http://www.dhool.com/sotd2/965.html
- Saravanan writes:
isaiyaai thamizhaai iruppavanE
A Tribute to Kunnakkudi Vaidyanathan- Part 1
I have lived a life that is full…
I have traveled each and every highway...
And more, much more than this...
I did it my way.
- Paul Mustapha Abdi Anka
Sure he did it his way, and perhaps that is why Kunnakkudi Ramaswamy Vaidyanathan will be remembered forever. His demise on 8 September marks the end of a remarkable era. The heartfelt tributes that came pouring in from stalwarts and commoners alike are but a reflection of his enormous appeal. An outstanding classical violinist (albeit his scant regard for the disapproving purists), a trailblazing innovator who brought the magic of the violin to the masses, composer of thousands of stirring devotional songs, a daring creator who has usurped a chapter for himself in the annals of Tamil film music, a firm believer and propagator of the therapeutic effects of music, an exacting master who has tutored hordes of students on the intricacies of the violin in his famed gurukulam, the mainstay for 28 long years of the annual festival at Thivayyaru in honor of the presiding deity of Carnatic music….. KV was a genius of epic proportions…. Let us in dhool pay our tributes to this colossus with a retrospective of his film songs.
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Boasting of a beautiful hilltop shrine, Kunnakkudi is a serene hamlet 14 kms from Karaikkudi. It was here that KV was born on March 2 1935 to Ramaswamy Sastri and Meenakshi Ammal. ‘Sangeetha Sahitya Harikathapraveena’ Ramaswamy Sastri was a renowned Harikatha exponent. An erudite Sanskrit scholar, he was an acclaimed musician as well- the violin, veena, flute and jalatarangam came alive in exquisite enchantment in his hands. He was also a trained vocalist and had composed songs set to classical ragas. He has several students learning music and the vedas under him in his school ‘Shanmuga Vidya Saalai’.
KV’s sisters Subbulakshmi and Sundaralakshmi learned music from their father and used to present vocal recitals accompanied on the mridangam by their elder brother Ganapathisubramaniam and on the violin by Thirupathoor Haridas Rayar. Interestingly, despite being born in a household that reverberated with music, the child KV showed no inclination towards it. He seemed disinterested is studies as well and was content to spend most of his time in precincts of the hilltop Shanmuganathar temple. Rising early in the morning, the child would bathe in the Mayuragiri tank and cull flowers from the temple gardens for his father’s morning prayers. He would then return to the temple and listen with serene bliss to the odhuvaars reciting the ancient Thevaram verses and would join the priests chanting the Shanmuga Sahasranaamam. Thus his days passed in carefree happiness, not in the least bothered at the plethora of adjectives ranging from ‘good for nothing’ to ‘dunce’ that the villagers showered upon him.
However, destiny had other things in store for the 8 year-old boy and his happy-go-lucky days came to an end. Thirupattur Haridas Rayar, the violinist who used to accompany KV’s sisters, failed to turn up for an important concert held during the annual Karthigai festival. Sastri was understandably irked and the next day when Rayar came home, he questioned Rayar rather crossly on his unexplained absence. Rayar gave a callous reply and added haughtily that though Sastri had taught his daughters to sing and son to play the mridangam, they were still dependent on him for playing the violin. The chagrined Sastri could not allow such arrogance going unchallenged and spying KV who was just entering the house, he caught hold of the child’s hand and vowed that he would make the child a skilled violinist. KV’s sisters and brother burst out laughing at this seemingly impossible event, and Haridas Rayar sniggered as he said that he would be the happiest person if KV could be so transformed. However, it was KV’s mother Meenakshi who held him in her arms and cajoled him to apply assiduously to his father’s lessons and make his words come true.
