When two worlds met and created symphony

Many songs that appeared in films have become part of the repertoire of a classical musician

The work of music director G. Ramanathan was a milestone in the classical tradition on the silver screen. Photo: Special Arrangement

  As early as 1988, after receiving the Sangita Kalanidhi award at the Music Academy, the late flautist T. Viswanathan, waxed eloquent on the importance of film music, arguing that such a popular medium cannot be ignored by the practitioners of classical music. 

Lending weight to this theory, Prameela Gurumurthy, vocalist and musicologist, recently presented a programme, explaining the contribution of the film world to classical music in the 1950s and 60s. 

“While a classical music composer can listen to his thoughts and emotions and need not bother about extraneous factors, a film music director is under tremendous pressure to compose a song that appeals to untrained ears,” said Ms Gurumurthy at Indian Fine Arts. 

She gave a brief introduction to the singers and music directors and screened the clippings of songs based on ragas. 

“I believe a film song set to classical raga will gradually elevate a listener to the next level. It proved to be true in my case. By the time I took classical lessons under compulsion from my mother, I was fully prepared for it after listening to scores of good film songs of the 1950s and 1960s,” she said. 

She, then explained, how film songs such as Bharathiyar’s

Chinnanchiru Kiliye in Ragamalika in

Manappen and Bharathidasan’s

Thunbam Nergailyil set to raag Desh in

Or Iravu subsequently became part of the repertoire of a classical musician. A decade earlier, all the songs in

Nanadanar , starring M.M. Dhandapani Deskiar were regularly sung at concerts because of their superior musical quality and bhakti-laden lyrics. Papanasam Sivan, who emerged as a prominent composer, in fact began his career with the film

Sita Kalyanam.

“G. Ramanthan’s composition Sindhanai Sei Maname in Kalyani in Ambikapathy or Aadatha Manamum Undo in Lathangi in Mannadhi Mannan can vie with any classical composition,” she argued. The same can be said about another Kalyani-based song Mugathil Mugam Parkalam in Thangapadhumai for which the music was scored by M.S. Viswanathan and T.K. Ramamurthy .  

Such songs were also enhanced by singers like M.L. Vasanthakumari, C. S. Jayaraman, Radha-Jayalakshmi, and Seerkali Govindarajan — all trained Carnatic musicians.

“The music composers of the period had cut their teeth in theatre before foraying into films. The strong foundation in carnatic music came in handy while scoring music for films,” she said.