One of the earliest production houses in the country which made movies in many languages, including Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Kannada, Bengali and Sinhalese, AVM, made films driven by strong content, good values and pleasant music. AV Meiyappan, founder of the AVM empire, passed on his legacy to his talented sons, involving them in different sections of film making, from music to production. When his second son M Kumaran showed keen interest in music, he was given the job of getting the music done for his films.
“I am not a musician or a singer, but I have an ear for good music,” explains Kumaran at his plush office in the AVM Studio complex, once the hub of film production in the South. “When I liked a song from other language films, especially, Hindi, I used to think about the possibility of utilising that tune to our advantage. And I used to discuss this matter with the music director.
“One such song that fascinated me was Hum tum ek kamre me bandh ho, from Raj Kapoor’s Bobby . In the Hindi film, the two teenagers are locked in a room and the song emanates from the situation. Interestingly, in our Telugu production, Nomu (1974), there was a situation where the hero and the heroine are kidnapped and locked in a room. As my father had entrusted me with the job of overseeing the music session, I sat with the music director Satyam and lyricist Dasarathi for discussion. Waiting for an opportunity to use the Bobby tune, I hummed it and asked why should not we have a similar tune as the situation in the story matched with it. Dasarathi, whom we respected as our guide (‘engal aasaan’), said that he would prefer writing a free verse for the scene (which could later be set to tune). Though he was a big name and highly talented, he was such a nice person and accommodative that when I requested him to follow the tune, he smiled and obliged,” recalled Kumaran and continued with a smile, “ However, the tune was finally modified slightly by Satyam garu according to the lyric.”
The song
Kalise kallalona kurise poola vaanaa / Virisenu premalu hrudayaanaa / Kalise...
Perigee tharigenu nelaraju velugunu nee momu prati roju / Perigee...
Prati reyi punnamile neetho vunte / Kalise...
Yeduruga chelikaanni choosaanu / yentho pulakinchi poyaanu / Ee pondu kalakaalam ne koraanu / Ee pondu..../ Kalise...
Kougili pilichenu yendukanee/ Pedavulu vanikenu denikanee / Manaloni paruvaalu penaveyaalanee / Kalise Kallalona...
The romantic duet was rendered by P Susheela and S P Balasubrahmanyam and it was recorded at the AVM RR theatre by veteran sound engineer Sampath.
The scene
The hero Easwar (Ramakrishna) visits his estate, where he meets Parvathi (Chandrakala), the granddaughter of one of his employees. Easwar’s manager (Sarathbabu) plots to usurp his wealth. He employs two of his accomplices to kidnap Easwar and lock him up in the guest house. Along with Easwar, the goons kidnap Parvathi too and lock them up in the guest house. Parvathi at first suspects that it is Easwar’s ploy to entice her, but soon she realises that she has misunderstood him and takes a liking for him. The song flows from her imagination.
Nomu was chosen by the Film Federation of India as one of the movies to represent India at the Moscow International Film Festival. “In the then Soviet Union, the festival was simultaneously held at six places, including Tajikistan and Tashkent. Nomu was screened at Tajikistan (now an independent nation). Since the province borders Afghanistan and is nearer to Kashmir, the people there were familiar with Hindi film songs, aired through radio. Raj Kapoor and Nargis were very popular there. Before the screening of Nomu , we were introduced to the audience. I sang the first line of the title song from the Raj Kapoor film Awara and that set an instant rapport with the audience as they too joined me in chorus,” reminisced Kumaran.
After the film’s screening, at the interaction with the filmmakers section, the audience were thrilled to learn that it was not a toy snake but a real one that was employed in the movie where it even touches the heroine’s nose. “To our surprise, the audience expressed a desire to see the Kalise Kallalona song one more time. I was on the stage and told them that the tune was inspired by the Hindi song from Raj Kapoor’s film. And when we screened the song again, the Russian audience humming the song received it with thunderous applause,” recalled Kumaran.
