Sunday, September 18, 2011

Kamalum Comedyum



Few months back Kamal completed 50 years in cinema. Vijay TV celebrated this in a grand manner with events like Kamalum Thamizhum in Madurai, Kamalum Kadhalum at Coimbatore and final mega event in Chennai.
Kamal has scored in all dimensions. Comedy is an element that stands tall. It started strong from Michael Madana Kamarajan
and Aboorva Sagodharargal time where he got Crazy Mohan into h
is crew. From there its a chain of comedy flicks and it came between his experimental films. Crazy Mohan is an important factor for bringing out this fom the legend.
Mostly he used different slangs in bringing out humour. He used the innocence of Palakkad Brahmin slang in Michael Madhana Kamarajan which I feel his best. The Chennai slang in Vasool Raja, Pammal K Sambandham and Aboorva Sagodharargal. And the Jaffna Tamil innocence in Thenali everyone is good in its own way.
Punnagai mannan, Kamal has given us the replica of Charlie Chaplin and it must be the beginning of his full length comedy series. Then happened the magical Crazy-Kamal combo. Michal Madhanakamarajan the best of its kind. Let it be Kameshwaran or Raja comedy within a story era is redefined after Nagesh time. Singaravelan proved to be power packed comedy movie with Goundamani and crew. Then came Sathileelavathi with Baalumahendra and no one will forget the Margo song with Sarala.
Then he started to take up one comedy flick between two experimental movies. Avvai Shanmugi though inspiration from an English movie, it was well structured for Tamil audience. The dialogues like Shanmugia illana Pandimugi are so famous.
The next in the list is Kadhala Kadhala- the tale of two Lingams. The catchy dialogues are so famous and it is a laughter bonanza in that season. The similar scenes are seen in Naam Iruvar Namakku Iruvar where PrabhuDeva sells the drawings of died people. I am not clear which movie came first. The next is Thenaali where he is a Jaffna Tamil and where he found the chemistry with Jayaram which he later use
d in Panchathanthiram. The Bayam dialogue is the best dialogue portray according to me.
Then the continous Pammal K Sammandham and Panchathanthiram both were hits and the later considered the better of two. Pammal K Sammandham even had a comedy song in Chennai slang sung by him. Panchathanthiram is the best of his comedy flicks with KSR so far.
Next came Vasool Raja and we cannot ask further from Kamal-Crazy combo and its the best after Michael... The Kamal's comedy factor landmark is this movie. I think all readers will accept it. Next is Mumbai Xpress in which Kamal joined hands with Singeetam after a long gap. Though the movie is good, it failed to withstand with his friend's Chandramukhi.
The latest on the cards is Manmadhan Ambu which is a said to be comedy film. But it was incomplete due to deletion of some scenes and it was not upto the mark Kamal comedy movie.
In Anbae Sivam there was sense of comedy and Madan penned the dialogues brilliantly. Every Kamal fan and every Tamil film lovers don't know the reason why the movie not did well being considered best with his films like Varumayin niram Sivappu, Mahanadhi, Guna and Devarmagan.
Nala Thamayanthi this has to be mentioned here. Though acted by Madhavan who proved he has potential to be next Kamal in comedy flicks, it's script was of Kamal. It must be written with what will happen to Kameswaran of Michael Madana Kamarajan if he goes to Australia. Imagine the movie with Kamal as lead and released somewhere in 90s. Such a nice movie.
Sure, Kamal is next Nagesh, Sivaji and what not in the list. Will be proud if he compose music for a movie so that Ilaiyaraaja will be added in that list.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

The love for Sahana

Under construction....

Thanks to my dad, I got some knowledge about Carnatic songs and was able to tell the ragas of some songs when heard then. Though I listen to all ragas, there is always a special love for Sahana. As my readers may not know about Carnatic songs. I will take you through Tamil and Malayalam cinema songs and teleserial songs based on Sahana.

Please click the songs in the titles to hear the song in thiraipadal.com or youtube.com

1.Pathiniye unpol
Singer: PU Chinnappa
Movie: Kannagi
Composer: SV Venkataraman
Year: 1942
                                  PU Chinnapa has the crown as the first singer to sing Sahana in cinema. PU Chinnappa and MK Thiagaraja Bhagavadhar are very proficient in Classical singing. The flawless rendition is the must hear.

2.Thamiye Painthamizh
Singer: MK Thiagaraja Bhagavathar
Movie: Sivakavi
Composer: Papanasam Sivan
Year: 1943
                                  MKT is a prolific singer on par with great classical singers of yesteryear.  Papanasam Sivan is called as Thyagarajar of Tamil. A Sahana of their combination is classic. Such a sweet song. No video or audio of the song is available in web. Will upload once it is uploaded in youtube.

