The Sky is New

The song 'Puthiya vaanam' (புதிய வானம் – The Sky is New) from the movie Anbe Vaa (அன்பே வா – Come, My Love – Tamil – 1966) was one of the most popular of MGR’s (M.G. Ramachandran) idealist songs. Based on the story of the Hollywood film 'Come September', 1961, it was a resounding commercial success and “attained cult status in Tamil cinema”.

Song background: The hero arrives in Shimla (the capital of Himachal Pradesh) for a holiday and proceeds to his bungalow, enjoying the sights and sounds on the way. He sees a new sky and Earth and the world awakening to a new sun. He sings that nobody there questioned about one’s nationality or discriminated based on caste. Human beings were pursuing the path of love, worshipped Nature and showed in life that the mind is as high as the mountain summits.

MGR holds a suitcase and a cane in his hands during the entire song, except when he is with a couple of children for 30 seconds. He handled the luggage so gracefully, it is doubtful if any other actor would have succeeded so well or even agreed to do  so. Another interesting aspect is that the lyrics sing about showers of snow and flowers everywhere, but the footage doesn't have them. Perhaps the weather failed the shooting crew, and a natural shower of flowers was impossible to find, and yet MGR's convincing acting made the audience forget the lapses. 

The lyrics were written by Vaali to music set by M.S. Vishwanathan and sung by TM Soundararajan. The song has been translated from Tamil into English and displayed on the video so that the wider audience can understand and appreciate it better.

For non-commercial cultural and educational purposes. Copyrights belong to the rightful owners.

 Click to watch the video: https://youtu.be/sbbmIsO63V4 

Dawns and Dusks, film Charlie

 The film Charlie (Malayalam, 2015) won 8 state awards, including Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Cinematography, and was remade in Bengali as Surjo, Marathi as Deva and Tamil as Maara. It was directed by Martin Prakkat with Dulquer Salmaan and Parvathy in the lead roles, Gopi Sunder scoring the music and Jomon T. John in charge of cinematography. 

The song "Pularikalo Sandhyagalo" (Dawns & Dusks) was written by Rafeeq Ahammed and sung by Shakthisree Gopalan and Md. Maqbool Mansoor. 

Song situation: Tessa is a software technician who can earn a living. Her parents want her to marry someone whom she can’t imagine as her life partner. As the parents force, she escapes to a friend’s place in Kochi city and rents an apartment. It’s dilapidated and has many things left by its previous vagabond tenant, Charlie, who phones her but refuses to take them away immediately even when Tessa warns of disposing them. The song  starts there showing her waking up the next morning, making her coffee and looking closer at the things created/installed by Charlie. She begins to admire their artistry and innovation. Changing her mind, she cleans his arts/artefacts and keeps them in order. 

The lyrics have been translated from Malayalam into English and displayed on the video to enable the wider audience to understand and appreciate the song better. 

For non-monetary cultural and educational purposes. 

Click the link to watch the music video: https://youtu.be/k9F_cKLMl8o?si=zxaXs8dR7gP9UG7Q

Beethoven, César Franck, Wagner, and Bach: The Mother's observations

 

Beethoven in 1823 by Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller

Among the great modern musicians there have been several whose consciousness, when they created, came into touch with a higher consciousness. César Franck played on the organ as one inspired; he had an opening into the psychic life and he was conscious of it and to a great extent expressed it. Beethoven, when he composed the Ninth Symphony, had the vision of an opening into a higher world and of the descent of a higher world into this earthly plane. Wagner had strong and powerful intimations of the occult world; he had the instinct of occultism and the sense of the occult and through it he received his greatest inspirations. But he worked mainly on the vital level and his mind came inconstantly to interfere and mechanised his inspiration. His work for the greater part is too mixed, too often obscure and heavy, although powerful. But when he could cross the vital and the mental levels and reach a higher world, some of the glimpses he had were of an exceptional beauty, as in Parsifal, in some parts of Tristan and Iseult and most in its last great Act.

*

There is a domain far above the mind which we could call the world of Harmony and, if you can reach there, you will find the root of all harmony that has been manifested in whatever form upon earth. For instance, there is a certain line of music, consisting of a few supreme notes, that was behind the productions of two artists who came one after another—one a concerto of Bach, another a concerto of Beethoven. The two are not alike on paper and differ to the outward ear, but in their essence they are the same. One and the same vibration of consciousness, one wave of significant harmony touched both these artists. Beethoven caught a larger part, but in him it was more mixed with the inventions and interpolations of his mind;Bach received less, but what he seized of it was purer. The vibration was that of the victorious emergence of consciousness, consciousness tearing itself out of the womb of unconsciousness in a triumphant uprising and birth.

