‘P. B. RANGACHARI MUDHAL SPB VARAI’

RESEARCHED AND WRITTEN BY VAMANAN – PUBLISHED BY MANIVACHAGAR PATHIPPAGAM – 044 – 2536 1039 – PAGES 552, PRICE 250 RUPEES….

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This is the fifth volume of the work ‘Thirai Isai Alaigal’. Like each of the volumes in this series, it is  structured as an array of lives of singers and music composers from the ‘hoary’ past to more contemporary times. The fifth volume has the sub-heading, ‘P.B.Rangachari Mudhal S.P.B. Varai’.

P. B. Rangachari was a great actor active in the first three decades of Tamil cinema. His Kulothunga Chola in Bhagavathar’s hit, ‘Ambikapathi’ (1937) is there for all to see as the video is commercially available. Really a stunning performance in the first decade of Tamil talkie. Rangachari was also a capable singer, having acted in stage plays of the dramatic impresario Cunniah Naidu with such musical worthies as the one-and-only S.G.Kittappa. (The great playback singer T.M. Sounderarajan sang in the chorus group behind Rangachari in the film ‘Sudarshan’ 1953).

SPB, of course, needs no introduction. He has been both a very prolific and influential singer in the last three decades of the 20^th century. You can find a very interesting and lively narration studded with musical details of his oeuvre in this work. I have directly seen SPB at work, the singer having essayed my lyrics for private albums as well as for a film under M.S.Viswanathan’s baton. .

Thirai Isai Alaigal also has projects the lives and singing careers of singing stars of the forties like the stunning Vasundhara Devi (Vyjayanthimala’s mercurial mother), the talented M.S. Sarojini, whose work and singing in the highly successful Aryamala (1941) and Jagathalaprathapan (1944) are well known, K.L.V Vasantha, the darling of Modern Theatres Sundaram and the heroine of successful films like Rambaiyin Kaadhal and Madanakaamarajan (she lost the chance to act as Chandralekha in the film of the name, by a whisker).

As always, I have veered from the successful artistes to the less successful and kept company with such singers as K.V. Janaki (she sang Kannandasan’s first song, Kalangaathiru Maname in Kanniyin Kaadhali, 1949). Her stirring voice can be heard in such films as Marudha Naattu Ilavarasi (in which MGR was paired with his wife-to-be V. N. Janaki), Rajakumari and Mohini. This is the first ever article on the singer, and gives the full details of her life and career.

Also another first is the life, times and songs of A.G. Ratnamala, the dusky singer of ‘comedy’ songs. I have personally met this retiring singer many a time, and experienced her hospitality and amiability…qualities that made her well-beloved to Sivaji Ganesan whose lifelong companion she was. She had been a drama artiste – that was what brought her close to ‘Sivaji’ whose patron she became in his indigent times. Her stage background helped her put energy and joie de vivre into her songs. Here her sing with Chandrababu (‘Un Thirumugathai Orumugama Thiruppu’ and ‘Thanthana Paattu Paadanum’ – Mahadevi). Of course she sang dozens of songs with S.C. Krishnan who could bring the folk touch in a trice.

Other firsts are Rima, R. Vaidyanathan of Gemini Studios.  A nuclear physicist inLondonwho gave up a great scientific career for music. He was also a phenomenally knowledgeable musician, and  I have heard that talents like Rajeswara Rao and Emani Sankara Sastri treated him with fearful respect. Touch any key in a piano and he would give the note and octave, that was his instinct for the scales. He can be seen in the collective music titles of many a Gemini film (Chandralekha and Apoorva Sahodharargal, for example). Elder brother of the celluloid star Ranjan, Rima was a creative soul who cared little for appearances. A bachelor, he lived somewhat like a monk, and died at the age of 42. A rare account based on information shared by close relatives and friends.

Assistant music directors perform very important musical tasks but get poor recognition for their work. This volume gives the life, times and contribution of an extremely gifted musician M. Muthu, who aided many music directors. Having had the opportunity to know this man and his family – I have had the pleasure of recording Muthu’s son Ganesh in musical albums featuring his sitar artistry – I have given an elaborate account of Muthu’s contribution. Another special article is on ‘HMV’ Kamala, who sung a few solo songs but ended up as a chorus singer. That some of the chorus parts were even better than the main music is another matter.

