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| Music maestro Ilayaraaja conducting a concert in Singapore, 2021 |
The first movie of the world, 1893, USA
In 1893, Eadweard Muybridge projected hand-painted animated images at his Zoopraxigraphical Hall at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, USA. In June 1894, in Portland, Oregon, Charles Francis Jenkins used his Phantoscope to project his film before an audience of family, friends, and reporters. The Phantoscope was later sold to Thomas Alva Edison (the great inventor), who changed the name of the projector to Edison's Vitascope. The first "storefront theater" in the US dedicated exclusively to showing motion pictures was Vitascope Hall, Louisiana, 1896.
In London, Lumière and Robert Paul presented moving pictures in 1896, and the same year the Lumière firm presented the technology of the Cinématographe in June 1896 at Bombay by screening six films over a month's duration: Entry of Cinematographe, The Sea Bath, Arrival of a Train, A Demolition, Ladies and Soldiers on Wheels, and Leaving the Factory. Their next presentation was made in Australia. The first screening of silent films in Madras was by Mr. Edwards at the Victoria Public Hall in 1897.
The first Indian film maker Bhatavdekar, 1899
Having witnessed the birth of silent cinema from the Lumière firm's shows in Bombay, a 28-year-old still photographer, Sakharam Bhatavdekar, invested 21 guineas and imported the first motion picture camera from the Riley Brothers of England. With the imported equipment, he shot a wrestling match between two well-known wrestlers and got the reel processed in England. The silent documentary 'The Wrestlers' of 1899 turned Bhatavdekar into the first filmmaker in India.
The first feature film of India, also a silent movie, Raja Harishchandra, was made by Dadasaheb Phalke in 1913 in Bombay. Raghupathi Venkaiah Naidu put up Gaiety, the first cinema house in Madras in 1914 to be built by an Indian. The first Tamil film with sound, Keechaka Vadham, was directed by R. Nataraja Mudaliar in 1918.
The first Indian talkie film, Alam Ara (Light of the Universe), 1931
India's first talkie film was Alam Ara (Light of the Universe), produced by Ardeshir Irani in 1931. Less than 7 months later, the first Tamil talkie film, Kalidas (bilingual—Telugu and Tamil), was released by the same producer. Since then, the Tamil film industry has produced and released over 10,000 films. Unlike films in the rest of the world, which usually don’t have a song in them, it is the opposite with Indian films: every film on an average has 4 or 5 songs. Films without songs are so rare their numbers may be considered negligible. Light music instead of classical music became the norm in the films. The legendary film music director M.S. Viswanathan (MSV), who made hundreds of evergreen song compositions over the decades, was popularly admired as Mellisai Mannar, the King of Light Music. Ilaya Raja and A.R. Rahman, who gained ascendance after MSV, were also prolific creators of light music songs. Film music has been a significant influence in the culture and society in the state of Tamil Nadu since the second half of the twentieth century.
'Tamil Music in Films', Unity Pavilion, 23rd February
Smt. Subhashree Thanikachalam, organiser of QFR, a popular music group hosted by the YouTube channel Ragamalika TV, said while introducing their rendition of a song a few years ago, "Tamil film music was first inspired by Carnatic music, next Hindustani, and then Western, Jazz, etc". The QFR group, since 2020, has made renditions of over 700 evergreen Tamil film songs by talented artists using advanced technology of the present times.
A presentation of ‘Tamil Music in Films’ by Tmt. A. Chitra and Tmt. A. Mangayarkarasi from Chennai was organised as a part of the Auroville Festival on 23rd February 2025 at Unity Pavilion. As the theme was Carnatic ragas in Tamil film songs, they spoke about the ragas and sang the first couple of lines of a number of songs—devotional, love, sad, etc.—in about an hour's time. Singing in Tamil, they spoke alternately in Tamil and English and towards the end, sang the first lines of 10 songs with recorded background music. The hall might have been half full, but the audience of different cultural origins was appreciative.
Most film songs aim to be entertaining and exciting, but there are many songs with highly inspired music and lyrics. They are devotional, romantic, tragic, etc., and beyond, idealistic and aspiring. A couple of examples:
1. Lines from 'Manithan Enbavan' composed by M.S. Viswanathan
If one’s mind is set, even a bird's nest can accommodate the deer.
If there is a way, one can realise a mountain with a mustard.
2. Lines from 'Idhu Oru Ponmalai' composed by Ilayaraaja
The sky is my Bodhi Tree
And it brings me a message every day.
There have been many programs on films in Auroville, but this is the first one, as far as I know, exclusively on film music. Appreciations to the organisers for the pioneering initiative.
A program by a professional light music orchestra to perform at least a dozen film songs of high inspiration, each of them completely, would be good to have, maybe once a year, for an enriching experience of Indian film music.
Ref:
1. The Untold Story of India's First Filmmakers
2. Wikipedia