tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47911183015715643772024-03-14T12:06:03.516-07:00Vamanan's Sightvamanan sighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12813288418008889733noreply@blogger.comBlogger247125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4791118301571564377.post-84472472771231233402019-07-10T04:49:00.000-07:002019-07-10T04:52:20.608-07:00P.Muthukumarasamy : Dandapani Desikar's chosen disciple <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnLjqY08imR4xKgI5pu_8n3s8VHOWifl9DrYd1BPWKjO_JuLnxbS8xik9A3233Smj3roUfTdaLc47NLqBgrUyZlqnlqe-wyMxFuNM6UalHLJVXakDC2rnoBC60etMFqWCTtVjlL0OmXgs/s1600/P.Muthukumaraswamy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1240" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnLjqY08imR4xKgI5pu_8n3s8VHOWifl9DrYd1BPWKjO_JuLnxbS8xik9A3233Smj3roUfTdaLc47NLqBgrUyZlqnlqe-wyMxFuNM6UalHLJVXakDC2rnoBC60etMFqWCTtVjlL0OmXgs/s320/P.Muthukumaraswamy.jpg" width="248" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">P.Muthukumarasamy: Photo by Vamanan<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Vamanan<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
One almost cannot believe that P.Muthukumarasamy is no
more. While the English media all but ignored the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>passing of this Tamil music exponent who was
an inexhaustible repository of classical Tamil song, even the Tamil
publications reported it only in fits and starts….as if by word of mouth! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Muthukumarasamy for sure was no media savvy singing
star, nor was he a showman on the cutcheri platform though a few would critique
his style as leaning more to evocativeness than classicism! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the fact that a society which hypes up any
Tamil cause has more or less turned a deaf ear to an unrivalled champion of
Tamil song shows how hollow its slogans are! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Muthukumarasamy was a musician and music
guru with a difference. Totally unassuming in character, he was there for every
student who cared to learn, and tried to musically educate students of
differing calibre. He himself had <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>benefited
from the economical fees that Annamalai University charged him for the
Sangeetha Bhushanam course back in the 1950s, and when it came to teaching or
performing, the thought of remuneration never crossed his mind!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Surely a different breed from musicians who
weigh their songs in notes and dollars!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
In the
case of Muthukumarasamy, you never knew which was sweeter, his musical song or affable
temperament!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mild mannered and amiable, but
resolute <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in his objective of learning
more and more worthy Tamil songs,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>he
retained his musical voice all through and performed with elan even in his eighties!
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the past few decades, he had caught
the public eye as a disciple of the golden-voiced, seminal Tamil Isai singer , M.M.Dandapani
Desikar<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>, celebrating the latter’s
musical oeuvre <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>through an annual <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>event. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was a good writer too and published his reminiscences
recalling hitherto unknown aspects of Desikar’s career. In recent years,
Muthukumarasamy popularized Desikar’s <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>nine
compositions on Madurai Meenakshi Amman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He also brought out a quarterly music journal, ‘Isai Yedu’, containing
rare essays of archival value.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Born
in Yaazhpanam (Jaffna) to Rathinam Ammal and Paramasami , a gurukkal in the
Kandasami temple at Nallur, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the seven-year-old
Muthukumarasamy saw his <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>life <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>swing from plenty to poverty when his <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>father suddenly passed away. Though he had the
support of the members of the extended family, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>bereavements stalked him and his youthful
years in Yaazhpanam were marked by perennial <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>struggle as well as the dawning of musical
consciousness. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Under
such circumstances, he arrived rather late at the age of 26 for his climacteric
training in the Annamalai University, but the four years there were a golden
period under musical heavyweights of every hue. However, it was the music and personality
of the redoubtable Desikar<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that fired his
imagination. Muthukumarasamy would recall that an abiding master-disciple
kinship started with a trenchant incident in class when Desikar harshly chided him
for not being able to repeat a particularly difficult musical phrase. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The student was devastated but the teacher
made up so generously to him that a strong relationship flowered between them. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Returning
to the island nation, Muthukumarasamy made a successful career as a music
teacher in schools and also performed regularly over radio. The ethnic strife
in Sri Lanka forced him to shift to Chennai with his family in 1986. After all,
he originally belonged to a family from Kanchipuram that had settled in Yazhpaanam.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
Chennai chapter of his life helped Muthukumarasamy make a splash during the December
season of 2008, marking Dandapani Desikar’s centenary through thematic cutcheris
in many sabhas. He also repaid his debt to his alma mater, Annamalai
University, by teaching at the Rajah Annamalai Mandram’s music college in
Chennai. <span style="background: white; color: #222222; line-height: 115%;"> The
impression he made at the Mandram can be gauged from the fact that H.
Hariharasubramanian, his musical colleague at the college, celebrated his 80</span><sup style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">th</span></sup><span style="background: white; color: #222222; line-height: 115%;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> birthday
along with his students.</span></span> The Mandram on its part, persisted with
him as a teacher till he could make it to the college. After he retired from an
active teaching career in 2017, Muthukumarasamy told me that he might teach
Thevaram songs to children near the Kapaleeswarar temple. This<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>project never took off. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Carnatic
music singer Sudha Raghunathan. who learnt some special Tamil songs from Muthukumarasamy,
told me that the present generation could take Muthukumarasamy as a model for
guru bhakti, as his reverence and gratitude to Dandapani Desikar was exemplary.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Muthukumarasamy’s willingness to share
his knowledge also gained her respect. ‘’Whenever I wanted to learn a special
Tamil song for any occasion, he would be there, come what may. I have never
seen another musician as generous and as forthcoming in partaking his
knowledge,’’ Sudha told me. Listening to her, one felt that though musical
savants like Muthukumarasamy may not make a splash even after their passing,
they will be the stuff of stories shared generation after generation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
(The
writer is a historian of Tamil cinema and author).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<br /></div>
vamanan sighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12813288418008889733noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4791118301571564377.post-82798354831831008252018-05-01T03:30:00.001-07:002018-05-01T03:30:12.539-07:00Bengal looms like Howrah Bridge over early Tamil cinema <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<b>By Vamanan</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-align: justify;"> </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtsHG7-ombjh-b0h_K4_8R_fY_QmdnwcXk05CVgHpDwi0wUHHImx2V8yajQCSqO6oDaQEi64ws7iuaG848MCImQizEGoFqPZY1NTpFPFXEtz0Y5Fq3ij_o6P47Ng9X3aqVhBgUlZrdbDY/s1600/Ace+make-up+artistHaribabu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="630" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtsHG7-ombjh-b0h_K4_8R_fY_QmdnwcXk05CVgHpDwi0wUHHImx2V8yajQCSqO6oDaQEi64ws7iuaG848MCImQizEGoFqPZY1NTpFPFXEtz0Y5Fq3ij_o6P47Ng9X3aqVhBgUlZrdbDY/s400/Ace+make-up+artistHaribabu.jpg" width="280" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Haribabu, ace make-upman</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
To be blind to the massive contribution of Bengali studios, technicians and films on Tamil cinema in the past, would be like Vadivelu enquiring about the whereabouts of Howrah Bridge while being right under it in the film ‘Aadavan’! But well, the Howrah bridge soars into the skies in front of one’s eyes while the decades of Bengal’s hold on Tamil cinema are hidden in Tamil cinema’s annals!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
In the fifties, Kannadasan, then only a struggling lyricist and dialogue writer, would yearn to be groomed as a director by Debaki Bose; it might have become a reality if only the poet had not fallen homesick in Kolkata while trying his hand at the dialogues of Ratnadeep’s Tamil version! But Kannadasan’s heart was always in artistic and intellectual Bengal, and when he produced his first film ‘Maalai Itta Mangai’ (1958), it was Saratchandra’s ‘Chandranath’ to which he turned!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
As a medium driven by technology, cinema grew first in Calcutta and Bombay (as the metropolises were called then), while Chennai lagged behind a bit for a decade. ‘Cinema Rani’ T.P.Rajalakshmi, who reigned in the first decade of the Tamil talkie, camped in Kolkata’s premier film-making studios in the 1930s making a steady stream of films. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
Being produced in Kolkata made Tamil films open to the artistic impulses of the region. The American director Ellis R. Dungan, after attending one of the musical soirees of the blind singer K.C.Dey decided to have Dey score the background music for the Tyagaraja Bhagavathar starrer ‘Ambikapathi’ (1937), while it was being made in Kolkatta’s East India Film Company studios. Earlier in the year, Bhagavathar’s first soaring hit ‘Chintamani’ too had background music by the eponymous orchestra of the Dev-Dutta studios.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
Hit tunes from films made in Bengal where also copied in Tamil films. It was based on Raichand Boral’s mellifluous ditty, ‘Premuki Naiyya’ in ‘Dhoop Chaaon’, that Bhagavathar and Aswathamma sang ‘Maaya Prapanchathil’ in ‘Chinthamani’. The hit songs of K.L.Saigal, K.C.Dey and others honed in Kolkatha’s New Theatres echoed in various voices in Tamil cinema. There was even a Southern Saigal in P.G.Venkatesan!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
Even as Tamil artistes queued up in Kolkata’s studios, the reverse trend of the city’s technicians migrating to Chennai had begun. One of the first to come over to Madras was Jiten Banerji who arrived even at the Silent Cinema stage. He was later director of photography for such iconic films as MKT’s Tiruneelakantar, MS’s Meera and the ‘first Telugu historical’, Palanati Yuddham. He was also partner in Newtone Studios. Sailen Bose (Thyaga Bhoomi, Nandanar) and Kamal Ghosh (Kacha Devayani, Chandralekha) made waves with their work and also trained local talent.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
Director K.Subramanyam who had attracted such talent from Kolkata, also drew the ace makeup man Haripada Chandra aka Haribabu to Chennai. Haribabu settled for good in Chennai and set the highest standards in the art. Peethambaram by whose work N.T.Rama Rao and MGR swore was an understudy of Haribabu. The pioneering sound engineer Mukul Bose who came to Chennai when he was 65 brought new techniques to recording in the city. ‘’He was a gentle genius who came over from Bombay to AVM and presided over the music production of Paava Mannippu whose songs made waves,’’ says veteran sound engineer Sampath who was Bose’s assistant then.</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5hr-sP8jyU4-uKk-nX2FhmLVqESeluJoAnQDrI9qsqWanWDf5LM_mxQn6Hg6ZyULtp1Qjsai4z9G1lC7j8yI5CmWitZPmRk2aUyqhenkQtv3WjbwRqoW2pO8t0Dx4vVhbIglBfoFi5s0/s1600/Jayalalitha+reprised+Anjana+Bhowmicks+role+in+Naayika+Sangbad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1259" data-original-width="1600" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5hr-sP8jyU4-uKk-nX2FhmLVqESeluJoAnQDrI9qsqWanWDf5LM_mxQn6Hg6ZyULtp1Qjsai4z9G1lC7j8yI5CmWitZPmRk2aUyqhenkQtv3WjbwRqoW2pO8t0Dx4vVhbIglBfoFi5s0/s320/Jayalalitha+reprised+Anjana+Bhowmicks+role+in+Naayika+Sangbad.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Sivaji and Jayalalitha in Sumathi En Sundari (Naayika Sambaad)</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
Devadas (1935), Matrubhoomi (1938, based on Dwijedralal Roy’s play Chandragupta) and Gumasthavin Penn (1941, based on Nirupama Devi’s Annapurnaar Mandir) were a few Tamil films based on Bengali originals. But from the early fifties both Tamil and Telugu cinema began to look to Bengal for interesting middle class themes as the Puranic era had ended and the stage, shrinking day by day because of the dominance of films was in a stage of atrophy and could not yield interesting story ideas.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
This is the milieu in which Arun Chowdhury’s ‘Pasher Badi’ (1952) becomes ‘Pakkinti Ammai’ (1953) in Telugu, is copied in bits in ‘Kalynanam Panniyum Brahmachari’ (1954), before having its full Tamil remake in ‘Adutha Veettu Penn’ (1960). Playwright and novelist Manilal Banerjee’s novel ‘Swayam Siddha’ was made in Hindi in 1949, in Telugu in 1955 (Ardhaangi) and in Tamil the next year (Pennin Perumai).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
Premier studios like AVM had their eyes turned eastward, picking up ‘Kuladeivam’ (1956) from ‘Banga Kora’ and ‘Naanum Oru Penn’ (1963) from ‘Kala Bou’. Sivaji Ganesan stood tall in ‘Uyarndha’ Manidhan’ (1968) based on ‘Uttar Purush’ while Sowcar Janaki, seeking to add zip to her career did a double role apart from being producer in ‘Kaaviya Thalaivi’ based on ‘Mamata’/ ‘Uttar Phalguni’. The Tamil celluloid calendars of the fifties and sixties are filled with such cross fertilizations from Bengal...but the phenomenon tapered off, and today Bengali commercial cinema is rehashing potboilers from Telugu and Tamil cinema! How the wheel turns!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
(The writer is a historian of Tamil cinema and author of books on the subject)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.8667px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
vamanan sighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12813288418008889733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4791118301571564377.post-28520402137622966112018-02-11T08:23:00.003-08:002018-02-11T08:23:50.060-08:00A.E. Manoharan - The man who wowed Tamil Nadu with Suraangani song <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP4_7_lk-bo0sH0fd2IaH9Ijg9oOmzslc4joz4j1Nv17Ae0qEKvj84gEPBH7DiSy0f8yeCN3g6Qas-NamEt94gQdTlqXFnFpHk74WSIWA__-VpiHWDmTxMYUQzgLexA3qdV3xI3WnsW_c/s1600/Ceylon+Manohar+in+1979+edited+photograph.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="820" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP4_7_lk-bo0sH0fd2IaH9Ijg9oOmzslc4joz4j1Nv17Ae0qEKvj84gEPBH7DiSy0f8yeCN3g6Qas-NamEt94gQdTlqXFnFpHk74WSIWA__-VpiHWDmTxMYUQzgLexA3qdV3xI3WnsW_c/s320/Ceylon+Manohar+in+1979+edited+photograph.jpg" width="164" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ceylon Manohar in the late seventies </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt;">
<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Vamanan<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt;">
<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It may seem an irony of history that a Tamil from Sri
Lanka wrote and sang a Sinhala number in the island’s signature ‘Baila’ genre
and wowed the entire sub continent with his magical Suraangani refrain. But the
singer Ceylon Manohar who passed away recently was a man of old world charm harking
back to idyllic times and his music and personality reflected the harmonies of
music and humanity rather than the dissonances of ethnic strife in his country
of birth. Manohar’s latter-day duet with another ‘King of Baila’, Desmond De
Silva, emphasized putting behind bloody conflict and embracing amity and accord.
