The Golden Era of Dr.IR and Dr.SPB

[al_gates]

This is the most marvellous thread I have ever read. Thank you gentlemen for keeping this lurker spellbound.

App Engine, i am relishing very much every one of your travelogues. Last month I was wondering if truly 25 yrs had passed since Mounam Ragam came. I am looking forward to your rendering of the late 80s with unrestrained impatience.

There wass an interview with Sathyaraj some years back where he spoke about his role in Nooravathu Naal. He mentioned the various inputs he gave during the making of the movie. That shaved head added to his menace as a villain. It was all in all a thoroughly superb performance.

Nooravathu Naal reminds us of Auto Shankar. But that is another story for another day

[app_engine]

Welcome to hub, al_gates!

Thank you for reading this thread and your nice comment!

[rajkumarc]

App - Did you write about Kaadhal Dhegangal from Anbulla Malare rendered by SPB & PS? Apologies if posted already. I was listening to this sweet & haunting number today and wondering how it was not talked about in this thread. Maybe not a popular song at that time?

[Plum]

App, what is a bread shaped bus? I can't imagine that one - my powers of imagination are limited. Padam varaindhu baagam kuRikka mudiyumA?

[KV]

App, nice to hear about your memories from ITI. My grandma had worked at ITI and I've heard from her about the canteen, the items there and the throw-away prices. I've already been feeling very spongy today and your post just adds to the effect (:at self: dai kaipulla, kondrOll)
My college idustrial visit tour was quite similar. We'd gone to Mumbai and Goa! The only thing industrial about the tour was a visit to a fishery!
Coming to the song, well, its predominantly a template 80s disco song, but the basslines and the folkish passage in the interlude adds the IR touch.

[V_S]

App,
Super post and nice reminiscence of your industrial tour. Loved all your ITI experience. Always it is a joy to eat in a big group that too with staffs. I remember eating like that when I was doing my final (third) semester post-graduate project at ABB, Baroda. That was a wonderful experience, and surprisingly amazing food too. Definitely brings back college mess memories.

Coming to the film, I always love NT's excellent acting throughout (every inch of it) adding to that KBR, Radhika acting skills watched by BR.

[app_engine]

App, what is a bread shaped bus? I can't imagine that one - my powers of imagination are limited. Padam varaindhu baagam kuRikka mudiyumA?

It was an old bus (dodge or fargo, don't remember - definitely not my fav Leyland) and there were slight curved endings on top - towards both the front and back . If you're viewing the bus from the side (i.e. looking at the passenger windows in the same way as Vimal views girls in kaLavANi ), it looked like modern bread

In other words, the isometric view of the bus looks like this :

[app_engine]

App - Did you write about Kaadhal Dhegangal from Anbulla Malare rendered by SPB & PS? Apologies if posted already. I was listening to this sweet & haunting number today and wondering how it was not talked about in this thread. Maybe not a popular song at that time?

You're right about the sweetness of this song - however, I don't remember hearing this song at all those days. More of a hidden treasure

[app_engine]

KV & V_S,

nanRi - nice to know of your industrial visits as well.

I'll have to add a couple more today, from that trip, in the next number...

[app_engine]

#168 செங்கமலம் சிரிக்குது சங்கமத்தை நினைக்குது
(தாவணிக்கனவுகள், 1984 , ஜானகியுடன்)

What a goose-pimple raising prelude! And we're returning back to SPB-SJ sweet combo again - how many sweeties in one single year with IR! Amazing 1984! rAsA lets loose his string section, creating sensational stuff for this fast running song. After prelude, my most fav portion is the post-chorus part of the second interlude, delicious! thuLLal Balu in his full steam, singing with his usual precision. Real stunner of a song that hasn't lost its shine even after years with the terrific pair saving their laughter for the end of the song.

dAvani songs remind me of the tour again...possibly I'll write about it in all four posts. The visit to Jalahalli BEL was not a whole day affair and ended at noon. This was much better than ITI at that time - as we got to see some real electronic stuff getting made and some fantastic test equipments. Still, there was a lot of secrecy (defence thingy) / non-access etc, that kind of turned off the spirit. Personally, I was also trying all avenues to meet one Mr Rangarajan who was working there (also known as Sujatha whom I was madly fond of at that time - thanks to pirivOm santhippOm and many other works. Disappointed to know that he was out of station).

Anyways, the visit to ISRO on the same day was a lot more exciting! The tour guide was extremely knowledgeable and explained a lot of things in a pleasant manner - even showing us the satellite testing site! It was fascinating to watch the whole setup which supposedly simulated space-like conditions for testing a Rohini.

I don't remember clearly whether it was the same day or another when me and a classmate walked on brigade road, for the first time, thoroughly mesmerized at the sophistication! Though three years into engg., we were still country boys and were doing the 'pattikkAttAn mittAikkadaiya pAththa mAthiri' stuff. (Those girls walking on the pavement would've thought 'why these guys have such wide eyes' , we both definitely talked about the 'peNkaL-oor' article that appeared in the kungumam magazine only a little while ago).

Decided to try something other than masAlA dOsai for dinner and entered a Punjabi restaurant - another first time thingy (that place didn't last long, I couldn't find it even in 1986). The funniest part was when the server brought two bowls with hot water and some cut lemon slices around the time we were finishing up.

Never seen such a thing before and totally confused that we didn't order any "lemon juice", we wondered what was that about. There was also lajjai at not knowing such city things and confusion as to "should we drink it or not".

Finally, vetkaththai vittu vittu, we asked the server what it was (after all he was not my uncle). He said 'pingerwAll', thoroughly confusing us further! Finally, he gave us a demo