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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:

• Old responses
  
• From: Swami N (@ 220.227.179.5) on: Thu Oct 7 01:13:25 EDT 2004
  
  arezu is 6,7
  
  
• From: sk (@ 64.175.109.90) on: Thu Oct 7 01:17:32 EDT 2004
  
  Saravanan:
  
  Excellent write-up as usual. Some of the songs in malligaip poo are new to me.
  
  peththa manam piththu was a remake of a malayalam movie. The name of that movie is abhi jaththam or something like that. kaalam namakku thOzhan is a very sweet song! The movie has one more song...
  
  ammaadee uzhaikkum kaiyOnga vENdum
  
  TMS, PS, Manorama and Dharapuram Sundararajan (Muthuraman, Jaya, Manorama and Cho) sing that song. Here is an mp3 of that song...
  
  http://asia.f1.pg.briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/geethakee/vwp2?.tok=bcMMNMUBgbm_pMot&.dir=/PS&.dnm=ammaadee.mp3&.src=bc
  
  
• From: raj (@ 61.246.255.3) on: Thu Oct 7 02:54:49 EDT 2004
  
  Asusual W'ful write up
  
  the song Naan konda maangalyam is a musical treat
  PS-VK-Vaali makes this song a memorable one
  
  
• From: MNS (@ 203.200.216.62) on: Thu Oct 7 03:34:15 EDT 2004
  
  "One scene stands out in memory, wherein she comes to Jaya’s house, and we come to know later that she is already dead and that it was her spirit that visited Jaya! "
  
  Gee, Manoj Night Shyamalan must have been inspired!
  
  
  
• From: vengayam (@ 210.212.80.18) on: Thu Oct 7 05:08:18 EDT 2004
  
  Saravanan,
  ditto here the bootham scene is the only thing i remember about petha manam pithu - may be savitri looking like one has made the scene "pasumarathil aani adithaarpol.."!!
  
  
• From: Babaji (@ 194.223.244.7) on: Thu Oct 7 05:13:06 EDT 2004
  
  Hello all,
  
  Did VK compose for super star Rajnikanth's movie 'Sathurangam', it had an excellent number by SPB + VJ called 'Mathanotsavam rathiodu thaan'?
  
  
• From: Sathya kabali (@ 67.85.213.154) on: Thu Oct 7 10:52:54 EDT 2004
  
  maligaipoo, peththa manam piththu pOnRa padangaLai ninaivukku koNdu vantha Saravana nanRi!
  malligaipoo pAdalgaL Ceylon thamizh sEvaiyil adikkadi varum. anthap padamum olichiththiramaaka kEttathuNdu.
  I think in Peththa manam piththu Jayasudha acted as the younger sister.
  Muthuraman solvathaiyum meeRi, thangai kalyANaththukku varumpOthu Jaya thirudiyathaaka avamaanappaduththum kaatchi njabagam irukku. Jaya karuvuRRirukkumpOthu kudisaikku Savithri vanthu pOkum kaatchithaan nee sonnathu enRu ninaikkiREn! peNmaNikaL, ammAkkaL sentimentukaLai vaiththu Guhanathan ezhutjiya kathai athu.
  Muthuraman$co vivasaayam seyyumpOthu Padum paattuthaan sk sonna paadal.
  iLamaiyin ragasiyam enRa LRE song inthap padaththilthaannu ninaikkiREn.
  
  
• From: GK (@ 206.132.99.2) on: Thu Oct 7 11:45:11 EDT 2004
  
  I haven't listened to any of these songs. Thanks Saravanan for introducing these to all of us
  
  
• From: OISG (@ 213.42.2.23) on: Thu Oct 7 15:21:53 EDT 2004
  
  The original of PMP is a Marathi movie.DD in its regional movie telecast on one of sedate sundays featured this.Normally that slot is for originals and not remakes.
  
  Kalam namkku - kuzhanthayai (vazhakonzhinthupona)thooLiyil ittu thalattum scene. Poovai Senguttuvan's lyrics are good and apt so is VK's tune."kannanaga nee irukka" -a simple good line so i thought it to be from Kavignar.TMS's voice adquately captures the feeling of self pity and inferiority complex the male lead suffers.
  
  flowing Accordian -is it still there in TFM? The last i heard that was in Sivaji's "siranjeevi"(MSV- Anbenum mozhiyaga aalaya maniyaga).
  
  Savithri's scene seems to have captured all our imagination.The moment Saravanan told about this song i recalled the Savitri's ghostly visit.More than the sentiment it had had a horror appeal??
  
