To mark MGR’s centenary year, his film Adimaippenn (1969) is all set for a release following a digital revival. All the six songs in the film, composed by KV Mahadevan, were chartbusters, and are popular even today.
SP Balasubrahmanyam made his singing debut in this film with ‘Thaai Illamal Naan Illai’. Music composer duo Prasad and Ganesh (who are brothers) ensured none lost its evergreen appeal.
Prasad-Ganesh entrusted with the task of redefining the sound of the masterpiece songs from adimai penn
“It was in an era where two-track compositions were in vogue, but nothing came in our way of remastering it in 120 tracks in the latest 5.1 format. The challenge was in retaining the essence of the solo numbers, which were in the fixed tempo. The pick of the album is definitely SPB’s ‘Aayiram Nilave Vaa’. Thuruvan and Ramalingam had played the tabla for the original. Now, we have Ganapathy rendering it,” Prasad says.
“Sai Nagaraj, an ardent MGR fan, has procured the remake rights. He has watched Adimaippenn almost 150 times and remembers every frame of the movie. His only request was for the reworked sound to retain the essence of the original — rich with bongos, drums and violin.”
Apart from S Janaki, P Suseela and TM Soundararajan crooning other songs, KV Mahadevan even managed to get Jayalalithaa to sing ‘Amma Endral Anbu’.
With over 600 devotional albums to its credit, the duo has three films — Silukuvar Patti , Kaiyile Kasu Irundha and Kapathunga Naliya Cinemavai — lined up for release.
