Song: Shivashankari Shivananda Lahari Film : Jagadalapradhapan Composer : Pendyala Satyam Originally Sung by : Seerkaazhi Govindarajan (Tamil) and Ghantasala (Telugu) Covered by : Murali Venkatraman
One of the ridiculously difficult compositions which tests every aspect of singing like akaaram, fast swarams and high notes sung by two different giants - Seerkazhi Govindarajan in Tamil and Shri Ghantasala in Telugu. My humble attempt at the request of Bala (Sapthaswara).
Song : Sa Ri Ga Ri Composer : K. V. Mahadevan Originally sung by : S. Janaki, S. P. Balasubramaniyam Movie : ShankaraBharaNam Arranged by : Murali Venkatraman Singers: Adithi Devarajan, Murali Venkatraman Mixing : Meera Manohar
It is one thing to have classical songs with swaras and another to have a song made of just the swaras without sounding too complicated. This is one of the rare songs in film industry which in spite of having only swaras as its lyrics, sounds very melodious to all and sundry. Ragam Bowli is a cousin of Revagupti which traditionally signifies the music at dawn. Here Adithi and I have tried to recreate the song that touched us deep some 30 years back.
Song : Brochevarevarura and Dialogues preceding the song Composer / Lyricist : Mysore Vasudevacharya
Originally sung by : Vani Jeyaram, S. P. Balasubramaniyam Originally Arranged By : K. V. Mahadevan Movie : shankaraBharaNam
Dramatization and Dialogue Delivery: Narayanan Raju (Dasu) and Vamsikrishna Nadella (Shastri)
Remix - these days has become synonymous with making a cacophony of older compositions of high musical standing. The disturbing trend has started eroding the minds of newer listeners who may, if ignorant about the classics, start hating them baselessly simply because the only version of the classic they heard was a bad inharmonious effort from a wastrel of an arranger.
Lyrics form another domain where the value seems to be getting lost especially in tamil and telugu. Meaningless words with some stupid rhyme like:
"kaNNum kaNNum nOkia
cappuccino cofee ya
sofia "
are flooding the music scene. Songs like "arigori bonsaai samba nellaalE" which feature gibberish are better only than the vulgar songs like "aakalesthe" (nee rent kodutha tent pOdalaam)". In the movie Shankarabharanam there is a scene where 'Dasu' tries to 'teach' the kid a new variant of Brochevarevarura. His insistence on remixing the song in a speedy trendy (we are talking about late 70s here) way, incurs the attention and wrath of Shankara Shastri (Somayajulu). Shastri explains how each and every syllable of the great classical compostions brims with life. He explains how every aksharam has a distinct swaram and naadam and how one must not ruin the original in the name of remixing it.
I was of the opinion that this movie stressed only on the "holier-than-thou attitude" about Indian classical music until I saw this clip:
The director K. Vishwanath through the character of Shankara Shastri explains how one should approach and perform music with dedication be it western or Indian. That, I thought was a great piece of advice. What do we do with the musical giant that is S.P.B ? See how he effortlessly sings the 'pop' portions ? I don't know anything about western singing, but I can certainly recognize a voice which can effortlessly transition through octaves with ease and utmost clarity. It may be that he won the National award for Shankara Naada Shareera Para. But I think the movie has many bits like these which never got popular but featured some excellent singing (Remember - punjai uNdu nanjai uNdu humming of SPB in unnaal mudiyum thambi?).
As a tribute to the situation in the movie which featured the comical Dasu and serious Shastri, my friends and I here present you with both the dialogue and the song. For this, I requested Narayanan and Vamsi - two good singers in their own right - to recreate the situation. And that they did beautifully with Vidya who also joined me in rendering the song. And I need to acknowledge their guidance in pronunciation. The original had a few minor mistakes done by the lead singers and Vidya and I have tried to sing the song with the right words (with help from vamsi).
With Meera's help we seem to sound better than we actually do. And for the rest of the series too Meera has graciously accepted to mix. Thank you Meera.
Over to you all for all the bouquets and brickbats !
Song : Maanasa Sancharare
Composer / Lyricist : Sadashiva Brahmendra
Originally sung by : Vani Jeyaram, S. P. Balasubramaniyam Orignally Arranged By : K. V. Mahadevan Movie : shankaraBharaNam
Singers: Meera Manohar, Murali Venkatraman Karaoke/ Arrangement : Murali Venkatraman
Mixing : Meera Manohar
My mother exclaimed innocently looking at the many cartons of books I have ranging from highly technical ones which ran for thousand pages or more to ones which were pocket-sized that captured popular science in an interesting way.I was stunned for a moment since I did not know how to answer. I took a look at my big collection and responded:
"No amma. I hope I will read them some day"
She got busy with kitchen work and had forgotten the conversation. For her it was just a curiosity as to how much her son could study.
