Music explores and revels new parts in our body and soul. Music always has an authoritarian status in every human's life.. Music many a time de-legitimizes the socially-engineered indexes in our brain. It either pulls every loose threads of your life to gather or dismantle it.. Music does not make your eyes open in wonderment but closes it like passionate lovers on bed....No jail is built to a hold human brain except music. I was held as captive from my cradle by the music of Visawanathan & Ramamurthi and later just MSV.. His music moved my birth mark from an officer and a gentleman status to a writer and a nomad.. With a mathematical certainty MSV and four other legends re-wrote my future's penal code..
I retreat back to my memory lane because I miss my past n it's ambiance dearly.. I would compromise my life even to an insensitive posture to get back to my past.. Many a times I have felt being alive means you have ran away from your past with a dream pack for your future. Actually you are not supposed to be celebrating this feat. Living is a lust, a disgraceful fashion..
When i see a radio i am fueled up with sentiments... It's a machine which invited singing angels and MSV into everyone's house.. just pure music without visual disturbances... Radio and MSV are the actual candidates for the Good Samaritan award.
Once my grandmother came out with a very defendable hypothesis about my queries on radio... My doubt was stretching out for years how radio is able to flirt with such beautiful music and voices.. How this small box is able to illustrate such scintillating harmony in different languages.... Actually our police orderly articulated the right answer, "from somewhere the music and the voices gets twisted in the wind and ends up in this box".. But my grandma after discussing the matter with her kitchen cabinet came out with a science fiction story that I swallowed for many many years, "The singers and the musicians are inside the box singing and playing for you". How true her story is!! I realized this in these last few years.
What a huge subject he had started in our thoughts.. I am still dazed confused and flabbergasted with this gr8 human sanctuary for hidden secrets of music, 'MSV'. His music cannot be scrutinized or judged.. He created mysterious burns in our brain cells.. He caught and slaughtered our inconsistent intolerable emotions, but today we gossip about His greatness and made him a product of the past. He is the only public property created by our illusional marshals.... He is the first musician with innumerable affairs with listeners and swam with their personal currents and never against it.. No comparison can be drawn to his musical beauty. He is a devil and an angel who crusaded from hell to heaven.. He looks huge through our naked ears and very tiny through our eyes.. His music is the mother of many musicals, spunked by different lyricists, but fathered by just two, Kannadasan and Valli... I have enjoyed his kiddish brawls in the composing room and his in-tolerance towards a single note mistake at the recording studio... MSV has another name, "NATURE"
Who are the actual music mules of india. The Hindustani-carnatic-stalwarts or our heart, culture and political scenario-breaking masters, the Indian film industry music directors!? Who sponsored and navigated a huge chunk of Tamilnadu political publicity propaganda for the Dravidian party in mid-60s !? From where those trillion votes jumped into million ballot boxes!? With Tamils very stringent in supporting then ruling party, then from where the massive vote loafs were baked for Dravidian party in then Madras state..!? What motivated this massive change in the cuckoos nest's design... It would be in-appropriate and in-sensitive if we don't donate a part of that winning spree to MSV'S harmonium. He was not only a game changer of Tamil music but also one of the innocent background strategist to change TN politics. His charming conversation with music with the charismatic MGR, performing for his tunes and the two legends penning revolutionized lyrics brought trouble to DMK's political opposition's paradise.. DMK won the elections with an absolute majority and its break away party is still ruling the state and the humble MSV silently walked back to his recording studios and later to his retirement.... History has a glorifying way of forgetting to travel in different paths..MSV'S contribution to Dravidian politics is one of History's forgotten lane..
When MSV finished his assisting programmers with great mystical stalwarts like Subbiah Naidu and Ramanathan he returned with infinite wisdom on the pulse of the audience, variations in different storyline and different directors' story-telling methods with their style of visuals and editing... With his refreshing musical madness which lighted lamps in Srilanka, Singapore, Malaysia and naturally in TN, it was a rainy season throughout Tamil speaking world till he was in-charge of Tamil musical market.. M. L. Vasanthakumari who had one of the highest scores in Carnatic classical music once said to her Sishyas, "MSV is a prodigy, without any classical or western music training, but with confident ease he can tell which car starts in which Raga and on what Suram each door opens" .. Job became easier for script writers, whenever there was a lag in the movement of a script they enhanced the punishment for MSV by creating a song situation. For MSV it wasn't a punishment but more a fertilizer for his imagination.. Lyricist wrote lyrics without active consideration to the composer's limitations but MSV'S creative audacity changed their prose into poetry. .. So you wud have seen a lyricist unlimited creativity was staged easily and fluently on his tune with our thoughts provoked.... Kannadasan Valli and other writers saw MSV as a music festival damped by rain of creations... The listeners heard every fiber of their life abused with MSV'S Musical hospitality.