<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt;">
<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Born Anthonypillai Emmanuel Manoharan to a Jaffna Tamil
father and Indian Tamil mother in the island’s central province, the future
‘Pop Isai Chakravarthy’ took to music early as a choir boy in the church group
led by his mother with his father playing the organ. In his school final year he
was not only the singing hero of a Tamil play that literally went places but
also the protagonist of ‘Paasa Nila’ (1964), the first Tamil film made in
Jaffna! These early histrionic successes fuelled his ambitions of an acting
career and he did figure in over 250 films in South Indian languages, but the
roles scarcely did justice to his talent and personality.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt;">
<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Manohar’s career-transforming moment as a singer came with
‘Suraangani’ in Sinhala and Tamil in 1972 with a Surya label record which was
frequently broadcast over Ceylon Radio. The foot-tapping number in which
Manohar had written of a youth wooing his girl named Surangani <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>was so infectiously catchy that soon every
Tamil Nadu college student fest was rocking to the strain! Manohar had dipped
into the Baila genre’s brisk and bouncy compound duple rhythm (commonly called
6/8) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and its jaunty spirit and narrative
that made it a popular vehicle of celebrative dance and song.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ilayaraja, fresh from his dream debut of
Annakili was quick to co-opt the song in his ‘Avar Enakke Sondham’ (1977). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On its heels, the Hindi film ‘Paramatma’ had
Asha Bhonsle doing kamaal with ‘Suraangani Kamaal Karegi’! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt;">
<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Riding the wave of this popularity, Manohar got to sing a Baila
duet with L.R. Eswari under M. S.Viswanathan’s baton in the Indo-Sri Lanka
joint production ‘Pilot Premnath’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(1978)
starring Sivaji and Sinhala film star Malini Fonseka. Manohar’s popularity as a
live performer zoomed, his vibrant stage presence and stand-out African hair
do, not to speak of his amazing command of multiple languages, standing him in
good stead. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk5phnaS1p6sdkpTahYscJDEZ34sLiArF-wNuDFnwRDE_CDaoAn8m4FEGZwQ8TuiMVTClag6XdhTnu-V2OA_NUjvvISY14AACft-yFs3-UIDpxGRybQM9lSAkR8LFZkcrsXZsAyX2Km50/s1600/Chinna+Kutti+Naathana+song+in+Aaravalli.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="481" data-original-width="795" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk5phnaS1p6sdkpTahYscJDEZ34sLiArF-wNuDFnwRDE_CDaoAn8m4FEGZwQ8TuiMVTClag6XdhTnu-V2OA_NUjvvISY14AACft-yFs3-UIDpxGRybQM9lSAkR8LFZkcrsXZsAyX2Km50/s320/Chinna+Kutti+Naathana+song+in+Aaravalli.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chinna Kutti Naathana in Aaravali </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt;">
<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Tamil cinema’s music composers and playback singers who also
worked in Sinhala films in the early fifties were quite familiar with Baila. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chandrababu, the singing comedian who had
lived for some years in Colombo rendered the lovely Baila-style number ‘Pambara
Kannaale’ (Manamagan Thevai 1957). Veda composed the very typical song of the
genre in ‘Dingiri Dingaale’ (Anbu Engey 1958). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Music composer G. Ramanathan invested ‘Chinna
Kutti Naathana’ (Aaravalli 1957) with Bailaesque hues. Th identification of the
genre with carefree and youthful celebration is clear from ‘Once a Pappa met a
Mamma’ in ‘Anbe Vaa’ (1966), in which a bus full of young holidayers is shown
rocking to the Baila song. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt;">
<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Through the seventies, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the genre showed up off and on in Tamil cinema
(MSV’s Angamuthu Thangamuthu – Thangaikkaaga 1971; Shyam-Phillip’s Poondamalliyile
Oru Ponnu Pinnaale – Karunthel Kannaayiram 1972). MGR is said to have even
enlisted Nithi Kanagaratnam’s ‘Kallukkadai Pakkam Pogaathe’ (Don’t go near the
arrack shop) for his campaign against drinking. In the gaana and remix age of
the new millennium, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘ Suraangani’ and ‘Chinna
Maamiye’ have had their kinetic remixes (Pandhayam 2008). </span></b><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;">We
will hear more of Baila in the days to come, as it can be enthrallingly
effective when genre and subject merge seamlessly.</span></b><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt;">
<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(The writer is a historian of Tamil film music
and an author)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
A<br />
</div>
vamanan sighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12813288418008889733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4791118301571564377.post-59059971344259032812017-08-18T06:51:00.002-07:002017-08-18T06:51:54.739-07:00Patriotic cinema genre all but fades out from Tamil cinema <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEMq1S9ybu0q0BbtdjqpkQJgVPGg4YlmfQmHDPGmEWKmzfWoLIkfgeFv-q7yQS-pyKRDYIONNGOknN0Q-bORnlhIY6p54nSz1QB3nQNJPTZBert-an_FT7qBOsN25Tb0gWE4raR6ovy6Y/s1600/Patriotic+genre+in+Tamil+cinema.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1461" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEMq1S9ybu0q0BbtdjqpkQJgVPGg4YlmfQmHDPGmEWKmzfWoLIkfgeFv-q7yQS-pyKRDYIONNGOknN0Q-bORnlhIY6p54nSz1QB3nQNJPTZBert-an_FT7qBOsN25Tb0gWE4raR6ovy6Y/s640/Patriotic+genre+in+Tamil+cinema.jpg" width="584" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
vamanan sighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12813288418008889733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4791118301571564377.post-90951134736384940122017-07-31T05:16:00.001-07:002017-07-31T05:16:05.272-07:00Aangilam Romba Easy Paadam 6<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://soundcloud.com/vamanan81/aangilam-romba-easy-paadam-6">https://soundcloud.com/vamanan81/aangilam-romba-easy-paadam-6</a></div>
vamanan sighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12813288418008889733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4791118301571564377.post-27159874506645097942017-07-31T04:40:00.001-07:002017-07-31T05:17:57.676-07:00Aangilam Romba Easy Paadam 5<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://soundcloud.com/vamanan81/aangilam-romba-easy-paadam-5">Aangilam Romba Easy Paadam F</a>ive</div>
vamanan sighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12813288418008889733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4791118301571564377.post-75188093321743437692017-06-28T22:37:00.000-07:002017-06-28T22:37:07.826-07:00Aangilam Romba Easy Four<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br /><a href="https://soundcloud.com/vamanan81/aangilam-romba-easy-four">https://soundcloud.com/vamanan81/aangilam-romba-easy-four</a></div>
vamanan sighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12813288418008889733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4791118301571564377.post-79341165854800387002017-06-28T22:17:00.003-07:002017-06-28T22:17:25.032-07:00Aangilam Romba Easy Three <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br /><a href="https://soundcloud.com/vamanan81/aangilam-romba-easy-three">https://soundcloud.com/vamanan81/aangilam-romba-easy-three</a></div>
vamanan sighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12813288418008889733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4791118301571564377.post-24676234543523163042017-06-28T21:56:00.002-07:002017-06-28T21:56:59.618-07:00Aangilam Romba Easy two <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://soundcloud.com/vamanan81/aangilam-romba-easy-paadam-2">https://soundcloud.com/vamanan81/aangilam-romba-easy-paadam-2</a></div>
vamanan sighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12813288418008889733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4791118301571564377.post-41317773782157915122017-06-25T05:52:00.001-07:002017-06-25T05:52:34.883-07:00Aangilam Romba Easy one<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://soundcloud.com/vamanan81/aangilam-romba-easy-one">https://soundcloud.com/vamanan81/aangilam-romba-easy-one</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
vamanan sighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12813288418008889733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4791118301571564377.post-66265307606335453852017-04-21T05:22:00.000-07:002017-04-24T22:18:57.150-07:00Predictable affiliations and anathemas of left liberal journalist<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Met an old colleague, a veteran reporter, after decades. Hadn’t
discussed politics with him earlier, though.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As a reporter who had been active from the seventies till
about a few years ago, he had some typical viewpoints. A Hindu and a Brahmin,
he was of the view that Hinduism and people’s welfare were poles apart. It
might as well be a bad word in his vocabulary.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPHJEAyCezS_y6nkb3Gh35T7SehAddGEoD1KF4BoKbYy-3fVX62tC3gO4hsmEzuSMzyTXpJSivjBlZJ7MMr4rjFQ3E4eUBlOxcD6MCwBt88dtr7zkf1xOQlfPUrfpHki2GZibs9T254Fs/s1600/Journalist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPHJEAyCezS_y6nkb3Gh35T7SehAddGEoD1KF4BoKbYy-3fVX62tC3gO4hsmEzuSMzyTXpJSivjBlZJ7MMr4rjFQ3E4eUBlOxcD6MCwBt88dtr7zkf1xOQlfPUrfpHki2GZibs9T254Fs/s400/Journalist.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
He was also of the opinion that the Brahmins as a class are the
villains who imposed the caste system and social stratification. When I point
out that there have been many Brahmins who have shown exemplary moral courage
and made great sacrifices for the public good, he says they are exceptions.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He holds ‘nationalism’ to be fascism, and calls for the
self-determination of the Tamils. Having been in the national capital for some years, he
has developed hatred for Hindi zealots and thinks that South Indians have been
treated as second class citizens. As an extension of this thought process, he
has affinity for the Kazhagams and says whatever their demerits they have
achieved a social revolution.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He began a rant against BJPwalas asking what did they do for
hundreds of temples that were going to seed in Tamil Nadu. Surprised at his 'concern' for temples despite the nasty view of Hinduism he had previously expressed, I point out it is
the HR and CE department of the State government which administers temples and does little to really foster Hindu dharma or renovate dilapidated temples.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
I could understand that we have had a tailor-made left liberal 'secular' brigade of journalists quite predictable as to its affiliations and leanings. It might as well be
called a commie cadre.</div>
vamanan sighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12813288418008889733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4791118301571564377.post-73592801079225498442017-04-16T06:24:00.002-07:002017-04-16T06:24:56.591-07:00Kodambakkam hosts Guru Dutt -- Great times in Thanjavur village, Malliyam <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Vamanan </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Born
in Bangalore, brought up in Calcutta, achieving the peaks of success in Bombay,
the tragically charismatic actor-director Guru Dutt spent a considerable part
of his last two years in Madras, as Chennai was known then. It’s a fact that most biographers do not care to
look at, though hapless Guru Dutt could not do so as the dream factories of the
South worked considerably more efficiently than Bombay and paid up in time. That was something that Guru Dutt could not
ignore at that point of his career.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhETdmRAA2nrxgP6q8XN-iBTWfcSqVd6uBlyX3bnGfjkfMTgICkW1-UHs6i5goNjo3LQQvsrPydrXTalElUmnp-5KTjj45GjsWF_goDi08Yv1RAbQCb0X_CCe87Sgi7dPjocfostC67FyQ/s1600/01+Guru+Dutt+and+Mala+Sinha+in+Suhagan.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhETdmRAA2nrxgP6q8XN-iBTWfcSqVd6uBlyX3bnGfjkfMTgICkW1-UHs6i5goNjo3LQQvsrPydrXTalElUmnp-5KTjj45GjsWF_goDi08Yv1RAbQCb0X_CCe87Sgi7dPjocfostC67FyQ/s640/01+Guru+Dutt+and+Mala+Sinha+in+Suhagan.JPG" width="475" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Guru Dutt and Mala Sinha in Suhagan </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
In
his life-time best film, Pyaasa, Guru Dutt had asked with sublimely lyrical
certitude, ‘Ye duniya agar mil bhi jaaye tho kya hai’ (even if one were to
triumph over the world, what’s it
worth?). But when the resounding failure of his artistically ambitious Kaagaz
ke Phool raised the existential question,
‘Ye duniya agar chal bhi jaaye tho kya hai’ (what if success were to
leave one), the man known for expressing
‘the dark poetry of the death wish’ experienced the stark prose of
rejection in real life!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Subsequent
to the Kaagaz debacle, even after the success of ‘Chaudavin ka Chaand’, a Muslim social which he produced and acted
in the lead role but didn’t direct, and the classic Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam,
which he also directed but did not claim the credit for, Guru Dutt looked
southward though the productions there were only remakes of proven Tamil/Telugu
films rewritten and packaged with the Hindi audience in mind.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
In
this phase, Guru Dutt was first booked for ‘Bharosa’ (released in September
1963) by by N.Vasudeva Menon, a top
manager of AVM studios who turned an ambitious producer and studio owner
himself. Made with expert technicians
(cinematographer Thambu, famed for Gemini classics like Avvaiyar) and K.
