The Golden Era of Dr.IR and Dr.SPB

[crvenky]

1st interlude of Thulli Thulli song is slightly different in Telugu version, in the starting portion. After the 'kudam thattifying' sound there is a small chorus (sounds IRish) which sounds really smoothing. Looks like that portion was edited out in the Tamil version.

[app_engine]

#237 ராமன் கதை கேளுங்கள்
(சிப்பிக்குள் முத்து, 1986 , ஷைலஜாவுடன்)

SPB special - in short. As mentioned many times in the hub, reethigowLai rAgA based kathA kalAkshEba number. With frequent variations in tune, rAsA keeps the interest alive (while the lines are of nursery rhyme standard). Like V_Sji reminded us in his post, a pivotal song for the movie as there's a big turn of events with this song.

Like I mentioned before, my original intention was to continue the Cbe stuff. However, my thoughts about Cbe led me to the first-ever visit to that town that happened during school days when mom's sis was living in Palladam and in turn to her hubby (my beloved chiththappA who is no more) who is my personal-life equivalent of SPB and I'll have to dedicate this post for him. His life is in many ways like a movie story / interesting novel / mega serial and I hope this post won't be boring. (Some incidents were overheard when my chithees / mom converse and others first hand). He looked like SPB (baruman) and spoke softly like him (almost sounded like SPB voice but could not sing like him) and soft-natured (SPB appears to be that way and I would never know).

Well, his life had significant tragic events - his appA died early and he had to bear the burden of taking care of 5/6 younger siblings and gave his life to them for decades ignoring personal interests, one of his younger sisters -whom he lovingly carried on shoulders and brought up -eloped with a guy and disowned him in the court saying "I don't know this man"; after firming up his beautiful muRaippeN, underwent the pain of losing her - she didn't want to wait for years and chose to marry his own younger brother instead

Finally my chithi insisted in marrying him and tied the knot despite the man being almost 15 yrs older (so, technically he was periyappA for me but chithi's hubby so we called him chithappA). He was shorter in height than chithi & less in edu and she was thoroughly dominating him every day (he didn't complain), had 3 lovely children but the first one - my beloved cousin, friend, who got infected from me the muthu comics addiction - died of cancer weeks after getting his 400+ marks SSLC results. Finally the man had kidney ailment plus some more and died before doing any subha kAriyam to the other two kids

Despite all these, I had never seen him angry, shout or show any irritation! My first interaction with him was as a primary school kid when he lived in Azhagapuri (what a beautiful name) near Virudhupatti (also known as Virudhunagar where I was born in a clinic few hundred meters away from Kamarajar's home which got converted into a memorial after his death). Well, chithappA was fond of KK (though never indulged in politics himself) and the first time I saw "nava indiya" paper was in his home - ironically, it was during my first visit to his home in Palladam that KK died and I saw chithappA trying to control his sadness

Now, going back to that Azhagapuri visit : well, I don't remember anything special in his home but he was taking me back to my grand parents' home in V'nagar by cycle and on the way was a place called Meesaloor. We were on the cycle in a single lane road and the sight I had that day is one of the MOST SIGNIFICANT events of my life!

On both sides of the road, there were flocks of PEACOCKS! May be a hundred of them! I have never seen anything like that before or after in the wild, ever in my life! Actually, I haven't even come across personally another person who had seen 100's of peacocks that way! What a sight! Permanently embedded in my mind and we both watched them for a long time - they weren't flying or moving either - before reluctantly leaving that spot! (I have seen peacocks - one or two in the Viralimalai area or while train travel between Madurai / V'nagar - but never flocks like this).

Well, he was always fond of me and he has a special place in my heart always! (My personal life SPB!)

Before closing this post, just another small interesting thing about him - something that pleased him very much whenever he visited his in-laws (i.e. my grand parents) at V'nagar - there was this "burmAkkadai" - fantastic roadside restaurant - near the railway gate in Muthuraman patti on Aruppukkottai road - that was his favourite place. (yummy food and he did have me with him on occasions and I can never forget the taste of those parottAs).

Well, he got tranferred to Palladam and when visiting him (at the time of death of KK) I had the opportunity to go to Cbe. Which was my first visit to that town while at school!

