The arrival in Sydney (Originally written on 17 Jun 2014)
Murali Sankar (MS) : ”அம்மா : நீங்கள் வர மிகவும் தாமதாகிவிட்டதால், நானும் கெளரிபாலன் அவர்களும் உங்கள் பாடல்களைப் பற்றி விமான நிலையத்திலேயே பேசும்படி ஆகி விட்டது. எங்களின் அயர்ச்சி வேலை செய்ய ஆரம்பித்துவிட்டது. ஆனால் எல்லா சோதனைகளும் முடிந்து நீங்கள் வெளியே வரும்போது எங்களுக்கு மிக்க மலர்ச்சி ! மகிழ்ச்சி ! அப்போது உங்களின் பாடலான ”விழியோ உறங்கவில்லை” தான் ஞாபகத்திற்கு வந்தது !”
("Amma : The long delay in the flight's arrival, gave me and Dr. Gowibalan a chance to discuss your songs and more as we waited for you at the airport. Although it was a long and weary day, seeing you emerge out of immigration, we lost our tireness and I got reminded me of your number 'Vizhiyo uRangavillai’ (means eyes could not sleep) that you have sung in one of the movies.")
Vani: ”ஓ ! அதுவா ! அது ரொம்ப நல்ல பாட்டாச்சே ! MSV சார் போட்ட பாட்டு” (பாடிக்காட்டுகிறார்)
("Oh ! that is a really nice song." Breaks into singing at the airport we wait on the instrumentalists who were yet to clear their instruments at quarantine and join us)
It was indeed amazing how a legendary artist sings spontaneously without any inhibition regardless of the venue at the slightest of impetus. This is a lesson to those who, when asked to sing, almost always offer a standard excuse of a "bad / sore throat" for sub-par renditions since they are uncomfortable with the truth of their limited-talents being exposed.
Vizhiyo urangavillai : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0s45aAnkQgVizhiyo
And so began a conversation late in the night, in the car headed towards the restaurant / hotel which was an hour away from the airport. Thanks to Dr. Gowribalan (GB) who offered to drive us all, I got chatty with Mrs. Vani Jayaram (VJ) as we hit the road.
MS: "Amma : First I would like to ask if you remember Mr. Saravanan Natarajan who met you quite a while back ?"
VJ : "Saravanan From Dubai ? Yes of course. He was the one who revealed to me how much research has gone into my songs and I was really surprised ! Is he still in Dubai ? I remember him moving to Dubai from some other country. Was it Canada ? I never knew that I had a fan-club who remembered almost each and every aspect of some of my long-last songs. Neel - is another aficionado of mine who I had interacted with. I sang close to 60 songs for at Chennai"
MS: "Yes. Saravanan works in Dubai. But I am not sure where he immigrated from from. And regarding Neel - He is probably your greatest fan ever. I remember the interview he did quite a while back ( http://tfmpage.com/forum/2034.13882.09.10.17.html ). The interview was done when tamil film music was discussed to shreds in a website called tfmpage.com. Later Saravanan, Balaji and I teamed up to produce a web-site http://dhool.com - to collect all rare songs of TFM. In that we had quite a few numbers of yours thanks to various sources. Between Balaji, Saravanan and I we had different interests in music. Balaji was interested in a lot of old songs and also helped with the running of the portal. Saravanan was a walking encyclopaedia of information on songs and films and he wrote very detailed articles on long-lost songs, films and lesser known artists. I, on the other hand was more interested in the musical aspects"
VJ : "Is the web-site still up and running ? Are you guys still contributing"
MS : "I very much think it is up. But honestly, all the three of us have moved on in our lives. I have moved into composing and performing primarily. Saravanan is probably looking to collect all his articles and publish as a book"
VJ : "You should not lose that information because it would be really a reference for the generations to come"
MS : " We hope to not lose it either"
Now that I had established a comfortable platform to chat (thanks to Saravanan ! ), slowly the conversation started veering towards music.
MS : "Amma..in terms of songs which have a hindustani style of rendition, I wonder if anybody has equaled your contribution except for say thEdum kaNpaarvai. But I believe there are many songs of yours which have got much less recognition than they are really due. "mEghame meghame" is a fantastic song, but my biggest favorite of your songs is "yaar adhu sollamal". And I believe it did not achieve the fame it should have got"
thEdum kaNpaarvai : https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jgPVn81e6CM
mEghame meghame : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CBlDFmDnac&feature=kp
yaar adhu sollaamal : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHF0x7H5TaU
VJ : "Yaar adhu is a very beautiful song (she sang this in the concert as well). But mEghamE was the first song that Vairamuthu wrote for me. Both the songs are special"
MS: "Most of my introduction to ragas were through film songs. Whenever I hear ranjani family of ragas, only your face flashes in mind. The reason is simply that the first ranjani I ever heard was when my entire family including 80+year old grandpa was taken to watch Mrudanga chakravarti and your "sugamaana raagangaLE" which was a ragamalika and had the phrase "ranjaniyai azaiththen" which introduced me to it. Of course the ranjani portion of"Ezhu swarangaLukkuL" is another. And then I heard "naadhamenum kOvilile" ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d5Ifa1O9S8 ) which gave me a reference to sriranjani. Your earlier renditions for the movie Shankarabharanam like "Brochevarevarura" were heard at such a young age that I could not associate them with any raga at that time, but when I grew up to decipher them, those ragams were also automatically associated with an image of your face."
sugamaana raagangaLE : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRZmQREVnz8
naadhamenum kOvilile : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d5Ifa1O9S8
MS : "Another very difficult song that you have sung which involved multiple styles, high pitched singing and some really tough sangathis is "kalaimagaL kaiveeNai muzangudhamma". This song too, in my humble opinion, shoudl have received more exposure than it received."
kalaimagaL kaiveeNai : http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xfozux_kalaimagal-kai-veenai-muzhanguthamma_fun
VJ : (acknowledging with a smile) :"Many compositions of M.S. Viswanathan, kunnakkudi Vaidyanathan and K.V. Mahadevan were tough. But I am fortunate to have been offered those and to have been able to sing them to the extent that you could remember them today".
MS: "I would probably need to get Alzheimer's to forget them. Those songs have gone into my DNA now"
In my entire interaction over 3 days, three qualities of VJ stood out - the poise, confidence and practical humility. There was absolutely no air of celebrity, but her assuredness in her talent was refreshing and inspiring and sweetness of her personality with an eagerness to erupt into some beautiful songs at any juncture made the interaction asolutely cherish-worthy. More on this and on her wonderful singing of a bengali song (captured in video), her inputs to my composing, singing and and her works in other languages / genres..soon...
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