To me personally MSV a shade far above from the Melody and orchestral brilliance of R. D. Burman.. In par with quiet and thoughtful classical pieces of S. D. Burman and he was a huge fan of Naushad and Shanker Jaikishen's multiple talents.. Civilization has the practice of insulating persistent corruption on our minds and has perverted sexual inter-courses with cultural bottlenecks.The massive Bombay film industry took into their bosom South Indian storylines and producers but other greats from south were left to throttle a gasoline less motor car.. Nobody knew MSV(a musical angel in Dhothi) outside South Indian film industry. All the big Indian film and musical awards pronounced divorce to this genius tiny husband. Probably they were jealous of 'Lady Sarawathi' sitting inside his brains... Or MSV'S involvement with evolving Tamil Cinema and state politics and he was in galloping mood in unleashing violent brain washing musical techniques on TN, probably National awards were looking like sporadic incidents for him..
MSV is one of the two astonishing pearls gifted to us by God's Own Country..
(End of part one)
A Visual learning...
There are huge errors in his last fotograf clicked by someone else.. he was sleeping deeply in his freezer box, set to go for his last journey.. His jaws tied no hazzels he never talks much but it has made him deaf from hearing the sound of winds and leaf rippling.... His nostrils closed challenges his authority to sniff the smell of the sun the fire the moon the greens the dawn and the dusk. . But his eyes closed..It's a breach of discipline by the almighty. It failed to respond to one of the greatest visualizer on Indian cinema, plea to see... After the color era on Indian cinema arrived, four un-stoppable super natural visualizers who cut into the profits of other cinematographers were Ashok Mehta, Govind Nihalini, Balu Mahendra and Ashok Kumar..
Amazing things happen when you least expect it. I always felt, myself and K. Balachnder sir were a connected couple (script-wise) in my day dreams. One month before I joined my director Bagyaraj sir as assistant director, I went for a new movie by Balachander sir, Varumayin niram sivappu at Ega theatre. 1980 was the year. It was pouring cats, dogs n devils.. As usual Balachander sir was cleaning the dirty laundry of the society on the screen and as usual he was rocking my boat of confidence in scripting. Those days you can smoke inside the theaters. Moral policemen were less. Usually I go out to smoke and piss during intervals, but that day my mind went in for a deep denial mode and my legs were frozen under the seat. Fertile imagination of KB's script was the reason. Suddenly the lights went out and a visual volcano erupted on the screen. It was the trailer of 'Nenjathai Killadhe'.. A ruthless aggression on beauty... A sledge-hammer music hitting the soft part of your body and soul.. simple manipulative shot compositions of the Director and open eyes of Ashok Kumar controlled my mind over matter with his 2c Arriflex. . These amazing gestures of New Cinema chased me out of the Balachander Sir's movie, half-way through.. It was not an emotional joy ride through that heavy rainfall on my old bi-cycle straight to Marina at 10 pm.. I was the only soul standing under Gandhi statue completely getting drenched, grieving over my limited talents. A song with just two new faces jogging in a misty location. Y wasnt there any traceable medicine for this gr8 nursery art's impact on my soul. After long hrs of getting drenched I found the medication for that sudden shock that trailer gifted me. I decided to join movies not to prove my creativity but to learn and polish it in a different way.. Ashok ji was the reason I changed my scripting style.
