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Chitra - Greatest female singler ever to grace TFM?. Is she better than SJ,PS and others?.

Topic started by easwaran Hariharan (@ amex.proxy.lucent.com) on Fri Aug 15 11:43:59 EDT 1997.
All times in EDT +9:30 for IST.

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Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: karthi (@ lab3.theatrium.net) on: Wed Mar 17 13:18:47 EST 1999
  
  Chandy, you have exactly pointed out what I always had in mind: SJ sang Inji Iduppazhaga in a totally different style, she sings for baby shaalini in a baby girl's voice, mummy pEru maaru in a male-like voice, kanna nee engE in a 3 year old's voice and she sings for Silk quite ok. Accepted! Not to deny her greatness in all this at all! But these are where she changed her voice which in my opinion is less difficult than showing subtle differences in the voice to modulate for actresses which is what PS excelled in!
  
  Take the cases of the heroines SJ sang for - be it Radha, Ambiga, Rekha, Kushbu, Radhika, Saritha, Revathi - her voice (unless the song warrants a typically different setting or mood or style) sounds the same. The only actress SJ's voice can easily and always match is SriDevi! Maybe Revathi and Radha too - to Revathi because she tries to bring in a sort of youthfulness in her voice when she sings for Revathi!
  
  But if you take PS, she sang always with that youthful exuberance for Jayalalitha, she sang in a sannamaana kural and gave a slight nasal touch to Savithri, a sharp nasal touch to Sowcar Janaki, a strong weightage in the pronunciation for K R Vijaya - I mean konjam 'ganamaana kural', I can't describe the way she sang for Devika and SarOja Devi except that for the latter sometimes she had that peculiar pronunciation, she emulated a small girl's voice for Vaijayanthimala - this I think she borrowed from Latha because Latha sang mostly for Vaijayanthimala, a 'she-has-caught-cold' kind of voice for Sujatha, a distinct match for Vaanisri and so on. She could show these variations for different actesses in the same movie, in the same period and for a long time!
  
  I think I have done enought trying to explain, now it's for you guys to go home and listen and see those great songs of PS on screen again!
  
  
• From: karthi (@ lab3.theatrium.net) on: Wed Mar 17 13:19:34 EST 1999
  
  chandy, I am sorry too if I sounded so picky!
  
  
• From: Srinath (@ ss02.nc.us.ibm.com) on: Wed Mar 17 14:00:41 EST 1999
  
  Karthi:
  Not really :-)) Actressunnu solla pona, yenakku Revathi and Radhika thaan accept panna mudiyum. Maththavangellaam verum thalayaatum bommaigal thaan, strictly IMHO ! Finally, you have given some descriptive justification for your claims ! But I have no way of confirming it as I don't watch too many Indian movies after coming here ! Only Peters and Marys ;-) Perhaps, after my next trip to India I'll try to pay more attention to the Golden Oldies :-)
  
  
• From: Srinath (@ ss02.nc.us.ibm.com) on: Wed Mar 17 14:03:23 EST 1999
  
  Karthi:
  "couple of actresses" meant PS might have had significantly different singing voices for a couple of actresses. She might have laid less stress on the other acresses is what I was implying. Of course, I know that PS has sung for very many actresses :-)
  
  
• From: chandy (@ 209.125.83.228) on: Wed Mar 17 14:21:49 EST 1999
  
  Karthi,
  
  great explanation!! I was impressed!! I am unable to comment if PS has brought out the subtlities for these many different actresses. I'd appreciate if you could send me a list of songs of PS with different actresses, so that I can also listen to them and appreciate your view point. (Are these songs available on net?)
  
  chandy
  
  
• From: bb (@ schubert.crhc.uiuc.edu) on: Wed Mar 17 14:29:07 EST 1999
  
  karthi: if u felt my postings were provocative, u misunderstood me.. only after so much prodding and pushing have u come up with "characteristics" for each actress, that too vague to say the least. i am unable to filter out,
  1. whether she really used it for a telling effect,
  2. whether it was the situation or the song type that warranted it,
  3. how many songs (all the songs for each actress??) fall in such category.
  4. why is PS better than SJ and chitra because of this, as things are getting vague and vague, with srinath coming up with SJ for revathi, and what not. so is this all very subjective or did it exist for real. i for one have surely heard plenty of PS' songs but am unable to come to a conclusion that u have.
  5.again, ur broaching on the "matching an actress" i maintain, did nothing to improve image of PS, rather point out how much u keep her in awe. and i am no iconoclaust to stir ur nest.
  
  
• From: aruvi (@ spc-isp-tor-uas-91-68.sprint.ca) on: Wed Mar 17 14:56:44 EST 1999
  
  Hello!
  
  After going back and reading the postings I thought that I would understand Karthi's reference to PS being able to modulate her voice for all her heroines. But I still can't understand that.
  
  Karthi, BTW, did you know that PS once said that she did not change her voice for any heroine. She sang in her own voice for the situation. There was nothing else involved. It's not a matter of PS being able to accomodate an actress better with her voice because when it comes down to it, most would agree that Chitra's voice would blend in with any actress. But when you listen to songs like 'kannuku mai azhagu' and the 'Sevanthi poo eduthean' you can see that though listening to the song on radio, PS impresses you, it doesn't feel so great on screen. Just so in the movie in the later song, when Chitra sings 'Antha vaanum enthan kaiyil vanthu saerum' the song blends in with Bhanupriya. You feel like it were her singing.
  
