The Golden Era of Dr.IR and Dr.SPB

[PARAMASHIVAN]

Ofcourse, she gets extra marks for eyes!

U do have good taste Add Madahavi Pon mayilal to the list of Eye beauties!

[app_engine]

#304 அடி வான்மதி என் பார்வதி
(சிவா, 1989 , சித்ராவுடன்)

adi vAnmathi en pArvathi of sivA

Another SPB-KSC duet from the same movie, as already told in a number of posts above. In my personal rating, way below the 'iru vizhiyin vazhiyE' - too simple and masAlA sounding song- but a bigger hit I think. Also, any reference to dEvadAs / pArvathi is a big turn-off for me in film songs (unless the song is the old 'O, O, O dEvadAs' ). There's no question SPB & Chitra do perfect justice to the average (except the first line of saraNam which is fabulous as usual) melody , nailing every bit to perfection and add a lot of value by their own capability. But from rAsA side it is so-so IMVHO. So what, it was a hit and that's what counts

I haven't seen the youtubes yet but my general observation on usage of Shobana in MF v/s TF - she never even had a decent costume in TF (with the exception of thaLabathi) I think. She was mostly nicely saree-clad in MF (except song sequences where the northie style colorful pAvAdai sattai was given) and got elegant roles also (e.g. nAdOdikkARRu or veLLAnaikaLude nAdu, very likeable). OTOH, the TFs (i.e. the few I've seen where she was heroini) showed her horrible, the worst example being idhu namma ALu. I think she was doing a silukku kind of role in that KBR / Balakumaran movie.

Going by the year, Rajini should have had his typical "air-blown" hairstyle, leather jacket etc and showed all his thuLLal / thudippu. Even an average storyline could have easily made the users like the movie but the producer / director thought otherwise I think. For whatever reason, they took a 70's kalaichchelvam and produced a very-unwatchable flick, inexplicable considering that KB was in the equation too...well, like the earlier quoted Sujatha's remarks - film industry has never figured out exactly what works and what does not...

[baroque]

bass guitar, flute & violin melody, lilting tune, I love the song always. Pahadi melody, just like ore naal unai naan..... or indha maan undhan......etc..
சின்ன ரோஜா இதழ் அது கன்னம் நானேன்றது... andha kutti konjal podhumey enakku, I crawl under S.P.Bala's feet, there you go... he satisfied my emotional need for today! I will run with a huge smile whole day!

Raja truly enhanced the joy with charanams, App_eng.

vinatha.

[Divine22]

Hi app sir ,

The journey has successfully reached the triumphant 300!! Thank you for the wonderful posts and your stories , kept me hooked to this thread. Melum thodarattum intha payanam ...

Here we come 90's!

youtube links for the 2 sweeties Iru Vizhiyin Vazhiye & Adi Parvathi .. The man really made Ray-ban sun glasses famous those days

[PARAMASHIVAN]

Adi kantha yenatha - was quite an Ordinary tune in the movie, well for IR standards!

BTw, can some tell me what "vaanmathi " means? Is it moon?

[app_engine]

nanRi for your comments, baroque!

Divine22, Thank you for the kind words & the youtube links! As I mentioned in the vAnmathi post, Shobana's costumes are (expectedly) horrible

Param, vAnmathi - made up of two words, vAn = sky & mathi = moon

[PARAMASHIVAN]

Thanks App anna

[PARAMASHIVAN]

// Has any one seen 47 natkal?? any good ? thanks //

[app_engine]

#305 கல்யாணமாலை கொண்டாடும் பெண்ணே
(புதுப்புது அர்த்தங்கள், 1989)

kalyANamAlai koNdAdum peNNE (puthupputhu arththangaL)

Evergreen sweetie in SPB's voice (there're brief versions by MV & IR too in the soundtrack but SPB is supposedly the voice for the lead singer character in the movie, played by Rahman). From a movie that has the notoriety of providing the setting for IR-KB rift. With terrific strings score in the prelude, the song raises goose pimples at once! As it progresses, the sweet melody and excellent rendering by SPB (azhagAna manaivi, anbAna thuNaivi, amaindhAlE pErinbamE...) melts one's hearts! The cassette was a big favourite in our bachelor home and this song was obviously the top favourite to me!

I haven't seen this movie. Neither did I watch many Rahman movies overall - simbly because his TF career mostly had non-IR movies (unlike most heroes of 80s). Perhaps PPA was his first movie with IR music. OTOH, the very first MF I saw in Kerala (kaNdu kaNdarinju) had him in a main role, along with M & M. It may be of interest to know that he was a Padmarajan find and debuted with Suhasini in her first MF, the movie being a very acclaimed 'koodevidE' (hero Mammootty).