[app_engine]

That post was for Friday and one more due for Saturday veettula irukkumpOthu office-ai vida bayangara busy

[jaiganes]

@AE - may god bless his soul!!
Like raasa said in ARR felicitation - thousand flowers - but only very few find their way to a garland.
your uncle is a flower - no matter how we evaluate his life by standards of material achievements.
By posting his life here - you have made him immortal - for we all carry on in our hearts the life of
yet another honest soul. We are indeed blessed on this Christmas Eve.

[V_S]

As Jai said, we are blessed to hear about your chittappa. There are few I know, whose life always ends in sacrifice. In-spite of all their sacrifices, people will remember only whatever little mistakes (again only in their perspective) he does rather than their sacrifices and blindly ignore them. Normally I have seen these blessed souls are strict just not to exhibit the love he has for them, as he might fear losing the balance. But these are taken in different angle by others and misinterpreted. Reading about your chittappa, he goes beyond this as you described, I am totally moved. May his soul rest in peace! Thanks App for sharing!

[rajaramsgi]

well said all of you..

There is one thing about this movie that I never got answer for..When kamal movies are dubbed in telugu, it is SPB who always lends his voice in telugu for Kamal. Any one knows why SPB spoke for kamal in tamil in this movie? I think this is the only tamil movie where someone else gave dubbing voice for kamal.

[genesis]

Thinking of KV's movies over the weekend, KV is just a updated version of Bheem Singh - mostly banked on emotional sentiment.

Incidentally, I was wondering in the 2011 best songs trend whether context, milieu had no meaning any more in pop music appreciation in reference to Vaagai Sooda Vaa, a movie apparently set in a parched rural TN village in the 60s. You wouldn't know it from the songs, nor from Chinmayee's singing, yet it is widely appreciated as a fine debut by the MD. I guess the pop music standards have shifted. I mean, it is not as if Swathi Muthyam was merely functional, merely faithful to its setting - these were also immensely popular songs. Looks like it will be a long time before we get a harmonious marriage of the two aspects again in TFM.

If I extend your logic, we shall not have any songs in movies. In real life, people do not sing and dance, only in reel life. Moreover, today music business is very different from that of IR period. In his time, there was no music launch, no promos, no FM channels, no music reviewers. It is unfair to compare 2 different eras. As I pointed out in the other thread, the music of Sri Rama Rajyam falls in the same category. I personally think Sri Rama Rajyam songs do not sound like from a mythological movie.

IMHO, recent Tamil movies of village subject (Kalavani, Then Merku Paruvakaatru, Mynaa) are portraying villages with more authenticity, than the "Ramarajan Era" village movies of 90s. If you have not watched, VSV is worth watching.

[jaiganes]

Thinking of KV's movies over the weekend, KV is just a updated version of Bheem Singh - mostly banked on emotional sentiment.



If I extend your logic, we shall not have any songs in movies. In real life, people do not sing and dance, only in reel life. Moreover, today music business is very different from that of IR period. In his time, there was no music launch, no promos, no FM channels, no music reviewers. It is unfair to compare 2 different eras. As I pointed out in the other thread, the music of Sri Rama Rajyam falls in the same category. I personally think Sri Rama Rajyam songs do not sound like from a mythological movie.

IMHO, recent Tamil movies of village subject (Kalavani, Then Merku Paruvakaatru, Mynaa) are portraying villages with more authenticity, than the "Ramarajan Era" village movies of 90s. If you have not watched, VSV is worth watching.

those were days when a slight shift to a local slang would invite a "onyume purileengn" from the distributor who might be.. for all you know from andhra!!!
nowadays the rigor in setting up the mise-en-scene is considerably high and appreciably so. I had to see Paruththiveeran 3 times to understand what was being spoken by a few characters... and that is the flip side of it..

[genesis]

Good point Jai - Movie makers did what they need to do in different times.

In the last 10 years or so, Hindi movie industry has moved far ahead of Tamil/Telugu in terms of story subjects and style. Tamil industry is trying to pull ahead itself, but the big heros are holding it back (Vijay, Simbu, Ajit, Rajni and of course Kamal). Malayalam industry was really good in 80s and early 90s, but their standard is very low now.

The big power house Telugu industry is showing no sign of changing still producing huge budget mythological movies (Magadheera, SRR) also influencing both Tamil and Malayalam industries negatively.

[app_engine]

nanRi jaiganes, really touched!

Thank you V_Sji!

I'm behind a little bit (holidays / travel)...will try to catch up