3.Udal uruga
Singer: Bharata Ratna MS Subbulakshmi
Movie: Meera
Composer: SV Venkataraman
Year: 1945
                                 MS Subbulakshmi's Ragamalika. Anything from her is precious. And a Sahana from her is even more precious for me. It is a Ragamalaika and the Sahana part of the song is from 1:07 to 1:51.


5.Ennamellam Or Idathaye naduthe
Singer: TM Sundararajan
Movie: Thirumanam
Composer: SM. Subbiah Naidu
Year: 1958

                                 Such a beautiful rendition. The way TMS sings "Thaen endhum malaraagi  vaan endhum nilavagi sindhai kavarndhidudhe" is simply superb. Hear and get drenched in Sahana

6.Engo Pirandhavaram
Singer: P Susheela
Movie: Bommai
Composer: S.Balachandar
Year: 1963
                                 P Susheela in her early days. Such a sweet voice for Sahana. The song took the classical form of Sahana and is very good to hear.  

7.Maranthai enni kalangidum Vijaya
Singer: Seergazhi Govindarajan
Movie: Karnan
Composers: Vishwanathan Ramamurthy
Year: 1963
                               A ragamalika from Seerkazhi Govindarajan. Sahana part of the song is from 0:43 to 1:34. A 53 seconds of delight.

7.Parthen Sirithen
Singers: PB Srinivas, P Susheela
Movie: Veera Abhimanyu
Composer: KV Mahadevan
Year: 1965
                                 Well! The trademark song. Many would say the best cine song on Sahana. KV Mahadevan is such a legend, he used PB Srinivas and P Susheela, the sweetest voices of then. Such a rendition. Kannadasan's lyrics is a great plus for the song. The lines flow in your ear like honey. One can't leave this song when they discuss about Sahana.

8.Nee enge
Singer: P Susheela
Movie: Mannippu
Composer: SM Subbiah Naidu
Year:1969
                                Susheela and Chitra sang many songs in Sahana. This is one among them. Saram part of this song is Sahana.

8.Athi nathan ketkindran
Singer: S Janaki, TM Sundararajan
Movie: Ganga Gowri
Composer: MS Viswanathan
Year: 1973
                                If P Susheela did wonders with Sahana, this song is S Janaki's turn. Such beautiful singing.

9.Aagayam Mazha pozhinja
Singer: Vani Jayaram
Movie: Dhikkatra Parvathi
Composer: Veenai Chittibabu
Year:1974
                               All the fantastic female singers have crowned Sahana. It is Vani amma's turn. This song is not entirely Sahana. It is a Ragamalika of Ragas Anandha Bhairavi, Behag, Sahana and Neelambari. The Sahana part is from 1:47 to 2:30.    

10.Ennadi Naanamendru anaippan
Movie: Ananda Bhairavi
Composer: R.Ramanaujam
Year: 1978
                               No video or audio format of the song is available in the net. Will upload the song once it is uploaded in the internet.

10.Unnal Mudiyum thambi Nadhaswaram bit
Performer: Karaikuruchi Arunachalam
Movie: Unnal Mudiyum Thambi
Year: 1988
                               Ilaiyaraaja, the legend knows where to fit a music. The legend who is acclaimed as "King of BGM" used this piece of late Karaikurichi Arunachalm wisely. The scene will be like Gemini Ganesan will send Kamalhasan from home. Kamal's brother will play this bit for him. Will make anyone to cry. There isn't a single song in Sahana from Ilaiyaraaja till now.
                      
10.Indha veenaiku theriyadhu
Singer: Chitra
Serial: Rail Sneham
Composer: VS Narasimman
Year: 1992
                               KB's favourite raga- Sahana. That is why he named one of his serials as Sahana. Chitra being good in classical, she has sung the song very beautifully.

11.Andha veenaiku theriyadhu
Singer: KJ Yesudas
Serial: Rail Sneham
Composer: VS Narasimman
Year: 1992
                               Tamils have to be destined to Kerala for giving us great singers. KJ Yesudas, Chitra, Sujatha and the list follows. The male version of the song.

12.Rukku Rukku 
Singers: Kamal Haasan, Sujatha
Movie: Avvai Shanmugi
Composer: Deva
Year : 1996
                              Kamal Haasan, a singing pro himself, in female voice is the highlight of the song. Good to hear.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

