A pioneer's analysis

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A pioneer's analysis SRIRAM VENKATAKRISHNAN

Sambanda Mudaliar based his objection on the fact that few South Indian musicians knew how to sing northern tunes properly.

Pammal Sambanda mudaliar On October 31, the 75th year of 'the talking and singing' Tamil cinema will wind to a close, for it was on that date in 1931 that the first talkie, "Kalidas," was released at Kinema Central in Madras.

Carnatic music dominated South Indian films in the first decade. Papanasam Sivan emerged as the first lyricist and music director rolled into one and in his debut film, "Seetha Kalyanam" (1933), future musicians S. Rajam and S. Balachander also acted.

Playback had not yet come into vogue and the ability to sing well was more important than the ability to act. Within a few years, most leading lights of the Carnatic music world had donned the grease paint. GNB was among the earliest, acting in "Bhama Vijayam" (1934), followed by Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer in "Nandanar" (1935) and Musiri Subramania Iyer in "Tukaram" (1938).

Among the women, M.S.Subbulakshmi made her debut in "Seva Sadanam" (1938). South India was always known for its support and patronage of Hindustani music and it was not surprising that several films also had songs based on that genre.

It was perhaps appropriate that at the end of the first decade of Tamil cinema, Pammal Sambanda Mudaliar, eminent playwright, actor and film director of the early period, took time to analyse the role of classical music in South Indian films. His article, "South Indian Talkies — Carnatic Music vs Hindustani Music" appeared in The Hindu dated July 18, 1941, in the paper's Friday round up of films.

Born as he was in 1872, Sambanda Mudaliar could truly claim that it was his "good fortune to hear almost all the best musicians from the South, including the famous Maha Vaidyanatha Aiyar. I have been thrilled by the sweet strains of Tirukkodikaval Krishna Aiyar on the violin, Seshanna on the Veena and Sarabha Sastri on the flute; I can boast of having heard every exponent of Carnatic music for the past 50 years, both at music parties and on the stage."

Mudaliar emerges from the article as a strong champion of Carnatic Music. His first paragraph itself is titled "Objections to Hindustani Music!" In it he decries the tendency of music directors of the period to bring in tunes from that idiom. He bases his objection on the fact that "very few South Indian musicians know how to sing northern tunes properly… Probably musicians who have studied both the systems of music scientifically can be counted on the fingers of one hand. What 99 per cent of the people of the South who attempt Hindustani music do, is to hear gramophone records of Northern music, or in a few cases hear Northern musicians in person, and try to imitate the tunes; the result is in most cases a dismal failure."

Grafting of tunes

While accepting that Hindustani tunes have a "catchy style which appeals easily to the popular mind," Mudaliar wrote that the grafting of such tunes into South Indian films also has the problem of getting Tamil/Telugu words to fit into them. Such attempts, he says, go "against every rule of vernacular prosody; it is a jingle of words, which may please the illiterate, but which must make the lover of literary language shudder." Evidently there were strict rules to be followed for composing lyrics for films in those days!

Mudaliar counters a then prevailing argument that certain northern tunes were appropriate for certain emotions. "Is it because there is not sufficient merit and scope in Carnatic music to satisfy the most fastidious taste as regards suitability to various emotions? Our Southern musicians and composers will any day accept a challenge to compose a song in a Carnatic ragam suitable for any emotion."

Perhaps referring to "Sakunthalai," starring M.S.Subbulakshmi-GNB, Mudaliar writes that "in a talkie which is at present running to popular houses in the whole of southern India in which one of the sweetest-voiced actresses of South India has taken the chief feminine role, though she sings both Carnatic and Hindustani songs, it is the former that sends the audience into raptures and captivates them."

He uses this to buttress his stance that "the greatness and sweetness of Carnatic music can never fade, and in the hands of proper artistes it can hold its own against northern music or the music of any other country." Mudaliar ends his article with a scathing attack on English Notes. "Some actresses and actors indulge (thank God they are very few!) in what are called English Notes. There is neither harmony nor melody in these attempts. They are mere servile imitations, which do not please even the European public."

That was in 1941. It would have been interesting to hear what Sambanda Mudaliar may have had to say about music in today's films had he been around.

(The author can be contacted at srirambts@gmail.com)

Source:http://www.hindu.com/fr/2007/10/26/stories/2007102651390300. htm

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Sambanda Mudaliar based his objection on the fact that few South Indian musicians knew how to sing northern tunes properly.

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