No singer perhaps had a more fitting name than Vani (Jairam). A real Saraswathi of music. She can belt out 60 Pallavis of her film songs one after the other. The seventies are studded with her gems. Like the notes of the octave the various languages ofIndiatoo are at her beck and call. Even though she is not active in the film world today, she is busy as a bee performing all over the world. Alaigal five throws light on her musical genius. Another evergreen talent who blossomed in the seventies is P. Jayachandran, a moody if well meaning playback. He was not a poor man’s Yesudas…but brought along his own stamp of dignity and melody to Tamil song. I should say that he is a golden voice singer with a golden heart.

It has been my pleasure to know A.V. Ramanan and his wife Uma. This extremely talented couple who have regaled audiences with their excellent music for over four decades deserve a better deal. I consider it a public service to have written about them. Ramanan is a gentleman singer and a gifted musician. He has taken the role of his wife’s promoter with great grace. As for Uma, while saying that her voice and musical knowledge are her great assets one can aver that her husband Ramanan is the man behind the success of his wife.

Others who find a place in the book are M.R. Santhanalakshmi, P.G.Venkatesan, T.A. Moti, T.R. Gajalakshmi, V.T.Rajagopalan, Pendyala Nageswara Rao, M. K. Muthu, S.N.Surendar, Dheepan Chakravarathi, Manoj Gyan and Ramesh Vinayakam.

Brought out as part of a series of books marking the golden jubilee of Manivachagar Pathippagam, the book was released in a function at Chennai New Woodlands on December 25 in the presence of many film world worthies.

If I love India, it is not only because it is my country. I think it is special. It is special because its great men and women thought not for themselves but for all mankind.

The basic questions about existence that the ancient rishis asked, as for example what is the one thing after knowing which everything else becomes known apply to everyone of us. Their discoveries apply to everyone.

The Buddha left the palace not just to solve his problems, but the problem of suffering that all creatures face.

Sri Aurobindo too, noble soul, gave up everything to explore the possibilities of life divine on earth.

I won’t say anything about his yoga or its aims. I just look up to him as a child looks up to its father, or a little brother to his elder.

But at the heart of all striving is the quest for the happiness of all.

On India’s birthday, I consecrate myself to this land because its rishis made it the beacon to the world.

I draw inspiration from Sri Aurobindo and say Vande Maataram along with him.

I believe that ultimately it is the blessings of the great souls that strode this land are the rulers of its destiny.

Even our bodies are a trust given to us..what to say of the power or influence that is given to us to exercise.

Let us live great lives of joy and right understanding and make poverty and discriminatioin things of the past.

‘’A separate justice for rulers
And another for the common folk
So legislated the great master Brihaspathi…’’

(Mannarkku Needhi Oru Murai – Mattra
Maandharkku Needhi Oru Murai…Endru
Sonna Vizhaazha Munivaani….)..

It is uttered by Duryodhana when he lambasts his father for suggesting that he should return the kingdom that he has usurped from the Pandavas.

Despite the great Consitution given by India’s leading lights, it was
Duryodhana Raj all through till now.

Politicians were a separate lot.

Whatever be the enormity of their sin, of looting millions and millions of public money even as ordinary people continued to live substandard lives…they were the special lot..the ones who could always get away with murder.

But with the preliminaryl arrest of Kanimozhi, former chief minister M. Karunanidhi’s daughter…in the 2G scam the bell has finally begun to toll for the special gang.

The astonishing thing is that ‘honorable’ advocates of the supremest court of India, like Harish Salve and ‘Aryaman’ Sundaram (to Arnab on Times Now) have been saying or suggesting that bail should not have been denied to Kanimozhi…and even for Raja. (Just a few days back their brother advocate Jethmalani made a killing of perhaps a few crores arguing for Kanimozhi’s bail…He was in Germany when he reacted with amusement to the news of Kanimozhi’s arrest…)

”They are not dangereous criminals who are going to run away. Convict them..” these chaps are saying.

These are the guys…I have lost all respect for them…who have been witness to a libertarian India where it takes generations for a criminal to be convicted…

The arrest of Raja and Kanimozhi in the 2G case, and that purely because of the supervision of the Supreme Court has immense symbolic value for resurgent India.