Cutting through two years of my experience as a Ghost writer for very very successful box offices like Mouna Geethangal, Indru Poi Naalai Va, Andha 7 naatkal, Poi Saatchi, Vidiyum Varai Kaathu Iru, Thooral Ninnu Pochu, I land up in the discussion room for Bhagyaraj Sir's next film Darling Darling Darling... All in the discussion room were transfixed and mesmerized hearing the opening statement of our director, "the cinematographer of this film is Ashok Kumar".. After many minutes of silence I asked who is accompanying him in music for his Visuals..Ilayaraja? He was silent for sometime and said no...Shanker Ganesh... Shanker Ganesh were very good music directors but from the old school and Ashok Kumar's visuals are an onslaught with color negatives that needs deliberate provocation from western classical string instruments that only Ilayaraja had mastered... I was slightly deviated from my original happiness.. I was bold enough to ask my director 'Why did You Go wrong on the Combo'!?.... He replied 'remuneration'.... The budget of the film does not encourage two Giants... I was factually in-correct in assessing only the Fotografy and music of the film. But Bhagyaraj sir's scripting style itself was a strange to Ashok kumar's visual pattern.. I broke even with my apprehensions by understanding, different type of scripts needs different style of cinematographers. Ashok Kumar was director Mahendran's third eye not my director's.
The frontier life line of an artist's genes wud whether show he/she belongs to 'GHANDHARVAS'.. Ghandharva gene endorses a male artist having more of a female hormones and visa versa for the female artists. They have more of male hormones in them.. You wud find without any false pretense, the top heroes in world cinema are more feminine.. One cannot dance well without that artistic gene of a female and the same goes with the female artists too.. A male artist with more male hormones and female artist possessing more female hormones have not been very lucky in presenting themselves on screen. They were either mediocre or a flop... This theory holds good with technicians behind the screen too... Balu Mahendra and Ashok Kumar were very feminine, hence they had a glorious strike rate with colors. They did not make love with nature, they opened themselves willfully for nature to go on top of them and make love to them whispering million lustful confessions.. These two gr8 cameramen from the fantasy league were masters of suggestive sex. Alas!! These two smudged dialogue oriented scripts, less talking and seeing most was their motto.. When dialogue oriented Bhagyaraj sir teamed up with a visualizer Ashok Kumar, the later lost his way.
The new era Fotografy of Balu Mahendra and Ashok Kumar in 80's underplayed the sensitivity of black & white Fotografy of the 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's and mid-70's..The generous love bites of black & white Fotografy was gradually crumbling down.. But those cinematographers who fought a hard show with minuscule technology made their passion to speak in volumes, yesterday, today and for sure 2mrw.... There are clinching evidences to prove they manufactured gr8ness and did justice to indoor Fotografy... One Guru Dutt's film is enough to spell disaster on later born cinematographers... The vicious control of writing a story on a celluloid by pen and a camera, was mastered by our own Director Sridhar and the master cinematographer Vincent.. They both had capture-control in small spaces.. Nenjil or aalayam was shot in a single set at Vijaya Vauhini. Watch the song Ninaipadhu ellam nadandhu vittaal from the same movie and the song Indha Mandrathil oodi varum from "police kaaran magal" and many more were ripped off from mid and close range lenses with evil genius.
Our time carries 'The Good The Bad and The Ugly'.. Flexibility and durability of these factors determines our life... Vincent Master and Sridhar sir's romantic comedy 'Kadhalika Neram Illai'.... 'Pudhiya Paravai' made by Dada Mirasi and Prakash Rao's duel, Bandhalu sir's 'Karnan' and 'Aiyrathil Oruvan' (I forgot the cinematographers name of these 2 kinos) and the magical MB sir's Shanti Nilayam, except these few immortals there were no other homicide raged cinematographers to handle color negatives from mid 60's to mid 70's..Manirathinam Sir once told me at Illayaraja sir's birthday party at Prasad "Can we ever compose shots like Pudhiya paravai or Karnan, kumar?"
MGR jumped into full fledged color films from late 60's but Shivaji sir struggled to cope up with make-up and costume designs needed for a color film and his solo performances were competing with new out-door backgrounds a concept mind-boggling to our audience.. Hence all his films till early 70s were not in color. ..MGR, his strong relationship with mild storylines and his fair skin tone was at-once befriended by color negatives.. But color negatives did bring the negative aspects of a black and white make-up, costume and the background sets, which were ignorantly carried over to color era by our artists and technicians from the black & white era.. Many gr8 artists and technicians perished with this new horse-back ride.. This confusion struggled along for sometime...then, Mr. Ugly started playing his cards. MSV's agility dropped, Shivaji sir fell sick and lethargic. MGR's feverish wrinkles did the transition.. Mid 70's 'The Golden Boys' of Indian cinema came from villages and the remaining passed out from Film institute, Madras with a Dft certificate, and started a New Era in Tamil cinema... Ashok Kumar was one amongst these New Warriors.
