Dhwanii - Issue 2

Sound Bytes

- TR Sankar

Name : T R Sankar
Age : 37
Occupation : Chartered-Cost Accountant in Financial sector
Location : Middle East
Hobbies : Music - Tchaikovsky shares my CD Box with SeerGazhi Govindarajan
Reading : from Thi.Ja to Uderzo Goscinny to Forsyth
Musical Background : My gurus are great personalities like MKT, Prof.Sambhamurthy, MS Viswanathan, Ilayaraja and ...........then ...I bought
my keyboard in 1992 September.

Pattu Poochigalukku Veli Vanam mattume! (For butterflies, only sky is the limit).

I wrote to a friend, Sriram Lakshmanan, some time back, asking him to help me out with the ragas of M.S. Viswanathan songs. His reply took me by surprise. Sriram Lakshmanan, a real pro at both Film music and Carnatic music, wrote back, "limiting his creative skills to a raaga is blasphemous”. It took sometime for me to be convinced. When the man could effectively use Amrithavarshini for a gypsy (Kuravar - Kurathi) dance song, could generate a marriage song with Nadanamkriya and spontaneously breaks into "Desh" when the Bharathiyar song is about the "Desh" (Country), Sriram’s statement made perfect sense. Yeah! Why should I try to put a raga label to his compositions when their primary object is to relate to the script and the mood of the movie, rather than to follow the pages of Ganamrutha Bodhini? I would like to extend the theory to Rahman as well since he too, like MSV, is not a trained musician.

It would have been hard to digest "Muqqala Mukabla", if it had been set to the scholarly Hindolam with all the sangathis and swaraprastharams of, say, "samaja Vara Gamana". Had it happened, Rahman would have probably satisfied the puritans. But me? The common man following him in his musical journey would have been left stranded. The common man, without structured musical training and knowledge, follows Rahman only because he is able to relate to the music, and hence the man himself.

Unless specifically to-be-developed as a Carnatic music song, to be set to a specific raga (possibly a script requirement), the song need not go with the theories of Carnatic music. (However, Carnatic music is an ocean, which can give a raga name to any sensible composition).

Having a R3 (Shatsruti Rishabam - Vivadi note) undercurrent when the other basic notes indicate Kedaram might baffle a regular Carnatic musician; but it makes a pleasant listening to an ordinary fan who finds the well picturised song to his liking. ‘Oh! This song starts with a Simmendramadyamam humming, goes to Gambira Naatai, returns to Kedaram’, murmurs the trained musician who sings for the musically trained ears. But to an ordinary fan it’s fresh! Normally the trained musician gets caught in a shell, as over a period of time, the theory will restrict his imagination. He loses focus, concentrates and tries to achieve a utopian ideal of perfection. He tends to predetermine the raga for the song; Oh! This one is a pathos >> Minor scale ragas >> unknowingly end up with Keervani for every II pathos. I am sure Rahman could get a soulful pathos even out of Kadana kuthoogalam or a Kunthalavarali based swara patterns. The fundamental difference is that a trained musician always attempts musical demonstration from the mind, which has limitations, whereas men like Rahman demonstrate music from the heart, which has no limitations.

When other Music Directors would prefer a Vagulabaranam, MM Gowlai, Dharmavathi, Hemavathi in Kanoun when pyramids are shown in the backdrop, this man breaks the single-track mind and goes for a Mughari pattern flute interlude and how beautifully it captures the mood. (My book tells me that Mughari represents the "Sringaram" and songs are actually composed to depict the sorrow due to separation an example being the 19th (Jayadevar Ashatapadi "Vadasiyadi")-But wait...the Surro factor & ambience are taken care of by the Dumbek with Maksoum rhythm and belly dance claps, the Egyptian features.

I have some thoughts on this.

Take the Tamizh (Tamil) Language - When the poetry breached the "Aru Seer Kazhi nediladi" ilakkanam but assumed another regular formation, the literature allowed "En Seer Kazhi nediladi aasiriya virutham" instead of setting aside the poetry. Tamil has survived and it is winning!

If theories have been meticulously followed, the world would have missed the late cut of Vijay Merchant, the On-drive on the up by Greg Chappel, the lobs of Carl Hooper, the innovative reverse sweeps of Botham. But cricket has accepted the transgressions and has given them legitimacy. The game has survived and is winning!

Ilakkanam pirazhthalum Ilakkaname!

If someone wants to listen to Carnatic music, my suggestion to him or her is to buy Mani Aiyyer, listen to MS Goplalakrishnan who may deliver the Bhairavi in its purest form! But don’t try to fit Rahman s into the raga framework… If you happen to hear your favourite Hamsadvani in Vellai pookal, feel doubly happy.

Pattu poochikalukku Veli Vaanam mattume (Butterflies have only the sky as their limit). Let him not get bogged down about the differences between Bhairavi, Mughari and Useni. Let the innocence in his music continue!