His loving mother’s words goaded the child KV into action. Though he started his lessons with a slight reluctance, he was soon entranced with the instrument and the music that gushed forth from it. And wonder of wonders, within a year, he accompanied his sisters and brother in a concert at the hilltop Shanmuganathar temple, presided by none other than an amazed Haridas Rayar! In a interview, KV credited this magical transformation to his father’s blessings, mother’s love and of course, divine intervention.
KV was soon accompanying his sisters in all their concerts when he got an unexpected opportunity to play for the redoubtable Ariyakkudi Ramanujam Iyengar. And this happened at the Vaikunta Ekadasi festival at Karaikkudi organized by a local businessman known as ‘Gadigarakkadai’ Naidu. Kunnakkudi recalled the momentous event thus, “Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, who was a close friend of my father, was performing in a village near ours, at a Krishna temple, for a festival. I accompanied my father to the festival. It so happened that the violinist who was to play for the concert did not turn up. So Ariyakudi spoke to my father and asked "Why don't you tell your son to play the violin for me?" My father was taken aback, because I used to play the violin only for small kutcheris. Ariyakudi asked me, "How many kirtanas have you learnt?" I very meekly said, "I know about ten to fifteen kirtanas." He blessed me and said "Come on, play confidently for my kutcheri". The performance was a big success.” This marked the beginning of KV’s jump to the big league, and soon enough he was playing for masters such as Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer, kalyanakrishna Baghavathar, T. K. Rangachari, Sathur Subramaniam, Madurai Mani, Sankarasivam and Palakkad Rama Bhagavatar. Besides the famed vocalists, KV also played the violin for instrumentalists such as S. Balachandar, T.N. Rajarathinam Pillai and Thiruvenkadu Subramaniya Pillai. Even at the age of 14, KV had mastered not less than 500 kritis.
Two events during this period were to remain in KV’s memory forever. One day a young ascetic with a luminous glow on his face accosted KV and asked him his name and if he was a violinist. Then seeing the sacred ash applied carelessly on KV’s forehead, he gave a KV a gentle slap and instructed him on how to apply the Vibhuti stripes and Kunkuma pottu on his forehead. When Ramaswamy Sastri heard of this, he was eager to meet the savant, but their search was futile. KV believed that the elusive saint was Lord Muruga Himself, and till the day KV’s mortal remains were consigned to flames, the Vibhuti and Kunkumam were applied as prescribed by the ascetic.
The second event that made a lasting impression on the teenager was when his father was lying seriously ill and had slipped into a coma for 26 days. At the instance of Dr. Ganapathisubramaniam, a physician who was also a musicologist, KV played the Bhairavi Ragam continuously for hours at his father’s bedside. Amazingly, Sastri’s eyes flickered and his cheeks were soon wet with tears. He recovered gradually and lived thereafter for several years. This incident instilled in KV a lifelong belief in the therapeutic effects of music.
It was at this juncture that KV made his foray into film music. As he recalled, “Right from my childhood, I was always interested in film songs, because most of the songs in those days had a classical base.” KV had accompanied the legendary M.K.Thyagaraja Bagavathar on some of his concerts, and the adulation that MKT received everywhere filled KV with a desire to make it big in cinema. The opportunity came through a family friend Venkataramana Rao who was a Jalatarangam player and a staff artiste in the Modern Theaters, Salem. Rao managed to convince the reluctant Sastri that KV would be paid a regular monthly salary which the family was in need of at that time. For his part, KV promised his father that he would continue his everyday routine of diligent practice so that he retained his unique bowing and fingering techniques.
At the Modern Theaters, KV was interviewed by none less than G. Ramanathan. GR was mightily impressed with the youngster’s dexterous handling of his favourite Charukesi, and admitted him into his orchestra at once. In due course, KV rose up to be a leading violinist in the troupe of S.M. Subbiah Naidu. He moved to Madras in 1952 in search of better opportunities. He was introduced to the Soolamangalam Sisters and was soon accompanying them on the violin in their concerts. Thereafter he played for Seergazhi Govindarajan, T.M. Soundararajan, P.Leela and N.L. Ganasaraswathi. It was then that KV formed his own ensemble and commenced composing devotional songs for HMV and Colombia. Among KV’s earliest devotional albums was Muruga Ganamrutham sung by Soolamangalam Sisters. He went on record more than 700 devotional songs, many of which became hugely popular and retain their appeal to this day. KV was also composing music for several stage plays during this time. Lyricist Poovai Senguttuvan once recalled a stage play called ‘Oviyan magan’ which was scripted by him, and which had songs composed by KV and sung by TMS and Soolamangalam Rajalakshmi.