- The Mother

Source: Excerpts - 28 July 1929, Questions and Answers, Collected Works of the Mother, Volume 3, Pages 110-113

(The above text is not exhaustive of the Mother's words on the musicians.) 

Image: 1823, Wikipedia. (Beethoven composed the Ninth Symphony between 1822-24)

Hero by Mariah Carey

"Mariah Carey is the best-selling female artist of all time with more than 200 million albums sold to date and 19 Billboard Hot 100 #1 singles (18 self-penned), more than any solo artist in history. Mariah is a singer/songwriter/producer recognized with multiple Grammy Awards, numerous American Music Awards, Billboard's 'Artist of the Decade' Award, the World Music Award for 'World's Best Selling Female Artist of the Millennium' and BMI's 'Icon Award' for her outstanding achievements in songwriting, to name a few – with her distinct five-octave vocal range, prolific songwriting, and producing talent, Mariah is truly the template of the modern pop performance. " (Excerpt from the description on Maria Carey's YouTube channel.) 

Mariah's "Hero" is regarded as one of her most inspirational songs. The core message: the hero is not someone to be found outside but within oneself. He is neither a world-saving superman nor a genius who builds a business empire like Steve Jobs or destroys a world-threatening evil project like James Bond. Heroism is in everyone who finds the inner strength to keep moving towards the realisation of one's dream, feeling also the presence of the Divine. Love is also not to be found outside but by searching within. The spirit of the song is to emphasise a soul-centric inner life to transform the external life. 

Interestingly, the concept of transformation of life by the discovery and influence of the soul within a human being is an essential aspect of Sri Aurobindo's (1872-1950, India) vision of human evolution. The Mother (1876-1973, born in Paris, France), who created Sri Aurobindo Ashram and founded Auroville in India, while encouraging the publication of a book titled "On the Way to Supermanhood" written by an Ashram inmate, Satprem, observed in 1971: "I personally have the feeling there is a close and invisible connection between America’s aspiration, as it is now, and the book." Mariah Carey's song of 1993 might be inspired by that aspiration. 

Released on 19th October 1993, "Hero" was a creation of Mariah Carey and record producer Walter Afanasieff and was part of their album "Music Box". The song was a global success, reaching the top five in Canada, France, Ireland, New Zealand and Norway, the top ten in Australia and the United Kingdom, and number one in America. 

The "Hero" video posted on "Timeless Music and Talks" now is Mariah Carey's rendition on 29 September 1993, in the year of its release. However, perhaps the best Mariah Carey rendition of "Hero" is the one posted on her channel 15 years ago. It's stunning to see the vast improvement in the singer's presentation of the song – theme articulation, smoothness of singing and hold over the audience – compared to the launch year renditions. This is the link to that: https://youtu.be/0IA3ZvCkRkQ?si=6ZdO3_L8XlkWvz3w 

The lyrics of the song are displayed on the video as subtitles so that the wider audience can understand and appreciate it better.

Click the link to watch the music video: https://youtu.be/sa7YbaXKZng

Berlioz: Incarnation of Music - The Mother's observations

 

Louis-Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)
by Gustave Courbet, 1850

(Excerpt: 20 October 1954, Questions and Answers, CWM, Vol 6, Pg 379) 

(Silence) 

Nothing more? Do you have another question? 

Regarding the film we saw, what is the place of suffering in artistic creation? 

The film? 

We saw that through suffering… 

Oh, oh, oh, oh!... the film about Berlioz? 

His music matured through suffering… 

Yes, yes, so what place...? Where does it come from? 

Suffering—how does it help artistic creation? 

How does it help? That depends on people. Some people are very powerfully helped by it. I consider that man one of the purest expressions of music. It is almost... I could say that he is an incarnation of music, of the spirit of music. Unfortunately, his body was a little frail; that is, he did not have that solid base which yoga gives, for instance. So this shook him up too much and made him too emotional, nervous, agitated, and emotive. You see, it was a serious weakness. But from the point of view of creation, I have always felt—and the other day it was very very strong—that truly he was in contact with the spirit of music, you know, the very meaning of music, and that this entered into him with such a force that it shook him up; but truly, truly he was like an incarnation of music. 

The notion that it was suffering that made him create is purely human; it is not true. What, on the contrary, is very very remarkable is—to turn the thing around—that there was no physical pain which was not instantaneously translated into music in him; that is, the spirit of music was much stronger than human pain, and each blow which he received from life—and as he was indeed too sensitive to have the power of resisting, he was shaken—all the same, instantly, it was translated into music. It is something very rare. 

