Saturday, June 27, 2015

Tamil films and classical music

Travelling light: a journey in music 

By V Ramnarayan

Chapter 7

It was his friendship with the sons of a couple of film music directors that introduced Krishnan to the use of classical or semi-classical music in Tamil films. He was also an ardent follower of Hindi film music--in fact more interested in it than in Tamil film songs. One of them, Venkatachalam, was the son of KV Mahadevan, arguably the best exploiter of raga music during the 1960s, even more attractive to Krishnan's ears than Viswanathan-Ramamurthi, the star pair among music directors of that era. The other had been Sudarsan, the son of Subbiah Naidu of an earlier vintage. Through these and other friends connected to the film industry, Krishnan accumulated a fair knowledge of the classical and semi-classical music, musicians and others behind the scenes responsible for the high standard of film music then. This is what he pieced together from his conversations with these friends and from reading the newspaper and magazine articles of the time.

Music was king and queen in Indian cinema in the early 20th century. Those were the times when the success of a play or film was measured by the number of songs it featured, when encores prolonged them forever—even in silent films with music performed live in front of the screen by an assembled band.

Before playback singing—India’s brilliant contribution to cinema—came into being, the stars of the day had to do their own singing, but not all of them were musical, while those cast for their singing ability often could not act to save their lives.

The resultant classic was frequently unintentionally funny, but fans were undeterred by such incidental shortcomings, for listening to their heroes and heroines was reward enough.

In Tamil cinema, MK Tyagaraja Bhagavatar was perhaps the biggest draw among the singing stars of yesteryear, i.e., on a long term basis, excluding the sensational screen appearances of musical talents such as MS Subbulakshmi or GN Balasubramaniam, who made a huge mark on classical music.

A classically trained musician, Bhagavatar had a powerful yet pliant and mellifluous voice that traversed a great range and negotiated curves and glissandos seemingly effortlessly to the utter delight of millions of fans. Among these ardent enthusiasts were the cognoscenti as much as the man on the street. For MKT’s music was pure and unalloyed, but with an appeal that transcended that of proscenium concerts. His greatest hit, Haridas, ran for 114 weeks at the Broadway theatre, Chennai, a record that remains unbeaten to date.

Bhagavatar was paired famously with S. D. Subbulakshmi. The duo extemporised on stage to the delight of fans, their electric exchanges leading to their huge success in films like Pavalakkodi and Naveena Sarangadhara. Their songs Siva peruman kripai vendum and Chanchalam teerndinbamura became chartbusters.

SD Subbulakshmi, a discovery of director (and later, husband) K. Subramaniam, was to achieve critical acclaim in his ambitious Tyaga Bhumi (1939), a distinctly feminist film based on a novel by Kalki Krishnamurti that ran into censor trouble because of its “seditious” content. The song Desa sevai seyya vareer by D. K. Pattammal, which backgrounded a procession of freedom fighters, giving musical expression to patriotic sentiment, led to the banning of the film by the British government. Interestingly, the Carnatic musician and composer to have the greatest impact on Tamil film music, Papanasam Sivan, played Sambhu Sastri, the protagonist of Tyaga Bhumi. In an extraordinary reversal, a number of Sivan's compositions for films found their way to the concert stage. They are so classically pure that they are today unrecognisable as film songs.

The other Subbulakshmi, MS, was to lift the medium of cinema to a higher plane when worshipping crowds fell at her feet during the filming of Meera, directed by Ellis R. Dungan and masterminded by husband Sadasivam. For all the huge popularity of Kalki Krishnamurti’s Katrinile varum geetam and Anda nalum vandidado from this tale of a young female Rajasthani saint, their impact could not exceed by too much that of Ma Ramanan (Papanasam Sivan) from her debut film Seva Sadanam, based on Premchand’s reformist novel (made by that man K. Subramaniam, who else?). The song served to redefine film music with its unadulterated classicism; it has in fact passed into the mainstream of the Carnatic concert oeuvre.

Sakuntalai, a musical based on Kalidasa’s classic, had earlier starred that matinee idol among Carnatic musicians, G. N. Balasubramaniam, opposite M.S. The pair was a huge draw and the box office was kept busy by this extravaganza by Dungan. The duets Premaiyil yavum and Manamohananga anangey were responsible for that success.

Carnatic vocalist S. Rajam and his younger brother S. Balachandar were both to sing songs in films in which they acted. In fact, Balachandar, a child prodigy who became famous as a veena player, was a versatile all rounder, who acted in and directed films, besides playing many instruments.