Since human brain can do strange things, I'm not surprised that the 'kalyANa mAlai' song had somehow got wired to the first kalyANa function that I attended in interior Kerala. So, that trip often comes up in memory when I hear this song. Well, it was a memorable one - being my first ride to the beautiful Thrissur district which was filled with evergreen trees and a sweet landscape. Of course, memorable, for other reasons too

It was in a place called 'erumappatti'. (May be spelt 'erumappetti' in English 'Patti' means dog in Malayalam i.e. male, which is also a mild swear word; true to every (un)culture, the worse word is 'nAyinda mOn' as nAy / nAya means female of patti ) It was a surprise to me when I got the invitation with this name of place since 'patti / petti' is typical to TN and not Kerala. (I think there're one or more buffalo-patti's in TN too, after all even amerikkA has the buffalo city).

I was perhaps a year old in the job / Kerala and was excited to jump into one of the 2 cars in a crowd of 10, including two "officers" to whom the groom reported to. Never a big-fan of 'pandhikku mundhu', so I ensured filling in a nice nool puttu + pAl breakfast at 7 AM, while most others started empty (nool puttu = idiyAppam). I was reading aloud all the Malayalam boards on the way during the 2 hr drive (new skill acquired at that time), much to the humor of car mates which was a Thamizh / MalayaLam mixed group.

When we reached the boy's house, it was a culture-shock to me as there was no pandhal, vAzhai etc and none at the entrance to greet us even. Also, no music or speakers. We were wondering whether to enter inside the house or not and after a few minutes, the maternal-uncle of the boy came out. Without even smiling, he informed us 'mOLil chellAmallO'. ("Let's go upstairs"). It was motta mAdi with no chairs and we were leaning / some sitting on parapet walls.

Then someone brought a stool and a whisky bottle and placed in the middle with a "dang" sound, at 9 AM (Me soup / juice ghosti at that time; since those weren't options, settled for water that came for mixing). No 'kadi' (snacks) also but only ooRukAi was available and most of the gang shamelessly drank including the senior officEzhs. By now, I was "seasoned" and was not expecting any breakfast to be served, which proved to be the case. The hunger of the gang appeared pretty obvious to me.

By 10, we drove to the huge campus where a big size church + school + hall + other buildings were located, the venue of wedding. The wedding was going on while we hung around in the campus (too crowded inside and the sight-seeing was better outside). The mAppiLLai briefly came out and informed us that the ceremony will last much longer (with the priest telling many unintelligible things in a church equivalent of Sanskrit, possibly Latin or Syrian or something). So, he politely informed that he won't be able to meet us again and begged to be excused, pointing to the same uncle to take care of the hospitality.

It was 11:30 and the gang was happy to go the dining hall as they were starving without b/f & the alcohol eating the tissues inside. It was literally a run to grab tables and get seated Me and another guy got a table in one corner while the rest of the gang got seated in the other end of the hall. The food was getting served from our end. Meanwhile, I noticed some commotion in the other end, with the gang angrily getting up and rushing out Their seats were filled with other eagerly waiting guests!

Me & the guy sitting with me wondered what happened and were perplexed as to whether to get up or continue. Since food was already served, for decency's sake, we decided to finish and then find out what happened. The boy's dad was a big engineer in state gov and I thought it will be an expensive lunch. It really was, but to me that food was a disaster, 1/4 loaf of bread + chicken curry that appeared to have 90% coconut milk, big size brown rice (matta ari) to which I was still not used to, pickle-like-fish that had 'kodampuLi' which is different from the regular tamarind we are used to, and, ofcourse, "iRaichchi". iRaichchi of what? erumappatti'nA vERa enna? pOththu dhAn The image of "adi-mAdu-buffaloes" coming in from TN on lorries came to my mind, churning the stomach! I hurriedly took a few bites of rice with the kappai-kizhangu-koottu and the meal was over in a few minutes.

The gang was angrily waiting for us two "traitors" - who continued with the food after them being shown the door. They were asked to get up and come later, to give seats to "more important guests" from the girl's family. The uncle was apologetic - "Are'nt you friends of the boy, hope you'll understand" - but the hungry-drunk group, that had the bosses of the boy, were in no mood to relent and our cars rushed out to the nearest available restaurant (chAyakkadai with a few tables).

When I saw them eating the "obviously-re-heated-previous-day's-parOttAs" as if they were seeing food for the first time in life, my TFM mind was singing "kalyANa samaiyal sAdham, kAi kaRikaLum pramAdham"

Disclaimer : This experience was an isolated one and had nothing to do with the "group" that the boy belonged to, so please don't think I'm making fun of any group

[app_engine]

Sorry for the long post but I didn't know how to shorten the story

Nerd, once again geography but I feel it will be incomplete without that...