Matters of the Mind, Nature of the Heart

Image Source & Credit : https://alochemshelelohim.wordpress.com/

Heart (ഹൃദയം) usually refers to the organ which pumps our blood to various parts of the body, and Mind (മനസ്സ്) refers to where thought processes occur in us, where we feel emotions. However, in Malayalam movie lyrics, lyricists have painted vastly different pictures of various aspects of the mind using those terms interchangeably. Most of these have philosophical undertones. Here are some of my favourites.

The Vayalar – Devarajan kind of magic in Onscreen Romance | My Favorites

Saint Valentine’s Day, also known as Valentine’s Day is a holiday observed on February 14 in many countries around the world. Each year on this day, many people exchange cards, candy, gifts or flowers with their special “valentine.” The day of romance and love we call Valentine’s Day. Love, as Oxford dictionary claims, is the highly searched word.

The Songs our Parents gave us | A Tribute to mine

When I think back on my childhood from where I am now at 51, I think that I had a delightful time. Though with its share of disappointments and frustrations, the good memories now far outweigh the unpleasant.

The Tamil film songs of music director Raveendran

Pix Credit : http://www.pradipsomasundaran.com/

[ Another treasure “reclaimed” from the defunct archives of DHOOL. Republishing Saravanan Natarajan’s tribute to Raveendran Master, written in the year of his passing, in 2005. Saravanan takes you through the 7 Tamil movies of Raveendran Master, amongst which are surprisingly, the Tamil versions of “Ezhu Swarangalum” and “Thenum Vayambum” !  ]

Ganga Creations’ Hemavin Kaadhalargal must have been years in the making, for while it was released in 1985, the EP sleeve of the movie mentions its year of manufacture as 1982. The film was produced by Ganga and was the second film of the acclaimed Malayalam director T.V.Chandran.

S Janaki, an HMV best-seller LP and Devarajan’s ire.

[ This came originally as a detailed response from Sajith Bhaskaran to a post here on S Janaki, and knowing the amount of information he manages to pack to each response, strongly warranted a “place” of its own, and hence this post. S Jankai, P Madhuri and G Devarajan have always been an intersting trio for any Malayalam music buffs who care about Malayalam Film Playback history, for the musical creativity and output between them and a certain degree of intrigue that surrounded the great music director’s choices in vocals over some of the best-loved gems from Malayalam films of yore. Over to Sajith. ]

This is a note on the post of yours on the songs of S Janaki. Your selection of songs traverses through the path of Malayalam film music right from the sixties to the nineties.

In fact, HMV, in the late sixties released an album of selected songs of S Janaki and a few songs in that list are also found among your favourites.

Susie’s Fab Five | Songs of Dawn

The Break of Dawn from Ulsavapittennu (1989)

I was just driving out of the garage to go to work at 5.30 am. The car window was down, and the cool, crisp air blew in my face. I wound the window up, and turned right, driving out of the gates. The sun was just coming up over the horizon, and the car stereo was playing “Arayilotta mundudutha Penne“, a song which I have heard innumerable times before.

കനക സിംഹാസനത്തിൽ കയറിയ ഗാനം.

അഴിമതിക്കാരനും കണ്ണിൽ ചോര ഇല്ലാത്തവനും സ്ത്രീ ലമ്പടനും ആയ ഉഗ്രവർമനെ ( ഉമ്മർ) കളിയാക്കാൻ കിട്ടിയ അവസരം അര കള്ളനായ നാഗനും (പ്രേംനസീർ ) മുക്കാൽ കള്ളൻ ആയ അരുവിക്കര തമ്പിയും (അടൂർ ഭാസി ) നന്നായി ഉപയോഗിക്കുന്ന ഒരു ഗാനമുണ്ട് – ചിത്രം ഏതാണ് എന്ന് ഇപ്പോൾ ചോദിക്കരുത്. പറയില്ല. കാരണം ഇനി പറയേണ്ട ആവശ്യമില്ല.

Susie’s Fab Five | Songs that List them out

As life becomes more busy and more complicated, memory lapses advance with age, we start making lists. Lists rule our lives. Shopping lists. To do lists. Telephone contacts lists. Password lists. Lists of complaints. And less commonly, lists of compliments – the list of Lists go on and on.

The Songs of PB Srinivas | Those that you may have missed

Pix Credit & Rights : The Hindu

{ This is a guest post by Harikrishnan Nair, as an addendum to Susie’s tribute to PB Srinivas’ songs, as he felt he had to place on record his favorites amongst them some which might have not have been got the due recognition it deserved. “A silent lover of this blog”, he mailed this across as a slightly extended response to Susie’s post, but I felt it needed a place of its own in here. – cinematters }

The Songs of Kanyakumari (1974)

Kamal Haasan and Rita Bhaduri in Kanyakumari (1974)

KS Sethumadhavan’s Kanyakumari (1974) had 2 songs in Malayalam written by Vayalar, set to music by MB Sreenivasan. There is an English song credited for its lyrics and music to MB Srinivasan but I strongly contest that and feel a collaborator on the lyrics have been left out. There are two instrumental pieces, catering to two disparate forms of dance as it were, a Shiv Parvati Lasya piece, and a music montage of Jayan’s memories of his Bohemian life, of a life-time of drugs, sex and rock-n-roll.

S Janaki and MS Baburaj | The best melodies by the Nightingale in Malayalam

Pix Credit : sjanaki.net

The late 50’s fifties saw the entry of a 19-year  old singer capturing everyone’s attention with her magical voice, easily traversing thehighest and the lowest  octaves with ease. Sishtla Sreeramamurthy Janaki, popularly now known as S Janaki  had the looks that could light up the silver screen. Yet she chose to stay behind it lending her voice to almost all the leading ladies of her times, across all south Indian movie productions, for starters.

Though her debut ( first released movie) was Citadel’s Magnalanattu Mary (1957) – a duet with PB Srinivas, what shot her into prominence in Tamil was Konjum Salangai (1962). Legend has it that S M Subbiah Naidu, who was in the look out for a singer to sing his challenging song Singara Velanin Deva for the film Konjum Salangai (1962), where the singer had to match or rather compete with the Nadaswaram, was recommended this young lady’s name by none other than P Leela, a  proficient  classical vocalist herself who was offered the song in the first place. With not much of classical training,  young Janaki’s performance got noticed by the South Indian film fraternity.