http://www.dhool.com/sotd2/695.html
- Saravanan writes:
These beauteous forms,
Through a long absence, have not been to me
as is a landscape to a blind man's eye:
But oft, in lonely rooms, and 'mid the din
of towns and cities, I have owed to them
in hours of weariness, sensations sweet,
Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart;
and passing even into my purer mind,
with tranquil restoration….
- William Wordsworth (Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey…)
This month, I will be sharing with you some of my fondest memories of MSV- a few of his songs from the 70s that have become rare to listen to these days, but these are surely ones that those of you blessed to have grown up in the late 70s have preserved in a precious pedestal of your heart….songs that both vividh bharathi and thamizh sEvai iraNdu (not to leave out Madras A of Sunday evenings) celebrated and cherished…songs that you waited (albeit mostly in vain!) with bated breath to watch on oLium oliyum Friday after Friday (and how joyous was that wait!)…songs that were the subject of animated discussions with your friends at school…songs that your elder cousins insisted on singing during fun filled vacations…songs from those myriad movies of that ‘black & white and bell-bottoms’ era that had (and deservedly too!) but a passing presentation at the pergola…songs that went unobtrusively into hiding as the years rolled by…the same songs that tug at your memory chords at those inexplicable moments when you put aside the work you’re doing and look out of the window with a wistful sigh…
While MSV is often revered for his trail-blazing works in the 60s, his works in the 70s were no less magnificent; he surely deserves a smart salute for humble, hidden wonders like these.
Let us begin this unabashed indulgence in nostalgia with that elusive ‘ninaithu paarkkiREn’ from avaL thantha uRavu:
Sung by SPB
Lyrics by Kannadasan
Music by M.S.Viswanathan
* * * *
avaL thantha uRavu (MNS Enterprises) was a Pongal release of 1978 (along with maduraiyai meetta sundarapaNdiyan and vaazha ninaithaal vaazhalam). G. Srinivasan wrote the dialogues for Netaji's story. Muthuraman, Saradha, Manohar, Kavitha, M.N.Rajam, Surulirajan and Manorama were in the cast. The film was produced by Shanmugam, K.S.Sultan and S.P.Nagarajan, and directed by Durai.
I have not seen the film; I have not seen the songs on TV either. Another popular song from the film is ‘manjaL itta nilavaaga, mai poosum kalaiyaaga’, that propitious chronicle of a brother’s wishes for his sister’s joyous marital life. Sung gracefully by PS, the song’s surprise element is Muthuraman reciting the charaNam lines like ‘thaalaattum thanga mEniyum manjaL neerinil aada, thai maadha pongal pOlavE chinnapunnagai Oda..’. The third song is 'O veettukkaaramma, oru paattu paadamma' by Kovai Soundararajan, L. R Eswari and B.S. Sashirekha.
* * * *
‘ninaithu paarkiREn en nenjam inikkindRathu’ was, of course, a great favorite among us; even today I can recall my classmates rendering the opening lines with gusto, especially going overboard with the ‘oh my daaarleeng’ bit!
The master tunesmith comes up with a winsome composition, and sends for SPB to do the honours.
Listening to it today, I find so many nuances that were hidden to my childish ears then. There is a hint of some inner anguish in the lyrics, and MSV incorporates that tinge of sorrow into his tune. SPB brings out this “looking back in joy mixed with just a trace of regret” angst in inimitable style. The trumpets, flute, guitar, drums and jalatharangam that MSV fills the interludes with cascade in cadence with the gush of memories that seems to haunt the hero. There is so much beauty in the song, that I feel slightly ashamed when I realize that leaving aside all this, the ‘oh oh remember….’ parts seemed the most attractive to me then!
Nonetheless, this is one of the treasured songs that take me back in time, filling me with unfathomable rapture…
A song. A sojourn. A sepia toned kaleidoscope of happy memories.
ninaithu paarkkiREn…en nenjam inikkindRathu…