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Random Thoughts on TFM

Topic started by Gowri (@ 161.142.100.86) on Tue Apr 9 03:06:08 EDT 2002.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

Gangai Amaran writes:


Research findings have established clearly that folk music preceded traditional, classical music in TamilNadu. Cave men & tribal men made sounds that devloped into a language. These people gave simple tunes without any rules, but a sense of music was apparent even then.
In my childhood days, there was no cinema as there is now. Performers travelled from village to village telling stories . Songs were interwoven in the sories. The appreciative audience offered these performers whatever they could.This was the beginning of symphony.
During the era of silent movies as recounted by our present CM Dr.M.Karunanidhi, a great lover of arts, musicians used to sit in front of the screen & sing, render music & dialogues at appropriate places to keep the audience enthralled.
To the best of my knowledge Sri Shankaradas Swamigal, a magan was the individual, to the best of my knowledge who gave filip to integration of music, verse & dialogues in a drama. Great creations such as Meenakshi Kalyanam, Yesu can be attributed to this Mahan. He included songs in appropriate places. 'Kayatha Kanagathe' is a prime eg. He established the Bala Nataka Sabha, where only children were involved in enacting all the roles. Then came Sakthi & Vaira Nataka Sabhas.
Nawab RajaManickam was a note-worthy person of these days who enacted plays using grand props & settings. Sakthi Nataka Sabha has gifted to the world of Tamil Cinema such greats as Shivaji Ganesan, V.K.Ramaswamy etc.,The troup used to consist of about 60 members & it was important for each artiste to be thorough with the dialogues & songs of all characters for each actor was made to paly a different role each day. Vaira Nataka Sabha has contributed greats like M.G.R & Nambiar.In the early stages of talkies, people who sought to act in movies had to be endowed with good looks, good voice & capacity to sing.Kittappa, Bhagavathar, P.U.Chinnappa, all great singers & actors of yesteryears were persons endowed with such gifts. As these actors act & sing, the orchestra had to move along with the actor & this recording was done in single track. The records were created with the whole gorup doing a special recording of the same song all over again in the studios. Saraswati Stores of A.V.Meyappa Chettiar was a renowned company that released records of film songs. Gramaphones were owned only by the very rich, who preferred carnatic trend in film music also & hence the songs of those days were based entirely on carnatic music.
We owe a great deal to the Britishers for introducing technology into cinema. Ellis.R.Duncan is one person I can single out, whose assistants after learning the tricks of the trade from him branched out to make their own movies. Drama, thus developed intocinema & in its wake came studios, recording with mike etc. The concept of dubbing was not known in those days. For a song to be perfected the entire troupe would work for months, paid on a monthly basis.
If you look at the chronology of singers, Kittappa was followed be T.R.Mahalingam, who was followed by T.M.Soundarajan,Seergazhi Govindarajan, all persons who could sing in very high pitches.
G.Ramanathan brought a fresh air to cine music. But folk songs were not appreciated in those dyas.Along with Papanasam Sivan who was a great composer he gave a variety of songs. There was no need do to go to a Kutchery. The Tamil film songs were strongly based on Carnatic music tradition.
P.U.Chinnappa was followed by Chidambaram Jayaraman,Tiruchi Loganathan. Gantasala was followed by P.B.Srinivas, S.P.B ,Mano etc., K.J.Yesudoss is a singer who emerged with a diiferent voice. Sivaji Ganesan, the recipient of Dada Saheb Palke award, could sing eloquently, but did not do so in movies giving way to the playback singers. Though T.M.S. claims that he used to change his voice to suit Sivaji & M.G.R. , but his voice defintely suits Sivaji best & it is my personal view that he has not really changed his voice much.
The domination of actors & singers from the Telugu field existed for a time. In order to sing for Telugu actors such as Nageswara Rao, N.T.RamaRao, Adi NarayanaRao, P.G.Lingappa, Chalapathi Rao etc. several singers such as Gantasala, P.B. Srinivas were introduced in Tamil. Other singers from Telugu field are S.Janaki, P.Susheela. Music obviously has no language barriers.
All the veterans of the early days had paved & smoothed the road for us in the present days. The trials faced by Viswanathan Ramamurthy,G.Ramanathan,S.V.Venkatraman are not faced by the present day musicians. Illayaraja's way was smoothed by his peers & in his turn he has shown the way for the next generation.
M.S.Viswanathan started his career as a chorus singer in K.V.Mahadevan's troupe & then became a great music director. He changed the history of Tamil cine music by giving lighter, melodius songs appreciated by all.Sudarsanam & Devarajan Masters were also great music directors of the day. Hindi music was popular then, & several songs were based on hindi music tunes.M.S.Viswanathan- Ramamurthy were great, for, they took the essence from other music but managed to deliver their own creations & hence their music is able to withstand for long.Chandrababu with his interest in western music also got them to make songs for him mostly based on westwern style.
Shankar Ganesh have directed music in several films. V.Kumar was a music director who was brought into film music by K.Balachander from his drama days. Kunnakudi, Deva , A.R.Rehaman are people who entered the film music line from other related fields such as devotional music, jingles, etc.
A.R.Rehaman is an extrememly talented youngster & some of the music rendered by him, can only be done by someone who has a wonderful understanding of music & the medium.