Shanker (reliable film editor turned director), all Guru Dutt had to do in the
film was play a good-hearted country bumpkin romping around with Asha
Parekh. While Guru Dutt fulfilled the
demands made on him, the methodical Madras filmmakers did not waste his time or
energy with retakes or rehashes. ‘Bharosa’ was followed by ‘Bahurani’ (released
in January 1964), based on successful films in Telugu (Ardhangi) and Tamil
(Pennin Perumai) which derived their storyline from Manilal Banerjee’s novel
‘Swayamsiddha’. With the Anglo Indian
veteran Marcus Bartley behind the camera and the masterly T. Prakash Rao
calling the shots, Guru Dutt stood out as
the retarded son transformed by the redemptive influence of his good wife (Mala
Sinha). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
It
was then that the influential film producer A.L.Srinivasan booked Guru Dutt for
Suhaagan, the Hindi version of his Tamil hit,
Sarada. K.S. Gopalakrishnan, whom
ALS had introduced as a director in Sarada, was billed to direct the Hindi version
too. But he was more than anxious that he would have to direct Guru Dutt. The
latter’s reputation as a technically brilliant director had preceded him to
Madras, and KSG feared that Dutt might give him a torrid time questioning the
set up of every shot! Guru Dutt arrived, and was accommodated at Ashoka Hotel
in Egmore. KSG didn’t go to meet him. He was not there even to welcome him on
the sets on the first day’s shooting. After Guru Dutt’s make up was done,
A.L.Srinivasan introduced him to K.S.Gopalakrishnan. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Guru
Dutt called KSG aside and told him: ‘‘Gopalakrishnan, you might have heard
about me. People might have told you that I am a big director and all
that. But I have left all that behind. I
have come to act in your film. You are my director. It’s my duty to follow what
you say. It’s your responsibility to get from me what you need’’. The unassuming manner in which Guru Dutt spoke put the lid on KSG’s fears and he hugged Guru Dutt with tears in his
eyes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Komal
Swaminathan, reputed playwright and writer who assisted KSG in the film and
considered the friendship he formed with Guru Dutt during the shooting of
Suhagan as one of the blessings of his life, has recorded these impressions. In
the event, Guru Dutt and Gopalakrishnan became thick friends during the
shooting of Suhaagan! Gopalakrishnan’s description of the tank in his native
village , ‘teeming with Murrel fish’, whetted Guru Dutt’s appetite. All his
life he was passionate about fishing. He spent a week in Gopalakrishnan’s
village Malliam, sometimes angling for fish unmindful of the hot summer sun,
sometimes partaking of the coconut toddy that was brought specially for him!
KSG marvelled that his hero was as ardent about country stuff as for Chivas
Regal! Amidst all this, Guru Dutt developed a liking for the Silappadhikaaram
story and took along a translated script titled ‘Madhavi’ for a future project.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
A.L.Srinivasan,
who was famous for the frequent parties he threw, looked after Guru Dutt very
well, even as the latter was solicitous of the needs of his producer. ‘‘Unlike
some Hindi stars, he would be on time on the sets. On the last day of his
shooting, he had the director take every manner of shot of him, in case the
need arose for such shots later’’, recalls Ms. Jayanthi Kannappan, Srinivasan’s daughter-in-law. The KSG unit was later shocked when on the
last day of editing they got the news of Guru Dutt’s untimely death. Suhaagan, which was released months later,
was advertised as Guru Dutt’s ‘last and best’. Though it was no hit film, it
did not rock the boat of the producer either.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
K.
Appasami, 81, who worked for A.L.S. productions, and was Guru Dutt’s attendant
in Madras for three schedules, remembers Guru Dutt fondly. ‘’He was generally
accommodated in the now defunct Oceanic Hotel. I have seen many heroes from
Hindi cinema. But Guru Dutt was a different breed. He was a thorough gentleman.
Unlike many stars, he had no airs. I will always remember him with respect’’.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
(A version of this piece appeared in the Times of India, Chennai)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b>(The writer is a historian of Tamil film
music and an author of many books on Tamil cinema)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
vamanan sighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12813288418008889733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4791118301571564377.post-89180105123590868852017-04-02T23:02:00.002-07:002017-04-02T23:08:24.055-07:00Maya Bazaar after 60 years in the cine bazaar<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 5.65pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #181818; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">By Vamanan</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 5.65pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #181818; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Past events and things gain an aura of nostalgia in the present. This has happened in a material sense to ‘Maya Bazaar’ which first hit the silver screen in the summer of 1957. Its Telugu version acquired alluring hues and a contemporary sound in 2010, thanks to film colorization and digital re-mastering undertaken by C. Jagan Mohan. Today, in the diamond jubilee year of the film we can appreciate the great masters of old who made ‘Maya Bazaar’ such a great experience as well as the epical figures in the film who seem so life-like and real!</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s is no use complaining that the love story between Arjuna’s son Abhimanyu and Balarama’s daughter Vatsala aka Sasirekha is apocryphal based on the argument that the Mahabharatha does not speak either of Balarama having a daughter or the latter romancing Abhimanyu! The Mahabharata’s famous claim that it encompasses everything was not achieved by one author sitting down to write an all-enveloping work; it is the Ocean into which all the rivers of the racial consciousness flow! We have only to see the new Maya Bazaar shimmering like a lotus petal in the morning dew to realize that it is a celluloid window opening into a gallery of epic characters from Sri Krishna (NTR) to Rukmini (Sandhya), Abhimanyu (ANR, Gemini Ganesan in the Tamil version) and his half-Rakshasa cousin, Ghatothkacha (the one and only S.V.Ranga Rao)!</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-9e263898-3266-1dea-1096-a0a66ef03020" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Maya Bazaar is a magical film in more ways than one. The most literal aspect, the highlight of the film is, of course, the seamless special effects it brings into play as the miraculous doings of Ghatothkacha. We have fire gushing like flowing water, carpets curling up, and any number of objects appearing and disappearing at will to the utter consternation of villainous characters. Ace cinematographer Marcus Bartley, an Anglo Indian with ages of experience shooting films achieved these effects more with ingenuity than with apparatus, with the help of his special effects man Harbans Singh. The FX are not much considering the unbelievable flexibility digital technology has given technicians these days to manipulate images. However, the Maya Bazaar strategy was not just to stun with special effects but to harness them effectively for the ends of the plot which was about harassing Kaurava malcontents with creepy happenings.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But more powerful and preternatural was the extraordinary control director K.V.Reddy, the maker of such Telugu classics like Bhakta Pothana and Yogi Vemana, and of the folklore hit Paathala Bhairavi (Telugu, Tamil), exercised over the script and his actors in his first mythological. Some scenes, like the first one which shows the celebration of the ‘coming of age’ of the young Vatsala, played adorably by Sachu both in the Telugu and Tamil versions, have such a likeness to life. One is transported to Dwaraka where Krishna, Rukmani, Subhadra and others are blessing the girl. In the narration of the romance of the lead pair (ANR-Savitri in Telugu, Gemini Ganesh-Savitri in Tamil), and its resolution through entertaining magical intervention, the loss of kingdom by the Pandavas is reduced to a shadow of a suggestion! In this way the narrative cleverly sidesteps the dark and looming spectre of a fratricidal war to focus on an entertaining romance that outmanoeuvres its opposition.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The introduction of ‘gadgets’ in the film makes for great interest. There is the mirror box that shows the image of the object of one’s deepest desires – something like the real-life technology of Skype with webcam! -- and the ‘Satya Peetham’, apparently gifted by Sage Viswamitra to Harischandra for his incomparable truthfulness, which brings out the truth from people akin to the present-day truth serum! These not only add to the film’s interest but play a very important role in the script. While in the Mahabharatha, the climax has to come after the Kurukshetra carnage, Maya Bazaar’s purpose is served by having Shakuni expose himself by confessing before the ‘Seat of Truth’ about his diabolical deed of usurping the kingdom of the Pandavas and exiling them to the forest. This exposes him in front of Balarama, who had all the while been supporting the Kauravas because of his fondness for Duryodhana. The defeat of the Kauravas is thus effected by a series of discomfitures created by a ‘Maya Bazaar’ of hair-raising happenings as well as an involuntary confession! </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another enchanting aspect of the film is its music and song (Ghantasala/S.Rajeswara Rao). The moonlight boat song, for example, lingers in the mind decades past the first viewing of the film. But if the song and the night setting work a magic of their own, the way three pairs are interwoven into its picturisation is indicative of the delicate handling of story aspects. Even as Vatsala and Abhimanyu enjoy themselves in the boat, a guard informs Balarama and Revati about them. They rush to accost the young pair. But as Krishna immediately catches a whiff of the danger to the young lovers, he sends them packing and takes their place along with Rukmani! Balarama and Revati find them in the boat and take it to mean that the guard made an error of judgement. After Krishna and Rukmani alight from the boat, Balarama and Revati decide to go for a boat ride themselves, though Revati had just then made a caustic comment against Krishna and Rukmani. Laced with humour and satire, how much excitement and interest the song situation packs in itself!</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Made in the Vauhini studios of Vijaya Productions (citadel of the redoubtable Nagi Reddi-Chakrapani duo), Maya Bazaar had attention lavished on every detail of film production. Sachu, one of the very few today who can speak first-hand of the production values of Maya Bazaar, marvels at the importance director Reddy and his team gave her though she was but a child artiste then. In the time lapse scene that shows the child Vatsala growing up in to a beautiful damsel (Savithri), such intimate attention was paid to her costumes, hair styling and jewellery to match them with those of Savithri! Sachu cherishes the memento she got for the 100 days run of Maya Bazaar, a silverine souvenir with the stamp of Vijaya’s inspiring logo. It was her first in a time-defying career.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The noted writer Pingali Nagendra Rao penned the lines and songs of Maya Bazaar. They were rendered appropriately in Tamil by Vijaya’s resident Tamil writer, Thanjai Ramiah Das, who generally did a great job. ‘Laahiri Laahiri Laahirilo’ was transposed so beautifully into ‘Aaha Inba Nilaavinile’ befitting the situation. Nambiar (Shakuni) and Thangavelu (Lakshmana Kumaran) played their roles evocatively in the Tamil version.</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoUUFo846kITXnaIz6ETDnOgUGw6k1v2le4o9xuvxYCCIfD8fM3Ybu0yucKfWi09rJEqA4HkVABujAUdNMEHn4JRUbill6gEwvKzx-KK6FmAVIUyE1ESH74UuQT7Nfu3bQ5dgZmWKqjXg/s1600/Maya+Bazaar+Sachu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoUUFo846kITXnaIz6ETDnOgUGw6k1v2le4o9xuvxYCCIfD8fM3Ybu0yucKfWi09rJEqA4HkVABujAUdNMEHn4JRUbill6gEwvKzx-KK6FmAVIUyE1ESH74UuQT7Nfu3bQ5dgZmWKqjXg/s640/Maya+Bazaar+Sachu.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sachu as the young Vatsala in Maya Bazaar </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2gg008U6Ir7ebfyfIuVw7ycY0OfcNH-OrKVX4jyXT9nwaP-mMIWMNdYv8mvWNtaSh5c8CoeeWRASfdBXKCYBkG7nvaX1vw6pofdQb1Rfr9x8uUKDrkKmOXOdm3zdXBW_FANxJfssuxFg/s1600/maya-bazaar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="460" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2gg008U6Ir7ebfyfIuVw7ycY0OfcNH-OrKVX4jyXT9nwaP-mMIWMNdYv8mvWNtaSh5c8CoeeWRASfdBXKCYBkG7nvaX1vw6pofdQb1Rfr9x8uUKDrkKmOXOdm3zdXBW_FANxJfssuxFg/s640/maya-bazaar.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">S.V.Ranga Rao as Ghatothkacha in Maya Bazaar </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Maya Bazaar came on the scene a few years after Parasakthi abrasively lambasted mythology and religion. Maya Bazaar was produced by Telugus but its magic helped revive the mythological genre in Tamil films too! However, while the Maya Bazaar print has been has been restored and coloured in its Telugu version, Tamils have still to make do with the old, time-worn black and white copy. It’s time it was restored and revived in Tamil too. It would be a tribute to the heady old days when Telugus and Tamils worked hand in hand to make Southern cinema proud. If ‘Vivaha Bhojanambu’ was a hit in Telugu, ‘Kalyaaana Samaiyal Saadham’ didn’t stand behind. The Tamils would sure look forward to a large screen, DTS sound Maya Bazaar with seminal artistes like Savithri, NTR and Ranga Rao striding the screen. So here’s to the restored Maya Bazaar in Tamil!</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(This article appeared in the columns of DT Next on March 30, 2017)</span></div>
