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MARGAZHI MUSIC MOVIES MUSINGS ……..1 BY RANDOR GUY
(In ‘Margazhi Music Movies Musings’ series film songs with Carnatic raga base which became popular hits - and mostly continue to be popular- will be discussed and their ‘back story’- a familiar Hollywood expression- will be narrated.) ********** Tamil Film Music in the early decades and more precisely film songs were based on Carnatic Music, and Hindustani Music and some songs-tunes were ‘lifted’ from popular Hindi and Bengali film tunes, copyright laws be damned! If film music is popular today good percentage of the credit should go to the composer par excellence, revered to this day as ‘Thamizh Thyagayya’, Papanasam Sivan. Interestingly his name is a misnomer. He was neither from Papanasam nor was his name Sivan! He was Polagam Ramaiah and that was why he used the name of ‘Ramadasa’ as his signature in his classic compositions. ‘Maa Ramanan Uma Ramanan…….’ In ‘Hindolam’ is sung even today regularly in music concerts by the top of the cream musicians of both sexes. The song composed by Papanasam Sivan was first sung by him and his disciple and relative S. S. Mani as off-screen - background song against the credit titles in a 1936 movie K. Subramanyam’s " Naveena Sarangadhara". During the early thirties the common practice and convention of such a song in a stageplay seeped into movies. In a stage -drama before the curtain goes up the cast and crew and others associated with it stand behind the screen and sing an invocation song seeking the Almighty’s blessings. This convention made its way into early Tamil films and the lyrics of such prayer song included words seeking the blessings of the Lord to be showered on the director, producer, and production company, and all the king’s men and women! "Maa Ramanan…". was sung in such manner in the 1936 movie behind the screen by Sivan and Mani. During that period the release of film songs as gramophone discs was not yet in vogue and consequently the gramophone 78-rpm disc could not be made. Sad indeed but so true…. Papanasam Sivan had this song rendered excellently in the K. Subramanyam musical box-office hit, "Seva Sadanam" (1938) by M. S. Subbulakshmi, in her movie debut, in her own inimitable way. Her " Maa Ramanan…". became a hit song like many other songs in the movie contributing to its box office success. During those days the song became so popular that prospective bridegrooms calling on eligible girls’ homes, 'view matrimony’ used to ask the girl to render the song. Well, there was only one ‘MS’ and the often poor rendering of the song by the aspiring girls was used as a convenient excuse by the bridegroom's party to reject a girl with the boy whispering to his mother or sister, '' MS madhiri illaye…!" Well, those were the days but the song is being rendered to this day by men and women at many concerts of Carnatic Music around the world...
LORD KRISHNA AND SAGE NARADA SING THYAGARAJA SWAMI COMPOSITIONS…. ! 1934... Movies had begun to talk -and sing-Tamil- only three years earlier in 1931 with "Kalidas '' produced in Bombay by Ardeshir Irani and directed by the sadly forgotten ‘Grand Old Man Of South Indian Cinema,' H. M. Reddi. Tamil Cinema began to put on hues and colors after the phenomenal success of "Valli Thirumanam" (1933) which featured the first South Indian female movie star T. P. Rajalakshmi. The Prince Charming of Classical Carnatic Music, a legend during his lifetime, the legend that still lives after his sad demise G. N. Balasubramaniam immortalised in his iconic initials ‘GNB’ took his bow in movies in 1934 playing Sage Narada, the patron saint of Classical Music in '' Bhama Vijayam". Produced in Calcutta by Pioneer Film Company at Rs. 50,000, it made one million Indian rupees! It was directed by the Hollywood-trained Punjabi filmmaker Manik Lal Tandon who directed Tamil Movies during those years. Maharajapuram Krishnamurthy, the younger brother of another legend of Classical Carnatic Music, Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer, played Lord Krishna while the celebrated Palayamkottah Sisters P.S. Ratna Bai-P. S. Saraswathi Bai played Rukmini and Satyabhama. When Sage Narada calls on Lord Krishna, Krishna suggests that they sing together which they have not done for long. At once GNB and Maharajapuram Krishnamurthy begin to sing a duet of the Classical Carnatic Music Composition of Saint Thyagaraja Swamigal." Koti nadhulu Dhanushkotilo undaga…" Lord Krishna and Sage Narada sing a Telugu song composed later during the 18th century! Anachronism? Against all rules of Dramaturgy? And the Drama Theory of the great Greek Aristotle? Well, nobody bothered about such technical niceties, with all enjoying the brilliantly rendered duet by MRK and GNB! That was not all. The last scene had all the important characters of the movie, Lord Krishna, Rukmini and Satyabhama, Sage Narada, and other rishis who had come to meet Krishna, and all sing together in chorus '' "Jana Gana Mana Athi Nayaka Jayahey…" In every screening of the show the moviegoers stood and sang the song in chorus along with Lord Krishna and Sage Narada, clapping vigorously though not always in correct ‘thala’! That was the period when the Indian Freedom Movement was gathering strength and that was all that mattered and not cinematic idiom and grammar! Surely those were the days... the legendary GNB went ahead and acted in a fistful of films, "Sathi Anasuya"(1937)… "Sakunthalai" (1940)… and "Udhayanan Vasavadatta" (1947)… "Rukmaangadhan"(1947), and went back to the Carnatic Music World where he scaled Olympian Heights... **********
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