People—all creators—usually require a little... how shall I put it? ... time and quietness to be able to begin creating again, while with him it was spontaneous. The painful blow brought musical expression instantaneously. Truly for him his whole life began with music and finished with music. It was music, and it was a... he had such a sincerity and such an exclusive intensity in his attachment to music that I feel that the spirit of music expressed itself through him. Perhaps what he has written is not the most beautiful music because of that kind of weakness of what we call the “adhara” here. He was... his physical make-up was a little too weak. But from the point of view of music, it is very beautiful, very beautiful. (Silence) And even with his power, he had a very great simplicity. There is a kind of limpidity of line in what he has written, with a very great technical knowledge, of course. His power of orchestration was very, very remarkable. When one can orchestrate something for six hundred performers, it means a science as complicated as the most complicated mathematics. And in fact they come very close. 

- The Mother 

Image: Info about artwork, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15883573

O Majhi Re, film Khushboo

 O Majhi Re! (O Boatman!) is a song from the movie Khushboo (Fragrance, Hindi, 1975). The film is based on a story by Bengali writer Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay from the early 20th century. This song by Gulzar is a renaissance poetry, as it evokes the ancient Indian view of life that prevailed prior to the illusionism of Buddha and Shankara of the recent millennia. 

The film's protagonist, Vrindavan, was married in his childhood to a girl child, Kusum. Child marriage was a practice resorted to by families in late mediaeval India. The justifications might be to protect the girl child from abduction by men from other castes or religions or powerful but aged men, invaders or bandits, or to prevent the girl from escaping family-arranged marriages by eloping with someone of her choice. The practice took away conscious consent of the women in her marriage and denied them education by confining them to domestic work. The practice was made illegal by the British Indian government due to a campaign against it by Bengali reformer Ram Mohan Roy.) But the family of Kusum left the boy's house, taking her to another village because they were accused by the boy's family of a crime they didn't commit. Vrindavan grew up, became a doctor and married a woman who was a child marriage victim and widow, and they had a boy child. As his wife died due to an illness, he was living alone with his son. While attending a patient in Kusum's village, Vrindavan and Kusum happened to meet. Kusum had become a beautiful woman but refused to marry anybody. The possibility of Vrindavan and Kusum's reunion arises but is still prevented by the memories of the old conflict between their families. A plague then strikes the village, and the people are falling dead or leaving. Kusum takes care of Vrindavan’s son, who had fallen sick, while he takes a boat to attend to patients somewhere, promising to return by nightfall. 

The song "O Majhi Re!" is Vrindavan's vision of life while sailing on the boat. It evokes the true ancient Indian view of life that prevailed prior to the illusionism of Buddha and Shankara of the recent millennia. The singer advises any boatman coasting by the shore that the real shore is the stream of the river itself and describes the confluence of the river streams as the true shore. The song is also indicative of the river of his life flowing towards a union with that of Kusum. 

Jeetendra and Hemamalini did the lead roles in the movie. Direction, screenplay, dialogues and songs of the movie were done by Gulzar. “O Majhi Re” is sung in the majestic voice of Kishore Kumar to the music set by R.D. Burman. 

The Hindi lyrics have been translated into English and displayed on the video to enable viewers not knowing Hindi to understand and appreciate the song better.

Copyrights belong to the original owners.

Click this link to watch (3 min : 25 sec) : https://youtu.be/ke540O-hbVc

Vennila Chandanakkinnam by Ashwathi Rajendran

The lyrics of "Vennila Chandanakkinnam" (The Sandalwood Paste Bowl Moon) were written by Kaithapram Dhamodharan Namboothiri, and the music was composed by Vidyasagar who won the Best Music Director from Kerala State for his compositions in this movie titled "Azhagiya Ravananan" (Handsome Ravana, Malayalam, 1996). The lead roles were played by Mammootty and Bhanupriya.

The film song is a marvellous production with the playback of K.J. Yesudas and Shabnam, enacted by actors Mammootty, Bhanupriya, Sreenivasan, and two child actors. It's a song of pure emotions and joy but due to copyright restrictions it can't be seen in 55 countries if reposted. The song has been covered by various singers, and among them, Ashwathi Rajendran's music video brings out the best, visually and musically,  the poetry of the lyrics. Ashwathi is a vocalist and a medical doctor and has been covering and publishing music videos on her YouTube channel since 2018.

