Genius series - Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan
By Saravanan Natarajan
isaiyaai thamizhaai iruppavanE- Part 1
I have lived a life that is full…
I have traveled each and every highway...
And more, much more than this...
I did it my way.
- Paul Mustapha Abdi Anka
Sure he did it his way, and perhaps that is why Kunnakkudi Ramaswamy Vaidyanathan will be remembered forever. His demise on 8 September 2008 marked the end of a remarkable era. The heartfelt tributes that came pouring in from stalwarts and commoners alike were but a reflection of his enormous appeal. An outstanding classical violinist (albeit his scant regard for the disapproving purists), a trailblazing innovator who brought the magic of the violin to the masses, composer of thousands of stirring devotional songs, a daring creator who has usurped a chapter for himself in the annals of Tamil film music, a firm believer and propagator of the therapeutic effects of music, an exacting master who has tutored hordes of students on the intricacies of the violin in his famed gurukulam, the mainstay for 28 long years of the annual festival at Thivayyaru in honor of the presiding deity of Carnatic music….. KV was a genius of epic proportions….
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Boasting of a beautiful hilltop shrine, Kunnakkudi is a serene hamlet near Karaikkudi. It was here that KV was born on March 2 1935 to Ramaswamy Sastri and Meenakshi Ammal. ‘Sangeetha Sahitya Harikathapraveena’ Ramaswamy Sastri was a renowned Harikatha exponent. An erudite Sanskrit scholar, he was an acclaimed musician as well- the violin, veena, flute and jalatarangam came alive in exquisite enchantment in his hands. He was also a trained vocalist and had composed songs set to classical ragas. He has several students learning music and the vedas under him in his school ‘Shanmuga Vidya Saalai’.
KV’s sisters Subbulakshmi and Sundaralakshmi learned music from their father and used to present vocal recitals accompanied on the mridangam by their elder brother Ganapathisubramaniam and on the violin by Thirupathoor Haridas Rayar. Interestingly, despite being born in a household that reverberated with music, the child KV showed no inclination towards it. He seemed disinterested is studies as well and was content to spend most of his time in precincts of the hilltop Shanmuganathar temple. Rising early in the morning, the child would bathe in the Mayuragiri tank and cull flowers from the temple gardens for his father’s morning prayers. He would then return to the temple and listen with serene bliss to the odhuvaars reciting the ancient Thevaram verses and would join the priests chanting the Shanmuga Sahasranaamam. Thus his days passed in carefree happiness, not in the least bothered at the plethora of adjectives ranging from ‘good for nothing’ to ‘dunce’ that the villagers showered upon him.
However, destiny had other things in store for the 8 year-old boy and his happy-go-lucky days came to an end. Thirupathoor Haridas Rayar, the violinist who used to accompany KV’s sisters, failed to turn up for an important concert held during the annual Karthigai festival. Sastri was understandably irked and the next day when Rayar came home, he questioned Rayar rather crossly on his unexplained absence. Rayar gave a callous reply and added haughtily that though Rayar had taught his daughters to sing and son to play the mridangam, they were still dependent on him for playing the violin. The chagrined Sastri could not allow such arrogance going unchallenged and spying KV who was just entering the house, he caught hold of the child’s hand and vowed that he would make the child a skilled violinist. KV’s sisters and brother burst out laughing at this seemingly impossible event, and Haridas Rayar sniggered as he said that he would be the happiest person if KV could be so transformed. However, it was KV’s mother Meenakshi who held him in her arms and cajoled him to apply assiduously to his father’s lessons and make his words come true.
His loving mother’s words goaded the child KV into action. Though he started his lessons with a slight reluctance, he was soon entranced with the instrument and the music that gushed forth from it. And wonder of wonders, within a year, he accompanied his sisters and brother in a concert at the hilltop Shanmuganathar temple, presided by none other than an amazed Haridas Rayar! In an interview, KV credited this magical transformation to his father’s blessings, mother’s love and of course, divine intervention.
KV was soon accompanying his sisters in all their concerts when he got an unexpected opportunity to play for the redoubtable Ariyakkudi Ramanujam Iyengar. And this happened at the Vaikunta Ekadasi festival at Karaikkudi organized by a local businessman known as ‘Gadigarakkadai’ Naidu. Kunnakkudi recalled the momentous event thus, “Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, who was a close friend of my father, was performing in a village near ours, at a Krishna temple, for a festival. I accompanied my father to the festival. It so happened that the violinist who was to play for the concert did not turn up. So Ariyakudi spoke to my father and asked "Why don't you tell your son to play the violin for me?" My father was taken aback, because I used to play the violin only for small kutcheris. Ariyakudi asked me, "How many kirtanas have you learnt?" I very meekly said, "I know about ten to fifteen kirtanas." He blessed me and said "Come on, play confidently for my kutcheri". The performance was a big success.” This marked the beginning of KV’s jump to the big league, and soon enough he was playing for masters such as Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer, kalyanakrishna Baghavathar, T. K. Rangachari, Sathur Subramaniam, Madurai Mani, Sankarasivam and Palakkad Rama Bhagavatar. Besides the famed vocalists, KV also played the violin for instrumentalists such as S. Balachandar, T.N. Rajarathinam Pillai and Thiruvenkadu Subramaniya Pillai. Even at the age of 14, KV had mastered not less than 500 kritis.