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The dress code of photography has various methods and styles.... There is a pattern to recognize a good cinematographer.. Few directors are talented enf to explore and find a middle ground in which he decides which cinematographer is apt for his editing mode for that particular script of his.... Editing is the 'Bingo' man in film making... I met Manirathinam Sir during my 'Kakhi satti' scripting days. He was in the same Sathya movies office scripting for his first Tamil Venture 'Pagal Nilavu'.. In one of the story discussion abruptly he asked, "suggest me a cinematographer for my new movie".. Since Balu Mahendra was the cinematographer for his first venture in Kannada I searched for an equilateral pick. I blurted out Ashok Kumar's name. Regardless how Mani feels inside him his exterior reaction is always stony. After many seconds he nodded his head affirming a big 'No'... This assaulted my judgement.. After many movies with different cinematographers Manirathinam landed up with P. C. Sriram for 'Mouna Ragam'... Oh God, I understood why Mani said no to Ashok Kumar after me becoming a multiple hostage to his filming frequencies in his Mouna Ragam, Nayagan and Agni Naktchathiram. He was searching for a cinematographer with a Hollywood halo, and he found one... Balu Mahendra and Ashok Kumar, the Noah's ark of modern color Fotografy hit the shore by a whirlwind created by Mani and Sriram.. Their fondest memories became a folklore..
Wen market breaks you down in middle, gr8 artists get scared, devastated and shy to accept their pain and it's remedies. Dead ends does look larger than life to them.. but an optimistic dreamer devices a mechanism, chalks out a way,reverses and takes another lane.. the irony is, Pessimism makes gr8 artists... Murmurs of dissent starts speaking volumes in their brain... The fault line lies in their sensitivity.... After Ashok Kumar got marginalized by Bhagyaraj sir's powerful script,(when I begged my director, Ashok Kumar cannot have a big nexus with his type of scripts in the discussion room, as a marketing strategy my director went for him again) psychologically he took some kind of a resolution that Mediocrity pays richer dividends... Gradually he crumbled.. After his photography got decimated in Mundhanai mudichu opposite my director's powerful script, his next work in my individual scripting 'Kanni Raasi' he came out with his below average work in that film... Again a script dominated film... His much awaited rappo with Director Pratap Pothen brought happiness and justice to the real talent of this marvelous lens man..His un-tainted potential thrust was evident in two of Pratap's films (pratap is one amongst the best visualizers in Indian cinema) Vettri Vizha and My Dear Marthandan (the latter was scripted by me). again his fate transferred overnight... Movies became pretty competitive after 90's. Young cameramen with new cameras jumped into the arena and Shanker's "jeans" became his last shrine..Time and age let down this master blaster without a sound... Health picks the fish out of the water and forges a license, to kill... And fate takes the liberty to weed out the generosity in humans. Cinema is a deception inside a larger deception called life. This gr8 technician's last journey was a visual sad melody. Morality and emotions both socially engineered was showcased wen rather vague six souls accompanied him to the pyre...Only the green, the yellow, the blue and brown the sun and the moon and his back light shed tears.. I recollected one particular incident when my director asked me to accompany him to Kodaikanal to search location for Darling Darling Darling... It's the year Kurinji flower which blossoms once in twelve years have blossomed in millions. At a far out joint in Kodaikanal were herds of these flowers were dancing to the tunes of the wind and the thick fog covering their nakedness, he stopped the car jumped out, walked and squatted in-between them.. I was leaning on our Ambassador and watching him. Slowly I walked towards him and sat two steps behind and mildly whispered in his ears 'Music and a woman are missing now'.. In a split second he blurted out 'No bahiya, those two would spoil the gr8 alliance of this beauty'.. I was ashamed of myself... I can vouch he has become a sweet monster and waiting for those Kurinji flowers to blossom to run down from heaven and dance with them... If anyone travelling during Kurinji season to Kodaikanal you can see this honorable big bang artist Ashok Kumar dancing in-between them....invisibly though!!!