  
  Once Gangai Amaran told Janaki that no singer could sing so matchingly to any actress as she did. But Janaki denied that. She said that when she sings she doesn't know for whom she is singing. When the audience see the songs on screen, they have this feeling 'piramai' that the actress is singing, that is all.
  
  In my opinion, no singer(female) has modulated their voices to fit an actress, except in extreme cases, such as Chitra did for Kovai Sarala in a couple of songs. Other than that, when I listen to PS's songs, they all sound like PS singing to me. Just so, when I watch Chitra's songs on screen, it feels like the actress is singing, though I know that the voice belongs to Chitra. It's just that her voice fits in well. If you have watched the movie 'unnidathil ennai koduthen' in the song 'Etho oru pattu' Hariharan's voice does not fit in for Karthik. This was easily recognizable. But when Sujatha sang for Roja, the same song seemed as though it fitted for Roja.
  
  This leads me to the conclusion that sweet voices such as Chitra's and PS's and SJ's and Sujatha(not the actress or the writer, but the singer) all fit to the heroines because the heroines are presented as beautiful women who can only possess such voices. WHY DO YOU THINK THEY HAVE PLAYBACK VOICES!:-)))))
  
  more later....
  
  
• From: bb (@ compq1.crhc.uiuc.edu) on: Wed Mar 17 15:03:25 EST 1999
  
  aruvi, idhukku pEr thaan neththi adiyaa?
  
  
• From: Srinath (@ s03.austin.ibm.com) on: Wed Mar 17 15:06:44 EST 1999
  
  There could also be a less obvious, but simpler reason for all this ! If a sultry song is on screen, my guess is that the actress would be one who suits the role and delivers dialogues that way. Then the singer would be singing a sexy song for the siren in a sensuous voice. Wouldn't that cause us to think that the singer has modulated her voice for the actress ? But in reality, the singer would have actually modulated her voice for the song as would have the actress with her expressions, thereby bringing the two closer ! Other examples would be a youthful, cheerful song, a sad song, a tired song, or an angry song. I mean, come on, our actresses all exhibit the same stereotypical emotions on screen for all these songs ! So would our singers ! I know I am stretching things a little bit here, but then the whole concept of singer-modulating-voice-for-actor/actress bit is speculation !
  
  
• From: rajaG (@ kcecfp01.sprint.com) on: Wed Mar 17 16:00:11 EST 1999
  
  Srinath,
  
  Exactly my point! VidiyakaaththaaliyE sollittEn. Most of the times the songs are recorded much before the movie is shot and even lead actresses are changed due to call sheet and other problems. Karthi is definitely stretching it (because of his undying love for PS)in his list of PS's songs with actress specific expression/emotion.
  
  
• From: chandy (@ 209.125.83.228) on: Wed Mar 17 16:02:20 EST 1999
  
  Aruvi, Good point!
  
  Firstly, a lot of our TF actresses depend on borrowed voices.. this dependancy has increased more in recent years with the increase in export of actresses from north to south. The dubbed/borrowed voices are quite similar.. Also, even for those actresses with their original voices, the variation in female voices is relatively low. For actresses in general (exceptions are kovai sarala, manorama ...), there is not much variation in their voices... hence any female singer can sing for these actresses, without any effort to change their voice to match that of actress!! But in case of actors, the range of variation in their voices is quite large. Kavalai-padadhe sagothara cant by sung by any male singer without changing their voice to suit Tyagu.
  
  Secondly, as some others pointed out, audience tend to get used to actor/ress-singer combination over a period of time! SJ-Revathi is such a combination! Sometimes, the deviation from this match could be jarring. When someone other than SPB sings for Salman khan, one can easily make it out... because one is used to hearing SPB's voice in salman khan's songs.
  
  Coming back to the discussion of PS' differentiation of voice for diff actresses, there seems to be others like me who havent observed subtle differences which Karthi seems to have observed! While I am able to immediately say such a thing about SJ, I am unable to comment on this capability of PS!
  
  
  
  
• From: karthi (@ lab3.theatrium.net) on: Wed Mar 17 16:03:44 EST 1999
  
  some people have the natural ability to understand and imbibe and appreciate the subtlities of music. some people get to know them through others, hear them and experience themselves. some people just stick to statistics - (a mathematical style of evaluating everything like saying 1 + 1 = 2) - these are the ones who always want proof of anything in calculated terms, want to quantify things in terms of terms and definitions and never ever ready to empathize with others for atleast once to understand their view point. These are the ones I never want to argue with.
  
  I think bb, you belong to the last category.
  
  
• From: rajaG (@ kcecfp01.sprint.com) on: Wed Mar 17 16:15:36 EST 1999
  
  karthi,
  
  I am sure you are good buddies with bb which allows you to take personal digs at his capabilities. While I do not know you personally, I could not resist at the following (said absolutely in good humor):
  
  Some people go with sound reasoning and have more faith in their eyes and ears rather than 'others opinions', some people rely blindly on others opinions wasting their god given faculties, and some try to lead others in open flattery of 'the emperor's new clothes'- padichiruppeengannu nenaikkarEn:-)
  
  IdhilEy neenga endha pirivai sErndhavarnu naa sollaNumaa?
  
  
  
  
• From: bb (@ compq1.crhc.uiuc.edu) on: Wed Mar 17 16:25:01 EST 1999
  
  karthi, fine, if that is the way u would back out of an argument, without proving anything, throwing vitriol and doubting my ears for music(about which u don't know a thing) , that is okay with me:-))) u can continue with ur unhinged, hallucinated praise:-)
  
  

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