Yesterday I
was listening to ‘Oru vaanavil pole..’ in the car.Of course, I have lost count
on the number of times I would have listened to the song in which the guitar
and the flute are extraordinary, but this post is not about this song anyway. As
I was listening to the CharaNam, I
closed my eyes and immersed myself in Janaki’s
voice.
‘What a
voice’, thought I. At the same time I did a H G Wells and travelled back to my childhood. The first time I came
to know the existence of a singer called Janaki was in a cinema hall during a
song sequence. My mother asked my father ‘Isn’t
it Janaki’ and he said ‘Yes, seems
like..’ I turned back and asked y father,’ Who is Janaki?’ He said ‘She
is a singer’. That came as a rude shock to me. Can there be any other
singer than Suseela? What is this Janaki?
Let me tell
you that the song was ‘Unnidaththil ennai koduththen’ from AvaLukkendRu or manam. There is a
reason behind my mentioning the name of the song and I shall say that a little
later.
After this
experience, I hardly came across that voice (even if I had, I paid scant
attention). After about 4 years, a movie created ripples in the Tamizh cinema
circuit mainly because of music and 3 songs-including a super hit song- were
rendered by Janaki. As mentioned in some of my posts, the first exposure to ‘machchanai
paartheengaLa’ did not have much impact on me.Added to this was the
fact was this was sung by Janaki, an ‘alien’. For at least the next 2 years,
though I became a full- fledged fan of the Master, I would wonder as to why he
was giving so many songs to Janaki.
I don’t
remember how-just like I don’t know why I did not have a special liking for
this voice until then- but the turning point happened after our shifting to a
town in Tamizh Nadu. Even then, I wouldn’t say I became a great fan like how I
am now, but at least the opinion started changing. I now started liking the
voice, and enjoying the voice. It was then a gradual process and when ILaiyaraaja mentioned in an interview
to a Tamizh magazine in 1982 that Janaki is the greatest singer in Asia and
that she was way ahead of Lata
Mangeshkar, I couldn’t agree more. ‘Yes,
of course!’ I thought.
In my humble
opinion, no voice in film music is as versatile as Janaki’s. She can sing a disco song with a quiver and render a
classical raga song with gamakams and
brigas. She can sing like a child;
can sing like a old woman; can sing like a boy. She can touch the taara sthayi panchamam and immediately
go to a mandara sthayi shadjam with consummate ease. She can make us dance,
smile,cry, laugh and be erotic too.
Janaki- the magician!
PraNaams to
my most favourite female singer in film music on her birthday!
The rare gem
of the day shows the sensuous Janaki(can
any voice be more sensuous than hers?). In one of the recent shows, ILaiyaraaja mentioned this song to be
the precursor to ‘Nila kayudhu’ and said he felt inspired by the way she handled
this song. By the way, the combo organ in ‘Unnidaththil..’ was played none
other than the young Raaja
‘Andha
aattorama’ from ‘Nalladhu
Nadanthe theerum’(1981)starts with the strumming of guitar giving shades of
Kaapi. The ankle bells-4 beats- are
followed by the ghatam-4 beats again- and the Pallavi starts in ‘ateeta
eduppu’. The ankle bells sound again. With the ‘chenda’ like percussion giving the impetus, the Pallavi is surely romantic- I would say
softly romantic.
The long
flute and the bass guitar continue this romantic feel before the ‘chenda’ percussion
takes over. ‘But when I have the voice of
Janaki, why any instrument at all..’ the composer seems to think and lets her voice
do the rest.
The CharaNams with the backing of that resonant
percussion are pleasing.
The second
interlude is another marvel with the electronic instruments dominating. The
different violin sound is echoed (he used this instrument prolifically during
early ‘80s). It is then the turn of electric guitar to take us on a short trip with
the flute responding with a smile. All these happen without any percussion with
the bass guitar providing the rhythm. The sharp percussion joins only towards
the end of the interlude to guide us to the second charaNam.
The postlude
speaks volumes of Janaki’s talent
and capability..
Janaki- The Banyan tree!
