The Golden Era of Dr.IR and Dr.SPB

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#265 தென்மதுரை வைகை நதி
அது பாடும் தமிழ்ப்பாட்டு
(தர்மத்தின் தலைவன், 1988 , சுசீலா & மலேசியா வாசுதேவனுடன்)

Poet Bharathi wrote :

"சென்றிடுவீர் எட்டுத்திக்கும், கலைச்செல்வங்கள் யாவும் கொணர்ந்திங்குச்சேர்ப்பீர்"

Whether all TN-ers took this seriously and went in all 8 directions or not , there is one group that took this as dheiva vAkku. The direction that this group started towards was north-west and the destination is currently well-known worldwide as "bollywood" (Well, I can hear someone yelling, "hEy, we know here as hubbers that TFMD's have gone in more than 8 directions to fetch their 'kalaichchelvangaL' " )

'kasmE vAdhE' happened to be one of those kalaichchelvams that SPM & Co. brought to TN and it got popularized by "localizing" using Rajinikanth / Prabhu / Hasini / rAsA & SPB! (Did I forget Kushbu? Well, this was probably her first TF & in this Prabhu appreciates her kannams...while she went on to become so popular among TN-ers that they even built a kOyil to worship her, her kannams too had their admiration by the sAppAttu rAmans of TN who named a sponge-like-idli after them )

sari, namma matterukku varuvOm...

This fantastic song that showcases a 'thiruneer / kadhar vEshti thuNdu / maRadhi' Rajinikanth surprising his household with 'full suit', has three singers. However, IMHO, it is a "duet" between SPB & bass guitar! One can listen to their association any number of times on repeat mode! Ofcourse, there is additional bonus of listening to sweet piano, sax, violin portions. Personally, I love the visuals very much too and it got featured in the 'appreciating picturization' thread (but I know there are hubbers who'll run away the very moment they hear the word hAsini). Poor MV & PS got to sing only in the end pallavi which is an unusual feature of this song. Two top-class singers for just one line in a song, only richie-rich producers can afford!

Needless to say this song was a patti-thotti hit and is popular till today. I don't think there had been any time period -since its arrival - that I didn't have a copy of this number! Evergreen and almost always among my collections / current playlists!

By this time, I worked my way out of testing shop / production shop level tasks and was into product development. Which meant frequent travels to Bangalore where the top-R&D-brains were sitting. Stay was sometimes in the Indiranagar company guest house and when no-room-available, Rubin house During one such stay, me & friend watched dharmaththin thalaivan in a theater near Shivajinagar bus stand (looks like they don't like to end names of places with consonants in KannadA - what we call Shivajinagar is "Shivaji nagarA" in Kannadam...sorry kannadA...and so it goes for all "puram"s that are called "purA"s )

Well, when the drinking Rajini appeared on screen, there was such a roaring response from front benchers - throwing coins and what not! I haven't seen such a scene in theater even for MGR movies in TN and was surprised / shocked!