</div>
vamanan sighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12813288418008889733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4791118301571564377.post-19665434267987342012017-01-31T08:26:00.000-08:002017-01-31T08:27:26.573-08:00இந்திய சினிமாவில் அதிகப் பின்னணி பாடல்கள் பாடிய சாதனையாளர்<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirTgqdYUIdr7pH6ef0s8YsDDuFAtOI-kc5NV_bJTYi9CRs0gqTbY-esJ47aLgOFfc9EzacsgF8E-acGNH_x-Dz_2ScYWCuTqaZYb6CNABeCgO98VkVJ41Vtf_KfGC7B7BSAozdSiSmBzw/s1600/Aayiram+Nilave+Vaa+Endru+Aarambithu%252C+Pallaayiram+Pallavigal+Kanda+SPB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirTgqdYUIdr7pH6ef0s8YsDDuFAtOI-kc5NV_bJTYi9CRs0gqTbY-esJ47aLgOFfc9EzacsgF8E-acGNH_x-Dz_2ScYWCuTqaZYb6CNABeCgO98VkVJ41Vtf_KfGC7B7BSAozdSiSmBzw/s1600/Aayiram+Nilave+Vaa+Endru+Aarambithu%252C+Pallaayiram+Pallavigal+Kanda+SPB.jpg" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
vamanan sighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12813288418008889733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4791118301571564377.post-59692016570373173612017-01-28T20:58:00.001-08:002017-01-28T21:29:23.073-08:00Cho - Fearless dramatist and actor who satirised cant and hypocrisy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<b>Vamanan</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
When the legendary thespian ‘Avvai’ T. K. Shanmugham came to preside over one of Cho Ramaswamy’s early plays in the fifties, he advised the amateur playwright and actor not to give English titles to his Tamil plays. Cho, who had till then come up with ‘Why not?’, ‘Wait and see’ and ‘What for?’, soon responded with ‘Quo Vadis’ which is Latin for ‘Where are you going?’ and ‘Sambhavaami Yuge Yuge’ which is, of course, a Sanskrit phrase from the Bhagavad Gita!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
Irrepressible, unpredictable and with a mind all his own, Cho would in later life narrate with glee that K. Balachander threw up his hands in despair at having to direct him on stage! It was not given even to the most reputed stage director of his time to be able to tame Cho, the enfant terrible of the amateur Tamil stage. Cho would later go on not only to portray the controversial and enigmatic Muhammad Bin Thuglak on stage and cinema, but also make the ‘Pagla Sultan’ his mascot and the name of his influential magazine on political affairs! While taking a decisive stand on many issues based on threadbare argument and logical acumen he would also ensure that he caught the eye mainly because of his devil-take-the-hindmost Thuglakian style.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
There was something of this quixotic gambit in the way he forced himself on dramatist Koothabiran as an aspiring actor threatening to walk into every scene of the latter’s ‘Thaenmozhiyaal’ if a meaningful role was not written for him. Koothabiran decided discretion was the better of valour, but did not know how to name the character, an interloper into his script! Cho was generously willing to share his own name, with the result being that he was rather well noticed by audiences! While he could be self-deprecatory and dismissive of many of his achievements --- the title card of Muhammad bin Thuglak, his first bid at direction says ‘Trying to learn direction:Cho’ --- he was never the one to shrink from the limelight.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioEPvN8VEhMo-wSd_vOrJwgjMBN1OsfYrDcgFiPVu7iNMqXjyLghIPDyhLC-PQGxonEL2WfHztMHSeLGvvPgMVrm60byCEaoH8LLPpPjgYaB5OLt9NtJCz9UoBCk5qDgtRDJwZaMHJe_Q/s1600/Muhammad+Bin+Thuglak+thiraippada+Kaatchi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioEPvN8VEhMo-wSd_vOrJwgjMBN1OsfYrDcgFiPVu7iNMqXjyLghIPDyhLC-PQGxonEL2WfHztMHSeLGvvPgMVrm60byCEaoH8LLPpPjgYaB5OLt9NtJCz9UoBCk5qDgtRDJwZaMHJe_Q/s320/Muhammad+Bin+Thuglak+thiraippada+Kaatchi.jpg" width="320" /></a>Viveka Fine Arts, the amateur drama group whose most famous writer and actor Cho became, was actually formed by his brother Krishnaswami aka Ambi and three of his friends. The thrill of performing on stage as well as the joy of meeting friends was what brought together the gang. Cho was not only the prolific playwright of the group but its stormy petrel who would fearlessly cock a snook at the powers that be. One of Cho’s lifelong regrets in this regard would be his petulant public reaction to Kamaraj’s impatience at his derisive attacks on the Congress government of the time. While he began to adore Kamaraj in the seventies as an incorruptible leader dedicated to the welfare of the people, he could not bear to think how flippant he had been at the start of his dramatic career in responding to the great leader. As for any fireworks against his plays by the Kazhagam malcontents, or any move for a ban, Cho welcomed them as more publicity! Chief Minister Karunanidhi even tried writing a rebuttal play but soon gave up that line of attack. In the event, Cho would become MGR’s favourite comedian, and act in Karunanidhi’s home production, Engal Thangam, pulling off a marvellous performance as an avid MGR fan! But later on, reviews of MGR films in Thuglak would jeopardize Cho’s role as a comic sidekick of MGR!</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv7EerRQ-UA1-EG4DxJbt8BjA132RjqcPp89ujYIjjVWgobCRDB9Ror_3B7zi6WpiKjXf6yINZLtSauqwKbaQanBuHs0jN_uHr1LaZirQZ588wFEF3iCMyBDXbpB27xUbxXWFoA74VPHA/s1600/Unmaiye+Un+Vilai+Enna+Muthuraman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv7EerRQ-UA1-EG4DxJbt8BjA132RjqcPp89ujYIjjVWgobCRDB9Ror_3B7zi6WpiKjXf6yINZLtSauqwKbaQanBuHs0jN_uHr1LaZirQZ588wFEF3iCMyBDXbpB27xUbxXWFoA74VPHA/s320/Unmaiye+Un+Vilai+Enna+Muthuraman.jpg" width="142" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Muthuraman in Cho's <br />
Unmaiye Un Vilai Yenna</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
He would lament that he had written only four or five political plays but they overshadowed his other plays. His ‘Saathiram Sonnadhillai’ dealt with caste prejudice trenchantly. ‘Is God Dead’ focussed on the dearth of values and ethics in various segments of society. ‘Yaarukkum Vetkamillai’ exposed the hypocrisy of society on prostitution. Cho directed his plays like ‘Unmaiye Un Vilai Yenna’ and ‘Yaarukkum Vetkamillai’ on celluloid but was not happy with the result. He would make no bones in confessing that he had not been able to make the transition from stage to cinema smoothly. He envied K.Balachander on that score but made no effort at averting staginess on screen.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
But after the success of Thuglak on stage and screen, and the launch of Thuglak as a fortnightly early in 1970, Cho’s dialogues in every film began to centre on politics. There were a few films here and there that made it seem that Cho would take portrayal of characters seriously, but he was more into playing himself again and again as a cynical critic of the political system. No role would be complete without a reference to his role as a commentator on political events. In ‘Aarilirundhu Arupadhu Varai’, while playing Rajinikanth’s understanding friend quite well, he quips as an aside, ‘What do we have to do with politics?’ Rajini responds with, ‘Look who is saying this…’ and Cho blushingly agrees that sometimes he says such misleading stuff!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
Cho took himself seriously, at least in the later part of his life, as an interpreter of Hinduism both through the printed word and television serials. He even questioned the demonization of Brahmins by the Dravidian ideologues. He could take very conservative viewpoints on the epics and puranas but he himself was disruptive in his individualistic plays. In his scripts, more often than not, Hindu gods lose out in the face of contemporary society’s crassness and corruption. While even god’s avatars cannot rid us of corruption, the heavens turn topsy turvy on the introduction of our 'democratic' practices and even Saraswathi, the goddess of learning is confounded by the values of our writers!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<b>(The writer is a historian of Tamil cinema and an author of many works on the subject)</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<br /></div>
</div>
vamanan sighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12813288418008889733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4791118301571564377.post-84883374673400159492017-01-28T20:44:00.002-08:002017-02-10T09:52:49.560-08:00SPB - His numbers enthrall you!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Vamanan</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
For
a singer who was stopped at the entrance of the film studio when he alighted
from the carrier of a friend’s bicycle for his first recording, S.P.Balasubramanyam
has gone more than the proverbial long way. He has become the most prolific
playback singer in the history of Indian cinema, a statistic buttressed by his
incomparable record, particularly in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada cinema. Celebrating
fifty years of his singing from the date of that December 15, 1966 debut, SPB,
or Balu to friends, completed a whirlwind world tour of live music shows to
mark the event, capping it with a reverential and emotional paada puja to
K.J.Yesudas, a senior contemporary who is just about six or seven years his
elder. An unexpected musical inflection
not unlike ones that SPB sometimes produced in his renderings!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju6JWVzlGsejL0t_QF44hqNEiVNKeL-yX3aGoFyr1TtjBRui_zq8qB80c7ZO7H6pEEgi9bLUD8ENOS3hh_1UQYNRADmVHQSeuy1xa7UFvyu4S-WHhjgO-2V-SIMCZCzgCfGYf8S5QGK2A/s1600/spb+another+shot.tif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju6JWVzlGsejL0t_QF44hqNEiVNKeL-yX3aGoFyr1TtjBRui_zq8qB80c7ZO7H6pEEgi9bLUD8ENOS3hh_1UQYNRADmVHQSeuy1xa7UFvyu4S-WHhjgO-2V-SIMCZCzgCfGYf8S5QGK2A/s320/spb+another+shot.tif" width="320" /></a>SPB’s
hectic career encompassing scores and scores of soaring hits may seem to be a
heady merry-go-round of melodies invoking a phantasmagoria of starry images to
the music struck fan, but somebody had presaged it all, if only in microscopic
form. This man was S.P.Kodandapani, a failed singer who was struggling to find
opportunities as a music composer. Hearing the young SPB sing in a music
competition, Kodandapani not only predicted straightaway that he would have a
smooth sailing for at least forty years as a singer but also went on to give
him his first break in the Telugu film, Sri Sri Sri Maryadha Ramanna. Kodandapani
subsequently showed his mettle as a music composer but didn’t live to see his protégé
going great guns. On his part, SPB remembered to commemorate the man who prophesied
his marathon musical run by naming his recording studio after him.
