M G Sreekumar on Tamil songs
Posted by JoNov 11
I saw this when a friend of mine pointed me to this video of an episode from the Malayalam musical reality show – Idea Star Singer. One of the contestants sang the beautiful Yesudas-Salil Chowdhury song “Shyaama Meghame” and the judges began to comment. The pointers, as usual, were based on the adherence to the original. After the famous Sangathi Man’s comments, the voice-of-Mohan Lal came in. And he started lecturing and here it is:
“You people are addicted to the Tamil songs. Agreed that there are songs with such level of “sangathis” in Tamil, but there are no songs with such variations like we have in Malayalam. So if you try to sing this song in Tamil style, such Sangathis won’t come out.”
There is absolutely no reason to bring in Tamil music there. And if I am to believe what M G Sreekumar had said, what were music directors like Ilaiyaraja doing all these years in music? According to M G Sreekumar, none of them have done any songs with variations in Tamil yet.
Though I am scratching my head to find out the difference between the words “sangathi” and “variations”, I can’t also help thinking whether this is an out-pour of a singer who could not make his mark outside Malayalam music industry. Considering that his success in the Malayalam music industry is mainly attributed to his friend, schoolmate Mohan Lal, because their voices sounds alike, and to his friend director Priyadarshan, we have reasons to believe that he was just pouring his anger on a poor boy who came to test his luck with singing.
PS: My friend also comments that Salil Chowdhury is a Bengali and not a Malayali. So if he had the “variations” composed in Malayalam, he would sure have done it in his own language!
Related posts:
- Malayalam songs of 2009 – My picks M G Sreekumar on Tamil songsMy friend Sandeep asked me...
- Malayalam songs of 2008 – My picks M G Sreekumar on Tamil songsChoosing the top 10 Malayalam...
- A Salil Chowdhary song M G Sreekumar on Tamil songsIt has been a long...
- The Cons of Singing Karaoke M G Sreekumar on Tamil songs Reproducing a popular song...
- Yasir Sali’s Entry in to Film Music M G Sreekumar on Tamil songs Fellow music blogger Yasir...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
10 comments
Comment by dhans on November 11, 2009 at 10:09 pm
useless fellow…. i accept Malayalam singers are really good… but ppl with this arrogance will never come up….
Comment by Murali Venkatraman on November 12, 2009 at 11:35 am
MGS is a brilliant singer, good observer of notes but hardly passes any comment that is to be taken seriously by anybody who wants to ‘think’ about music. Most of his statements lack rigor and this is just another one of his inane statements.
He should hope Raja does not hear this. The rare chance that MGS gets with Raja to sing songs will also vaporize. Irrespective of what Indian language it is, the sangathis are a product of the composer and singer in appropriately enunciating the words. IF MGS does not know how to do it in Tamil, it is not Tamil’s inability but his.
Comment by Ramya on November 12, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Hey jus saw the video, he says ‘ from beginning till to end there is plenty of mistakes that I will take 2 days to tell them’ – That’ so rude! I suppose the singer rakesh is a malayalee , isn’t he, not sure. MGS is talking as if he is an alien singing some latin or spanish songs, I wonder how he cud appreciate the music in other languages if he feels people should sing only malayalam songs. Btw, rakesh’s emoting n expressions n all are much better than the sangathi mans’, music doesnt lie in the sangathi alone. Maybe his anger as you said! Whatever!
Comment by Jo on November 12, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Ramya: Rakesh is a Malayalee. I wouldn’t have a problem, had MGS asked the participant to sing only Malayalam songs just because this is a show in a Malayalam television (and if it is in the pre-defined rules of the contest). But there was no need to bring the Malayalam/Tamil Superior-Inferior angle to music. And this is just not about MGS alone. I have heard many people say Indian music is superior to Western music and such non-sense.
Comment by Prem A on November 12, 2009 at 10:50 pm
I think the point he is trying to make is, listen to more malayalam songs so that youngsters can learn more. Maybe he is talking from his own experience.
Let’s start from a known premise, that is, all songs are tough to sing, but as a singer you would agree that some songs are tougher than the others. So the question is, are there tougher songs in malayalam than in tamil. IMHO, that might be true !!.
As for what he says to the contestants have to be taken in the right spirit. It is his duty as a judge to call a spade, a spade.