  
• From: Senty (@ 192.35.84.5) on: Thu Oct 7 15:59:47 EDT 2004
  
  keladi enn pavayee..
  from gopura vasaliley has some accordian peices
  
  
• From: Saravanan (@ 195.229.241.181) on: Thu Oct 7 16:20:47 EDT 2004
  
  Thanks, all, for your feedback!
  
  sk, thanks a lot for the ammadi song. Interesting to note that VK has given quite a few songs to Dharapuram Sundararajan.
  
  Sathyakabali, good to see your informative post again!
  
  Babaji, you're right- VK was the composer of 'madahanotsavam'.
  
  
• From: Bala (@ 68.38.84.14) on: Thu Oct 7 20:00:24 EDT 2004
  
  Saravanan
  
  Thanks for the Malligai Poo songs.. Both 'nee pOtta mookuththiyO maaNickam' and 'idhu yEn nadandhadhu' were played often. As regular listeners of "Ilangai Vanoli Nailaym" can vouch, the so called 'Sogam' songs are played more frequently than the duets. In this regard 'Idhu yen Nadanthu..' used to played in many programs of 1973/74 years..
  
  Brings in great memories of early childhood of Virudhunagar days..
  
  Thanks Saravanan!
  
  Bala
  Bala
  
  
• From: Saravanan (@ 195.229.241.188) on: Mon Oct 11 11:30:04 EDT 2004
  
  Thanks, Bala, for the info!
  
  sk, sometime back you had asked the details of VK being conferred the mellisai maamaNi title.
  
  Here are the details:
  
  The title was conferred upon VK by MGR on 26th July, 1970 when MGR presided over a music show by VK in Stanley Medical College, Chennai.
  
  
• From: bb for Saravanan (@ 24.6.251.57) on: Fri Oct 15 02:10:36 EDT 2004
  
  

  Part XIV - arangEtRam

  
  The one album of VK that promptly comes to mind when we think of the varied fare that he came up with in 1973 is arangEtRam (Kalakendra). This was undoubtedly among the finest VK albums ever, and his work therein was the magnificent mainstay of KB’s controversial story.
  
  arangEtRam marked the coming of Kamal under KB’s fold and the following years would see him blossom as a remarkably talented artiste. The film starred Pramila, Sivakumar, Kamalhasan, Jayachitra, Jayasudha, S.V.Subbiah, M.N.Rajam. Senthamarai, Sashikumar, Sundaribai and others. KB was assisted by the unassuming Ananthu in the intricate script, and the forceful dialogues were widely acclaimed. KB’s crew consisted of the cream of the period: Editor N.R.Kittu, Cameraman B.S.Loknath, Costume Designer Ponnusami, Art Director Ramaswamy…and all of them worked in tandem to make arangEtRam a movie to remember forever. KB’s assistant directors for the film were writer Kovi. Manisekaran & R.B.Thilak, and his associate director was Eranki Sarma.
  
  The story was one that evoked mixed responses. It recounted with bleak brutality the travails that an impoverished saastrigaL’s large family undergoes, and how the eldest daughter is forced into prostitution to enable her siblings to lead the life of their dreams. She manages to keep this a secret, but truth has a wretched habit of revealing itself inconveniently sooner or later. And when her horrified family learns of her shame, they disown her with disdain.
  
  Pramila gave a riveting performance as the sacrificing Lalitha. Subbiah as her helpless father Ramu SaasthrigaL and Rajam as her mother Visalam were well cast in their roles. Kamal (Thyagu), Jayasudha (Devi) and Jayachitra (Mangalam) played her siblings, followed by a host of child artistes as the younger children. Sivakumar was Thangavelu who harbors love in his heart for the unfortunate Lalitha.
  
  Images flash through the mind as we think of arangEtRam…a carefree Pramila with her characteristic chortle enjoying her pranks…the family planning slogan on the wall laughing with derision at Subbiah’s large horde…a teenaged Kamal doing push-ups…Chitra and her trademark ‘achachO’…the children expressing their secret desires in a mock drama…the film-crazy Sundaribai taking the coins that Rajam had kept in the God’s hundi, and consoling her that she was going to watch a mythological movie…the village lunatic wandering with a dalda dabba and extracting a promise from Pramila that Pramila should inform her of her marriage…Pramila giving away to the beggar woman the saree that Sivakumar presented to her… Pramila challenging her siblings to repeat a tongue twister, hinting that there is no food in the house… close-up shots of M.N.Rajam, with a gamut of wide-ranging emotions swiftly parading on her face, grinding a poisonous paste in the wee hours of the morning to put her entire family out of its misery… the horror on Sivakumar’s face when he meets Pramila as a prostitute in Hyderabad…the shame in Rajam’s downcast eyes when Pramila sees her mother pregnant yet again…the famous ‘paarthEn pEsinEn’ dialogue…the consternation on Sasikumar’s face when he sees Pramila as his bride’s sister…the vacant look in the end on the deranged Pramila’s face, as she bursts into peals of insane laughter…stark shots that merge into myriad memories…An unforgettable film by KB!
  