It should send shivers down the spine of politicians and set a new paradigm for India.

Forget characters like Salve who make millions by chopping logic and the law…. A new India needs to rise…Salaam Supreme Court…Your sense of justice is giving birth to a new India.

The age-old adage is – Like King, like subject. When the rulers are punished for their crimes…the ordinary man will think a thousand times before breaking the law. Salve and co want the rule of the law (which has till now meant rule of the outlaw and men like Salve). I want the rulers to follow the law…and when they don’t, to be made to follow the law. Thus will the new India be made. This is a new beginning…however shaky its foundations may be.

The empty windbag has been shooting her fast mouth left and right answering charges against the DMK. When the charge of large-scale money distribution was brought up, she even managed to pay tribute to the wisdom of the Tamil Nadu voter who had just kicked her and her party out of the Tamil Nadu landscape. Do you think they are fools to be bowled over with money, she asked!

They why the hell was the DMK shooting wads of notes at people much to the vexation of the election commission which rued the state of affairs created by the ruling party in Tamil Nadu.? The facility with which these faded starlets can juggle their cards! It makes one want to throw up.

Now, can we expect Vadivelu to become the chief spokes-buffoon of the party, at least to regale the Tamil media? Vadivelu, and the extra (at least in the political cinema of Tamil Nadu) whom he used to called Kusuppooh (no pun meant at all) would make a great pair defending the DMK. The limelight that Kushboo and Vadivelu shared during the election campaign should be continued after the debacle.

Then it will be the next big joke after the tamasha created over Semmozhi Tamizh.

Crores of 2G money distributed surreptitiously through ambulances and jeeps by the ruling DMK regime have come to nought.

The people of Tamil Nadu have in one huge swipe swept aside the merchants of power and given Jayalalalitha’s alliance a victory.

Even J. Jayalalitha hadn’t expected such a landslide, it would seem.

Responding to her mighty win, she has said that it was a victory of the people of Tamil Nadu.

It is indeed thrilling to think how lakhs of voting judges have all in one voice delivered the sentence on the crooks who ruled in the name of democracy.

The DMK, the party that has Duty, Integrity and Discipline as its watchwords (Kadamai, Kanniyam and Kattupaadu), showed that it follows these mottos only in siphoning off the money of the people.

There have been instances of dynastic rule in the past…Only the DMK’s first family could make it Dy’Nasty’ rule.

The family was coming to have a share in every pie (pun intended) in Tamil Nadu…whether it was satellite telecast, movie biz or housing. This is perhaps the logical conclusion to its leader’s alleged career of ‘of scientific corruption’ (thanks to Justice Sarkaria for the expression).

As a person deeply interested in the destiny of the Tamil people, I salute J. Jayalalitha for fighting the loot combine tooth and nail.

I also express my gratitude to Vijaykanth for aligning with Jayalalitha in the common interest of the people of the state :the decimation of the looters of public wealth

People of Tamil Nadu…you have meted out justice…please follow up what you did at the hustings with action in the social sphere also. Create a society that is based on love and kindness.

This is the state when every house had a pyol (thinnai). This is the state which served people with free distribution of water (thanneer Pandhal). Let us bring consideration and compassion for others to the centrestage of life.

More power to her hands…God save the people of Bengal from the godless communists and give the scions of Rammohan Roy, Ramakrishna and Vivekananda a great future.

May empty tradeunionism be thrown off and Bengalis get to work to create a new Bengal. As a person born in their greatest city, I am deeply interested in their welfare.

But what Gautam Dev, a CPM spokesman said to Times Now’s Arnab Goswami is getting me worried.

There should be not one more Shingur or Nandigram in Bengal…whether we are in position or opposition we won’t allow that, he was declaring repeatedly like an oracle.

Arnab was shocked…but desisted from asking the question : Are you threatening Mamata with strikes and opposition to development plans? The CPM’s bitterness at being decimated by a single woman was coming out as an open threat.

I fear that the well entrenched communists will keep on creating problems of governance for Mamata. They will seek to make Bengal her Waterloo. But they will only be making life difficult for Bengalis in general.