Arguably the greatest all round star among the singer-actors of Tamil cinema was
P. U. Chinnappa, who came to films via the same route that Tyagaraja Bhagavatar took: stage plays. Chinnappa could act and that is where he was different from some of the other heroes like Bhagavatar and G. N. Balasubramaniam, essentially singers who strayed into films. Following in his father’s footsteps, Pudukkottai Ulaganatha Pillai Chinnasami became a stage actor at age five, in 1922. The play Sadaram, the story of a thief, catapulted Chinnappa to fame. His films Aryamala, Kannagi, Jagadalapratapan and Harishchandra established him as a leading actor, who besides singing his own songs, fought his own fights, with mastery over a number of martial arts.

An unusual singing star was K. B. Sundarambal, a box office draw for her golden voice and the devotional fervour of her singing. Both on stage and in films, she captured the hearts of her adoring audiences, playing both male and female roles with consummate ease. Her stage and life partner S. G. Kittappa was perhaps the most talented singer the Tamil stage had seen, and together, they made history. Sundarambal sang songs that were to become evergreen melodies in such films as Nandanar, Manimekhalal, Avvaiyar, Tiruvilaiyadal and Poompuhar. Her performance as Avvai, the Tamil poet-saint, was so convincing that a whole generation of children believed her to be the original Avvai Patti.

Another singing role she played was male, that of Nandan in Nandanar, which also had the classical vocalist Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer in it! In Manimekhalai, which followed, Sundarambal was paired with Kottamangalam Cheenu, a fine singer who was later consigned to oblivion. A later version of Nandanar Charitram, had the peerless Dandapani Desigar, playing the role of a dalit devotee, and singing movingly in his ringing baritone.

Another popular male vocalist, who made it big in the 1940s and 50s, was a namesake of the greatest flautist Carnatic music has known. TR Mahalingam was one of those singing stars who bagged acting roles because of their singing ability, but he was a success in both romantic songs and bhakti music. Chittoor V. Nagiah was another famous actor capable of singing his own songs, for he was a fully trained Carnatic vocalist, a conscientious one at that. For his role as Tyagaraja in the film on the celebrated composer’s life, he reportedly took lessons from GNB and Musiri Subramania Iyer, himself a singing star in and as Tukaram.

Of South India’s singing stars of a more recent vintage, P Bhanumati and Rajkumar achieved greater fame than most. Bhanumati who later became the principal of the Government Music College, Madras, was a classically trained vocalist who had early success singing her own songs in Tamil and Telugu, but the Kannada star was a late bloomer, who yet became an enduring icon in his dual role. Like Bhanumati, S. Varalakshmi was another actress from Andhra who had a nice singing voice and used it to effect in films.

Around 1960, Krishnan had heard the mellow vocie of PB Srinivas for the first time--under the music direction of MB Srinivasan, the original whose experiments in choral music involving Indian tunes gave some memorable film songs. It was at Tuticorin's Charles theatre that Krishnan saw such movies as Paathai Teriyudu Paar in which the two Srinivas (an)s had collaborate dto produce some glorious music.

G Ramanathan, SV Venkataraman and Adinarayana Rao were among south Indian music directors in films to deploy classical music to great effect in their movies. The first two were perhaps the top two music directors of the 1940s. Continuing to be prominent in the 1950s, GR composed the music for nearly a hundred films. Among his significant efforts was his turning Subramania Bharati's verses into film songs.

A landmark film of the 1960s was Tiruvilaiyadal, based on the Tamil myth of Tiruvilaiyadal Puranam, featuring the many miracles of Lord Siva who appeared in human form on earth. Though the main male singer of the film was TM Soundararajan, it also had one song  by Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna, the famous Carnatic vocalist, who later became a Sangita Kalanidhi of the Madras Music Academy. Krishnan found it intriguing that in a scene in which a Tamil singer and a north Indian vocalist compete in court, TMS (the Tamil voice of Sivaji Ganesan) defeats Balamuralikrishna as lip-synced by TS Baliah, though to his ears the so-called north Indian's ragamalika (Oru naal poduma) sounded superior to TMS's Gaurimanohari (Paattum naane).

Another song by Balamuralikrishna, Tangaratham from the film Kalai Kovil was a sensational hit. The film had its excellent music composed by veena vidwan Chittibabu, whom Krishnan had the pleasure of meeting, when they were both waiting at a bus stop! Imagine a top-flight musician of today depending on public transport! Krishnan found the charismatic  artist with a sizable fan following among the young to be a simple and unaffected young man.




