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K Balakumar

10 Jan, 23 tweets, 7 min read

K J Yesudas can be likened to Dravid (that these two gentlemen have their b'days just a day apart may be just a coincidence. Or may be not) while SPB can be said to be the Tendulkar of film singing, the bigger legend in most reckoning.
But for some, Dravid is the real thing.

For me, growing up in the late 70s & 80s -- peak years of Yesudas -- his impact was particularly resonant. It was because of him that many of us like me, then impressionable youngsters, got hooked on to Carnatic music. His contribution to Carnatic music goes beyond mere singing.

In this short thread, I'll put up some of his semi-classical offerings from various language films, but majority from Malayalam.
I've left marquee hits from HH Abdullah, Bharatham, Sargam et al. I've had to literally leave out hundreds of such songs. Embarrassment of riches!

I start off with, like all Carnatic lessons, with Mayamalavagowlai. The most famous Thulasi Dhalamulache from Rudraveena in Telugu. Very few people can hold a song without any accompaniment. KJY had a voice that required no background embellishment.

As I said I avoided the more famous Sankarabaranam Raghuvamsapathe from Bharatham. But this one is my personal favourite from Sopanam. An unfussy
rendering of Sarojadalanethri.

This from Swathi Thirunal is my go-to song when sad, and of course, when happy, too. I've a bigger love relationship with this Charukesi (Kripayapalaya) than even with my wife. On another day, will tell you about my fascination for Anant Nag in this film.

A racy and classy Chakravagam (Paarthasarathim) in Kudumbasametham. Those snappy swaram towards the end are a tribute to his singing genius.
youtbe.com/watch?v=3SgOjR…

This was among KJY's earliest appearances on screen. In this song, Nakshatradheepangal, don't miss the looping swara delivery, a tribute to one of his gurus Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar

The starting Kambhoji in this ragamalika (Kattile Pazhmulam) is something I can listen to all day. An yesteryear hall-of-famer.

This is a no-brainer. An all-time heart-stealer of Malayalis, and others, too: Sreeragamo. Those Karaharapriya phrases, you can practically take it to your grave.

Another all-season special for years. Yes, Nitish 'Krishna' Bharadwaj in a Malayalam movie. The uncomplicated tune (Johnson) & singing, whenever you hear it can instantly transport you to Kerala. 'Devanganangal' is so metaphorical of that State's music

This is from a movie, but I forget which. This rendition on Allah shows why music is beyond religion and actually uplift you spiritually. Allah Kripah, in Kaapi, is crisp and sweet. That earnest in the voice. Uffffff!

Well, KJY's voice is needed to showcase the devotion of Hanuman for Lord Rama. I've tears in my eyes whenever I listen to this song. Happiness? Bhakthi? Sadness? I dunno what.

One more from the never-ending assembly of amazing numbers that Malayalam movies kept throwing up through KJ Yesudas. Though this is from a Hindi music director, Naushad. An ode to love this lovable number.

I had to include this duet, Swapnangale, just for that Sahana bit. A ragam that always gets my mood up. And Dakshinamoorthy master, the music director, what a true legend. The partnership between the duo is one for the ages.

We move to Bengali, and most of KJY's amazing hits have come for that genius Salil Chowdhury. But this duet, Anga Sangame, with Kavita Krishnamurthy, came under the baton of Bappi Lahiri. Enjoy it! Brilliant it is.

Talking of Bappi Lahiri, I have to shove in his amazing Hindi melody. (A bit reminiscent (in phases) of the Tamil song Then Sindhude Vanam.) There is a Latha version of the song. But KJY overshadows her at higher octaves quite effortlessly.

This is a 13-min+ tour de force. The music director Ravindra Jain is reported to have said that if he ever got the vision in his eyes, he would want to see Yesudas sing. Shadjane Paya, in a sense, is a precursor to Devasabathalam in HH Abdullah

The above film, Tansen, never got released. A few of KJY's Hindi songs were part of movies that never made it to theatres. His first ever Hindi song, Ni Sa Ga Ma Pa Ni, was from Anand Mahal that never saw light of the days. But the song is a classic now. Speaks of KJY's greatness

From one Ni Sa Ga Ma Pa Ni to Ni Sa Ga Ma Pa Pa. And this is from Odisha. At one point in the late 70s and 80s KJY was so busy across languages that he had the most air miles in the country. Flights would wait till he arrived.

