.dhool.com/sotd/vkumar/vetrivenduma.rm
  
  - Saravanan writes:
  
  Like many dfers here, I too have always been an ardent fan of V.Kumar. There is something so caressingly mellifluous in most of his songs, that I have been irresistibly drawn to them. When I started becoming aware of film music in the late 70s, Kumar's songs like 'thirukkOyil thEdi rathi dEvi vandhaaL', 'vaazhvil sowbaagiyam vandhadhu', 'unnidam mayangugiREn', ‘kaNNellaam un vaNNam’ and 'ennai azhaithathu yaaradhu kaNNE' were often aired on radio, and I used to listen to them spellbound.
  
  Thinking back now, by 78-79 V. Kumar's career was actually on the decline; his best years were already behind him. IR's ascendancy had commenced, though MSV too was still very much in the reckoning. The other MDs were minor players in the field, except, of course, Shankar -Ganesh. Nevertheless, both ‘ungaL viruppam’ of Vividh Bharathi, and 'neengaL kEttavai' & 'vidumuRai viruppam' of Radio Ceylon were often flooded with repeated requests for V.Kumar's songs.
  
  I used to often wonder about V.Kumar, the man behind so many mesmerizing melodies. I had not chanced upon an interview or photograph of his in any magazine; he always remained unseen. Perhaps he felt it was sufficient if his music was heard, and shied away from publicity.
  
  The 80s was the decade of IR; MDs like Kumar gradually faded from the scene and were soon forgotten. After Shankari- 1984, we didn't get to hear anything of Kumar. When I was in 12th std, came the film MeeNdum Mahaan(1987), which had a good melody in 'pattu poochi pattu poochi' (SPB/Chitra), and Vividh Bharathi announced the MD as simply 'V.K.'. Later I was delighted to know that the initials stood for V.Kumar, and prayed that this should be the beginning of a second innings for Kumar. But that was to never happen.
  
  DD used to feature some Mellisai songs of Kumar, and that's was all we got to hear of him. The sight of him standing and conducting those songs made me inexplicably sad, as I thought of his wonderful contribution to tfm. In 1993, I happened to watch V.Kumar being interviewed by Mano in DD's Metro Channel, and was struck by the extraordinary humility and simplicity that Kumar exuded. He was open in his admiration for other composers like MSV and IR, and spoke unassumingly of his own works.
  
  Then in early 1996, came the sad news of Kumar's sudden demise, unsung and unwept.
  
  In 1999, a journalist friend was tracing Kumar's career for a magazine. I was in Chennai then and was able to assist him in a small way. He came home one Saturday afternoon and we both sat listening to Kumar's songs that I had collected over the years. The afternoon made way for the evening, and the evening merged into the night, and we were still lost in V.Kumar's music, and our thoughts and memories associated with it. The article came out in two parts in October 1999.
  
  In January this year, we had featured as SOTD 'oru paarvai paarkkum pOthu' from Nangooram. And soon afterwards, I received a mail from Govind Krishnamurthi. He introduced himself as an avid fan of Kumar, and we were soon exchanging mails regularly. In Govind I found a kindred soul, for we both shared the same love for Kumar's songs. Govind said he had even hosted a radio programme featuring only Kumar's songs. He mooted the idea that we should attempt a retrospective of V.Kumar's films.
  
  More importantly, he informed me that V.Kumar's son Suresh Kumar was his friend, and Suresh Kumar had given him a copy of V.Kumar's 'siRappu thenkiNNam' in Vividh Bharathi, and he had forwarded it to bb.
  
  While I was still thinking over the idea, I received a mail from Suresh Kumar himself, and was overwhelmed when he said that he was moved by the write-up for the Nangooram song, and had even called up his mother and told her about it. In the course of few more mails, Suresh shared so many fond recollections of his father, though by the time he was a child, Kumar's career in tfm had almost come to an end.
  
  Suresh was keen that a retrospective of his father's works should be undertaken at newtfmpage, and when we spoke to each other over the phone, he gave me a moving account of his father, his life and times.
  
  And to cap it all, Suresh's mother Smt. Swarna spoke to me last week. She was filled with happiness to know that there are passionate fans of V.Kumar all over the world. I told her about newtfmpage and how her husband's works are often featured as SOTD, and are written about with admiration and wonder. She conveyed her best wishes to all of us at newtfmpage, and said she was looking forward to the retrospective.
  
  bb too was highly enthusiastic about a V.Kumar Retrospective, and so today we are starting with it.
  
  I will attempt to cover as many films of V.Kumar as possible, and also upload the songs from my collection, with Kumar's 'siRappu thenkiNNam'(Thanks to Suresh & Govind) being the added special attraction. We'll go chronologically, year by year, film by film. Since it would become long-drawn if we were to dwell at length on each song/film, we'll restrict ourselves to looking at many of Kumar's popular songs, and also at some rare, forgotten gems.
  
  In this humble endeavor, we seek the active participation and support of all fans of V.Kumar.
  
  First, here is what Suresh Kumar has to say about his parents:
  
  "My grandfather's name was Varadharajulu, and my grandmother's name was Dhanabakkiavathi. My grandfather was a Government employee, working in a Pharmaceutical division. They had 6 children. My father was born on 28th July 1934 in Madras.
  
  My father's full name was Kumaresan. He had good grasping power that helped him get a good knowledge of music without any prior training. He started his career by learning violin and was exposed to basic Carnatic music at a young age by sitting next to my aunt when she was being taught music. He studied in St.Paul's School in Vepery, Chennai. After completing his BA degree in Loyola College, he worked in Madras Telephones. He and Balachandar were doing some stage dramas in a club in Myalapore. Balachandar and my father used to work in the morning and stage the dramas in the evening.
  
  When he entered the industry, MSV and KVM were at the peak of their popularity. My father always considered these Music Directors as legends and always maintained a good personal relationship with them. He also would listen to a lot of songs composed by other Music Directors and would admire them. Only through him I had come to know of the great work of other Music Directors in North and South India. He was honoured with the "Kalaimaamani" award by the Tamil Nadu Government. He was also given the title "Mellisai Maamani" by MGR, but was shy to use to title. He was always was a down to earth and a media shy person.
  
  His health deteriorated in the 80s because of the excess hard work and improper diet. He never concentrated on his health during his peak time. He had a massive attack in 1983 and doctor had advised him not to take a lot of stress in doing more movies.
  
  After some months, my father spent most of his time in composing devotional songs with Sirkali Govindarajan, P Suseela and Vani Jayaram. Those were mostly Hindu devotional songs. And since he had learnt to play violin in a chapel, and always maintained good friendship with Catholic Priests, he also composed a lot of Christian songs. During his last years my father did some tele-serials for VRG agencies that ran the FM station from 9-10 AM in Chennai. In his last serial he recorded a song sung by MSV.
  
  My father passed away on January 7th,1996.
  
  My mother is from Andhra Pradesh. She grew up in a small town called Vijaynagaram. There is a big fort in there and people can learn music for free. She learnt Carnatic music in her village. Even P.Suseela is from the same town Later my mother's family shifted to Madras. She sang some good songs for my father and two or three songs with other Music Directors".
  
  Thank you, Suresh!
  
  In this curtain raiser, let us listen to the 'mellisai maamaNi’ himself, as he speaks about his debut in tfm, Seergazhi Govindarajan's words of consolation when things went wrong, and how his years in tfm were marked by a constant struggle for survival---let us also listen to the song which he says epitomizes the necessity of striving against all odds in order to taste success- 'vetRi veNdumaa pOttu paarada ethirneechal'- Seergazhi Govindarajan from the film ethirneechal.
  
  --the retrospective will commence next week from neerkkumizhi in this thread: http://newtfmpage.com/forum/3842.00.37.21.html .
  
  
  
• From: GCT_Kuil (@ 64.175.241.19) on: Wed Jul 7 01:28:21 EDT 2004
  
  Hi Sara,
  Good start and great work. Keep going and hats off for all the effort, you are putting in for this.
  
  
• From: e.hari (@ 141.153.211.97) on: Wed Jul 7 01:38:20 EDT 2004
  
  Saravanan,
  Great work and eagrly looking for the rest of the articles. I am also an ardent fan of V.Kumar. I was one of the first few talked about V.Kumar in this forum. Hope this will at last put a fresh prespective on V.Kumar songs and hopefully will help to unearth lot of his good songs, which are unfortunately so difficult to locate.
  
  

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