Friday, June 26, 2015

Sangita Kalanidhi

The Music Academy's decision to confer the title of Sangita Kalanidhi on vocalist Sanjay Subrahmanyan must be one of its most popular decisions for quite a while. Sanjay's has been a long and distinguished career in one so young. 

At 47, Sanjay represents a generation of musicians that took Carnatic music by storm in the 1980s, and it would be no exaggeration to say that Sanjay is, along with Vijay Siva and TM Krishna, part of the leading triumvirate of vocalists to dominate the field, at least among male musicians. The Academy broke with its own normal practice when it awarded Sudha Ragunathan the title ahead of more senior artists a couple of years ago. Sanjay is even younger, sending statisticians scurrying to list out the youngest Sangita Kalanidhis in history.

The near-unanimous verdict among experts and lay rasikas alike has been that the honour is richly deserved, and that we are far better off honouring our vidwans when they are still on top of their game, so to speak, than wait for their superannuation. Sanjay is regarded by many as an intellectual among musicians, but also someone who is keenly aware of his strengths and weaknesses and equipped with the capacity to enhance the former and work on the latter with single-minded persistence. Older rasikas remember the beautiful aesthetics that ruled--and largely continue to rule--his raga awareness and delineation, his original manodharma, and his ability to create and sustain a Sanjay brand of vocalisation.

Over the decades, by his own recent admission, Sanjay has learnt to use constructive criticism to his advantage by diligently working to overcome his shortcomings, as in making intelligent use of his attractive-if-not-so-strong voice and perfecting his sruti and tala sense. Also criticised early on for his apparent disdain for clear articulation of lyrics, he has grown into someone who takes great care in internalising and accurately but also musically rendering sahitya in an exemplary fashion.

A seasoned critic we know made an interesting observation: that Sanjay, like Vijay Siva and Krishna, places great value on the excellence of kriti rendering, something younger vidwans should focus on rather than lose sight of in their eagerness to polish their manodharma. 

Another, who describes Sanjay as a genius, exhorts him to concentrate on scaling musical heights without letting such preoccupations as his love of Tamil literature distract him from his pursuit of excellence. 

Yet another has it that what he considers Sanjay's demerits are exactly the attributes others find particularly captivating in his music--namely, some of his vocal idiosyncrasies.  Sanjay's endearing sense of humour is perhaps the source of much of these playful diversions, the same humour that makes him such a brilliant team player on stage. 

This is a time to rejoice, to celebrate a master stroke by Carnatic music 's apex body, not an occasion to dissect Sanjay's music--or commiserate with other deserving musicians yet to be so honoured. We all know that this particular awardee has earned his reward through sheer hard work and blazing originality.





















Monday, June 22, 2015

TMK won't sing again in the Season

Did vidwan TM Krishna's recent announcement of his withdrawal from performing during the Chennai December music season surprise anyone? It did not surprise me for one. I would have been startled if he had decided not to surprise us this year, as he has been doing every year for a while now.

If my memory serves me right, it all started with a coffee table book on Carnatic music he co-authored with Bombay Jayashri, followed by articles he began to contribute to the press, first on music (one on the discriminatory treatment meted out to women artists was one of his early forays into writing), and gradually on a variety of subjects social, political and arts-related. 

Around the same time, the media reported that he would cycle everywhere during the music festival that year rather than add to the increased pollution of the period caused by increased traffic.
Later came his free cutcheris during the season, which the NRIs thronging the sabhas enjoyed in equal if not greater numbers than such of those locals as could not afford to pay.

And for quite some time now, almost all his concerts have had the surprise element built in-from the sequence and treatment of songs, raga alapana, tanam and so on to the nouveau-democratic seating arrangement on the dais.

In between, Krishna has envisioned and spearheaded several novel concepts and initiatives, including Margazhi Raagam, his cutcheri-as-movie with Bombay Jayashri, Samvada, a series of conversations between senior and junior vidwans he organised in collaboration with the archival institution Sampradaya, Svanubhava, an annual introduction to our arts for students, again initially partnering Jayashri, a revival of temple concert music, providing a platform for up-and-coming artists and One, an experimental film featuring Krishna singing a number of songs amidst nature without accompaniment.

Perhaps his largest, most ambitious endeavour so far has been his magnum opus on Carnatic music, which has won him accolades from such eminent personalities as Nobel laureate Amartya Sen.

Through it all, Krishna has maintained if not enlarged his large fan base, even as a number of critics question the sweeping changes he has been attempting in the format of the Carnatic music cutcheri. They are equally skeptical of the merit of many of his pronouncements on his art and its politics as well as the motives behind these pronouncements.