Unfortunately, he had to sell it off later in the wake of home productions that
bombed.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Soon
after SPB’s initial breakthrough, the star music directors of the day,
M.S.Viswanathan and K.V.Mahadevan were seeking out the mellifluously free-flowing,
youthful and individualistic voice of the twenty something. MSV debuted SPB in
Tamil in ‘Iyarkaiyennum Ilayakanni’, a daintily-voiced duet in Santhi Nilayam,
a nativised version of Sound of Music. MGR, temporarily miffed with his most
popular musical voice TMS, chose SPB to sing with P.Sushila in his ambitious
Adimai Penn (1969). The lavishly mounted ‘Aayiram Nilave Vaa’, picturised on
MGR and Jayalalitha became a hit and continues to enthrall listeners to this
day. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Both
MSV and KVM had hit the height of the heady efflorescence of their creativity
in the early sixties, but the emergence of fresh voices like that of SPB helped
them give a new impetus to their music. MSV’s uplifting romantic song for
Sivaji and Jayalalitha in Sumathi En Sundari, ‘Pottu Vaitha Mugamo’ , entranced
SPB himself so much that he made a beeline to the radio station to hand over a
copy for broadcast! SPB numbers composed by MSV for the young Kamalahasan in
K.Balachander films gave a new verve to film song with hits like ‘Kadavul
Amaithuvaitha Medai’, ‘Junior Junior’, ‘Kamban yemaandhaan’ and ‘Engeyum Eeppodhum
Sangeetham’. In Sankarabharanam, KVM dared to make SPB sing in the Carnatic
idiom that he was not trained in, but the film burst on the national
consciousness as a re-assertion of the richness of Indian’s great musical
heritage. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Another
pinnacle of SPB’s career was his singing with Lata (Ek Duje ke liye). After
spilling hot coffee on Lataji’s spotlessly white sari during the recording, he
had thought that his career in Hindi films was finished! But Lata went on to
sing umpteen songs with SPB, and wowed live audiences around the world with
him. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
The
emergence of Ilaiyaraja in the late seventies and eighties as the reigning
composer in the South, put SPB right on top of the world. Apart from being the most
popular and effervescent voice of the time, he was after all a long-time chum
who had said cheers with Ilaiyaraja during the latter’s years of struggle! The
Rajinikanth, Kamalahasan era of Tamil cinema is studded with SPB gems honed by
Ilaiyaraja to showcase the former’s versatile singing which spans the spectrum from
the jazzy and comic to the lingeringly romantic. Many a musical featuring actor
Mohan clearly rode on the magic of SPB’s art (Who can forget ‘Nilaave Vaa’ in
Maniratnam’s Mouna Ragam!). In the A.R.Rahman era too, SPB figured prominently
for some time (winning a national award for ‘Thanga Thaamarai’ in Minsara
Kanavu to boot), but the new trends in film song tired the old romantic.</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXRPRshU3d-jb1VF2UP3lrEY8DRAr0gOcqsjr1fJrajPR7GG2J9HtIwA2hSEWL1ut1CN8wm9o_VbglIWUoeJUFzLDd83XR0reapdlAyPUsYGk6wpWkE0xBkl6I5EX6C5F8e6IdKk4iMO0/s1600/3+K.V.Mahadevanudan+SPB.tif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXRPRshU3d-jb1VF2UP3lrEY8DRAr0gOcqsjr1fJrajPR7GG2J9HtIwA2hSEWL1ut1CN8wm9o_VbglIWUoeJUFzLDd83XR0reapdlAyPUsYGk6wpWkE0xBkl6I5EX6C5F8e6IdKk4iMO0/s320/3+K.V.Mahadevanudan+SPB.tif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
A
born mimic, SPB has acted (Keladi Kanmani featured him in the lead), dubbed
(for Kamalahasan, for instance), composed music (Mayuri, Sigaram, Unnai Sharan
Adainthen), and produced films (Shubha Sankalpam, Tenali etc). He is hosting a Telugu
TV reality show titled ‘Paadutha Theeyagaa’, which has been having an
incredible run for 20 years introducing a host of talented singers. As a singer
who has emerged as a musical phenomenon, SPB’s career has crossed a golden
barrier, and he himself is 70, but his voice still sounds ageless!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b>(The writer is a historian of Tamil film music)</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b>(This article appeared in the Times of India, Chennai)</b></div>
</div>
vamanan sighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12813288418008889733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4791118301571564377.post-31923875045721658632016-11-21T22:22:00.001-08:002016-11-21T22:22:19.862-08:00Vijayalakshmi, 1946 film, deals with demonetisation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1Hz2XYHQmQPd5xXHNkVO5fvgRSZvpObIXi1G5e6ODq-nRp56vfSBniVL2O9Gc1fP1nT9vwIOWcWg3YAhcGxx23gVpC-dLxKvWP0lfYStDuwKKSueIu5VSN_Yu0q6w3gKI43aoCxFcsbY/s1600/Vijayalakshmi+Padathil+Sila+Kaatchigal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1Hz2XYHQmQPd5xXHNkVO5fvgRSZvpObIXi1G5e6ODq-nRp56vfSBniVL2O9Gc1fP1nT9vwIOWcWg3YAhcGxx23gVpC-dLxKvWP0lfYStDuwKKSueIu5VSN_Yu0q6w3gKI43aoCxFcsbY/s320/Vijayalakshmi+Padathil+Sila+Kaatchigal.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Scenes from 'Vijayalakshmi'</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<b>Vamanan</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
When a measure like demonetization that affects all people comes into play, you can be sure it will be factored into films in a variety of ways in the times to come. Film is a mass medium and a mass happening is certain to find echoes in it. In fact, the very first demonetization in India that took place in 1946 figures brilliantly in a little known film of the period. The film, ‘Vijayalakshmi’, flopped when it was released, but ironically it is perhaps the only film of 1946 to have survived seventy turbulent years since it saw the light of day! </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
Though named eponymously after its female protagonist, the film is dominated by the avaricious father-in-law Ganapathi Iyer, who finds his Nemesis in the demonetization of thousand rupee notes. In a superbly crafted climax that is based on superimpositions, unconventional camera angles and evocative music, the character that marries the religiosity of the priestly class with the greed of the loan shark finds superb evocation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
Based on a Marathi stage play, Bandaachi Soon, written by playwright Sri Ganesh Krishna Shastri Pathak, Vijayalakshmi was directed by the veteran filmmaker P. Pulliah, most famous for directing N.T.Rama Rao in the iconic mythological Sri Venkateswara Mahatyam (1960). Ironically, Vijayalakshmi is on the other end of the spectrum, being for most part a delightful vehicle of cinematic realism that presents credible characters and situations. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
B.R. Panthulu, known more as producer director of seminal films like Veerapandiya Kattabommon, Kappalottiya Thamizhan, Karnan and Aayirathil Oruvan, if not for his essay of the role of ‘School Master’, excels himself in a riveting portrayal of greed. With the varied palette of a practised actor, he brings facial expressions, as well as mannerisms of speech and gait to make the character of the miserly Ganapathi come alive.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
After his religiously conducted Lakshmi Puja, which is more a gloating over accumulated riches in his iron safe than any devotion to the goddess of wealth and prosperity, Ganapati Iyer receives a letter from his son Ramu. He begins to utter mournful cries learning that Ramu has resigned his job. Questioned by his anxious wife, he says, ‘Praanan Poana Enna, Panam Poana Enna, Rendum Onnu thaanedi’ (Losing money is akin to losing one’s life), underlining his philosophy of life with the skewed equation that wealth equals life !</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
This immediately leads to exploitation and ill-treatment of women, of course with the complicity of other women, as is to be expected in a patriarchal society with scant respect for the rights or feelings of women. Prodded by his wife, Ganapati Iyer sends his daughter-in-law packing to her father’s place so that he can make more money getting his son married a second time. ‘’A two-stringed gold necklace, all the silver ware, and 10,000 as dowry for the second marriage. I can put away another 15,000 rupees in my safe,’’ he chuckles happily, gloating over future acquisitions! Note hungry Ganapati is of the kind that invites the woes of demonetization!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
Even at the outset, the film juxtaposes Ganapati Iyer’s worship of material wealth (Lakshmi in a sense) with the joy and gaiety of heroine Vijayalakshmi (M.V.Rajamma, the super mother of later years), suggesting that a worthy woman is truly more valuable than material things a man may possess. That this constitutes the denouement of the film, speaks of the thoughtful way the film has been structured all through. Did not Pudovkin lay down that editing is the foundation of film technique! </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
The year 1946 was a challenging one for the film industry with famine conditions prevailing in certain parts of the then Madras Presidency and the introduction of 12 ounce ration of rice. The demonetisation of 500, 1000 and 10,000 notes also hit the money bags financing the film industry as it did the stars who received part of the payment in black. Though the introduction of prohibition in 8 districts of the Presidency made it seem that favourable conditions had been created for the film trade, there was actually little enthusiasm at the box office.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
It was under such dismal conditions that a band of filmmakers like Pullaiah (director), B.R.Panthulu (lead actor), A.T.Krishnaswami (dialogue writer and director), G.Govindarajulu Naidu (music director), among others, got together to make a distinctive film like ‘Vijayalakshmi’. It turned out to be an excellent film, but bombed at the box office. It has also escaped the notice of the chroniclers of Tamil cinema till now, but still lives to tell a tale!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<b>(The writer is a historian of Tamil cinema and author of several books on the subject)</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<b>(The above article was published in an edited version in the Times of India)</b></div>
</div>
vamanan sighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12813288418008889733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4791118301571564377.post-29688682046294442932016-10-22T10:11:00.001-07:002016-10-22T10:11:30.702-07:00TMS as viewed by music directors<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUMpNf8zAUEJp57lEqjvqK09whELIfpet781fzoXikN_QkDQpOBqaNj1BnqYuBOo7U7jztEJVVdtvBX40riCQm1cyDWbYALo4rxLP2m73HwqxDqfFnrBURZ6NYTN2JgDWlrymQ1NyqKds/s1600/Isai+Amaippaalargal+Kanda+TMS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUMpNf8zAUEJp57lEqjvqK09whELIfpet781fzoXikN_QkDQpOBqaNj1BnqYuBOo7U7jztEJVVdtvBX40riCQm1cyDWbYALo4rxLP2m73HwqxDqfFnrBURZ6NYTN2JgDWlrymQ1NyqKds/s1600/Isai+Amaippaalargal+Kanda+TMS.jpg" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
vamanan sighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12813288418008889733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4791118301571564377.post-39130683290102081972016-10-17T22:41:00.002-07:002016-10-17T22:41:30.620-07:00Do Tamil film lyrics qualify as literature?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Vamanan<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">In the context of the literature Noble to Bob Dylan for
the lyrical content of his songs, it is pertinent to ask whether Tamil film
songs have any literary value. But there is an obvious difference between
Dylan’s oeuvre and Tamil film song in general. <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525;">Bob Dylan was a counter-culture icon, who apart from being his
own song writer, music composer and performer had great freedom to be
individually expressive. The film lyricist, on the other hand, works to a
commission….he is writing for a situation which for most part is pedestrian and
clichéd. He is hemmed down by tunes to which he has to write to. No wonder train-loads
of Tamil film songs are not worth the paper of which they are written though
they too in some mindless way reflect the preoccupation of their times! <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Tamil cinema has for long
been influenced by the traditions of the professional Tamil stage. Sankaradas
Swamigal was a doyen of the Tamil stage in its golden period. His song-filled
scripts proved to be the template for numerous drama troupes and schooled actors
in the cadences of Tamil diction, in epic mythology and the expression of
dramatic situation and feeling through song.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> Actors like MGR and Sivaji Ganesan grew up in
such a tradition, and though they learnt realistic acting styles while enacting
novels of the day, they were alive to the indigenous song-filled tradition. This
explains why Sankaradas’s ‘Kaayaadha Kaanagathe’, sung by Muruga when he
appears before the tribal belle Valli as a hunter in search of a deer, was delivered
by a cavalcade of actors on stage, and also reprised on screen by
T.R.Mahalingam, Sivaji Ganesan and Vijayakanth.
