Viswanathan Ramamoorthy classics : Paarthaa pasi theerum

I have generally been talking mostly about Hindi film music on this page. While Hindi film music does dominate my listening spectrum, I do spend a lot of time with music from films made in other languages of the country. I am particularly fond of Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada music. Starting today, I will be spending some time with a few magnificent soundtracks from one of the finest composing duos of Indian cinema history - Viswanathan Ramamoorthy. The duo came together in 1951 and started as assistants to Subbiah Naidu. They got their first breaks as independent composers with "Panam" and that as they was it. They revolutionized Tamil film music and attained peaks of excellence that compare favourably with anything created at Bombay. They catered to all sections of the society. Their music was based on melody and lightness of execution. The hallmark of their compositions was their orchestration which a sheer delight. They used the flute and violin in particular to great effect in their music. In fact, to me, they fall in same bracket as C.Ramchandra when it comes to orchestration. Fresh and dazzling always. The duo split in 1965 after a wealth of unforgettable creations and plenty of outstanding soundtracks. I shall spend some time looking at some of their wonderful tracks from today.

We start with Bhim Singh's Paarthaal pasi theerum, another film in the "pa" series of the director which usually had Sivaji Ganesan, Gemini Ganesan and Savitri as leading stars with a mix from Chandrababu, Thangavelu, Ranga Rao and Ballaya playing the supports. It was one success after another and almost all of these films were orchestrated by the composing duo. This film I choose because the songs have been haunting me all day today..

1) paartaal pasi tiirum : A typically soft, P.Suseela melody which just wafts through the air.

2) yaarukku maapiLLai yaarO : A delightful song. The "o..o.." fillers in the song sound ever so charming in Suseela's voice.

3) koDi asaindadum kaaTru vandadaa : This song is a delight to hear. A romantic song around the "chicken-or-egg" question. The lyrics are superbly imaginaive, typically Kannadasan. A sample :


paaDal vandadum taaLam vandadaa
taaLam vandadum paaDal vandadaa
baavam vandadum raagam vandadaa
raagam vandadum baavam vandadaa
kaN tirandadum kaaTchi vandadaa
kaaTchi tirandadum kaN vandadaa
paruvam vandadum aasai vandadaa
aasai vandadum paruvam vandadaa


It never ceases to enchant. TMS and P.Suseela are also in top form here. The orchestration is magnificent. The interlude music is beautifully done. One of the all-time great duets..

4) uLLam enbadu aamai : This song has grown on me over the years to become one of those songs which I can keep hearing again and again all the time. What a magnificent creation this is ! TMS is brilliant, the composition wonderful, lyrics soulful and the orchestration outstanding. And to top it all is Sivaji on the screen. Confessedly rather bloated in the film, what remains etched in memory is the way Sivaji lives the song. Every movement, every look he gives in the song captures the meaning of the song superbly. Its Sivaji the actor you see in your mind as this song plays. The sardonic smile he gives as he sings, "adu naaTpaDa naaTpaDa puriyum" is somethign I always remember. One of my all-time favourite songs and one that can be held out as a representative philopsophical song of pathos.

5) piLLaikku tandai oruvan : Again, a song beyond adjectives. A lullaby that stands out as one of the finest of all times. There arent too many male-sung lullabies and this rannks as perhaps the greatest of em all. The violin interludes are out of this world. This I think where Ramamoorthy came into the picture. The primary difference between the music of Viswanathan-Ramamoorthy and MSV on his own are the orchestral touches. MSV's brilliant compositions found a perfect match in TKR's orchestration. Once they seperated, MSV's music lost tier orchestral brilliance while TKR wasnt a great music creator. In any case, This song is definitely amongst TMS' very bests. A song forever...

All in all, this track is a veritable feast for TMS-P.Suseela lovers. Both are in top form and the compositions exploit their abundant talents to the hilt. A superlative soundtrack worth treasuring forever...