It was in 1967 that a composition of KV first made it to cinema. KV had asked Poovai Senguttuvan to pen a paean to Lord Murugan for a devotional album to be sung by Soolamangalam Sisters. Poovai Senguttuvan hesitated, for he was an atheist, but under KV’s urging he eventually agreed. As he closed his eyes in contemplation, he recalled the cries of ‘Muruga Muruga’ that reverberated all around the Thiruparankundram hill when he had been to the shrine as a child. And so came forth the opening lines ‘thirupparankundRathil nee sirithaal, muruga, thiruthaNi malai meedhu ethirolikkum’. KV set the lines to tune and the song rendered by Soolamangalam Rajalakshmi and Jayalakshmi was recorded within one hour. The song turned out to be a chartbuster in its time and when the sisters rendered it as an invocation song in a film chamber function, A.P.Nagarajan, A.L.Sreenivasan and Kannadasan fell in love with it instantly. They were unanimous in their desire to include the song in the movie ‘kandan karuNai’ that they were engaged in making at the time. When they approached KV, he agreed to their proposal willingly and it was thus that the song, rendered afresh by Soolamangalam Rajalakshmi and P. Suseela, found place in the movie. And it was this introduction to APN that led to KV making his debut as a music director 2 years later and again it was APN who retained KV as his music director in all his subsequent ventures.
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One morning KV had just completed his morning prayers when there was a knock at his door. It was a summons from APN, and when KV reached APN’s office, APN welcomed him with the words, ‘vaa raajaa vaa!’ APN then revealed to a bewildered KV that the name of the movie that KV was going to compose music for was ‘vaa raajaa vaa’. Disappointed at his big projects like ‘thirumaal perumai’ and ‘gurudatchaNai’ not doing well, APN embarked upon a series of low budget movies, completely eschewing front-ranking actors and technicians. ‘vaa raajaa vaa’ was the first in this series.
vaa raajaa vaa (1969/ C.N.V.Productions) had a child actor Master Prabhakar in the lead role, supported by Seergazhi Govindarajan, Surulirajan, K.D. Santhanam, V.S. Raghavan, Baby Sumathi, Kumari Rukmini and others. The movie was written and directed by A.P. Nagarajan. The movie revolved around a 10 year-old boy Raja who works as a tourist guide in Mahabalipuram. He comes across a pillar on which there are engraved some pearls of wisdom. How the child realizes the truth in each one of the engraved proverbs and how they help him to upgrade his life form rest of the tale.
KV set about composing the songs, with Muthu, Sethu and Raghavan as his assistants. He seems to have obeyed APN’s dictum of avoiding front-ranking artistes and sat instead with an unusual set of lyricists- Ulundurpettai Shanmugham, Azha.Valliappa, Poovai Senguttuvan and Nellai Arulmani, and opted for Seergazhi Govindarajan and L.R. Eswari as his singers. Seergazhi Govindarajan played the role of a CID who dons the garb of a mendicant in order to nab a gang of thieves, and naturally sang his own songs. The first song that KV composed was ‘iRaivan padaitha ulagai ellaam manithan aaLugindRaan’ written by his good friend Poovai Senguttuvan and sung by Seergazhi Govindarajan. Filled with philosophical reflections, the song rendered in Seergazhi’s resonant voice marked an auspicious beginning to KV’s film career. The buoyant ditty marked by an extended postlude ‘aadi paadi srikka vaipathu enga oorunga’ has L.R. Eswari accompanied by L.R. Anjali and chorus voices. ‘kallellam silai senjaan pallava raaja’ is a resounding ode to the majesty of Mahabalipuram penned by Azha. Valliappa and sung with gusto by the inimitable L.R. Eswari. The virutham ‘kaLLamilla piLLaiyidam kadavuLai kaNdEn’ that flows into ‘siRu kuzhandai vadivinilE deivam vandhu pEsudhamma’ written by Uludurpettai Shanmugam has Seergazhi at his ruminative best.
