Part XVI naan nallavar illaRam nalamuRa vENdugiREn

[Saravanan]

Part XVI naan nallavar illaRam nalamuRa vENdugiREn



The next album of ’73 that we’ll be looking up is pon vaNdu (Maniyam Pictures). The film starred Jaishankar with a bevy of heroines- Bharathi, Jayachitra, Usha Nandini, Subha and Jaikumari. Manorama, Cho, Thengai Srinivasan, Srikanth, Surulirajan, Ashokan, M.N.Rajam and Chachu were the others in the cast. The film was scripted and directed by N.S.Maniam.

Jai played with finesse the carefree, debonair Kannan. His father is at his wits end to make Kannan a responsible, principled human being; and as a brilliant ruse, challenges him to earn Rs.20, 000 within six months. How Kannan sets about winning the wager forms rest of the tale. In the process he meets numerous women who fall for him. In the end, however, he emerges a wiser, compassionate man.

The fliers advertising the film however, harped only upon the numerous women and their charms thus: malaraith thEdi vaNdu paRappadhu iyaRkai! vaNdaith thEdi malar pOvadhu pudhumai! ondRalla! iraNdalla! azhagazhagaai aindhu malargaL! malligai, thaamarai, seNbagam, rOja, kuRinji yena aindhu vagaigaL! sutRi sutRi vandhana vaNdai! maatRi maatRi mayakkina vaNdai….

Lyrics were by Vaali & Alangudi Somu. There were 5 songs in all; let us listen to 3 of them here.

The first song is the stylish vaadiyamma malligaipoo: the song where the afore-mentioned malligai, thaamarai, seNbagam and rOja take their turns in flirting with the ponvaNdu (Perhaps kuRinji was not informed of this orgy!) VK works on Vaali’s lyrics and comes up with a song that is beguiling in its composition and breezy in its mood and pace. TMS sings for the preening ponvaNdu, while LRE and PS take turns in singing for the flowers anxious to be deflowered. VK strings together 4 charaNams, each distinct in its unique appeal. The fourth charaNam begins deceptively like the first, but veers away soon enough to charter a captivating conduit of its own. The four charaNams, so diverse in their structure, all flow so flawlessly into the pallavi; TMS’s hummimg and LRE’s ponvaNdu.. ponvaNdu aid VK in this endeavor. Each interlude is dashingly different from the other.


http://www.dhool.com/cgi-bin/stream.pl? ... adiamma.rm


I believe the song was hugely popular in its time, though I confess I don’t recollect any of the songs of the album being aired from the time I started listening to the radio in the late 70s.

The next song is a take off on vasantha maaLigai’s famous yarukkaaga idhu yaarukkaga. Playing the well past her prime Rathna who is jilted by Kannan, Manorama has a blast singing this one. And a delighted VK panders unabashedly to her melodramatic excesses! Lyrics by Alangudi Somu.


http://www.dhool.com/cgi-bin/stream.pl? ... rukkaga.rm


The third song is the soulful pani malarO kuLir nilavO, sung by TMS & Swarna. The song seems to be heavily inspired by the R.D.Burman classic chingaari koi bhadke ; nonetheless VK intersperses it with signature flourishes of his own. The violin driven first interlude itself is a treasured VK moment. The charaNams, of course, are wholly original. Lyrics by Alangudi Somu. TMS summons up vistas of a languorous nightfall of leisurely love….


http://www.dhool.com/cgi-bin/stream.pl? ... imalaro.rm


Another song in the album is the folksy paLLathooru ponnaaththaa, pakkam vandhu nillaaththaa by TMS & LRE. Vaali brings in Manorama’s native village into the lyrics to add adds to the authentic touch by mentioning for good measure neighboring places like Ponnamaravathi and Valayappatti!

The last song is naan oru thaniragam, neeyoru pudhumugam with LRE lazily doing her sultry siren routine; but here too VK saves for us an element of surprise by making TMS bounce in suddenly with a rustic sangili karuppanum maduraveenum enakku sondhamadi; and the song thereafter swings happily between the club dance and the countryside carnival. Lyrics by Alangudi Somu.


* * * *

Our glance now falls on another VK album of 1973: kattila thottila (Arul Films). The film starred Gemini Ganesh, Bhanumathi, Sivakumar, Kalpana, Srikanth, Master Shekar, Master Ramesh, Thengai Srinivasan, Manorama, V.S.Raghavan, Kanthimathi and others. Malliyam Rajagopal, besides directing the film, wrote the screenplay and dialogues for P.S.Vaidhyanathan’s story. The film was produced by Rama. Arangannal.

The story takes us inside the household of Advocate Sundaram (GG) and his wife Dr. Meenakshi (Bhanumathi). They keep bickering from morning to night and their ego clashes wreck the tranquility of the family. Their three children, the grown up Pappi (Kalpana) and her younger brothers Gopi (Master Shekar) and Babu (Master Ramesh) suffer in silence. Things take a serious turn when Sundaram and Meenakshi want a divorce. However their family friend Sadasivam (VSR) counsels patience and suggests they live apart in separate wings of their house for 2 months. By a toss of a coin, it is decided that the children would stay with Sundaram for the first month. Hilarious scenes follow depicting Sundaram’s pathetic attempts at testing his (non-existent) culinary skills! Reels roll by, and the children’s attempts at bringing about a rapprochement between their parents are in vain. Out of desperation, the children stage a mock kidnap drama, and the parents finally come to their senses and cast away their differences.

