There has been a constant exchange of ideas between the worlds of Tamil and Hindi films, particularly in the area of music. Although instruments like the shehnai and tabla became an integral part of Tamil film music, conversely, musical instruments unique to Tamil Nadu could not find a special place in Bollywood film music. But in 1969, film director K. Shankar broke new ground in his Hindi film ‘Sacchaai’ by introducing the nagaswaram and thavil to accompany a song rendered by the legendary Asha Bhonsle, younger sister of another icon, Lata Mangeshkar.
The song ‘More saiyan pakde baiyan’, set to music by Shankar Jaikishan, which sounds quite similar to the Tamil superhit ‘Singara velane deva’ from the film ‘Konjum salangai’, in which it was rendered by nagaswaram player Karukurichi P. Arunachalam and playback singer S. Janaki. In ‘Sachaai’, the nagaswaram is played by Tirucherai Sivasubramania Pillai, the noted artiste from the then composite Thanjavur district. The thavil was played by Tirunangur Ramu, and few could match him at producing the ‘tha’ of the ‘tha thi thom num’ that lies at the heart of playing percussion instruments. Another thavil player featured in the song was Therazhundur Rajarathinam.
“My father was booked for two days for the recording of the song, but it was over in half a day,” recalls S. Arunagiri, Sivasubramania Pillai’s son.
Forgotten recordings
The composition commences with a combined arrangement of the thavil and drums. Sivasubramania Pillai’s playing follows Asha Bhonsle’s voice after every stanza. “My father watched the film in Kumbakonam. The famous dancer Helen and actor Sanjeev Kumar appear on the screen for the song,” says S. Raguveeran, also the nagaswaram maestro’s son and an engineer with TANGEDGO. Mr. Raguveeran has most of his father’s recordings, some of which he has uploaded on YouTube, including the song from ‘Sachaai’ .
It was film producer G.Velumani who introduced Sivasubramania Pillai to director K. Shankar, an in-law of M.G. Chakrapani and brother of the late T.N. chief minister M.G. Ramachandran. “My father’s uncle ( sitthappa ) Anantharaman and MGR had worked together in theatres and MGR would say, ‘your sitthappa is my sitthappa . My father also performed in Sivaji Ganesan’s family functions,” recalls Mr. Arunagiri, a retired school teacher.
The performance gave Tirucherai Sivasubramania Pillai a place in the world of films. Contemporaries, like Thiruvaduthurai N. Rajarathinam Pillai had acted in ‘Kavi kalamegam’ and Thiruvenkadu Subramania Pillai had performed in ‘Aryamala’. Besides the song ‘Singara velane deva’, Karukurichi Arunachalam has played the raga Bilahari in the film ‘Konjum salangai’ . Moreover, Madurai brothers Sethuraman and Ponnusamy played for the film ‘Thillana Mohanambal’. Sivasubramania Pillai, a student of flute Tirupampuram Swaminatha Pillai and his father Natarajasundaram Pillai, also made a guest appearance in the film ‘Thiruvarul’ .
