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SPB, Shankarabharanam etc.
While on the way to and from my classes at IIM last week, I was listening to an audio tape of Shankarabharanam. I hadn't heard the songs for quite a while and I was really blown away by two factors: KV Mahadevan's music and SP Balasubramaniam's singing.
I won't bore you about the story by K Vishwanath. You could head off to Wikipedia or the IMDB to know more.
What was amazing is the fact that SPB, who was 33 in 1979 when the movie released, managed to sound like a sixty year old Carnatic music singer played by the late Somayajulu. Imagine the voice modulation and changes he would have imposed upon his voice in order to sound 27 years older!
All this in addition to the fact that he didn't really have any sort of background as a Carnatic music singer, having only kelvi gyaanam. Of course, he would have prepared himself for the songs by going through training before the songs recording started, but I remember an interview he gave sometime in the 1990s about how he was astounded by the way K Vishwanath was able to extract Carnatic music out of him, who had never had any formal training in the art.
Sankarabharanam is indeed a treat to the ears. When I listened to the songs after 3-4 years, they enthralled me to no end.
His versatility is amazing. He has been around in the industry for 26 years now and right from his rendition of "Aayiram nilave vaa" for MGR in Adimai Penn to "Sakkarai inikira sakkarai" for SJ Surya in New (the part where he begins with 'eh hey hey hey hey hey'), he has astounded me. The high pitch he reached in 'Azhagana rakshasiye' when singing "Killiye, aalangilliye" was superb. Only he could have done it. Although he has denied it in a few interviews, he obviously sounds different when he sings for different actors. You can more or less make out the difference between the way he renders a song for Kamal from one for Rajini to one for Vijay/Surya/Ajit etc. I guess as far as Tamil film songs are concerned, only TM Soundararajan used to do that, when he sung for MGR, Sivaji, 'Gemini' etc.
Actually I have always been more of a Yesudas fan. I've never quite liked SPB's pronunciation. It isn't as clear as Yesudas or 'Malaysia' Vasudevan's. He tends to make it appear as though he is "swallowing" some words, mazhuppardhu as I'd put it in Tamil. But SPB beats them for longevity in the industry. In a sense, he is like Asha Bhonsle, ever in sync with the times ... and almost never jarring to the ear!
Labels: movies
Rambled @ 11:09 AM
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I personaly think SPB is very good when he is trained by a proper music director. He fails badly when it comes to creativity of his own ( ofcourse there isnt much left for singers in Indian movies ). While I am a great fan of Sankarabharanam, I would prefer Hariharan any day :D
bala - Hariharan is superb with his creativity. I feel like strangling him sometimes when he does all the gamaks. I feel like asking him "Who asked you to do that? That was totally unwarranted you show off!" :)
suraj - Actually doesn't that make KV Mahadevan & SPB in Shankarabharanam even more amazing. He didn't really have a "proper" Carnatic music background. Yet KVM was able to get SPB to exceed his ability.
By 
Jagadish (Feb 8, 2006, 3:04:00 PM)
Next to TMS, I feel SPB pronounces Tamil most clearly with atmost clarity. Vaali himself has said this on a stage "En vaarthaigal'la ennaiyave mayakkinadhu Balu'voda tamil ucharippu dhaan". There is no word or letter he has mispronounced, especially the LA sound or NA sounds - unique to Tamil. As a tamilian, he was the one to who made me like this language. Prabhu.
By 
(Mar 27, 2006, 10:49:00 AM)
prabhu: TMS' pronunciation was awesome and clear. I don't think SPB's pronunciation is anywhere near TMS', purely imho.
By Jagadish (Mar 27, 2006, 12:08:00 PM)
Hi Jagdish, sorry for posting uninvited on your blog, but I have some strong opinions on this topic, which I want to share with other people, perhaps just giving another point of view from someone who does know little bit of classical music.
I just watched Shankarabharanam last week with my telugu friends, as I wanted to watch it for long time. I eagerly waited for Brochevarevarura in Khamas raga. For general people, the rendition by SPB is superb, I agree. But for someone who is trained in Classical, SPB just kills the song. Khamas is NOT a light raga, it is very heavy and that is its beauty. If it is sung like light music, it will totally ruin it. SPB sings it like light music. I would encourage anyone to listen to the pure classical version of it (musicindiaonline.com, unnikrishnan for eg), even if you don't know carnatic classical. Then tell me if you don't have tears in your eyes.
SPB is a great singer, and I love his songs more than anyone. He is just not suited for classical, and shouldn't venture there.
-prasanna.
prasanna: No. The moment a blog enables comments, there's no concept of "uninvited comments". You're welcome to counter my rant :) I'll definitely listen to a purely classical version of the song to compare SPB's rendition with another classical trained singer's. Btw I wonder if Unnikrishnan's voice has also not been "corrupted" by the influence of singing in films.
By Jagadish (Sep 13, 2006, 3:18:00 PM)
Hi Jagadish,
Voice does not get corrupted by singing film songs. Style does. Fortunately, Unnikrishnan being primarily a classical singer has not let his film singing affect his classiscal style. Although, Unnikrishnan is not perfect. Like most popular tamil carnatic classical vocalists today, Unnikrishnan does not take the time to learn the correct pronunciation of the telugu lyrics. So, forget the lyrics, just enjoy the melody.
-prasanna
prapancham1@yahoo.com
By (Sep 14, 2006, 12:39:00 AM)
prasanna: Sure, will do. In my opinion, Unnikrishnan was very good in film music when he started out. Later when he started singing too many songs, his voice sort of got stale. Thankfully nowadays we don't hear him too often in film music!
By Jagadish (Sep 14, 2006, 11:14:00 AM)
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