‘uNmai edhu poi edhunu oNNum puriyala’ is the last song in the album, written by Nellai Arulmani and sung by L.R.Eswari. In a crevice between two rocks, the child Raja sees a man trying to molest a woman, and rushes to her rescue. It is only then that he realizes that it was actually a movie being filmed, and the man and woman were playing the roles of the villain and heroine. Disconcerted at his hasty surmise and unwarranted intervention, he runs away from the shooting spot and sings a song on how appearances can be deceptive.
Listen to ‘uNmai edhu poi edhunu’
With the backdrop of Mahabalipuram and the simple story of an enterprising child, ‘vaa raja vaa’ had a triumphant run of 100 days. KV’s songs became popular making his debut a grand success.
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Enthused by the success of ‘vaa raja vaa’, APN now set about recounting the story of a pilgrimage tour commencing from Tirupathi and ending at Kanyakumari. Families from different walks of life, comprising of members in various age groups and speaking different languages find themselves traveling together in a bus, and their common faith helps them realize their unity in diversity. APN interposed the narrative with interesting mythological vignettes and slices of humour, the tour covered the famous shrines of Tirupathi, Tiruthani, Mysore, Madurai, Guruvayoor and Kanyakumari, and the resultant narrative was engrossing. Led by Seergazhi Govindarajan who played the role of Sivachidambara Bagavathar, ‘thirumalai thenkumari’ (1970/ Sri Vijayalakshmi Pictures) had a huge cast comprising of Sivakumar, Sasikumar, K.D. Santhanam, Surulirajan, V. Gopalakrishnan, T.N. Sivadhanu, Chandranbabu, Typist Gopu, Manorama, Kumari Padmini, Ramaprabha, CID Shakuntala, Sailasri, Usha, Kanthimathi, Master Prabhakaran, Master Dasarathan, Baby Sumathi and others.
KV had a field day composing the songs- devotional numbers were his forte, and he came up with an outstanding album. The songs were:
1. thirupathi malai vaazhum venkatesa: written by Ulundurpettai Shanmugam and sung by Seergazhi Govindarajan. KV imaginatively employs the lilt of Venkatesa Suprabatham in the interludes while the clangour of the temple bells envelop the song in a halo of stirring piety.
Listen to thirupathi malai vaazhum
2. sindhanaiyil mEdaikkatti kandhananiyE aadavaiththEn: written by Thenkanchi Bharathisami and sung by Seergazhi Govindarajan & Sarala.
3. The famous multilingual song that begins with the lines ‘azhagE thamizhE nee vaazhga’ (written by Poovai Senguttuvan and sung by Seergazhi Govindarajan & Sarala), followed by the Malayalam lines ‘kaNNugaL pootti njaan oru nimisham’ (written by Job and sung by Madhuri), Kannada lines ‘krishNaa.. daasi naa karaiyuvE baa’ (written by Sailasri and sung by M.R. Vijaya), Chennai thamizh lines ‘paadanunu manasukkuLLe assai neRaya keethu’ (written by K.K.S. Kumar and sung by a boisterous Manorama), Telugu lines ‘naa bangarayya naa singarayya’ (written by Ramsri and sung by L.R. Eswari), ending with the zestful ‘oorellaam paaru, ullaasa touru’ (written by Poovai Senguttuvan and sung by A.L. Raghavan, Tharapuram Sundararajan, L.R. Eswari and L.R.Anjali.