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Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: Gowri (@ 161.142.100.86) on: Mon Apr 15 03:15:43 EDT 2002
  
  Vengayam
  
  It could be Kalvanin Kaathali.
  But do remember that it was the days of Aayiram Thalai Vaangiya Aboorva Sigaamani. :)
  
  
• From: S (@ 128.107.253.44) on: Mon Apr 15 04:35:15 EDT 2002
  
  SPB was the guest in the mudhal vaNakkam or some such thing in Vijay TV.
  
  When the host asked him about the tamizh pronunciation of North indian singers, he said - "there's no excuse like, being a north indian, one can't sing tamil properly etc....Why, didn't SJ, PS and I sing in other languages ??"
  
  he then added, it's definitely not the fault of the singers, for they don't know the language, it's the mistake of the MDs.
  
  He gave an example about "this nagarjuna movie" where SPB sang for nag and udit narayan gave the voice for SPB !!
  
  
  
• From: ROTFL (@ 203.106.188.43) on: Mon Apr 15 08:25:56 EDT 2002
  
  It is one thing for fans to criticise artistes, but when one artiste criticises another, it is in bad taste. I find it strange that SP Bala, who I have high regards of, has said some thing like this.
  
  Just for my sake, I hope that the above is mere hearsay and not a direct quote from SPB. :(
  
  
• From: WhyNot (@ 203.24.100.132) on: Mon Apr 15 08:50:24 EDT 2002
  
  In which Nagarjun movie did Udit give voice for SPB?? AFAIK, in Ratchakan, SPB sang only one song (Lucky Lucky) and that was with Sukvinder Singh. Udit sang for Sonia Sonia, but SPB does not appear in that song and it was wit Unnikrishnan.
  Maybe he was talking about "Kaathalikkum pennin kaigal" from Kadhalan, which he sang with Udit. He appears in that song in the movie, as Prabhudeva's father. But tat was not a Nagarjun movie. If tat was a quote from SPB, he got some facts wrong. Tat's strange isnt it?
  
  
• From: S (@ 128.107.253.44) on: Mon Apr 15 09:39:28 EDT 2002
  
  WhyNot,
  SPB was talking about lucky..lucky..i thot it was udit (bcos, spd said "some other singer" ) i thot it was udit.
  
  ROTFL,
  It was indeed told by SPB, for I respect him as much as I respect Raja...and i would never want to spoil his image :-)
  
  There's nothing wrong in one artist critisizing another, as long as he maintains some decorum...I think SPB did maintain some decorum ( hey, if there's a flaw one does need to complain, shudn't he ?)unlike TMS who used to foul mouth others.
  
  
• From: ROTFL (@ 210.186.51.118) on: Mon Apr 15 10:18:30 EDT 2002
  
  S
  I would be lying if I say that I am not disappointed. I have always been "bragging" that SP Bala is such a down-to-earth respectable artiste and is an ideal for any artiste. < sigh > How the mighty fall.
  
  
• From: vengayam (@ 203.200.84.66) on: Tue Apr 16 01:12:23 EDT 2002
  
  ROTFL,
  SPB was very decent in the above interview. In fact he mentioned Sukhvinder by name ( how S missed it I do not know) He told how Sukhvinder singing is good & then he came to the above story. he said Sukhvinder considers SPB to be lucky for him because of the above fact. Then he went on to speak about the diction which he correctly said is very difficult for a non Tamil speaking person. His querry was more for the MD who choose such singers. His counterpoint is use new singers but let them be Tamil singers or who sing the language well.He has apoint because SPB has taken great pains to learn & master Tamil. he went on to say MSV made him wait two years till he was given a chance to sing under him. It seem MSV told him "nee pesumbothey therinjuppen unakku Tamil vandhuduttha enru". So in this context SPB is spot on. There was absolutely no jealousy,bragging in the interview. he went on to say something about MDs who themselves sing offkey which was also relevant. (who was the MD?)
  
  
• From: S (@ 128.107.253.44) on: Tue Apr 16 04:32:53 EDT 2002
  
  vengayam,
  did he mention sukhwinder singh's name ?? hmm....probably, for i did miss the "MDs singing offkey" part as well....Well, i was enjoying my dosas with "vengaya" sambar (NOM :-) )...and that cud probably be the reason :-)
  
  
• From: Gowri (@ 161.142.100.86) on: Tue Apr 16 04:32:59 EDT 2002
  
  Deva is a much maligned MD. Here is a write up of him from Dinakaran.....
  