I therefore pray to God that he should make West Bengal a great centre of dynamic development. I want to see my city of Kolkota become a world city in every way. May Bengal which paved the way for Indian renaissance a hundred years ago come to life again.

Only this time the question is to the wife, and is, Has your husband stopped beating you?

Reworded, it would go, ‘Did the United States take your permission before bumping off Osama on Pakistani soilor did it not?’

If Pakistan said yes, and permission was taken, it would mean that Pakistan has given up its sovereignty for American dollars.

If Pakistan said no, it would me that America has simply usurped Pakistan’s sovereignty.

In this condition, the most pathetic statement came from Pakistan interior minister Rehman Malik. He said that America had told Pakistan about the operation 15 minutes after it had started! (That is, after America was sure that Pakistan could do nothing to stop it!).

Another pathetic addition by Rehman Malik was: ‘’We weren’t however told where the operation was taking place ‘’ (except that it was on Pakistan soil, is it?).

Pakistan Pakistan…if only you could set some store by honesty and truth. If only you would discover some antidote to anti-India venom.

That’s the crux of the matter.

If the Pakistanis had known that the Americans were getting to Osama, they (the Pakistanis I mean) would have acted and informed Osama ‘forthwith’ and Osama would have done the vanishing act.

And the Pakistanis would have continued to act after that too….they would have acted that they were hunting with the hounds…they would have acted that they didn’t tell the hares (Osama)..they would have acted that they continue to hang along with the hounds. Actually, acting comes naturally to the Pakistani higher ups..They are good actors.

I have heard from unauthorized and thoroughly mischievous sources in the US that Hollywood is thinking of conferring the acting Oscar on Pakistan. President Obama may receive the Oscar on Pakistan’s behalf because it was he who discovered Pakistan’s immense acting potential and put it to use.

Oh the determination and resoluteness the US intelligence agencies have shown in their pursuit of their aim — capture of the 9/11 perpetrator.

Oh the pusillnanimity of the Indian government in dealing with the Pakistani murderers who unleashed Bombay on us!

Oh the mercy petition that hangs in the balance for aeons in the case of the attack on the Indian Parliament!

Mother India sheds bloody tears at the unavenged war that was visited on our financial capital.

India hangs its head in shame that the savage attack on its Parliament is not being brought to its logical and just end.

The US, whatever be its other faults and hegemonic ends at least behaves as a proud nation.

India, whatever its great traditions of peace, of Buddha and Gandhi, slouches in the shadows like a eunuch, incapable of action.

Klaibyam Maa Sma Gamaha..Paartha…
Na Ethath Tvayi Upapadhyathe…
Kshudhram Hridya Daurbalyam Tyaktva
Uththishta Paranthapa…

‘’O Scorcher of foes..Don’t succumb to impotence…This does not befit you. Get rid of your weakness of heart and stand up…’’ Krishna said this to our own warrior of warriors, Arjuna.

But the only one who seems to have taken Krishna’s call is the Australian Julian Assange.

Are Indians then a spent force?

Will ever our Arjunas, Ashokas and Ramas rise?

Leaving criminal wrongs unpunished is not a quest for peace…it is the murder of justice.

India, Stand up…Punish those who harass your people. Otherwise you are a nation only in name.

As if to boost her point she had bytes of an Iranian devotee saying that she was fortunate to be living in Puttaparthi for the past four years. The Iranian devotee said that there were others from Azarbaijan, Kazakhsthan and Uzbekistan who had made the Ashram their home. Muslim devotees of the Baba.

Satya Sai Baba may have claimed that he was an avatar of Shirdi Sai Baba, who sometimes gave expression to Vedantic ideas through Sufi maxims.. Shirdi Sai’s personality was a wonderful amalgam of Vedanta and Sufism. He was an Ardhanareeswara of the two streams of divine experience.

But Satya Sai was a great Hindu saint steeped in the glorious spiritual values of Bharat. He was not for theories of god and religions but for a life lived in faith and devotion. The songs in the Sai Bhajans were addressed to the deities of Hinduism even as a few of them emphasized that the supreme god was an embodiment of love.. The qualities of love, service and discipline were emphasized among Satya Sai devotees. Satya Sai thus was a great Hindu saint espousing the best values of his religion in a spirit and love and service to mankind.