Malayalam Film Music

[app_engine]

#7 eeran mEgham

Film : chithram
Director : Priyadharshan
On-screen : Priyadharshan's wife (Lizzy who acted as a 'pEsA madandhai' in this sweet movie) & Lal
Singer : M G Sreekumar
MD : Kannur Rajan (again songs only I think, with a lot of IR-ism...movie BGM was Ousapachen)

[raagadevan]

Another rare one; the only Malayalam film song the legendary Talath Mahmood ever recorded.

From the movie DWEEPU (1975) - Music: M.S. Baburaj.

[RR]

app,

Kannur rajan sure sounds like a IR wannabe (but falls by a mile ). I vaguely remember there are better songs in this movie. But lizzy is lovely.

Wasn't chithram remade as 'Engirundho vandhan' with satyraja? MSV-TKR got reunited in this movie.

[V_S]

Beautiful songs from Thoovanathumbigal and chitram. I recently saw Thoovanathumbigal (on youtube) but I don't remember seeing this song, may be they took the songs out.
<dig>Wonderful movie, except I don't understand the relationship between Mohanlal and Sumalatha. Suddenly she loves him and one day she abscondsl Later she comes back one night and again disappears. Lastly she comes back married (with another man) with a child. Mohanlal paavam, alaya vitta maathiri thOnichu (may be he was doing the same to girls in the earlier part). May be it is a different subject which I didn't understand.</dig>
Yes, Chitram song resembles IR style, but I also saw resemblances of 'Indira LOgatathu' by TRR from UyiruLLavari Usha.

raagadevan,
Thanks a lot for swapnangal swapnanaLE. Is this song in Sahaana raagam? The starting is very close to krithi, vandhanamu. That was a very rare video of great legends singing the composition.

[raagadevan]

V_S:

I remember an old interview in which V. Dakhshinamoorthy (Swami) stated that he never worried about which raagam he was composing in when it came to movie songs! Most Malayalam songs those days had pre-written lyrics, and Swami apparently made the tunes to match the situations in the movie, and the lyrics. In fact, several of his great compositions have been raagamaalikas.

In spite of the name raagadevan, I am not an expert in raagas. To the best of my understanding, the duet version of "swapnangaL swapnangaL swapnangaLE..." is in Sahaana, Shanmughapriya and Kalyani. RR and other experts would be able to verify this. I hope to post a few more of Swami's multi-raaga compositions later.

Some trivia on CHITHRAM. Like most Priyadarshan films, CHITHRAM was also remade into Telugu [ALLUDUGARU with Mohan Babu, Shobana and Ramya Krishna]; Hindi [PYAR HUA CHORI CHORI with Mithun Chakraborty, Gautami and Shikha Swarup]; Kannada [RAYARU BANDARU MAAVANA MANEGE with Vishnuvardhan, Dolly and Bindiya]; and Tamil [ENGIRUNDHO VANDHAAN with Sathyaraj, Roja and Aamani]. Thyagaraja's "nagomOmu ganalEni..." sung by M.G. Sreekumar and Neyyatinkara Vasudevan in the Malayalam version was rendered by K.J. Yesudas and Poorna Chandar in Telugu (orchestration by K.V. Mahadevan); and the same recording was reused in the Kannada version too.

[V_S]

raagadevan,
Thanks for the raagam info and insights on chithram.

[app_engine]

RR sir,
Yes, there are definitely better songs in Chithram but I have some personal attachment to 'eeran mEgham' because of the "cool Mohanlal"

Here are the youtube links for other major hits from that movie :

pAdam pooththa kAlam (after Ranjini develops some romantic interest with Lal, there's even some thAli sentiment here):


Prior to this, there's some animosity from Ranjini to Lal as they're only acting as couple for the welfare of the dad of Ranjini, there's even a song, "dhoore kizhakkudhikkum" :


There's a beautiful recital of some standard carnatic song, which is a high point of the movie Chithram (nagumO) :

[app_engine]

V_Sji,
thoovAnaththumbikaL has some symbolic stuff, with even rain being a character in the movie That makes the "connection" between the 'thadi contractor & the aspiring vEsi' a very terrific relation!

Well, Lal is not shown to be a "womanizer" in the movie (though he arranges situations for his friends to enjoy women, he himself is shown to be "clean" prior to his relationship to the Clara character and after)...

Their relationship is both shocking and enticing - even for a karnAtakam like me - and that's what making the movie so interesting. OTOH, the relationship with Parvathy is just commonplace / ordinary in the life of a MalayALi...you got to watch the movie a couple of times to relish the whole thadi contractor - Clara relationship...too complicated in my view...

Also, the performance of Lal is simply OOW!

[app_engine]

Here's the second song in thoovAnaththumbikaL - mEgham pooththu thudangi featuring Lal & Sumalatha :

[raagadevan]

"nagumOmu..." from CHITHRAM (full version):



From the Telugu version ALLUDUGARU: