Picks 536 - 770

[tfmlover]

wow DJ ! what A song
krishna pramaathmavE punnyam panni irukkanum indha kural kEtka
Congratulations VJ madam truly deserve(more )
V 'salute NeelDJ
regards

[madhu]

Hi Neel..
thanks a lot.

I luv song but forgot abt the details of this one..

Thanks for bringing that honey soaked song once again for my ears..

[rajraj]

Nice song neel !

honey soaked song once again for my ears..

inba thEn vandhu paayudhu kaadhinile ?

[Neel D]

tfmlover, madhu & rajraj, thank you.

[Neel D]

Pick #753

Song: annaibUmi vannamadiyil
Film: Savithiri
Music: Papanasam Sivan, Kamaaldas Gupta & M.Rajagopala Sharma
Lyrics: Papanasam Sivan
Singers: Shanta Apte, M.Rajagopala Sharma
Year: 1941

http://raretfm.mayyam.com/stream/pow07/annaibumi.rm

Pick #754

Song: uyarmigu piRaviyil
Film: Savithiri
Music: Papanasam Sivan, Kamaaldas Gupta & M.Rajagopala Sharma
Lyrics: Papanasam Sivan
Singer: Shanta Apte
Year: 1941

http://raretfm.mayyam.com/stream/pow07/uyarmigu.rm

Today we will go back nearly seventy years to visit the songs from the film Savithiri. The film was produced by Madurai based Rayal Talkie Distributors at New Theater Studios in Calcutta. The film was directed by Y.V.Rao, a pioneer in filmmaking. He also played the role of Sathyavan. Tall and handsome Y.V.Rao, born in Andhra Pradesh, became an actor on Telugu stage and then an actor in silent films made in Mumbai and Chennai. Soon he started to direct silent films in Bangalore. After gaining popularity as a director in Bangalore Y.V.Rao got to direct the first Kannada talkie Sati Sulochana(1934).

Y.V.Rao directed several films in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. One of the Tamil films titled Chinthamani(1937) which was a huge hit made M.K.Thyagaraja Bhagavathar a superstar. Rao introduced the Kannada singer/actor K.Aswathamma in Chinthamani as the leading lady and soon she became very famous among Tamil film audience. Y.V.Rao is the father of actress Lakshmi. Lakshmi's mother Rukmini was his second wife. Take a look at the picture of Y.V.Rao and you will know where Lakshmi got her facial bones from. But she got her smile from her mother. More about Rukmini at another time.

Y.V.Rao having broken all the linguistic barriers himself by working in Hindi, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu industries made a bold move to hire Marathi actor Shanta Apte to play the title role in his Tamil film Savithiri. Shanta Apte already a famous a singer/actor in Marathi and Hindi films accepted the offer eventhough she did not know Tamil. But she was determined to learn the language. She spent one year learning Tamil before the shooting began. Shanta spoke all her lines herself and sang all her songs herself, all of it like a native-born.

Y.V.Rao also made another daring choice of making M.S.Subbulakshmi play a male role (Naradar) in the film. On a side note, few years earlier K.B.Sundarambal played the male role of Nandanar in the Tamil film Nandanar(1934) and a few years later P.A.Periyanayaki played Naradar in the Tamil film Rukmangadan(1946).

Some of the songs by M.S.Subbulakshmi for Savithiri are quite popular, but Shanta's songs and Y.V.Rao's songs are not that easily available. So, we will highlight Shanta Apte and Y.V.Rao today in our thread. Shanta sang many solos in the film but Y.V.Rao only sang two duets, both with Shanta. (Note: I have made the assumption that Y.V.Rao sang for himself too, because playback was not in vogue in 1941. Please correct me if the male voice belongs to someone else.) (Correction: Voice belongs to Rajagopala Sharma)

Savithiri did not become a popular film. That may be the reason why Shanta was not again seen in Tamil but she continued to be busy in Marathi and Hindi. Y.V.Rao continued to direct films for the next few years and seems to have retired from films towards the end of the 1940s or early 50s, when a major change in trend took over the Tamil fim industry with the entry of reformist and activist writers and actors. It is a bit sad that when you read about Tamil film history from the 30s, 40s and 50s, Y.V.Rao is generally not highlighted, sometimes not even mentioned.

The two songs featured today are during the happy times in the lives of Sathyavan and Savithiri, which is the first half of the story. annaibUmi is a beautiful melody that makes a nice love song. uyarmigu expresses the joy of a woman in love.

Part of the information in this post was obtained from various reliable sources on the internet. Thanks to The Hindu, Randor Guy and the like.

[rajraj]

Thanks Neel ! I was wondering whether you would ever go to the 40s and 50s ! Can't blame you. Being a youngster 40s and 50s are puraadhana kaalam for you!

There was no 'playback' singing those days. The voice is probably that of Rao.

Marathi is also known as panchadhraavidam(if I remember correctly), close to Dravidian languages. Apte singing well is no surprise. But, Lata Mangeshkar did not do that well !

[madhu]

thanks neel..

I am hearing these songs for the first time :P though as u mentioned, I heard "bruhi mugundhEthi" of MS umpteen times..

they are really different and nice.

[Neel D]

rajraj,
You are welcome. I am fascinated by the music of those decades and enjoy reading and learning the history of Tamil films and music. The 40s and 50s indeed appear like puraadhana kaalam. To me it is mainly because of the sound recording/reproduction technology of the time. Not because of the songs. Starting the 60s the technology got much better. But I am still fascinated by the music and films from the 30s, 40s and 50s. Though the general belief is that the 30s and 40s were classical music era, a song like annaibUmi that is such a light melody breaks the myth and makes you realize that composers like Papanasam Sivan, S.Rajeswar Rao, S.M.Subbiah Naidu, R.Sudarsanam, etc. are the original creators of what we later called light music in Tamil film music (Do we still have light music in TFM in 2009? That is a whole different topic for discussion.). In the future I will try to feature more songs from the early decades of TFM.

madhu, you are welcome. Glad you enjoyed the songs.

[sss]

Wonderful song by VJ. Thanks Neel.

Regarding Savithiri.. I am hearing first time and delighted. Good jib and wondering your knowledge over 6 to 7 decade old songs... Hats off...

sss, you are welcome. I will post "ithaththAn" in a few days.

Next Enga Oor Kannagiya??? Please do the needful.

Thanks.

SSS

[Neel D]

sss, your request is certainly coming, but can't say when. It is going to be a surprise.