  And it was with the Hindi adaptation of arangEtRam, titled Aaina, that KB made his first foray into Bollywood in 1974. Aaina starred Mumtaz as the chief protagonist Shalini, supported by a cast that included Rajesh Khanna, Jagdeep, Madan Puri, A.K. Hangal, Nirupa Roy and others. Music was by Naushad. Interestingly, along with Lata & Asha, Vani Jairam too was among the singers in Aaina- she sang the song ‘tEri dulhan badi jadugarni’.
  
  * * * *
  
  My special thanks to Sathya Kabali for her immense help and encouragement. Not being satisfied with sending me rare audio clips from the DVD of arangEtRam, she enthusiastically shared with me her memories, thoughts and minute observations on arangEtRam.
  
  She reminisces nostalgically naan 8th std. engaL teacher Mrs.Elsie sonnathu "dey pasangalaa Arangetramnu oru padam vanthurukku. ‘A’ padamnu thappaa nenakkaatheenga. unga veettil pOy paakka sollunga. romba nalla padam."
  engamma KB fan. padam paarkkaNumnu aasai. appa viduvarrannu bayam. ‘A’ padam; ennai appa vida maattaar; neenga music teacherudan paarththuttu vaangannu naanum ammaavum pEsik koNdOm. amma appavidam permission kEtkumpOthu appa yaar nadichchathunuu ellaam kEtpaar. amma KB padamnnu actors pEr mattum solliyirukkalaam. aanaal yaarukkum poy sollip pazhakkamillai. Gandhiyavaathi veedachchE! athu ‘A’ padam enbathaiyum sollittaanga. udanE appa A padamnu solRE! athai pOy paarkkaNumnu solRiyEnnu maRuththu vittaar. music teacher paarththuttu vanthu "romba nalla padam Amirthavalli. ithukkellaam pOy A certificate En kodukkuRaanga" enRu padam muzhuthum kathai sonnaanga. pala varudangaL kazhiththu Maduraiyil naanum, ammavum theateril anthap padam paarththu engaL neeNda naaL aasai kanavu niRaivERiyathu.
  
  * * * *
  
  VK sat with KB and Kannadasan, and after several rounds of animated discussions, they decided upon the situations for the songs. This was the first time that VK was working with Kannadasan for a KB film. KB’s other release in 1973, sollathaan ninaikiREn, had music by MSV and lyrics by Vaali.
  
  arangEtRam’s album chiefly comprised of 4 songs, but there were several short songs/ couplets that played an equally important role in the proceedings. VK set about the challenging project with fervor and came up with a tour de force album. The list of singers held some big surprises, but VK’s intuitive choices were brilliant, and his songs are all absolute stunners.
  
  http://in.f2.pg.briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/saravksong/vwp2?.tok=bcEapOUBCn98XLEA&.dir=/&.dnm=title.mp3&.src=bc
  
  That was the VK’s sound track for the title credits, with P.Leela singing kallaarkkum katRavarkkum..
  
  B.S.Loknath captures with lyrical beauty a typical day in the picturesque seaside hamlet. Dawn…shots of the scenic village, and the agraharam in particular…Lalitha playing with some young children…Ramu ShaastrigaL and his young daughter Girija in the temple, where Girija sings the Thiruvarutpa lines…women fetching water from the pond…the unjavirithi bramanar singing his song as he walks down the agraharam…the shepherd driving his flock to graze…the mighty sea with its surging waves…the sun setting on the horizon…the dim-lit agraharam at night…the alms-seeker begging for food…the soothsayer predicting happier times…a singing party doing its rounds early in the morning…another dawn..
  
  The next audio clip is the short akara muthala. The small girl Girija is shown singing short songs at various situations. When I spoke to Swarna, I queried about the singer. Swarna said that VK got a teenaged girl who was learning classical music to sing these songs. She couldn’t remember the girl’s name.
  
  The upright Ramu SaasthrigaL returns home in disgust at the changed times; he is highly irked at the callous attitude of an officer to whose house he had gone to perform the annual rites. And Visalam’s nagging adds fuel to his ill temper. As always, he seeks solace in Girija…he requests her to sing a paasuram…and Girija readily obliges..
  
  http://in.f2.pg.briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/sarva1511/vwp2?.tok=bcGAvOUBLwAi4x2z&.dir=/&.dnm=akara.mp3&.src=bc
  
  The next song is the delightfully effervescent aaNdavanin thOttathilE azhagu sirikkudhu.
  