Regards,
PA
Comment by Arun on November 12, 2009 at 11:16 pm
Just wanted to mention something about one of the above comments, Rakesh’s notes were not perfect in those which Sharath Sir asked him to sing. Sangathis and Brigas are very important to bring out the feel of a ragam. Try to sing straight notes without any gamakas for a song, how will it sound ?! Without a gamaka how can you impart the feel of a single note ?!!!
And it is not a small thing to roll your voice. It involves so much of hard work and practice. You should respect that hard work, knowledge and experience before using such comments as “Sangathi Man” and all those stuff!!!
M G Sreekumar, as Muralichettan told, is a very brilliant singer, a perfectionist. Might be because of his friends in the industry, but surviving (not just surviving though) in an industry for more than 15 years where Veterans like Yesudas and Jayachandran were ruling is not a joke!
I’ll try to explain what I felt about the difference between Sangathi and Variation.
If you are vibrating your voice in a single note also, it can be a Sangathi; or can be in between adjacent notes or for that matter any notes. Here, I think MGS would have meant the movement from one note to another as Variation, need not be a briga or gamaka. eg: Kaama roopa, precisely the journey from one note to another is very risky in this composition as in most of the Salil Da’s works. It is more like jumping from higher note directly to lower note. I think MGS would have meant that transition as Variation. If it is the case, as of my knowledge it is very difficult to find such a composition in any other MD’s works as extensively found in Salilda’s works. By Tamil songs, he might have meant the “Harris Jayaraj Type” songs, which can be sung in a single type beat and almost all straight notes!
These are just my humble thoughts, please correct me if I am wrong.
Comment by jana on November 13, 2009 at 10:56 am
If you have a problem with Tamil industry, the music; plainly say so. There is no need to curtain feelings with words like Sangathi, etc. If we look back to the 60s, 70s, 80s, there were plenty of such semi-classical songs in Tamil. MGS’s sister is Chithra’s guru. So called Chithra won her first national award for a semi-classical song in Tamil. The youth are only addicted to Tamil songs, because picking up the words and singing is easier; compared with say, Telugu. Likewise, for a Kannadiga, Telugu songs are easier to pick up. Personally, I do feel that it would be good to learn the Malayalam gems. But why drag in Tamil or Hindi or English.
Anyhow, I am not sure if there are many great semi-classical or even melodious ones with classical touches coming out in Malayalam industry of today. I wonder what MGS would say if he had made even a pinch of the success his seniors had in the Tamil music industry.
And as far as these judges are concerned; I have seen them making bigger messes of songs when they sing on stage, than most contestants. Reality is; most of the judges can’t even sing as well as some of the contestants.
Comment by karthik on November 13, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Kudos to Arun for a thoughful comment! Despite an unattractive tonal quality(as voiced by many), MGS did achieve and make significant marks in Malayalam music. However, diction severely axed his success in other languages. While it is good to hear the feedback from accomplished artists, it is wrong to set an expectation of verbatim reproduction. In my opinion, a song (that is rehearsed and reproduced) iterates over one’s own interpretation and expressions. The techniques used are bound to differ based on the tonal quality – for example if you took the starting phrase shyamameghame.. a melodic voice lends itself to a nice jaaru(or slide) whereas a rougher one can use a brigha (modulated to give similar feel). This point was once very well explained by SPB where he emphasized that the take-off and landing notes of a line or phrase are non-negotiable. However, the intermediate path should offer independence to the singer’s creativity. If the rendition strikes a chord with a common listener, that truly overrides the nitty-gritties of the technical aspects (when compared to the original).
Comment by SUNIL on November 18, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Not a singer but let me put me words as very ordinary listener.
Not against tamil songs or style, but todays youngsters seems to be more interested in tamil songs and style over malayalam. This is an opinion after seeing several episodes of reality shows. My 11 year old daughter sings atleast first two lines of any tamil song which she likes even though have no clue about tamil. I dont know what attracts her towards a language unknown. May be the stylish presentation in terms of visuals and beats.
MGS remarks may be out of frustration on this trend of tamil over malayalam, among youngsters.
As far as his success concerned, u cant simply attribute it to having friends like mohanlal or priyadarshan. He is a good singer having knowledge of these sangathies too. None can remain for years without having any talent in them.
Comment by N V Krishnan on November 21, 2009 at 9:52 pm
I fully agree woth Jo..It was very bad of MGS to have made such an objectionable comment on Tamil songs and Tamil Music altogether. Does he mean there are no capable music directors who can create songs with so much variations in Tamil? He must be kidding or must be mad to say so..
N V Krishnan