Does this persistence across film eras make ‘Kaayadha Kaanagathe’ literature? <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Papanasam Sivan, pre-eminent
composer-lyricist of the opening decades of Tamil cinema, honed some of the
evergreen songs of the thirties and forties. His ‘Radhe Unakku Kobam
Aaagadhadi’ was Thyagaraja Bhagavathar’s first hit, it launched
T..M.Sounderarajan’s singing career in the late forties and later had Sivaji
miming to it in Kulamagal Raadhai (1963). Sivan’s ‘Manmadha Leelaiyai Vendraarundo’ has
gone on to become a proverbial saying. Not literature?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">With Tamil Nadu’s heady
mix of cinema and politics and Tamil cinema’s penchant for mass heroes as well
as melodramatic and escapist fare, intellectuals are entitled to turn up their
noses regarding any claims of creativity in general and of literary worth in
Tamil film song in particular. Modern poet Gnanakoothan didn’t hide his disdain
for film songs and flayed them for crudity and butchery of lyrics at the altar
of music. Acclaimed novelist Vannanilavan finds only a line or two of literary
value even in the best of songs of Kannadasan. Bharatidasan, the poet of the self-respect
movement, wrote the songs for some films initially, but considered it infra
dig. Poet Abdul Rahman famously put down film lyricists with the jibe, ‘Ammi
Kutha Sirpi Yedharkku’ (No need for a sculptor to roughen the surface of a grinding
stone). He later changed his opinion and affirmed that film lyrics also are a
kind of poetry.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">There is also the fact
that a reputed writer like Jayakanthan wrote film songs. His ‘Thennan Keetru
Oonjalile’ , sung by PBS and S. Janaki under the baton of M.B.Srinivasan is one
of the greatest melodies of Tamil cinema. His ‘Kandadhai Sollugiraen’ (anthem
of a modern writer who bears witness to his times) and ‘Veru Idam Thedippovaalo’
(angst-filled cry of a rape survivor) for the celluloid version of his own
novel, ‘Sila Nerangalil Sila Manidhargal’. are very meaningful songs. Do they
qualify as literature? Famed novelist Kalki Krishnamurthy came up with ‘Kaatrinile
Varum Geetham’ for M.S.Subbulakshmi’s Meera, and it turned out to be not only
her best but also one of the most entrancing songs of all time!<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Most common folk who affirm
Tamil film song’s literary worth mostly give one name, Kannadasan! Whether it’s
a love song (Naan Pesa Ninaippadhellaam), inspiring anthem (Adho Andha
Paravaippola) or patriotic song (‘Naadu Adhai Naadu’, ‘Pani padarndha Malaiyin
mele’) and songs reflecting a variety of human predicaments from birth to
death, Kannadasan set the bench mark for excellence. Vali came a second but was
oftentimes chagrined to be mistaken for the former! <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Vairamuthu, fresh from his
popularity as a ‘new poetry’ performer in Kavi Arangams, debuted with a bang
with ‘Oru Pon Maalai Pozhudhu’. </span></b><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">He </span></b><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">holds the record of
winning the National<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Film<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Award for Best Lyric six times.
Lyrical excellence? <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">In times of ‘Kolaiveri’
lambasted by judges, social activists and lay people for breeding misogyny and
violence in the youth , the late and lamented Na. Muthukumar kept the flag of
poetic creativity flying. But did he have the musical support that somebody
like Kannadasan could boast of? <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Kannadasan lived in times
when there were music composers like MSV and K.V.Mahadevan who were supremely
alive to the nuances and rhythms of the lyric. While MSV claimed that the words
themselves yielded the tune, KVM insisted that lyric came first every time.
Also, most male artistes of Kannadasan’s time came from the stage and were
grounded in music even if they did not sing, while female artistes were either
dancers or reasonably acquainted with dance. On the other hand, many
intellectuals and writers who flay film lyrics don’t understand that the film
lyric cannot be prised out of its
musical and cinematic setting. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-omiRw3AHBi6VP1LEHF99zJhyXYJAwta1-VcrbNzhaHItjlKT_3ct0qOXlr-V6bb_wuRqvRxDR5H79WimJN-l37ePo2EY08BenVD8ZJ0V2LulklP70zuq7TIY6kajwOh7jzJsbOpuxxc/s1600/Papanasam+Sivan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-omiRw3AHBi6VP1LEHF99zJhyXYJAwta1-VcrbNzhaHItjlKT_3ct0qOXlr-V6bb_wuRqvRxDR5H79WimJN-l37ePo2EY08BenVD8ZJ0V2LulklP70zuq7TIY6kajwOh7jzJsbOpuxxc/s320/Papanasam+Sivan.jpg" width="195" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Papanasam Sivan </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPH4GqwjxI6UHt-7eqYrc73bwZpLDf-kbZqniHsGdsu9LDWW-6_u9HlgYtQQeuf7b69dOPZNPr_WupUySeGr2n_t514wr6zekCb7L0wJqC0H9CL-Oytjq-7QcaErxMVxztFFHj4V9Bvb0/s1600/Kannadasan+one.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPH4GqwjxI6UHt-7eqYrc73bwZpLDf-kbZqniHsGdsu9LDWW-6_u9HlgYtQQeuf7b69dOPZNPr_WupUySeGr2n_t514wr6zekCb7L0wJqC0H9CL-Oytjq-7QcaErxMVxztFFHj4V9Bvb0/s320/Kannadasan+one.jpg" width="320" /></a><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">The question of the
literary worth of film songs is a contentious one, but it is also a fact that
texts accepted as literature have been beautifully presented in Tamil cinema. Bharati’s
‘Chinnanchiru Kiliye Kannamma’, tuned by the genius C.R.Subburaman for
‘Manamagal’, has gone on to become a famous Carnatic song. Bharati’s songs have
been used many times from 1935 to this day. From snatches of Silappadhikaram to
verses of the Divya Prabandham and Thevaram and songs of Tiruppugazh, many a
literary piece has been meaningfully popularized in films. Who can forget
T.M.Soundararajan’s flawless rendering of Arunagirinathar’s ‘Muthai Tharu
Paththi’ with all its percussive flight and intricate interweaving of words. While
occasionally film song does indeed boast of some literary merit, or at least a
touch of it, now and then what is accepted as literature also becomes a winning
film song!<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b><i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">(The writer is a historian of Tamil cinema and a lyricist
himself).<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b><i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">(This article was published in the Chennai edition of Times
of India)<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
</div>
vamanan sighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12813288418008889733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4791118301571564377.post-76729151055147636702016-08-21T23:03:00.003-07:002016-08-21T23:03:45.461-07:00Na Muthukumar - He kept the Muse when Lyric wasn't Queen<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 15pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: roboto, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Vamanan</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 15pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrtTPFHOghXH951cuGbH5tYicMPdsISRQZS6CkUobn2L3CXGWWV9Kl3O1Bu9wmdN7faZB5NccMAS0FS5ZvtthPn6N_JHlAIK7Jehg8mbZWiTLUbca9GyrHWn8BdV8sw_B6hPJyj0bmGxY/s1600/Na.+Muthukumar+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrtTPFHOghXH951cuGbH5tYicMPdsISRQZS6CkUobn2L3CXGWWV9Kl3O1Bu9wmdN7faZB5NccMAS0FS5ZvtthPn6N_JHlAIK7Jehg8mbZWiTLUbca9GyrHWn8BdV8sw_B6hPJyj0bmGxY/s320/Na.+Muthukumar+1.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: roboto, serif; font-size: 12pt;">‘Here lies one who sought to rescue Tamil
cinema song from the clutches of cliché by embracing lyricism’ might as well be
the epitaph to Na.Muthukumar. There was something in the song and personality
of this utterly unpretentious song writer that seemed to bring a redemptive
touch to film songs. Whether it was a father’s ecstatic outburst (‘Ananda
Yaazhai Meettugiraay’) for his young daughter in Ram’s Thanga Meengal (2013),
or a young girl’s dainty ode to beauty (‘Azhage Azhage Ellaam Azhage’) in A.L.
Vijay’s Saivam (2014), Muthukumar’s sensitive lines seemed to be the silver
lining to the ominous clouds of the Kolaveri season! Both ‘Ananda Yaazhai’ and ‘Azhage
Azhage’ had fetched national awards for the poet, but his shockingly premature
passing at the height of his creativity seems to have set the clock back
decisively. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 15pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: roboto, serif; font-size: 12pt;">There was little of the grasping cinema
upstart or social climber in Muthukumar’s rise. Despite initial heartaches, his soaring career in the
film world was informed by camaraderie. He had celebrated the warmth of family
and friends in a series of articles titled ‘Anilaadum Munril’ (Squirrels in the
Courtyard) in a popular weekly. He hailed
from a village near Kancheepuram and had fond memories of the bonds and
affections of rural life and joint families despite having lost his mother as
an infant. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 15pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: roboto, serif; font-size: 12pt;">Glued to books from childhood by the
influence of his teacher father, Muthukumar completed his post graduation in
Tamil in Chennai and even took up doctoral research into Tamil film songs. He later
joined Balu Mahendra as assistant director. As the Tamil tradition of keeping every
occasion with song was ingrained in him, Muthukumar soon found his poesy getting
the better of his love of film technique! He thought of himself as a sensitive
poet who must keep the flag of creativity flying despite commercial cinema’s weakness
for kitsch.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 15pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: roboto, serif; font-size: 12pt;">Not that Muthukumar didn’t have his moments
of superficiality. He could sometimes lapse into juvenile joustings as in ‘Mutham
Kodutha Maayakkaari, Un Lippu Enakku Paani Puri’ (Adhik Ravichandran’s Trisha
Illainna Nayanthara), but could add fizz to a catchy bar song like ‘Vaada Va Machi’
(DeMonte Colony for composer Keba Jeremiah) with Omar Khayyam-like intimations
of the desi variety. ‘As life is like a match stick that doesn’t gets lit when
wet, make the most of every moment!’ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 15pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: roboto, serif; font-size: 12pt;">In his first song for Yuvan Shanker Raja with
whom he struck his most significant and prolific partnership, Muthukumar would plumb
his knowledge of Tamil literary genres in ‘Oar Aayiram Yaanai Kondraal Parani’
(Nandha 2001), referring to the criterion of a king having to kill a thousand
elephants in war for a war panegyric (‘Parani’)
to be written about him. Bala’s Nandha was a trenchantly tragic tale of crime
and punishment, and one wonders how much of Muthukumar’s lines and their
musical and vocal mounting measure up to it, but the lyricist’s distinctive
approach is discernable. A decade later,
Bala had Muthukumar write all the songs for his quirky comedy, ‘Avan Ivan’. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 15pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: roboto, serif; font-size: 12pt;">In Selvaraghavan’s ‘Kaadhal Konden’ (2003),
a love story teetering on the psychopathic, Muthukumar’s ‘Devadhaiyai Kanden’,
again for Yuvan, imaginatively fleshed out the romantic fixation growing in the
mind of a challenged introvert. In the same director’s 7G Rainbow Colony (2004),
the visual of the tragic hero being a marginalised and devastated entity in his
dead sweetheart’s funeral is matched by Muthukumar’s oxymoron ‘Nerungi Vilagi’
(close but apart) in ‘Ninaithu Ninaithu Paarthaen, Nerungi Vilagi Nadanthaen’. It
is this uncanny ability to sum up life’s bitter ironies in simple day-to-day
words that made Muthukumar a director’s song writer. In his 16 year career of a reckoned 1500 songs,
he found friends who would give him the opportunity to write freely. His
ability to parse the ubiquitous and almost hackneyed used of romance in Tamil
films with interesting colours and shades was one of the reasons for his
success.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 15pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: roboto, serif; font-size: 12pt;">In ‘Papanasam’ (2015), Ghibran’s bouncy
western projection notwithstanding, Muthukumar’s ‘Yeya En Kottikaara’, recalls Kannadasan’s
hit, ‘Muthukulikka Vaariala’, if only in the use of regional dialect. In Kaakaa
Muttai (2015), in ‘Po Po Vaazhve Kaakka Muttaithaan’, Muthukumar’s lines for G.