  At a loss to know what to do to make both ends meet, Ramu SaastrigaL goes to the nearby town, and manages to earn some money grinding flour in a marriage hall. He returns home with his wages, and Lalitha is highly amused trying to picture her father grinding flour. Visalam rebukes her for her ill-timed laughter, but the unrepentant Lalitha breaks into this bubbly song, espousing her cheery philosophy. The song shows her gamboling along the village lanes, laughing and singing. In the course of the song, she meets Thangavelu pulling his cow with a rope. She promptly unties the cow and watches with glee a dismayed Thangavelu running after it.
  
  Whenever I come across the ‘Laughter is the best medicine’ page in The Readers’ Digest, I involuntarily start humming this song. Kannadasan’s imaginative lines are brought to ebullient life by the gifted PS. Swarna gave me the interesting information that the peals of laughter we hear throughout the song are by Lalitha, the mother of Shobha and S.N.Surendar! Apparently Lalitha was a regular chorus singer in VK’s troupe.
  
  http://www.newtfmpage.com/cgi-bin/stream.pl?url=http://www.dhool.com/sotd/vkumar/aandavhappy.rm
  
  But Lalitha’s carefree days are numbered. She realizes with a shock her family’s precarious financial position and manages to persuade her reluctant father to allow her to go to work. Thangavelu’s father, Nadesa Udaiyaar (Sethamarai) helps her in getting a job in the town. The family starts depending on her. Soon Thyagu completes his PUC and applies for admission in the Medical College. He pesters his sister to get someone’s recommendation in order to he secure the admission. Nadesa Udaiyaar gives her a letter to his friend Arunachalam, who is a MLA in Madras. He also tells her to stay at his acquaintance’s house in Madras from whom he had just received an invitation for a Bharatanatyam arangEtRam.
  
  Lalita meets the MLA, but he assures her that for the high scores of Thyagu, he would definitely get admission without any recommendation and advises her to go back to the village. A wily woman has been watching the naïve Lalitha all this time. She accosts Lalitha and offers to take her to someone who knows a minister who in turn would help in getting a medical college admission. And in the evening when Lalitha is seated in Narada Gana sabha watching the dance arangEtRam, the same woman persuades her to go with her. She takes her to the scoundrel Amanjikarai Sami, and the hapless Lalitha is trapped and molested.
  
  The camera oscillates between the arangEtRam (the danseuse was actress Sripriya’s sister Vyjayanthi, btw) and the gruesome incident…VK too alternates the mood in his music… Swarna sings the notes with élan…
  
  http://in.f2.pg.briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/saravksong/vwp2?.tok=bcc3iOUB1.5oSZPK&.dir=/&.dnm=thaamthithaam.mp3&.src=bc
  
  A disheveled Lalitha decides to end her life, but images of her siblings flash before her eyes, and she returns to her village. An ecstatic family awaits her arrival…for Thyagu has got the coveted admission! Laitha is filled with shame at what had happened to her. When her inquisitive aunt questions her silence, she answers that she had left behind all her chatter at Madras, and her siblings laugh at what they think is a witty response from her. A sad version of aaNdavanin thOttathilE azhagu sirikkudhu is heard in the background, as Lalitha imagines all her favorite village haunts mocking at her in ridicule..
  
  http://www.newtfmpage.com/cgi-bin/stream.pl?url=http://www.dhool.com/sotd/vkumar/aandavsad.rm
  
  - arangEtRam thodarum…
  
  
  
• From: raj (@ 61.246.255.3) on: Fri Oct 15 03:10:57 EDT 2004
  
  Arangetram:
  
  A KB stunner again.. “A” certificate @ that period was a controversy!!
  This film is frequently telecasted in Raj Tv ( Completed it’s 10’th anniversary yesterday)
  
  Remarkable performance by Pramila and Subbiah followed by Sivakumar and Others.
  
  In a scene where the boy gets food from the beggar woman, Rajam gets wild and starts to beat her son while Pramila intervenes and says “ Indha vayasula Aasaya adaka mudiyalaye unnala kuzhandhai eppadi pasiya adakuvan” (M.N.Rajam will be pregnant in that scene).
  
  Senthamarai as Sivakumar’s father lends full support for siva-pramila marriage when pramila is thrown away from her house.
  
  Even small scene and dialogues can be remembered that’s KB’s punch.
  
  Unusual VK – Kannadasan Combo came up with some memorable songs
  
  “Aandavanin Thottathile “ a beautiful song by PS . PS @ her best in this song
  
  “ Moothaval nee koduthai “ is a song which describes about pramila and her sacrifice .. a wonderful song by PS again..
  
  some slokams by T.V.Ratnam for the small girl are also noteable.
  
  Sundaribai asusual claims the scoldings of all ladies for her sting tongue dialogues and expressions (as the athai).
  
  
  Wonderful Writeup sara .. Great going
  
  

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