This is a State award winner in Karnataka. A big hit there from the film Malayamarutham. This Saramathi raga is pleasant and that impromptu alapana in the middle is stuff of great singing.

I can keep going on all night. But already this thread has gotten big. So we will end with one of my Tamil favs. A Kerala Christian singing for a Bengali (Salil Chowdhury) on the beauty of Cauvery, the lines of Ilango Adigal ... அறிந்தேன் வாழி காவேரி!

அறிந்தேன் வாழி, Yesudas! #HBD

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More from @kbalakumar

K Balakumar

@kbalakumar

31 Dec 20

Was at a small temple today. As is the case these days, only limited crowd. A discourse was being aired and heard through the speakers inside.

At one point, the voice said that he knew persons who, despite wearing masks and adhering to prescribed protocols, were infected by Covid-19. He added that he also knew persons who are still unaffected, in spite of being brazen about not following health rules of the times.

And then he said: "Faith in God works in a similar way. Sometimes one's best prayers may not yield what one desired for. One may get what one wished for too even without fervent pleas to the God.

Read 5 tweets

K Balakumar

@kbalakumar

2 Oct 20

Another small thread on SPB songs mostly from the 70s. But all under music directors other than MSV and Ilaiyaraaja, just to showcase the point SPB's voice was found most versatile by all music directors.

We start with the obvious, and one of Tamil cinema's all-time classic, Nanda En Nila from the eponymous film. Legendary Dakshinamoorthy's masterpiece. You may classify it as Dharmavathi or Madhuvanthi. Heck, either way, it's too good.

This is a song that was originally made famous by SG Kittappa. When music director SV Venkatraman reprised the same 'Kami Sathyabama' in Sri Krishna Leela, SPB showed his classical ability in no small measure.

Read 12 tweets

K Balakumar

@kbalakumar

29 Sep 20

A small thread on SPB songs under the baton of music director V Kumar.

It is well known that SPB primarily shaped himself under the remarkable MSV & became a legend while singing for the peerless Raaja. But the beauty of SPB voice is that all music directors had to almost willy-nilly use him. And he had sung memorable songs under almost all of them.

His partnership with V Kumar, for me, is fascinating, and some of their songs together in the 70s can belong to the hall-of-famer category. It is just that Kumar's songs --- this was a lifelong blight for him --- tended go under the radar for inexplicable reasons.

Read 17 tweets

K Balakumar

@kbalakumar

14 Sep 20

The issue of their discussion of irrelevant here.
But the specific use of the word 'mami' is decidedly casteist here. But in the skewed politics of TN the one is who is referred to as mami will be branded as casteist.

And also those folks, who wear their wokeness on their sleeves should remember, the Dravidian types will eventually come for you and your caste. No matter what! Exhibit B:

And those self-anointed wokes, whose holier-than-thou act is always grating, are no different. But their cabal will always look the other way. This man, if he were on the other camp, would have been called "vile", "scumbag" by the commissars of woke culture.

Read 5 tweets

K Balakumar

@kbalakumar

24 Jul 20

A brilliant song in the film Athma. I had long wondered why Ilaiyaraaja had TN Seshagopalan sing this, and not, say, KJ Yesudas, who was the go-to singer for such type of numbers at that time.
The song, of course, is set to the rare ragam Gowda Malhar.

This ragam is widely credited to have been conceived by Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavathar. He well and truly belongs to the pantheon of greats in Carnatic music.
And his well known disciple was Ramanathapuram Sankara Sivam, who in turn was the guru of, well, TN Seshagopalan.

TNS is generally seen to uphold the Harikesanallur tradition.
So, the whole song was Ilaiyaraaja's way of paying a tacit & beautiful tribute to a legitimate legend of Carnatic by getting his disciple TNS sing a song in a ragam conceived by him (Bhagavathar).
This is so touching!

Read 4 tweets

K Balakumar

@kbalakumar

18 Jul 20

It's on a day like this you get upset with the Indian media.
Mathematician C S Seshadri passed away last night. The most casually used word 'genius' deserves to sit alongside his name. He well and truly belongs to the Indian mathematical lineage of Ramanujan.

As his primary subject was algebraic geometry --- one that is beyond the ken of us ordinary people --- his greatness cannot be truly understood by many of us.

But, among others, he is a "Fellow of Royal Society", has a theorem named after him (jointly, the Narasimhan-Seshadri Theorem), & there is a 'Seshadri Constant', too. Even without knowing much maths, you can easily deduce that he must have been a towering figure in his field.

Read 10 tweets

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