Listen to azhagE thamizhE
4. Abiramani Andhadhi beginning with ‘kalayaadha kalviyum kuRayaatha vayathum’ sung by Seergazhi Govindarajan
5. madurai arasaaLum meenakshi: written by Ulundurpettai Shanmugam and sung by Seergazhi Govindarajan, L.R.Eswari and M.R.Vijaya.
Watch the song here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHhrKnDk ... re=related
6. guruvayoorappa thiruvaruL tharuvaai neeyappa: written by Poovai Senguttuvan and sung by Seergazhi Govindarajan.
7. thiraL maNi kathiragaL veesi (neelakkadal vEgaththilE nilamkoNdu sellaamal): written by Nellai Arulmani and sung by Seergazhi Govindarajan & L.R. Eswari.
Incidentally, this was the album in which M.R. Vijaya made her debut in film music. M.R. Vijaya was learning music from KV at that time. Though she was part of the chorus voices in the song ‘aadi paadi srikka vaipathu enga oorunga’ in ‘vaa raajaa vaa’, it was in ‘thirumalai thenkumari’ that she made a fetching mark.
The songs of ‘thirumalai thenkumari’ won widespread acclaim and earned for KV the prestigious Tamil Nadu State Government Award for Best Music Director for 1970- a remarkable achievement for a composer in his very second year in cinema. To add to the happiness, Seergazhi Govindarajan won the State Award for the Best Male Playback Singer for 1970 for his work in ‘thirumalai thenkumari’. The movie itself was another 100 day affair, and also won the State Government’s special award for the Best Feature Film.
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The other movie of 1970 that came out with KV’s music was G.N. Velumani’s ‘namma veettu deivam’ (Kamakshi Agencies). Veteran producer Velumani made his debut as director with this movie. The cast consisted of Muthuraman, K.R. Vijaya, Jayabharathi, Nagesh, V.S. Raghavan and others. ‘Vietnam Veedu’ Sundaram drafted the screenplay and dialogues for the story written by M. Lakshmanan. The story revolved around the womanizer Rangadurai, the poor Bhavani who falls a victim to his lust and her sister, the devout Devi whom he finally weds. He murders Devi in order to obtain a key handed over to her by his father, but is shocked to find her alive at home. How the Goddess brings Rangadurai to justice forms rest of the tale. This movie was the first of the many in which K.R. Vijaya donned the role of the Goddess, and celebrated a 100 day run in most centers.
Velumani was very particular about the music in his movies- all his movies had wonderful songs. M.S. Viswanthan & T.K. Ramamoorthi and later MSV alone had been entrusted with the music for Velumani’s movies hitherto, save ‘naaNal’ that gone to V. Kumar. Therefore it was a great honour for KV that he had been selected by Velumani to compose music for directorial debut. And it to KV’s credit that his music contributed in no small measure to the movie’s success.
For the navaraathiri song ‘ulagamellaam padachavaLe Ongaari’, KV got the reluctant Ki.Va. Jagannathan to pen the lyrics. TMS, P. Suseela & chorus render this song with fervour.
Watch the song here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TC_VgdW ... re=related
P. Suseela rendered the sizzling ‘thEn malar vaNNam’ . M.R. Vijaya got to sing verses from the Thiruvempaavai commencing with ‘pOtRi en vaazhmudalaagiya poruLE’. P. Suseela sang Vallallaar’s ‘enakkum unakkum isaindha porutham’ tuned to a delightful Charukesi by KV. TMS rendered the rousing ‘engengu kaaNinum sakthiyada’.
However, my pick from the album is the haunting ‘aasai manathil kOttai katti’ written by Thenkanchi Bharathisami and sung by P.Suseela. KV raises the curtain with his humming, and Suseela soon takes over, her lines soaked in poignant anguish.
Listen to aasai manathil
~ To be continued ~