The Golden Era of Dr.IR and Dr.SPB

[app_engine]

#340 காதல் கவிதைகள் படித்திடும் நேரம்
(கோபுர வாசலிலே, 1991 , சித்ராவுடன்)

'kAdhal kavidhaikaL padiththidum nEram' from gOpura vAsalilE

It's an interesting song, despite the irritating 'lovable idiot' start. With delectable string sections and a background arrangement like meenammA meenammA, the song is quite a "running fast" kind. SPB & KSC excel in their singing of a very sweet melody. A rAsA-special melody, that is catchy as well as complex - especially the saraNam part. It gets so good in the middle of the saraNam where IR possibly conformed to the rAgA specs while also innovating within that framework (experts to clarify).

Interestingly, I've never heard about this movie or this song when this was supposedly hot in TN. 1991 being a year when so much was happening on the personal front, I'm not surprised that a remake didn't get my attention. (Don't ask me 'how do you know it was a remake' - I simbly assumed that -seeing Priyadharshan as the director...had it been Lal, I would've told 'dubbed movie' but the hero is Karthik here and hence the 'remake' assumption).

I came across this song only in the new millennium here in amErikkA- when some disk from a relative had it. Since that relative is not a HCIRF, I assumed that the song was a hit in TN Though I like this song very much, my most fav from the album is the SJ special 'thAlAttum poongARRu' - what a sweety!

Looking back, I'm surprised that I missed a Priyadharshan-IR venture of 1991 altogether, while living in Kerala That too with him being a fav director to me during the late-80's - with those sweet movies having Lalettan - Chithram / vandhanam / veLLAnakaLude nAdu & kilukkam. Since we're featuring for the first time a song directed by the h/o Lissy chEchi, I should mention a couple of words about him...

Along with Sathyan AnthikkAd, Priyadharshan should be given credits for bringing smile on the faces of Malayalees when watching movies! I don't think anyone would be outraged by this statement, as most movies prior to the 80's were dead serious, azhuva moonji kinds predominantly. Even the songs - if not sOgam, they were extremely serious mostly.

All those changed with the advent of these two directors in combination with Lal & Srinivasan (along with some sweet & sensitive movies by Fazil).

That didn't mean that Priyan's movies were all slapsticks / comedies. They could turn dead-serious pretty quickly, even leaving one with a lump in the throat on many occasions. Since I encourage everyone to watch the four movies listed above by Priyan, I won't post spoilers here - those are great movies with excellent comical & serious moments and some superb performances by the actors. Not to be missed!

Likewise, please don't post spoilers of gOpura vAsalilE here I plan to watch it someday...unless somebody names the original and I know that I had already watched that one