But the question reverberated in my mind. Why do I have so many books some of which I may never be reading ? For example, I have books on mathematical logic,topology etc but given my time constraints, I wonder if I will ever get to read them. It led me to an important decision - "No more books until absolutely necessary". My mother's simple innocence-laden question pushed me to rethink about my attitude towards buying books.
While talking about the life of the poet-philosopher-composer Sadashiva Brahmendra one cannot but admire how a simple instruction from his mother-in-law transformed his life from one of a possible ordinary family man into someone who moved freely like a gypsy and composed beautiful songs with deep philosophical thought. It may be a folklore, that his mother-in-law's words "Don't come inside the house" on the night of his marriage consummation, made him rethink about his real pursuits in life. However, consider another related question : "What is the purpose of life if there is one at all ?". This seemingly simple question has been addressed for centuries and people are still trying to find an answer. With brahmendra, the simple instruction/question did have a deep impact on the man who finally came to the public domain and we were blessed with an exceptional poet. Thus seemingly simple innocent questions/instructions may bring about some dramatic irreversible transformations.
"Pioneers of science always asked and addressed simple questions. How did D. J. Thouless arrive at the branching in the theory of percolation ? He just asked a simple question. What will be the conductivity of carbon if I randomly punched a few holes in it ? He took a carbon sheet and punched a few random holes in it, measured the conductivity and plotted a graph of the conductivity versus available area. He finally ended up being an exponent in percolation theory"
In this beautiful song which is set in the ragam shyama, which is a cousin of shuddha saaveri and aarabhi, Sadashiva expounds beautiful descriptions of a divine being (krishna) when he himself is in a state of trance. He instructs the mind to roam in the field of universal consciousness (the Brahman) aided sweetly by the music.
In the movie, this comes as a lullaby that the sishya sings for the guru. The director K. Vishwanath had tastefully used a break in the song in the guise of sishya forgetting the lyrics. This invariably invites the voice of guru (SPB) and an uninfringing melody which gently rocks the listener is born. In our version, I have expanded the song a little more to allow more room for the male singer to savor.
And this I believe is one of Meera's best renditions in which her gamakam laden voice has captured the soul of the song.
Oh, Mind ! Undertake your pilgrimage in the Brahmam !
The locks of Brahman, is adorned with the plumes of an exhilarated peacock (mada sikhi)!The cheeks of the Supreme One outwit the brightness of a mirror !
He sports around in the fort of the breast-hillocks of Mahalakshmi (Sri). For his devotees, He is a Kalpavriksha in the court yard (mandira Mandaare)Supreme ascetics (paramahamsa) delight in that face-moon (mukha chandraa) as a partridge bird (chakore - with obvious reference to the chakora bird that thirsts for moonlight)Oh, Mind! May your pilgrimage be complete in this Brahman that fills everything with the flow of the music from His flute(murali) ! !
(courtesy : http://www.ecse.rpi.edu/homepages/shivkuma/music/manasasancharare.htm )
Song : E teeruga Composer / Lyricist : Bhadrachala Ramadas Originally sung by : Vani Jeyaram Orignally Arranged By : K. V. Mahadevan Movie : shankaraBharaNam
It may not be wrong to call the movie shankarabharaNam as the crowning jewel among the works of composer Shri K. V. Mahadevan. It was a movie that simply established that in the midst of light music, one could really be left captivated by classical music if presented appropriately with a good story-line (by director K Vishwanath) . Although KVM had worked magic all through his telugu and tamil movies (e.g SwatikiraNam, thiruviLaiyaadal ), he made a remarkable choice of a singer in this movie. In all his earlier movies, he went for singers who were either partially trained (Susheela) or at the level of vidwan (Ghantasala, T. M. Soundararajan). In this movie, he picked S. P . Balasubramaniyam (who calls him that ? It is either SPB, SP or Balu) who was completely untrained and established that a committed effort to train him would provide rich dividends. SPB just grew from strength to strength and was associated with so many other films where he breezed through many classical and semi-classical compositions and both telugu and tamil music were never the same.
Science and Art cross barriers. An obscure researcher working quietly in a remote place like port of Madras, was recognized by the great mathematician Hardy only to unveil the genius that was Ramanujan. Ramanujan knew nothing but math. But Hardy ensured that his work was recognized beyond doubt. Similarly for our country that has had many regional problems because of languages, music has often provided the much needed fabric of harmony. How would one explain KVM and SPB's success then ? SPB - a native telugu speaker - is loved by tamils all over and KVM - a tamilian- whose reputation as a composer in Telugu is unmistakable. Other greats like MSV, IR, Susheela, Janaki, Chitra, and Yesudas and now Rehman have similar reputations. The beauty of Telugu seems to be locked in the fact that it is heavily derived from sanskrit but slanted in a delivery which is southern. In a way it ideally represents a good blend of the North and South Indian elements in sync. Malayalam is another language which has a similar blend although it is softer on most syllables than Telugu.