Many thanks to Sathya Kabali for sending me the songs of this film, as well as acquainting me with the finer details of the story.

The film had 6 songs, and we’ll be listening to 5 of them. Lyrics were by Vaali.

The first song is the soft oru vidha mayakkam, sung by PS. The song shows Pappi singing to her lover Sambasivam (Sivakumar). PS portrays with panache the delicious longings that falling in love brings in its wake, and VK creates an attractive melody:


http://www.dhool.com/cgi-bin/stream.pl? ... ruvidha.rm


The next song is the forlorn amma appa saNdaiyilE sung by Swarna, M.R.Vijaya and Jayaraman, singing for the famished children as they suffer the pangs of hunger due to their parents living apart. They sing lamenting their sorry state, and also condemn their parents’ uncaring attitude.


http://www.dhool.com/cgi-bin/stream.pl? ... mmaappa.rm


Raja (Srikanth) and Vasu (Thengai Srinivasan) are Sundaram’s and Meenakshi’s respective choices as a suitable pair for Pappi. Both Raja and Vasu try to woo Pappi, and sing this song ambikapathi pOla naan. VK gives this comic song to the under-utilized singers Rajesh and Saibaba; one sings classical, while the other presses his suit singing in pop style!


http://www.dhool.com/cgi-bin/stream.pl? ... /ambika.rm


For their 25th wedding anniversary, Sundaram and Meenakshi agree to a brief cessation of hostilities. A grand function is arranged; and in the light of the temporary truce, Pappi sings a song. Behind the façade of the happy greeting is the poignant plea to her parents to bury the hatchet and live together again as man and wife. PS brings out the inner angst fetchingly in this song, arguably the most popular one from the album: naan nallavar illaRam nalamuRa vENdugiREn. Thoughtful lyrics by Vaali.


http://www.dhool.com/cgi-bin/stream.pl? ... naannal.rm


Seeing all their efforts to make their parents see reason go in vain, the children leave the house in the middle of the night. An old beggar is doing his nocturnal rounds, ruminatively singing this song yENda dEi thanimaram thOppagumOda. His lines seem singularly apposite to the shameful happenings in Sundaram’s household. Who else but Seergazhi Govindarajan can do ample justice to this soliloquy!


http://www.dhool.com/cgi-bin/stream.pl? ... endadei.rm


The last song in the album is a solo by Bhanumathi : enakkum avarkkum vazhakku, oru vazhakku konja naatkaLaaga irukku; avarkku mattuma serukku? andha thalaiganam enakkum irukku!

- to be continued-

[vengayam]

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re kattilla thottilla the less said the better. for one savaale samaali we had to endure katilla thottila, engal pei sorry thai :lol:

[vengayam]

Aa enraaal abaasam enru ninaitho enavo en postl irandu idangallil andha ezuthu vettu pattuvittathu :?: :!:

[GK]

Never heard these songs before. Thanks Saravanan. Great job writing as usual.

[rajeshkrv]

Wonderful write up Sara

[GCT_Kuil]

Nice one Sara.

I remember watching Ponvandu when it was telecasted in DD. "Vaadiyamma Malligaipu" is a lovely song.

[OISG]

kattila thottila... I liked the Ambigapthi song. The movie is forgettable.

But it had certainly some hilarious moments ..No..No...I am not commenting upon Bhanumathi's acting skills in emotional scenes. :twisted: I remember the scene when GG tries to make idlis for the children.Pouring the flour paste forgetting to put the customary idli thuNi(cloth) GG closes the cooker. Proudly calls out

"pasangaLa aLukkoru thattu eduthutu vaanga"

when he opens and sees nothing on top as the paste had gone under he immediately changes the command

"PasangaLa aLukkoru tumbler eduthutu vaänga"

I remember Manorama mentioning her version Ÿarukkaga song in her thEn kiNNam.TMS's efforts come to the fore in "PonvaNdu".I could imagine no one other than Jai while listeneing.

[*]

Blasphemous and revolting as the Arangetram story was, it is even more shocking to know that it has its own precedents in history. During the communist rule(Iron Curtain) in rumania, proponents of all religions were arrested, their properties confiscated and their families left as destitutes. The public were forbidden to help such families. Once a priest was arrested for several years and having no means to support their siblings, his eldest teenage daughters went into the oldest profession. When this became known, their 14 y/o bro suffered a nervous breakdown and was taken to an asylum. When their father returned from prison years later only to learn the turn of events, he could not bear it and preferring the torture in prison to the shame of his household, he went back to jail.(Source: Tortured for Christ by Richard Wurmbrand). About the author: http://members.cox.net/wurmbrand/communist.html

maybe KB could be excused for this.

[Saravanan]

That was interesting, Prabhu!

Friends, due to some ftp problem, we are unable to upload the songs for the next chapter. Hopefully it will be fixed soon. Please bear with us.