There is a line of "Vennila Chandanakkinnam" that has a mystic description: peepal leaves chanting divine names. Ashwathi's cover version had another word for peepal leaves that sounded similar to it. To an email query if there was any reason for the change, Ashwathi clarified it was not deliberate and regretted the mistake. She said it might have been due to the lyrics taken from some website while recording the song. Thanking me for the information, she replied it would be remembered while recording a song next time. It's good to see an artist admitting a mistake and resolving to prevent it in the future, qualities that would help make her work more perfect.

The original lyrics have been translated from Malayalam into English and displayed on the video to enable the wider audience to understand and appreciate the song better. I am grateful for translation suggestions from Meena Agimon (Maya, sister), to whom I had sent my draft translation. She was a first-prize-winning poet at high school and completed her graduation in Vaikom, Kerala. (Married to Agimon in 1998, she has been living with her family in Chertala, Kerala).  

Click this link to watch (2 min : 52 sec) : https://youtu.be/QOkwsoM-7QQ

Thunbam Nergayil by IndoSoul

 "துன்பம் நேர்கையில்" (Thunbam Nergayil – When Sorrow Strikes) is a poem by Tamil poet Bharatidasan. Born in Pondicherry in 1891, named K. Subburathinam, he "was deeply influenced by the Tamil poet and freedom fighter, Subramania Bharathi, who mentored him and hence named himself "Bharathidasan, meaning the follower of Bharathi". Bharatidasan remained a prolific writer and poet till he died on 21 April 1964, aged 72. He was conferred the Sahitya Academy Award posthumously for his Tamil play "Pisiraandhaiyaar". [Wikipedia]

'Thunbam Nergayil' is a poem written by him in 1939, wherein a parent speaks to a child, and was set to music by Dhandapani Desikar in the Hindustani raga 'Desh'. The song became popular when it was rendered in the same raga by R. Sudharsanam for the Tamil film ஓர் இரவு (Oer Iravu – One Night, 1951). Desikar said in an interview that it took him two years to compose the song, and he believed that music should be in accordance with the meaning of the song. 

The song has also been rendered by many classical and light music singers and that by IndoSoul has been chosen for 'Timeless Music and Talks'. One of the main reasons is that the band hasn't done it as a romantic song between a couple – as erroneously done in the film version and that of QFR, a popular music group – it is well made, and Karthick Iyer's vocalisation scales great heights. 

The song has been translated from Tamil into English as sung, except one word, and is displayed as subtitles on the video. About the one word difference:

Most renditions (including IndoSoul's) have the first lines of the second stanza as follows:

 "வன்பும் எளிமையும் சூழும் நாட்டிலே

வாழ்வில் உணர்வு சேர்க்க". 

However, the poem on the website of the Tamil Virtual University has a small but significant difference:

"வன்பும் எளிமையும் சூழும் நாட்டிலே

வாழ்வின் உணர்வு சேர்க்க". 

The common version means "For adding consciousness to life", whereas the university version means "For adding life's consciousness". As life itself is a consciousness, and so adding "life's consciousness" makes sense than adding "consciousness to life", the university's version of the word has been translated for this video. 

 Click this link to watch (3 min : 42 sec) : https://youtu.be/Uu46mPWh8Zw

Phagun Haway Haway

'Phagun Haway Haway' is a Bengali poem by Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). Shirin Soraiya has rendered a light musical version of it, which is delightful to listen to and joyful to view. Born in Murshidabad district, West Bengal, to parents who were not musicians, Shirin took her basic training in Hindustani classical, which she learnt for nearly six years. Her first Rabindra Sangeet tutor was a well-known exponent, Maitreyi Majumdar, a disciple of the legendary Suchitra Mitra. She always wanted to carve out a career in performing arts and culture, but obliging her parents, she prioritised education, passing an M.A. in English and also a B.Ed. In 2012, she married and found a schoolteacher’s job. Two years later, their daughter was born.

During the Covid lockdowns of 2020, she and her family withdrew from Kolkata to their country home in their native place. She said in an interview with Different Truths in 2022, “In 2020 on Pochis e Boishakh (Tagore’s birth anniversary), I launched my first song, which was much appreciated and warmly received. Now, having made up my mind to learn the technical aspects, I seriously delved into technical books to master the techniques of sound effects, sound engineering, recording, editing, etc.; I even fixed up a home studio for the purpose.”