In an effort to recall and celebrate 30 years since the release of the movie, I team up with my friends ( Meera, Narayanan, Vidya, Adithi and may be some more) to re-do some of the songs in the movie as a tribute. Some songs will be rendered as they were in the movie and some with slight modifications in arrangements. Some of us are not native telugu speakers but have sincerely tried for dictional accuracy by consulting with telugu speaking friends. Despite our best efforts, if there be errors we sincerely apologize.
The first song in this series is "E teeruga nanu" - a classical composition of Bhadrachala Ramadas who may be called the telugu equivalent of Manikkavaasagar. Both were state-servants who out of their devotion towards their deities,, used up the state money for charity and religious causes. Both were great poets and singers and have left a wealth of literature for us to indulge. This song appeared in a truncated form in the movie. Hence when I created the Karaoke track, I took the liberty of expanding the song to include the last paragraph of the original. In the movie, the song was delivered by the inimitable Vani Jeyaram. In here, we present this as a duet with some extra (hopefully) un-infringing phrases. I find that the raga of the song is either Nadanamakriya or Mayamalawagowla. I am not very sure about the differences between these two. The lyrics of the song were obtained from :
I am up from the slumber with a telugu number (ooh..sounds like a telugu movie dialogue ? :-)). I have not been exactly inactive musically since composing keeps me busy. But my singing nose-dived because of severely blistered throat which persisted for almost 2 months and the after effects are still haunting me. I have just started recovering and hopefully this song will dust off my rust. Research has kept me utterly busy that I have started hating it. (Who knows, in some years, if financial situation permits, I will ditch research for music composing.) And I have also been working on some articles on music which will probably get published in dhool and this blog simultaneously.
How would two lovers - one blind and the other mute, communicate ? This was an interesting question I had when I was in college. It inspired me to write a poem in a modern style without alliterations or rhymes. This poem got published in my college magazine.
To my consternation I learn after coming to USA that the answer that K.Vishwanath had provided was in celluloid ! The movie Sirivennela directed by K.Vishwanath featuring Sarvadaman Banerjee (Blind flautist) and Suhasini (Mute fan) went on to be preserved as an all time classic in telugu. He had chosen to portray the girl as mute and the guy as blind whereas in the poem I had chosen the opposite. I was introduced to this song by one of my friends who had causally remarked in a conversation :"vidhata talapuna in telugu is a great song". Somehow the two words stuck on my memory. And one day, thanks to musicindiaonline.com ended up listening to this song.
As they say in tamil "uyirodu kalandhadhu" - It just dissolved in my soul and became an all time favorite in the very first listnening. IF melodies were queens, their undisuputed king would be SPB. And this is just another song that proves how soulful a song becomes in his voice.
Somehow with an irrepressible desire to sing the song in entirety I have not shared this any of my favorite lady singer friends. SPB, KVM and Susheela and you all - please pardon me.
Since the Karaoke had to be made by ripping the original mp3 and adjusted, the mixing is not that effective. To ease that, I have tried some voice overs. Hope you dont find it irritating.
Special thanks to Sudhamsu for correcting my pronunciation in the first part of the song. (We could not sit for the rest of the song. So whatever good pronuncition you hear is because of him and whatever is bad is because of me. You are welcome to point out the errors as I believe no song should be sung at the expense of its lyrics)
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காற்றின் மேலுள்ள காதல் தன்னாலே
கடல்நீரும் அலைக்கைகள் நீட்டுதுவோ?
சீற்றம் தாஙகாமல் சிதறுதுவோ மட்டுளிகள் ?
சிறிதும் காணாமல் நீரும் சிலிர்த்து
மண்ணின் மனதை மிதித்து இறுக்கிடுதோ ?
வளியோடு வாரியது விளையாடுங் காலை
ஒவ்வாத நிலத்திர்கென் வேலை ?
நினைந்து நடக்கின்றேன்; நீரில் நிற்கின்றேன்;
நீரலைகள் என்பாதம் நீவிவிட நெகிழ்கின்றேன்;
மண்ணில் கோட்டைகள் மட்டின்றி கட்டிடலாம்;
மனதில் வேட்கைகள் குறைவின்றி கொண்டிடலாம்;
கண்ணில் தெரிகின்ற கனவுக ளையெல்லாம்
மெய்யாய்க் கண்டிடவும் ஆசைகள் வைத்திடலாம்;
