SOUTH INDIAN CINE MUSIC DIRECTORS [OLD] –XIV

 

MD – IX    VEDHA    [SS VEDHACHALAM]

Mr. SS Vedhachalam is said to have been born in Ceylon [Sri Lanka now] and other details of his early life are not available in normal sources. Mr. SSV is suggested to have begun his career as a composer in Sinhala movies. May be that he was familiar with the language and culture of that land; Sinhala movies of those times were being made in Madras, providing opportunity for some Indians to work in those projects. Soon enough he set foot in the Tamil film industry as a composer and was active for over 25 years as a composer. He worked for a few movies of PSV pictures and for most of the movies of Modern theatres. In fact, his name is widely known for his work in movies from Modern theatres.              

A popular opinion has been that   Mr. Vedha would simply reproduce Hindi tunes for Tamil songs; but that was more a notion. In my understanding , if producers demand reproduction of popular Hindi tunes,   SSV   could have done precious little to exercise   his opinion ; in fact his ability to ‘reproduce’ all tunes and musical notes precisely as in the ‘original’  prompted producers to   invite SSV to deliver ‘sure hits’ –already tested on a national scale. My belief to that contention is strengthened by my observation that Mr. Vedha had composed songs for the fiction ‘PARTHIBAN KANAVU’ that had a rich variety of classical songs.    As I understand, it is improper to dub Mr. Vedha of ‘reproducing’ from well-known hits. Look at these ORIGINAL SCORES of Vedha in the films notified as under.

‘PARTHIBAN KANAVU’  ‘pazhagum thamizhe’ was a grand romantic piece.

‘kannale naan kanda kanavu’ was a sedate song rich in melancholy-like melody.

‘andhi mayangudhadi’ was a dance song

‘malligaippoo’ was a grand rhythm; starts as  a slow beat song and progresses into rapidity . Looks like the father of many rhythm songs. LOOK AT THE USE OF ‘THAVIL’ through this song; brilliantly choreographed too.

‘PONNU MAPPILLAI’    Most songs in this movie are fast beat songs. Looks that                 Mr. Vedha has used percussion with a vengeance to silence critics that he makes very slow songs.   

‘naala naala pala naala’  A  very fast number

‘mana magan ‘              A peppy song full of verve

‘ellorum kai thattungal’ another fast beat song embellished in tonal variation by LR Eswari.

‘ANBU ENGE’   Vedha  made a huge impact on cine fans through very fresh styles of composition in 1958-59. ‘ mele parakkum rockettu’, - song trap on youth then.

‘amirtha yogam vellikkizhamai’ another peppy song that was popular then.      

‘AMMA ENGE’      ‘nan vanagum deivame’ , ‘paappaa paappaa kadhai kelu’ were some very well received numbers. ’        

He had scored very many hits for Modern theatres, who  were making JAMES BOND- style movies     with JAI SANKAR on lead role. They were popular as ‘vallavan series’.  ALL SONGS WERE SUPER-DUPER HITS, though completely adapted from Hindi scores’.

 His music scores for ‘ADHE KANGAL [AVM] were well received and appreciated. Yet, he was not frequently utilized by movie-makers.  SAD INDEED.

My salutations to Mr. Vedha

Prof. K. Raman