V. Prakash’s chirpy number paint the triumph of the human spirit in the squalor
of a Chennai slum. His nostalgic celebration of a rustic childhood spent
playing in the sun, in Vasanthabalan’s Veyil, ( ‘Veyilodu Vilaiyaadi’, 2006) is
a marvellous montage brilliantly marshalled. This is a facet that we see in his
collections of poetry too.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 15pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: roboto, serif; font-size: 12pt;">Muthukumar would categorise songs and
poetry as either emotional or intellectual saying that he always aimed at the
former. And in keeping with the art of his role model Kannadasan, Muthukumar sought
to express himself vulnerably in the most childlike words he could dredge into
his consciousness. How Muthukumar longed to spread his lyrical wings like
Kannadasan, whose ‘Ninaikkadherindha Maname’ and ‘Kanne Kalaimane’ brought warm
tears of joy in his crystalline moments of inebriation! But though as a lyric
writer Muthukumar had the sensitivity both to ideas and music to write memorably,
he was functioning at a time when the lyric was only one more element in the
musical ensemble, not the queen as in earlier musical dispensations. But
despite that, Muthukumar managed to leave his individual stamp.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 15pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: roboto, serif; font-size: 12pt;">Muthukumar, who had the uncanny ability of
dipping his poetic brush in the palette of life’s living moments, wrote in ‘Azhage
Azhage’, that not only a blossoming flower but also a falling leaf has beauty. Leaves
can fall in autumn, but why would life’s blossoming flower wither in springtime,
and that at 41? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 15pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: roboto, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><b>(A version of this article appeared in Times of India, Chennai)</b></span></div>
</div>
vamanan sighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12813288418008889733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4791118301571564377.post-55117326169676156032016-08-11T10:16:00.002-07:002016-08-11T10:16:52.918-07:00Panchu Arunachalam – film writer who succeeded in a variety of genres<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Vamanan</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
There
are two things that the film world banks upon : luck, without which nothing
succeeds, and talent, without which not a frame moves forward meaningfully.
Panchanathan Arunachalam, popularly known as Panchu Arunachalam, had cartloads
of luck for a great length of his career as a lyricist. which started in the
early sixties, and as a script writer, which
kicked off in the early seventies. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
For
one, it was given only to him to open the doors through Annakili (1976) to the
maestro of a thousand films and also benefit from the connection! Again, it was given only to a very few like Panchu
to make meaningful story-based films with Rajinikanth like Aarilirundhu
Arupadhuvarai (1979) and Engeyo Ketta Kural (1982), as they were early birds in
the latter’s skyrocketing career as a super star! </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
As
for talent, Panchu had the ability to write successful screenplays for films
covering a gamut of genres from comedy (Kalyanaraman 1979) to action (Murattu
Kaalai 1980), melodrama (Bhuvana Oru
Kelvi kuri 1977) and crime thriller (Gayathri 1977). Novels, rarely known to
translate into successful films in Tamil cinema, became money spinners when Panchu
wrote the screenplay : Sujatha’s Priya (1978) is an example. Incidentally, it was with Panju’s songs for
Priya that Tamil cinema turned to stereophonic sound.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Luck
in fact, had ironically played truant in Panchu’s younger days. Panju’s father
Kannappan, like the latter’s younger brothers film producer A.L.Srinivasan and
Kannadasan, had been adopted by rich parents. But as destiny would have it, Kannappan’s
foster parents died prematurely and he was deprived of his due by their scheming
relatives. Young and sensitive Panchu detested
being treated as a poor cousin in the well-to-do Nagarathar community and was determined
to succeed in life. His coming to Chennai to work in uncle Kannadasan’s
publication, ‘Thendral’ was the first
step in that direction.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Playing
amanuensis to Kannadasan as he fitfully did the rounds of film companies
weaving masterful lyrics even for
pedestrian films, Panju imbibed the art of lyric writing. Panchu had some
magical songs of his own like Manamagale Marumagale Vaa Vaa, which is sung in
light music programmes in marriages to this day, as well as Ponnezhil Poothadhu
and Pooppola Pooppola Pirakkum. But Panchu’s
native intelligence made him realize that with a colossus like Kannadasan
around and Vali coming a close second, he would not go places as a lyric writer.
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuh5hVCjeUhDxOlpnf9xeI0eW7EBAdlpuTNwRWEcQTDDQfo1y82WVEvzM42DcVn8HtP4tmshoBH6tx6ipct5NHD0CK-HT0Xa6fOWKj5bRhRqoC9Bqz2FHJNlvAqTgT8NeChtSx99I3EFE/s1600/panju+arunachalam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuh5hVCjeUhDxOlpnf9xeI0eW7EBAdlpuTNwRWEcQTDDQfo1y82WVEvzM42DcVn8HtP4tmshoBH6tx6ipct5NHD0CK-HT0Xa6fOWKj5bRhRqoC9Bqz2FHJNlvAqTgT8NeChtSx99I3EFE/s400/panju+arunachalam.jpg" width="356" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Panchu - photo by Vamanan</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
It
was then that Panchu decided to market himself as a script writer banking on his voracious reading of fiction and ability
to spin believable stories. A series of
small budget films, either breezy comedies (Ungal Viruppam, 1974) or cautionary
melodramas (Mayangugiraal Oru Maadhu) with catchy songs (Vijay Bhaskar) and likeminded
technicians came as a whiff of fresh air in a scene dominated by Sivaji and
MGR. Annakili was a dark horse that went on to hit the jackpot with the utterly
uplifting musical magic of Ilayaraja. Panchu’s gambit of giving Ilaiyaraja his
debut film had paid off!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Ilaiyaraja’s
rise, which synchronized with a tidal change in Tamil cinema, meant that the Panchu
brand was acquiring more shine. His songs were now ruling the waves (Kaatrinile
Varum Geetham and Paruvame Pudhiya Paadal Paadu) and his screenplays were being
lapped up. The prolific director S.P.Muthuraman swore by Panchu. With the AVM
brothers raring to go after the pause created by the passing of Studio
Patriarch A.V. Meiyyappan, Panchu (dialogues and screenplay) along with
S.P.Muthuraman (direction) was in the cockpit to direct the course of the
Studio’s films. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Panchu
and Muthuraman, along with the AVM brothers would also play a crucial role in
the marketing of Rajinikanth and
Kamalahasan as mass heroes in massive hits like Murattu Kaalai, Sakalakalavallan
(1982) and Paayum Puli (1983). This period, which saw Panchu working for many
Rajinikanth and Kamalahasan films, also
signalled his rise as a successful
producer with films like Thambikku Endha Ooru (1984) and Guru Sishyan (1988).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
In
1987, Panchu sort of declared war on directors whom he charged with wasting
time and resources without proper planning. He became his own director and wielded
the baton for four films, of which
‘Pudhuppaattu’ (1990) was under the Ilayaraja Creations banner. Panchu’s
iconic P.A.Art Productions shone again
with his script for Rajinikanth’s ‘Veera’ in 1994. But as the years went by, the
failures that came home to roost constricted his resources as well as his
living style.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b>(The author is a Tamil film music historian
and author of many books on Tamil cinema)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b>(A version of this article appeared in The Times of India, Chennai)</b></div>
</div>
vamanan sighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12813288418008889733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4791118301571564377.post-11019023268426872192016-08-11T09:32:00.004-07:002016-08-11T09:32:25.745-07:00Vietnam Veedu Sundaram - From angst-ridden boy to acclaimed film writer<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><b>Vamanan</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">With the Vietnam war tearing up not only Vietnam but also
public opinion in the US, it was to be expected that Vietnam became a synonym
for discord and strife. But back in the late sixties, it was left to school
drop out K. Sundaram to immediately tap the symbolism by naming his play on a
family divided against itself as ‘Vietnam Veedu’! His audience in the amateur
drama circuit in Madras consisted of the urban middle class who were avid
newspaper readers bombarded by headlines of the war in the Southeast Asian country. In the event, the play and the film that
followed were so successful that Sundaram came to be known as ‘Vietnam Veedu’
Sundaram! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">There was something of the then smouldering Vietnam in
Sundaram himself. Son of a lawyer in Tiruchi, Sundaram’s turbulent adolescence was
marred by a disastrous academic record and dismally low self esteem. He once remarked
that he had the appearance of a figure in a Tom and Jerry cartoon. Sundaram’s
anxious mother took him to Reverend Lourdes Xavier of the Immaculate Conception
church at Poondi, near Thanjavur. The latter’s assurance that the boy would
make good though without any formal education came as some reassurance to both
mother and son. Sundaram later returned the favour to the kind Padre with Gnana
Oli, a stage play based loosely on Les Miserables and featuring Major Sundarrajan.
Sivaji Ganesan played the protagonist in the celluloid version shot prominently
in and around the Poondi church.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Sundaram’s chance entry upon his arrival at Mambalam, into Clubhouse,
iconic haven of film world aspirants like Nagesh, Vali and Srikanth, was providential.