“I personally feel, as of now, Rabindra Sangeet is heavily chained and shackled by draconian rules and regulations, which the budding artists often find oppressive and intimidating. There is an erroneous idea doing the rounds that Tagore’s music is meant only for esoteric groups. But that is not so. Tagore wanted his music to permeate the lives of even the lowly and meek”. She added, “I nurture a dream: it shall be my endeavour to liberate Tagore’s lyrics from pseudo bondages and put it within the grasp of the common man.”

Shirin Soraiya attributed her success to Facebook (now 443K followers) and YouTube (now 43K subscribers). (Source: 'Shirin: Liberate Tagore’s Lyrics for the Commoners', Different Truths, March 12, 2022). 

'Phagun Haway Haway' produced by Pradyut Chaterjea, premiered on Shirin Soraiya’s YouTube channel on 29th December 2024. I am grateful to her for kindly agreeing, when her permission was requested, to post the song, with an English translation from the website Geetabitan, on ‘Timeless Music and Talks’.

Minor changes have been made to the English translation of Anjan Ganguly's that was posted on the Geetabitan. Gratitude to the translator and the website for making it available free for all. Thanks to Sumita Chakraborty (West Bengal), who helped identify a tree named in the poem. It was well worth the effort, as it turned out to be not 'fir' as in the translation but saltcedar (Jhau, red tamarisk, or tamaris).

For non-monetary, non-profit, cultural and educational purposes. 

Watch the music video at: youtu.be/SbPvF7rx4NQ

Watching the sea swaying its manes

"Watching the sea swaying its manes" is the first line of Bhaavam (Attitude, music video, 2023) by singer & composer Job Kurian. Bhaavam is perhaps one of those "untranslatable" Indian words as eminent Indian intellectual Rajiv Malhotra would call it. "Attitude" gives the sense of a mental poise but Bhaavam gives not only the mental but includes the vital and the physical poise of a human being.   

Kurian has sung 37 film songs and composed and sung in 18 music albums since his first song in the film "Goal" in 2007. His Bhaavam is about losing the ego, opening to self-knowledge, and seeking the Truth. The protagonist's experiences are not a result of joining a traditional ashram or monastery but while living in the present world. Notably, his vision is not an ascetic withdrawal from life's riches nor an embracing of poverty, reflective of the Upanishadic teachings that the Divine can be experienced both amid wealth and poverty. ("For it is not the wealth and the poverty which matter or are real, but only the feeling of the presence of the Lord in all things". - Sri Aurobindo, Isha Upanishad, CWSA, Vol 7, Pg 184) 

The video has received 4.2 million views on Kurian's YouTube channel who regards as his gurus Surendran Master, Kavalam Narayana Panicker (1928–2016, poet, playwright, theatre director, lyricist—Padmabhushan, 2007), and Nedumudi Venu (1948–2021, veteran movie actor, won three National Film Awards).

The lyrics of Bhaavam were written by Engandiyoor Chandrasekharan and Job Kurian. They have been translated from Malayalam into English and added as subtitles on the video. 

Click this link to watch (5 min : 24 sec): https://youtu.be/yaiyONTH1Rk

Jazz: What a Wonderful World by Angie Fisher

  A standard symphony orchestra typically consists of about 80 to 100 musicians, but jazz bands comprise a much smaller number of about 3 to 25 musicians. In its potential for making excellent music, jazz is no less than orchestral music. Esperanza Emily Spalding, an American jazz musician, singer, songwriter, and composer who has won four Grammy Awards, said while performing a jazz concert song some years ago, “Europe gave us classical music, and jazz is America’s classical music”.

'What a Wonderful World', is considered a jazz standard, and was written by George David Weiss and Bob Thiele. It was first recorded live by the legendary singer Louis Armstrong in 1959 and then, in 1967, recorded in a studio and released. Louis passed away in 1971, and the recording received wider attention when it was used in an American war comedy film, ‘Good Morning, Vietnam’ in 1988. The song was then re-released.

It's a lovely song on the simple joys of life and has been covered by many singers over the past decades. I find Angie Fisher's the best for many reasons, not least of which are its simple presentation and heartfelt expressions. Besides, a female singer rendering the blooming of a rose, a rainbow, and children growing seems more apt, and the fact that she is a Black singer reminds us that jazz originated from the urban culture of American Black musicians but has transcended race and become a part of the American culture.

Ref: Wikipedia

Click this link to watch (3 min : 05 sec):  'What a Wonderful World' by Angie Fisher

The world is not an unfortunate accident, it is a marvel which moves towards its expression. - The Mother

(Excerpt: 27 November 1971, Words of the Mother - I, CWM Vol 13, Pg 15)

Idealism and aspiration in film music

 

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