Here is an excerpt from T.M Krishna's interview with Film Companion's Baradwaj Rangan:
What is your general attitude towards the film song, because you know in your writings, and also in your book, you tend to kind of club it together — light music and film music. You tend to kind of club these into one, so one gets the feeling that maybe you kind of treat it as a lowbrow art. How do you look at a film song?
T.M. Krishna: First of all, I think the word ‘light music’ is not my creation, it’s a word that’s been around. But I get your point that maybe — light music is not the right word actually, especially coming from a Carnatic musician — it has a certain connotation. I think it’s the Tamil Nadu scenario where light music and cinema music has a kind of conflate in itself. You go to Kerala or Karnataka, you have a so-called light music or semi-classical genre that is non-cinema. In Tamil Nadu, we seem to have completely lost that.
So if you say, non-classical, you’re either looking at what is folk numbers or what is cinema numbers. I think there needs to be proper reassessment of that word. I agree with you, but I think that cinema music by itself is one of the most dynamic musical force. I think the greatest asset for cinema music is that it doesn’t need to have one aesthetic shape. There’s no other artistic form in the world that is so dynamic, so the whole idea of cinema music is that the aesthetics will constantly change. I think that’s incredible if you think of it — the storyline, the director, the screenplay the context, the type... everything can change about the art and music. It can change the arrangement, it can change the idea of sound... there’s no other musical form in the world that can claim that and that I think is it’s greatest assets, so in a way to box it, in any other kind is probably wrong, just call it cinema music or film music. I think it’s the most dynamic musical tradition we could have.
So I also get this feeling sometime that when a Carnatic musician, branches out into, this dynamic musical form, that the musical establishment sometimes, looks down on them like they’re sold out or something. Do you get that feeling as well?
T.M Krishna: I think it’s probably changed a bit now. For example, when Unni started singing, and I know this as an insider in the Carnatic world, people were saying all kinds of things like it may have affected his music and such. But what Unni sang as Carnatic musician before he sang in the film and after he sang in the film remains the same. It is just a perception issue. That is also where the word ‘light music’ plays a kind of detrimental role, because some of it is easy music. I also want to dispel the presumption that if you’ve learned classical music, you can sing cinema music easily. That’s just rubbish. All classical singers can’t sing film music. Singing for music requires a different technique, a different headset a different annunciation, a different accent... the emotive capacity is completely different. So this is a wrong perception. It’s not just Carnatic, the classical world in general is too stiff... it thinks too much of itself. The fact is — in terms of its aesthetic depth or it’s technicality, in terms of its gravitas — film music makes as many demands of a singer as Carnatic does.
Nowadays though, I feel this has changed a bit. I’m wondering whether in 2017, there is a bit of change when compared to the 90s or the early 2000s in terms of Carnatic singers singing for films. But at the same time I don’t think we should take anything for granted.
So in the older days, one also used to hear that if one sang film song their voice would change, and you know, they would start singing differently on the stage.
T.M. Krishna: I don’t think so. I think one thing is true. They require different productions, different voice productions. If your Carnatic foundation for Carnatic is fine, then irrespective of where you skip and jump and share, you explore. You can come back to this without a problem. If this isn’t, then you’re probably gonna get into trouble irrespective of whether you sang in films or not, at some point of time. At the same time there are people who only sing Carnatic music, who have terrible voice production, so it’s got so many other factors, and blaming it on cinema music is a convenient excuse, for those who have highbrow feelings.
Full interview on www.filmcompanion.in