His meeting with thespian Y.G.Parthasarathy, whose association stirred up his
passion for the stage was equally serendipitous. After being asked to push Parthasarathy’s
broken down car to his house, Sundaram returned on invitation in the evening only
to become a junior member of his dramatic troupe!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg044RAaQTW05cq7_Be19oMVNqbGc-vGM3AJY8PQnwFMrb04T66YJQm19L_4T3ZmCj7iuD6gyTlPFmSGF2QJWV2GxpZZAwpINjsm39Up0JKCLCaghLogkGWTSoGIkEQX7U3Z1_Vx355R4Q/s1600/Vietnam+Veedu+Sundaram+2+in+My+Dear+Bootham.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg044RAaQTW05cq7_Be19oMVNqbGc-vGM3AJY8PQnwFMrb04T66YJQm19L_4T3ZmCj7iuD6gyTlPFmSGF2QJWV2GxpZZAwpINjsm39Up0JKCLCaghLogkGWTSoGIkEQX7U3Z1_Vx355R4Q/s320/Vietnam+Veedu+Sundaram+2+in+My+Dear+Bootham.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Initially Sundaram had wanted to be an actor….perhaps a
comedian in keeping with the mocking and dismissive disdain everybody treated
him with. It was the veteran comedian T.S.Durairaj who identified Sundaram’s
métier and asked him to concentrate on writing. Working night shifts as a tyre
inspector in an industrial unit, Sundaram did the dramatic rounds in the day
and soon caught the eye of none other than ‘Puratchi Nadigar’ MGR. Sundaram had
written the play for the factory’s first anniversary which was presided over by
MGR. The impressed star wanted the playwright to come on stage and not only
predicted that he would go places but also recommended him to topnotch film
companies like Devar Films and Padmini Pictures. Sundaram’s participation in
the story department of such production companies improved his rock-bottom finances
apart from teaching him how to write for films.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">There is some fortuitousness again in the manner in which
Sundaram’s Vietnam Veedu-tale based on his own father’s fixation for family prestige,
reached the portals of Sivaji Ganesan, then a shining star whose name had
become synonymous with histrionics. When Sundaram did really reach the Presence,
Sivaji glanced at the youth and remarked, ‘Your shirt is bigger than your
frame’. Sundaram responded with, ‘’I am
not the master of my own shirt, Sir’’ referring to the fact that the shirt in
question was borrowed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">The scope for melodrama that Vietnam Veedu provided tickled
Sivaji’s fancy as did the fact that he would be using the Brahmin lingo in a
big way for the first time. The dollops of dramatic English lines that Sundaram
had larded the dialogues with were an added attraction. Sivaji luxuriated in
the glow of Prestige Padmanabhan, and his powerful, if mannered and quirky
essay mesmerized stage audiences before holding cinema goers in thrall. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Sundaram’s Gnana Oli and then Gowravam, part of whose storyline Sundaram had gleaned
from Agatha Christie’s ‘Witness for the Prosecution’, gave ample scope for Sivaji
to indulge his sweet tooth for grandiose melodrama provided by a megalomaniacal
character whose tragedy could have been avoided with a little wisdom. Though he
was more at home as a script writer than as a director, Sundaram wielded the megaphone himself in
Gowravam, fortified by Sivaji’s own preference as well as the guidance of ace
camera director A. Vincent. Hugely effective songs from the MSV,Kannadasan,TMS
combination (Devane in Gnana Oli; Neeyum Naanuma and Palootti Valartha Kili in
Gowravam) heightened the tragic dimensions unfolded in Sundaram’s films. He
wrote scripts and dialogues for many Sivaji starrers. Even as Sundaram basked
in the limelight with his successes for Sivaji, he wrote for MGR in ‘Naan Yen
Pirandhaen’ and ‘Naalai Namadhe’, a remake of Yadon ki Baarat. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Realising that he was caught in the image trap of the two
titans of Tamil cinema, Sundaram sought some way out. He claimed to have begun the
genre of ‘social mytholology’ by showing the workings of divinity in
contemporary individuals and situations (Namma Veettu Deivam). Sundaram had a
strong religious streak which came out in many films (Devi Sri Karumariamman,
Aayiram Kannudaiyal and Navagraha Nayaki among others). But the cake goes to
films like Payanam, with its interesting directorial touches, as wells as turns
of dialogue and plot in etching the character of a motley assemblage of train
passengers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">The small screen provided ample acting opportunities to
Sundaram in the evening of his life. But he was also toying with a film based
on his mother’s life. He had debuted with his father’s story and would have come full circle if he had had his
way. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">(The writer is a historian
of Tamil film music and author of several books on Tamil cinema) </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">(The above article appeared in The Times of India, Chennai)</span></b></div>
</div>
vamanan sighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12813288418008889733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4791118301571564377.post-23998960967233118202016-07-07T07:52:00.000-07:002016-07-07T07:55:27.426-07:00Tamil films and Sanskrit literature <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYSuemRZuUvDrUrRJk-Dgxa4JPHzfnMdj3cBrI3hwTxawsVnEUullRVVorrM1tCMcSham1cp_rb4Ar0CKX4IZInjB0QGRGRPQWnXFeaKJW03_K3asIRQJM9NfhflJU3sw5HYZoSDwt9QM/s1600/Tamizh+Cinemavil+Samskrita+Ilakkiyam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYSuemRZuUvDrUrRJk-Dgxa4JPHzfnMdj3cBrI3hwTxawsVnEUullRVVorrM1tCMcSham1cp_rb4Ar0CKX4IZInjB0QGRGRPQWnXFeaKJW03_K3asIRQJM9NfhflJU3sw5HYZoSDwt9QM/s1600/Tamizh+Cinemavil+Samskrita+Ilakkiyam.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Published in Dinamalar, Nellai edition <br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
vamanan sighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12813288418008889733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4791118301571564377.post-79889988094185843722016-06-23T00:11:00.002-07:002016-06-23T00:44:54.240-07:00A.C. Thirulokchander - A versatile director with a hold over film technique <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<b>Vamanan</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
He stood a hefty and towering six feet three and was better educated than four Tamil stars put together! But A.C. Thirulokchander M.A. carried himself with such ease – he had imbibed the deportment by observing his role model L.V.Prasad – that film stars looked upon him with favour. Even the usually interfering MGR allowed himself to be moulded in a completely different light under his baton in Anbe Vaa (1966). <span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> Sivaji Ganesan, who addressed Thirulokchander as Mudaliar, considered him a close friend. In the event, he gave the latter the privilege of directing him in 25 films, the largest for any director in his stable of filmmakers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG9puJg7Bizv8JL6W9kaJVBVldU8KS-bzuqt666AcfyKBIptDYeTt3l93MbszWpuZGjL7coaLYW1wNk1ogcYhz9ZdNZa6vY0ELiPcqLDuX1WBsZVXo9IP6zo1eXjuPBZMG4n7zjpQJz88/s1600/A.C.Thirulokchander.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG9puJg7Bizv8JL6W9kaJVBVldU8KS-bzuqt666AcfyKBIptDYeTt3l93MbszWpuZGjL7coaLYW1wNk1ogcYhz9ZdNZa6vY0ELiPcqLDuX1WBsZVXo9IP6zo1eXjuPBZMG4n7zjpQJz88/s320/A.C.Thirulokchander.jpg" width="320" /></a>Named after a Punjabi gentleman whom his father admired, Thirulokchander might have well become a bureaucrat if a year had not stood between him and the eligibililty to take the IAS examination as his father desired. In the interregnum, he joined the veteran filmmaker R. Padmanabhan, a temperamental character whose capricious ways had become the talk of film circles, as his third assistant. Thirulok realized even at this stage that his physical stature and academic qualifications might put off film folk and learnt how to play them down! He struck it off well with MGR, Padmanabhan’s sulking hero brought by court injunction to complete his Kumari (1952). MGR vibed with the young and well educated intern, discussing politics with him at length.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
Thirulok gleaned his knowledge and appreciation of film technique and grammar in Jupiter Pictures, watching directors like L.V.Prasad and working under S. Balachander. He would describe with awe how the ace cameraman Jiten Banerjee once unfolded 20 different opening shots for a scene. Banerjee had emphasized that the shot should be integral to story telling and have a close bearing to narration and character, and also taught Thirulok the importance of finding the best angle for a shot.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
Inheriting his yen for voracious reading and story telling from his mother, Thirulok succeeded in selling his folklore stunt yarn (Vijayapuri Veeran 1960) to Joseph Thaliath of Citadel Studios and assisted him in making the film. This was his ticket to AVM Studios where his instant rapport with AVM Saravanan, one the rising sons of Meiyyappa Chettiar found him scoring a double whammy. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
First, Thirulok’s sensitive family drama based on the vicissitudes in the relationship of two men who had fought shoulder to shoulder in the army was picturised under Bhimsingh’s direction as Paarthaal Pasi Theerum (1962). Then, another folklore stunt film, Veera Thirumagan (1962) was slotted for his own direction. The film which had beautiful music by Viswanathan Ramamurthy was not a success, but Thirulok’s meaningful camera angles can be seen in such evergreen hits as ‘Roja Malare Raaja Kumari’. As the commomer hero (Anandan) queries in song whether he can yearn for the hand of a princess, He is shown in a tell tale high angle shot, while the princess is picturised from a low angle shot as she answers in the affirmative from the vantage point of her royal status.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEPR1UPIIkd7INabUvrnSLeeAlF6KGwohRqziyaRx4PdTWq2R6Op1E6huhviu2nlBQ-_qGKYJ-SUAYSiLVzRHA2O7Go8GTq5e2saapt_WFpQ6t6CY1vswZK5gnVfgOdkuTn9iThSuTWCs/s1600/MGR%252C+Saroja+Devi+i-+Anbe+Vaa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEPR1UPIIkd7INabUvrnSLeeAlF6KGwohRqziyaRx4PdTWq2R6Op1E6huhviu2nlBQ-_qGKYJ-SUAYSiLVzRHA2O7Go8GTq5e2saapt_WFpQ6t6CY1vswZK5gnVfgOdkuTn9iThSuTWCs/s320/MGR%252C+Saroja+Devi+i-+Anbe+Vaa.jpg" width="313" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">MGR and Saroja Devi in Anbe Va </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
With the full backing of AVM (in Thirulok’s case this was Saravanan), Thirulok’s story telling and cine techniques found a place in a number of AVM films. Naanum Oru Penn, based on a Bengali story, and Ramu, re-crafted from Kishore Kumar’s Dhoor Gagan ki Chaao Mein not only met with success, but also earned silver medals as national awards for best regional film. The director’s mettle in the thriller genre was seen in Adhey Kangal.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
But it was Thirulok’s breezy romantic comedy for MGR, Anbe Vaa (1966) which marked the high point of his innings in AVM. It was an uncommon triumph for MGR too, who had been figuring in a series of scrappily made cops and robbers flicks with a dash of ‘mother sentiment’ and romance thrown in. Set in Shimla and shot richly in glorious colour, Anbe Vaa is an atypical MGR film structured as a Roman Holiday in reverse, being about a rich and overworked business magnate who finds love when he gets away to Shimla incognito. Thirulok’s versatile gifts as a film director which include fresh story telling, intelligent lines, good song positioning, and extracting creditable performances were at play in Anbe Vaa. The extraordinary finesse he brought to takings and editing was at its height in the evergreen hit song, Pudhiya Vaanam Pudhiya Bhoomi.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-Hv9RLod81L3TZbKsRk97aePkGs79u4mDRbYWarPfZxG6qMPT4v4uhm8nQ0JWwCNEhSyRRDwpgRU0zVRyt0sOBg-2bBQTpS9F10jnB95Hxwz8Yaf3YropTk8HOAeLWfqqNmtzdSuUgtQ/s1600/Deiva+Magan+padathil+Sivaji%252C+Jayalalitha.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-Hv9RLod81L3TZbKsRk97aePkGs79u4mDRbYWarPfZxG6qMPT4v4uhm8nQ0JWwCNEhSyRRDwpgRU0zVRyt0sOBg-2bBQTpS9F10jnB95Hxwz8Yaf3YropTk8HOAeLWfqqNmtzdSuUgtQ/s320/Deiva+Magan+padathil+Sivaji%252C+Jayalalitha.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sivaji,Jayalalitha in Deiva Magan </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
It’s ironical that despite Anbe Vaa’s extraordinary success, Thirulok never got to make another MGR film but became Sivaji’s favoured director and lavished his cinematic skills on the thespian, as for example in the latter’s triple role tour de force, Deiva Magan. Sivaji’s forte in portraying tragic heros stood out in Thirulok’s Babu (remade from Malayalam Odayil Ninnu) and Avanthaan Manidhan (from Kannada). The director’s skill in portraying national integration stood out in Bharata Vilas, while his yen for comedy was seen in Anbe Aaruyire. Thirulok's Iru Malargal, a love triangle comprising Sivaji, Padmini and K.R. Vijaya <span style="background-color: transparent; text-align: left;">that he directed for veteran sound engineer and studio owner Dinshaw Tehrani was eminently successful.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
If Thirulok’s film career lasted more than three decades and spanned over sixty films, it is because he was swift to get inspired and swifter to execute. Do Raha’s sensational success provoked him to come out with its Tamil version, Aval (1972). As a producer himself (Cine Bharath), he was quick to realize Ilayaraja’s talent and employed his musical score fruitfully in his Bhadrakali (1976) which is chockfull with hits. After the tragic death of the film’s heroine Rani Chandra, he successfully used a dupe to complete the film. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq2oUsRIg70SHkpZUaMrzA2DphCeBYmmU_QOS0U6ZH8js7wLE5-r0OV0S3nw1i0MkhsoLQ6F24kdhlV4P-iXLCfuK6rcTQ9B-ExdFXr851aSW7vn86sUnU5YFdsOd3oisroUnX3Wki4a8/s1600/Bhadrakali.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq2oUsRIg70SHkpZUaMrzA2DphCeBYmmU_QOS0U6ZH8js7wLE5-r0OV0S3nw1i0MkhsoLQ6F24kdhlV4P-iXLCfuK6rcTQ9B-ExdFXr851aSW7vn86sUnU5YFdsOd3oisroUnX3Wki4a8/s320/Bhadrakali.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sivakumar, Rani Chandra in Bhadrakali </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
Thirulok realized Rajinikanth’s promise soon enough by casting him in ‘Vanakkathukkuriya Kaadhaliye’, a film about a girl with ESP His last film, Anbulla Appa (1987), which came a full 37 years after his entry as an apprentice in cinema, sank without a trace. After that he engaged himself in directing TV serials, and authored his rambling reminiscences apart from keeping in touch with old friends like Saravanan and under study S.P.Muthuraman. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<b>(The writer is a historian of Tamil film music and has authored many books on the subject) </b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<span style="color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 25.5px; text-align: start;">(A version of this article appeared in Times of India, Chennai)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<b></b><br />
<b></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
</div>
vamanan sighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12813288418008889733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4791118301571564377.post-16772991523099964502016-06-11T02:51:00.000-07:002016-06-11T02:51:40.794-07:00Music Director Govardhanam - then and now<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJE0O_UX8jXpv8qpZKlQNxEDIXBqaUxXr_cKODsX5zzilGMZodZfb8B1PV2MFmxjPNOismvcP-nOUheh6NDIVBTBwtHZq7jubgLPSkDhhTZ5CAPfRc8kqh1I_UjFbJJiQ6BuCgNkxn6xQ/s1600/R.Govardhanam+Andrum+Indrum+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJE0O_UX8jXpv8qpZKlQNxEDIXBqaUxXr_cKODsX5zzilGMZodZfb8B1PV2MFmxjPNOismvcP-nOUheh6NDIVBTBwtHZq7jubgLPSkDhhTZ5CAPfRc8kqh1I_UjFbJJiQ6BuCgNkxn6xQ/s1600/R.Govardhanam+Andrum+Indrum+copy.jpg" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
vamanan sighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12813288418008889733noreply@blogger.com0