The Golden Era of Dr.IR and Dr.SPB

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#215 நான் பாடும் மௌன ராகம் கேட்கவில்லையா?
(இதயக்கோயில், 1985 )

The sOgam pizhiyum song, the last one getting posted from IK on this thread as we close out the year 1985 for this glorious IR-SPB combo.

Another year with 38 hit songs - thus equalling the top spot held by the year 1983 so far. (1985 had 178th to 215th #s in this series that had a couple of days break for the demise of Mrs Ilayaraja and a longer break for the hub-hack but otherwise running a number daily).

A song of melancholy with a fantastic first interlude that can pizhinjify the hearts of even kal-nenju people. SPB singing with very appropriate, adakki vAsikkum emotions with hardly any dramatism. Whenever such controlled emotion is deployed, it keeps doing something to the heart. That is, it keeps one depressed for a longer duration because of the 'inam puriyAtha sOga uNarvukaL'. Best song to listen during night times (the prelude possibly got an "extended play" version in NBW). The oxymoron term that occurs in the first line of the pallavi is possibly an inspiration from a whole bunch of such usage in the 80's by people like KBR-TR, especially w.r.t. the luvvu thingy. (oru kai Osai, suvar illAtha siththirangaL, mouna geethangaL, kuzhandhai pAdum thAlAttu, iravu nEra bhoopALam, mErkil thOnRum udhayam, nadhi illAtha Odam).

Interestingly, the term was so catchy that the director chose that as the name of his next movie - a historic success and a critically acclaimed one - which repeated the SPB-IR-Mohan-MR combo. (We'll probably begin the year 1986 with that one )

The azhudhu vadiyum sOgam brings back the memory of 110V bulbs that had to be used in Palakkad those days. (The regulation was so poor, so many old transformers, tube-light won't start until midnight etc...for brightness's sake people used 110V bulbs even though the "rated" line voltage was 230V Interestingly, the voltage was so reliably low that blowing-off of 110V bulbs wasn't so frequent.)

In addition, there were power-cuts too and one incident quickly comes to mind.

When the Palakkad company did campus interview, 10 of us got selected and at least 6 of us joined. One was commuting from Cbe, me from TN-Kerala border and the rest wanted to rent a house in Pkd. The personnel department frightened them that 'nobody will rent house for bachelors' (nonsense, there were simply too many renters willing to give, as we found out much later) and pushed them into "monthly rental hotels". It was so difficult to get good rooms in that small, dull, dark, 110V, 9 PM sleeping town - but they managed to get one room that could take all of them in. ("Babu lodge").

One evening I too went with them to town, had tiffin in the HariharaputhrA hotel near private bus stand (the only place where one could get TN-like sambAr for dOsai those days) and thought of spending some time in their room / possibly going to a movie. Well, the room was as such dark (despite a gundu bulb), I was tired / sleepy / gloomy but both the twin beds had others sitting on them.

Then there was power cut and one fellow got up from the cot. I did a foolish thing then, dived to the bed Alas, where I expected the pillow to be, there was this dark edge of the wooden cot. Sharp cut so close to the right eye, just below the eyebrow and I was bleeding profusely. Following some chaotic moments, I was in the auto to Kerala Nursing home and moments later in the room to get repaired. (I froze when one of the nurses shouted to another 'is that small needle not around?')

Well, for a few days I had that big bandage close to right eye and caught the attention of every girl in the factory who said 'tsO-tsO'