Happened to watch "thullatha manamum thullum" programme in Podigai TV the night before. Am glad I did!
The programme (for the benefit of those who have never heard of it) features old Tamil film songs sung by present day amateur singers. It transports you to a dreamland of the 50s and 60s where the lyrics were audible & comprehensible and when instruments beautifully complemented the singing and did not dare smother the singer's voice. For those brought up in their childhood by the staple of VividhBharathi, some film song or the other almost always keeps playing at the back of one's mind throughout the day. And during these current mid-life crisis times, these old film songs present a splendid escape route to Xanadu.
And yesternight's selection was doubly sweet. Yesterday was the 130th birthday of Subramania Bharathi. In the programme were presented six gems of the great poet, carefully selected, beautifully sung by unknown faces to the accompaniment of an orchestra that was brilliant.
It is sacrilege to restrict the definition of Bharathi to a mere poet. He was a visionary, a humanist, a poet and a patriot all rolled into one - some one approximating what they routinely refer to as genius today. The term genius itself is so commonly used nowadays that it takes a real genius to identify another. And why do many of them have to die young? Mozart, Ramanujan, Sankara, Bharathi....it's a long list. I club them all under the genius brand because genius is not just about an abstract talent like music, poetry etc but also about esoteric subjects like philosophy. And I have the license to brand any one I like as genius because I can't really tell one from a crowd.
Digression apart, the songs that were on air included:
1 'Kakkai chiraginile...'
Bharathi saw Nandalala in whatever he saw. All the myriad hues of the universe were but those of Kannan himself. The black of the crow's feather, the green of the trees, the blue of the ocean....This piece is the real fore-runner to the more popular 'pachai nirame' of Vairamuthu of recent times. Beautifully and soulfully rendered by Yesudas.
2 'Vellippanimalayin meedhulavuvom....'
What does it take to roam the snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas, to run a fleet of big ships on the high seas, to produce weapons, not to kill but to deter the enemy, to make paper, to establish big factories? What does it take to do all these amidst slavery and poverty? It takes a Bharathi to dare to dream, dream big about the India he foresaw. Any one who knows Tamil and who has a bit of imagination about the times the great poet lived in would be roused by this song. And who better than Sirkazhi Govindarajan & Tiruchi Loganathan to bring life to the song on the silver screen?
3 'Chinnanchiru kiliye....'
The poet here extols a child as a cute, little parrot, a treasure trove, which descended on this earth to purge him of his sins. Bharathi's expressions like "uchithanai mugarnthal garvam ongi valarudhadi.." are beyond me for translation. He also says that when folks praise the child, he gets goose-bumps and when kissed (or getting kissed), the mind gets ecstasic as one would feel when in an inebriated state! The naughty Baliah on the screen uses the metaphor of kissing & hugging to address his lady-love instead of a child and the frown of displeasure and anger on the lady's face - to be seen and enjoyed. Just goes to prove that Bharathi handles love and lust with equal felicity as poems of other genres.
4 'Katru veliyidai kannamma....'
Can any love duet be more melodious? Can any song aspire to capture the emotions of the lovers better? This piece is a heady mix of PB Srinivas, Gemini Ganesan and GR Ramanathan (the music director). They do ample justice to the beautiful lyrics of the bard. Such immortal duets are beyond today's composers and writers, no doubt about it.
5 'Sindhu nadhiyin misai......'
We have heard 'mile sur mera tumhara'. We have heard 'Vande mataram'. We have always believed that these two songs represent the ultimate 'patriotic' masterpieces outside the film world. What about the 'national integration' variety from among the film songs? Film song aficionados would readily come up with some Bollywood hit numbers, deluding themselves that Bollywood represents the whole of India. If only we all could understand 'Sindhu nadhiyin...' there would be no discussion on which is the best patriotic film song. Sindhu would win hands down.
Patriotism is not just about holding one's country high over the head, extolling its virtues and berating the enemy. It is not just worn on the sleeves, the feeling should come from within. Visionary Bharathi's idea of unadulterated joy lies in having a boat ride on a full moon night in the company of lithe lasses from Kerala, to the accompaniment of beautiful Telugu songs on river Indus! The vision is breath-taking in scope and the imagery just awesome. The entire song is a wish-list of the poet yearning to exchange Cauvery betels for the wheat of the Gangetic plains and the ivory tusks of Kerala for the poetry of the Marathas... And in the film version, a small duet in Sundara Telugu thrown in for good measure. Lilting music by Viswanathan/Ramamurthy and perfect emoting by (who else) Sivaji Ganesan makes this one of the favourite film songs of all who understand Tamil and follow Tamil film music. Even if the language is not understood, if one keeps aside hypocrisy and watch the song clip, any one would fall for it.
Now, at the beginning, did I say 6 gems? I can recollect only 5 now. Does not matter. I will wait for an encore next year.The half an hour experience of Pothigai was worth a 'half' of my favourite intoxicant brew. Without any commercials. Who in their sense would advertise in Pothigai, that too featuring old Tamil songs written by one Subramania Bharathi? Did I mention geniuses dying young? It is only fair that they do. The world does not deserve them.
