SOUTH INDIAN CINE MUSIC DIRECTORS – TAMIL - [OLD VERSIONS] -- IV

 MUSIC DIRECTOR’S ROLE   III

SONGS IN A MOVIE     

Without batting an eyelid, anyone would say that the songs are straightaway credited to the MD. But, strictly speaking each song owes itself to the movie-maker –the producer, for, had it not been for the producer no song would ever have emerged in the first place.  It is the producer who formulates the team of lyricist[s], MD and arranges for the recording of those items in a specific recording house. So, the producer arranges for the genesis of the song. In plain terms all others are ‘employed’ for that purpose.

Working patterns of different MDs may differ in details; but the overall plan of work is generally the same. The difference largely pertains to who participates, when or where. In the good old days, Producer[s], Lyricist, MD and a couple of assistants and the Director of the movie used to congregate in the Company office of the production house. The story / song situation, participating story characters their link in the plot are thoroughly briefed for song making.  With these inputs on hand, the Lyricist makes a few opening lines [‘PALL AVI’] for the song. The fitness of the ‘pallavi ‘ for the story line and to the emotional verve of the tune composed right there was assessed by general consensus. Some agile MDs used to throw up several tunes for the same lyric frames and seek to have the ‘most appealing one’ from among the members in the then gathering. It is extremely difficult to say if a tune is appealing or not –especially in the first hearing. We know from personal experience that only by repeated hearing that ‘popular opinion’ gets shaped even for the final form of a song. If so, how hard would it be for anyone to guess if a particular tune would succeed or not. Yet, several tunes accepted from popular opinion among the small gathering have proved themselves to be ‘hit‘ numbers. 

Without reference to names, we have ourselves heard that different scales of intervention were known in the movies of 1960s – 80s or so. ‘Intervention’ is meant to suggest frequent crossing of ideas relating to how better a tune or orchestration may be modified. Some producers would partake in those deliberations [for instance SS Vasan’s representative Kothamangalam Subbu, Mr. Kumaran of AVM, Gopu of Chitraalaya and of course the well known MGR and Director Sridhar]. All these persons would insist on changes in tune, pace or peppy beats etc; I shall narrate specific instances to substantiate the suggestion if the right opportunity comes along. All stanzas of a song receive the same intense attention of everyone until it is completed in that sitting itself. When the basic structure and tune are finalized, the MD would adopt strategies of embellishing the song by orchestral decorations in prelude, interludes and postlude as cosmetic elements of strengthening the decoration of a song.

The cruel part of the truth is, the rendering of lyric, voice embellishing by ‘aalaap’ or backdrop chorus, orchestral variations in ‘notes’ / octaves everything should be accommodated to a strict schedule of 3minutes 40 seconds – the normal span of time over which the old gramophone record would complete all the revolutions to traverse the sound track. Packing the whole song with all its ‘decorations’ into a rigid time-frame is no mean feat for any MD by any standard. Unless a person is well versed in all spheres of ‘composition’ of a song [s]he cannot succeed as a Music Director. Exceptional alacrity in perceiving harmony by blending different tones of musical instruments is a hallmark of all grand Music Directors. Tamil cinema has had the fortune of ‘fielding’ some brilliant brains in the game of music composition and assemblage of high quality instrumental play. Quite a number of instrumentalists have lent their skill in embellishing each song. Actually, the dexterous play of subtle tones and notes have been products of human wizardry in handling those instruments till about 1980 or so. The best of those men and women were always the most sought after by all contemporary MDs then.  They were held in high esteem as experts by MDs of that period. Slowly, technology entered the arena of cine music through ‘imitative gadgets’ like key board, drum pad and a few other devices which took a toll of artistes who were making a living from playing some instruments. To date the best of such artistes have not been shown the door simply because every fine note suggested by an MD CAN BE READILY AND SWIFTLKY PLAYED BY experienced players; to do the same and with fractional variations thereof, human skill cannot be imitated leave alone being surpassed.

With more and more of gadget-generated tones, the thrill of listening to the live play from any instrument is the major casualty and we hear sounds and no emotions from them. Also, in later times songs are being filled in ‘bits and pieces’ to accommodate for varied commitments of artistes including those of singers; this has simply robbed the song of its life because sustaining an emotion with absolute fidelity can never be an ‘installment’ business. Besides, there is no chance for mental co-ordination between singers, as each of them records his/her portion in isolation. However, such pale shadows of sound ‘pass’ for a song because, the present day song is just a time-filler and space-filler in a movie with no specific value worth the name.   

From an era of intense participation of all stake holders for a song, we have come to a phase where things happen to convenience and songs rarely survive for weeks. The lone contribution of the present day cine song is its potential for generating livelihood for dance artistes; each song needs 50+ dancers wearing colourful costumes just remind us of our viewing a colour movie. There is an illogical assembly of numerous men and women even if the song is between a hero and the heroine under the grip of romantic mood. How dozens of them suffer the same hormonal surge is a mystery not decipherable by the best of biologists. Such illogical approaches if allowed for long, may soon enough strangulate cine music to its eternal end. So, mend or end is the silent message.

Prof. K. Raman