Indian film music: An amalgam of different tunes

K S Sivakumaran

Music is a universal language, everybody agrees. Like most music lovers I like all types of music. As far as Indian Music is concerned I love Hindi and Thamil film music besides Carnatic and classical Hindustani music.

But as a teenager I liked most oriental film music based on western tunes. More than half a century ago I used to like the fine melodies of Naushad and Shankar-Jaikishan, Chitalkar Ramachandra, S D Burman and O P Nayyar in Hindi and in Thamil I liked the music of C R Subbaraman, C Rajeswara Rao, G Ramanathan, T G Lingappa and a few others.

During the past two decades two outstanding music directors literally conquered the lovers of Thamil film music: Ilayarajah and A R Rahman (a Thamilian turned Muslim). But now there are a host of young and new music directors in Thamil films, numerous to mention. One of them is Vidyasaagar.

However, I like to talk about little within the limited space available one or two early Thamil music directors who enthralled me. At the same time I was enchanted by the English and Hindi music that I heard over the airwaves of the commercial service of the then Radio Ceylon.

The first colossal Thamil film I saw was Gemini’s Chandralekha (1948) made in Thamil and Hindi. It was a box office hit and ran for years continuously in theatres in Thamilnadu and Maharashtra and in Lanka too. The Music composer was C Rajeswara Rao.

The music in the film was a cocktail of different types of tunes: Carnatic, Hindustani, Latin American, Portuguese, operetta, Gypsy music and Waltz with fantastic dances including Bhratha Natyam. There was chorus circus songs based on Donkey Serenade. There was also a Waltz of Strauss.

Rajeswara Rao composed music for another popular film of yesteryear Mangamma Sabatham. Here too Latin American rhythms were used. Film star and politician and Bharatha Natyam dancer Vyjayanthi Maala’ mother Vasuntharara Devi and pilot turned actor Ranjan fascinated me with their waltzes and western dances moving graciously and even fox trotting to Spanish and Latin American beat.

I was’ mad’ those days listening to music composed by C R Subbaraman. I liked all songs under his superb direction. Peanut Vendor, La Paloma and a few familiar tunes came to be introduced in Thamil films. Vijayakumari was a film replete with Carnatic and Latin American rhythms.

Even earlier films like Sakuntalai and Vanamohini (Lanka born Thavamani Devi whose dress and acting was considered daring then) had music ‘carnaticized’ western music melodies. Such a fiesta was the early film music entertainment and the names mentioned above were really pioneers in popularising music to be accepted in universal terms.

Some of the Thamil film music directors like T R Paapa, Vedachalam particularly had composed music for Lankan Sinhala films. Also, popular playback singers in south Indian films like A M Rajah, K Rani, Jamuna Rani, P Sushila and a few others had sung in early Sinhala films like Sujatha

Like many things in this world nothing is exclusive and pure. Music transcends artificial barriers.

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