His defenders find much to laud in his rich music and find nothing sacrosanct about the modern cutcheri paddhati invented and inspired by Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar in the last century. They love Krishna's intensity and eyes-closed devotion to his music, and his empathy and synergy with his accompanying artists.

They have no quarrel with his verbal exchanges with his accompanists and the audience during his concerts. To them, it is all part of the total TMK package, while the critics find it distracting and disrespectful.

TMK's most recent announcement of his planned abstention from the concert platform during the December season in future, too, has drawn varied responses. Some diehard rasikas are protesting against it, pleading with him, even demanding that he must not deny them the pleasure of listening to him.

Others have expressed outrage at his allegations of casteism, commodification and corruption in the whole season scenario. Yet others have made jokes about it, indirectly questioning the motives behind his decision, accusing him of publicity-seeking gimmickry.

It was only the other day that this column had made tongue-in-cheek remarks about the tendency of our artists to linger as performers long after they have gone over the hill.

In sharp contrast, TM Krishna has chosen to retire too early, it seems, at least from December season concerts. What will be his next move? Will he shift his free concerts to other times of the year? More important still, will he, in addition to his splendid efforts to nurture Carnatic music, launch his own initiatives to attack the ills he has been criticising in his book and other writings? 

All we can say with certainty is that there will never be a dull moment with TM Krishna around.

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Seetharam Yoga

By Seetharam


“The Trance-Atlantique Science Digest,” a young magazine engaged in “sciensational” reporting, has issued an emergency advisory on the occasion of the first International Day of Yoga: “People who cannot withstand headstands and handstands should avoid grandstand exercises to project themselves as outstanding yogis and upstanding upholders of Bharatiya culture. Such exercises and gimmicks may cause bone-and-nerve injuries beyond the limits of current “yogopaedic” medicine.

The much-awed magazine has also made “bone-tingling” prognostications (in its 31 June 2015 issue) about the imminent emergence of certain gamechanger yogic practices and solutions, as indicated hereunder:

1. Bhrashtachar Nirmoolan Asana and Bhrashtachar Samarthan Asana - State-of-the-art corruption-prevention and corruption-promotion postures and gestures.

2. Balaatkaar Nivaran & Nirvan Asana – A structured course of fast-action, high-power defence drills to deter molesters, gang-rapists and other “practitioners of rapism.”

3. Bharat Vikas Maha Asana – A path-breaking yogic regimen to be executed every morning by 1.25 billion Indians (SavaaSau Karod Desh Vasis) to achieve 100% growth-rate in just one year.

4. Swachh Bharat Asana – A custom-designed activity to be performed every morning, just before “Bharat Vikas Maha Asana,” by 1.25 billion Indians to achieve “Crystal Clean India” in just 6 months.

5. Shadyantra Tantra Asana – A gameplan of fiendish manipulations and manoeuvrings devised to quietly strangle political opposition.

6. SwaRaje Vikraya Yoga – A suite of bending and twisting “workouts” to “sell” India and save "fugitives from justice."

7. Krishadhan Punah-Praapti Hatha Yoga – A hot-new sequence of rigorous movements to completely and quickly retrieve pitch-black money stashed offshore.

8. Niraatankvadi Mantra Yoga – A cutting-edge cocktail of meditation-mediation-intimidation techniques to “abolish” terrorism.

9. Ardha Chandra Namaskaar – An innovative series of 27.5 postures for fly-by-nighters to salute the crescent moon and seek “her” blessings.

10. India Gate Dhyaana-Yoga – A breathtaking combo package of meditation and yogasana to perpetrate the “great-grandmother of all scams” and then vanish into thin air with “Adrshyasana.”

11. “International Raja Yoga” a.k.a. “World Raja Yoga” to acquire the prime fortune(fortune=yoga) to jet-hop across the world … on “holiday duty”… every other weekend.

“The Trance-Atlantique Science Digest” anticipates also the development of “Yog-hurt” and “Yolk-hurt” – two antidotes to counteract “yogopaedic” complications, the first for lacto-veggies and the latter for “egg-eatarians” or “yolk folks,” indulging in “forced and harmful yogic stunts.  

Have a sensational, internationally Yoked Day!
                                                       
Have a fabulous Father’s Day, as well(Is it “International Yoga Father’s Day”?)
                                                     
Dr.Yoga De - c.ta.Ram Dev, D. Lull-Litt.*

[*This “dis-honorary” doctorate in “litterature” comes from Ill-lit Lodhi ICL University, which runs a variety of scamster’s degree programmes. “ICL” stands for International Criminal League, located in St. Urgentine’s Island, off the coast of Jet Black Sea.]