  
  Music director Deva has the reputation of having composed music for so many number of films within the ambit of a very short period! He got introduced as film music director through the picture "Manasukkeththa Maharaasaa", in the year 1989. In the intervening 10 years he has composed music for a total of more than 200 films!
  ` Deva, whose original name was Devanesan, was born to the couple M.C.Chokkalingam-M.C.Krishnaveni, the date of birth being 20-11-1950. Even at the small age, Deva was attracted towards the world of music. Teaming with Chandra Bose, he staged so many musical programmes. He started learning classical music under Dhanraj and successfully finished a course in Western music conducted by London Trinity Music college!
  
  Before coming to Cinema, Deva worked for some time in the Television field. In those days Deva's brothers were working in the musical troupes of Ilayaraja and other music directors as instrumentalists. But Deva, as he was taking special interests for self-improvement in his profession was also at the same time looking for chances to enter into cinefield. But the benefits of those efforts didn't bear fruits that much easily. Only after so much hardship he managed to enter the field with the help of some friends. Just after his entry, the production work of those films, for which negotiations were on for fixing Deva as the music director, couldn't get completed and some other films with his music couldn't be released at all!
  
  Yet, without getting upset, Deva had been continuing his efforts which finally began yielding results! The first film, with Deva's music direction, that was releaesd was "Manasukkeththa Maharaasaa". This film didn't popularize Deva to the expected level! The second film released was "Vaikaasi Poranthaachu", which spread his name even to the nooks and corners of the state! Only after that so many film companies came to book Deva for their projects.
  
  So far he has composed music for more than 200 films which include Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. Yet, he hasn't given up composing music also for 'bhakthi' films! Above all, Deva composed music for the films acted by Tamil cinema's important personality, Super Star Rajinikanth, which added to the great popularity of Deva. There's an important reason also for the cinefield's great personalities opting for Deva for composing music for their films! It's this: fame couldn't blind his eyes and he never forgets people. He mingles with them with humane approach! As a result, he composed music for "Annaamalai", "Bhaashaa", "Arunachalam" and wrote new success history, rising to the No. 1 spot among the music directors in Tamil.
  
  Behind Deva's great success, there are his brothers also, which fact he won't deny too! He says: 'If I stand at this height as a music director, the supportive reason behind this is my brothers. They too work hard like me. That's why it was possible for me to accomplish the task of composing music for such huge number of films! So to say, all my 4 brothers have their own share in my present success!'
  
  As a brother Deva showers upon them (brothers) his heart-felt felicitations and his brothers, on their part, continue to take greater pains professionally, to add to the well-meaning achievements of Deva in the future also! This quality of Deva has enhanced his image among the top brass of the cineworld! Hence, veteran music director M.S.Viswanathan has conferred upon Deva the most suitably coined title, "Thenisai Thentral". As if doing full justification to this title, Deva's tunes and musical scores never fail to pour sweet honey in the form of melodious songs into our 'yearning' ears! Among the films whose music was composed by Deva, 7 became silver jubilee hits! 100 days films were 34. Deva has been honoured with so many awards too! In 1990, he received Best Music Director Award from Tamilnadu Government. He got Tamilnadu Government's 'Kalai Maamani Award' in the year 1992. Again in 1995, the film "Aasai" enabled him to receive Tamilnadu Government's 'Best Music Director' award! For "Bhaashaa", he got Tamilnadu Arts and Cultural Academy award!
  
  He has also been honoured by awards from popular journals like "Dinakaran", "Cinema Express" and "Screen". Hundreds of other awards have also adorned Deva!
  
  Music director Deva, who has achieved so many feats so far in the field of music, has a son by name Sreekanth.
  Sreekanth is playing keyboard in his father's troupe, like Deva's brothers, who were also playing for the same troupe! There's ample scope for Sreekanth to become one of the frontline music directors of the next generation, like the heirs of the present day, leading music directors! Yet, before providing an opportunity for his son to get any special, individual recognition in cinefield, Deva has given chance to his daughter Sangeetha to do playback singing for the film "Kaathalae Nimmathi". Deva's style of functioning, with the one-point agenda of achieving permanent success in cinefield, without giving room for any unwanted temptation or mental tiredness, has stunned some of the cinefield observers!
  
  
• From: vengayam (@ 203.200.84.66) on: Tue Apr 16 05:03:16 EDT 2002
  
  S,
  Chinna vengayama ille regular vengayamma. the one you had with the sambhar. I do have humour(if i keep a pseudonym like that I do expect it). Re Tthe MD comment SPB told that ippallam singers thaalatthai vittu paadaraanga. Appa MD kattayam thirutthanum. AAnal avangale appadi paadumbothu... ithu romba thappu ( words to that effect verbatimmmaga gnabagathukku varalai)
  Valid point don't you think.
  
  

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