From Vada to Vada

The persons sitting before computers were doing something with the keyboards and mouse.
Some were scratching their heads with code.
Some were playing games against the rules of company.
Some were seeing the stock points if they can become Ambani in a day.
Some were simply seeing this all around sitting infront of computer. Ahamad, Ajeesh, Rajiv, Raman and Srinath joined the company recently as freshers from college and they each belong to some of the category.
Well it was 5:30 on a Thursday. Srinath asked everyone above to go for Vada in company's chatbox. Rajiv used to come only in some interval as he was made busy . Ahamad is a great guy. He has certain pinciples. So he got a nickname, "Princi". One of his principles says, "Don't go out during office hours." (Even the company's MD comes out for tea and vada.) So his answer everyday was NO!!!!. The remaining two Ajeesh and Raman used to wait for this moment everyday and promptly replied YA.
5:45 PM - Office entrance. The three guys before swipe sensor. The security will see these people like a theft and most probably if there was no rush he will check anyone of these with bomb sensor. On the way to vada shop, a Tamil word (unparliamentry) will be taught to Srinath whose mother tongue is Marathi. He is a fast learner and picked up it easily and used to pronounce it better and funnier way than its frequent Tamil users. These things were taught to him by none other than Raman.
5:55 PM- Vada shop. 80% of the company's employees will be around this street so that they can come out of their logics, games and stocks for atleast 20 minutes(Not in the case of Srinath& co who take 45 to 60 minutes). This one plate vada is a regular intake for most from the company (strictly not PRINCI). One plate four vadas Rs.3 each. Wow... Did these people like Vada or this break? One group will contain company's MD with very needed persons of the company. One group contains team leads. Some groups are gangs like these three.
6:10 PM- Near vada shop. Some times men will get irritated on seeing a girl irrespective of a reason. The universal reason may be the hyper-reactiveness. "Who is My...? Myself Mythili " kind of thing. Those kind of girls were roaming around. Talking about them and Srinath memorizing omm**** o** they marched back to the same old company where persons were good friends of machines.
6:30 PM- Company again. Ajeesh's team lead is a good guy, he will give not more than excel work to him.(Only in this aspect and no one around liked him.) Srinath has mingled well with the team and he is a tester. So he worked with ease. Raman's team didn't, doesn't and will not have excel works and so he was asked to write a program for practice. He was not given any work before and he was trying to code. His head is technically strong in the floor.
Rajiv and Ahamad had something to work in logo correction even a 8th std student can do. So Ahamad was very much dissatisfied.
7:00 PM- Ahamad was still working with the logo correction. Ajeesh having yawning time hearing his team lead conversation with US Clients. (He was asked to hear the conversations with the clients so as to understand the business). The worst thing is it's the torturing work for Ajeesh as his team lead is like Perarasu's movie and anyone sitting near him will start to give unseen face reactions. Raman was in MIOSK (a place for personal browsing) away from workplace only from where behindwoods.com is accessed. Rajiv is busy teaching something to opposite gender.
7:30 PM- Ahamad still doing the logo correction. Ajeesh now back to normal life. He was seeing cricinfo.com for the scores of Ind vs WI, goal.com, wimbledon.com and an excel sheet. The greatest plus of the company is chat provided. These 5 people will chat to anyone of them in atleast every 10 minutes unless they are really busy. Raman was busy now. The program was not giving exact output. He started to scratch his head. The person who helped him left the company yesterday. He was thinking what to do. Srinath is the coolest man. He would be reading some forward mails or e-papers or will be chatting with Ahamad or Ajeesh. Rajiv still helping the girl(s) to make her come out of bug. (Hey Rajiv!! Raman is not getting output.)
8:00 PM- It's time for Rajiv, Ahamad, Srinath and Ajeesh to leave. Raman used to leave by 9 as his timing was 12 to 9. But they extended continuing their work.
8:30 PM- One by one people magnetized with their computers, demagnetized and started to leave. The Srinath & co except Raman left the floor. Raman was seeing google and americanprogrammer.com for the reason of his program's bug. His team lead not used to interrupt any person in the team. What he needed is output at deadline. But he never said deadline. It showed 9:30 on the clock and he extended for half an hour already. The Facebook, sensongs and a Tamil movie downloaded came to his mind and he left home for the day.
The next day at office - 12.20 P.M. Telengana is a nice word for people here because they can get atleast 2 days a month bandh. And the day had a bandh. The special thing here is if it is a bandh, 2 tyres will burn in Osmania University. Buses(only government), offices(only government) will not activate. Raman enters the floor. Srinath & co and all others are continuing from where they left the last day. Many persons are on leave such that they can state bandh as a reason and can utilize one CL as no one will question them.
1 to 2- Lunch.
2 t0 5- Computers and persons. This is the case for persons in Princi & co as well. Everyone started to finish their work. Ramanan didn't get proper output as he compiled one program and executed other. Finally he found it and atlast he got the output. Ajeesh having good time with excel. Ahamad now got a work which dealt with code. Princi is somewhat happy now. Rajiv has found a time to sit with a guy this time(Princi). Sri is continuing his routine as usual.
5.15- From Srinath to Raman and others in chatbox- Ot** vada polama?.. All except principle(Rajiv decided to come this time) marched again to Vada shop and Friday's word for Srinath is Kan**** o****. Same vada, same people. One plate vada four pieces each for us and a passtime for people who are married to the computers at the company.