Two events during this period were to remain in KV’s memory forever. One day a young ascetic with a luminous glow on his face accosted KV and asked him his name and if he was a violinist. Then seeing the sacred ash applied carelessly on KV’s forehead, he gave a KV a gentle slap and instructed him on how to apply the Vibhuti stripes and Kunkuma pottu on his forehead. When Ramaswamy Sastri heard of this, he was eager to meet the savant, but their search was futile. KV believed that the elusive saint was Lord Muruga Himself, and till the day KV’s mortal remains were consigned to flames, the Vibhuti and Kunkumam were applied as prescribed by the ascetic.
The second event that made a lasting impression on the teenager was when his father was lying seriously ill and had slipped into a coma for 26 days. At the instance of Dr. Ganapathisubramaniam, a physician who was also a musicologist, KV played the Bhairavi Ragam continuously for hours at his father’s bedside. Amazingly, Sastri’s eyes flickered and his cheeks were soon wet with tears. He recovered gradually and lived thereafter for several years. This incident instilled in KV a lifelong belief in the therapeutic effects of music.
* * * * *
It was at this juncture that KV made his foray into film music. As he recalled, “Right from my childhood, I was always interested in film songs, because most of the songs in those days had a classical base.” KV had accompanied the legendary M.K.Thyagaraja Bagavathar on some of his concerts, and the adulation that MKT received everywhere filled KV with a desire to make it big in cinema. The opportunity came through a family friend Venkataramana Rao who was a Jalatarangam player and a staff artiste in the Modern Theaters, Salem . Rao managed to convince the reluctant Sastri that KV would be paid a regular monthly salary which the family was in need of at that time. For his part, KV promised his father that he would continue his everyday routine of diligent practice so that he retained his unique bowing and fingering techniques.
At the Modern Theaters, KV was interviewed by none less than G. Ramanathan. GR was mightily impressed with the youngster’s dexterous handling of his favourite Charukesi, and admitted him into his orchestra at once. In due course, KV rose up to be a leading violinist in the troupe of S.M. Subbiah Naidu. He moved to Madras in 1952 in search of better opportunities. He was introduced to the Soolamangalam Sisters and was soon accompanying them on the violin in their concerts. Thereafter he played for Seergazhi Govindarajan, T.M. Soundararajan, P.Leela and N.L. Ganasaraswathi. It was then that KV formed his own ensemble and commenced composing devotional songs for HMV and Columbia. Among KV’s earliest devotional albums was Muruga Ganamrutham sung by Soolamangalam Sisters. He went on record more than 700 devotional songs, many of which became hugely popular and retain their appeal to this day. KV was also composing music for several stage plays during this time. Lyricist Poovai Senguttuvan once recalled a stage play called ‘Oviyan magan’ which was scripted by him, and which had songs composed by KV and sung by TMS and Soolamangalam Rajalakshmi.
It was in 1967 that a composition of KV first made it to cinema. KV had asked Poovai Senguttuvan to pen a paean to Lord Murugan for a devotional album to be sung by Soolamangalam Sisters. Poovai Senguttuvan hesitated, for he was an atheist, but under KV’s urging he eventually agreed. As he closed his eyes in contemplation, he recalled the cries of ‘Muruga Muruga’ that reverberated all around the Thiruparankundram hill when he had been to the shrine as a child. And so came forth the opening lines ‘thirupparankundRathil nee sirithaal, muruga, thiruthaNi malai meedhu ethirolikkum’. KV set the lines to tune and the song rendered by Soolamangalam Rajalakshmi and Jayalakshmi was recorded within one hour. The song turned out to be a chartbuster in its time and when the sisters rendered it as an invocation song in a film chamber function, A.P.Nagarajan, A.L.Sreenivasan and Kannadasan fell in love with it instantly. They were unanimous in their desire to include the song in the movie ‘Kandan Karunai’ that they were engaged in making at the time. When they approached KV, he agreed to their proposal willingly and it was thus that the song, rendered afresh by Soolamangalam Rajalakshmi and P. Suseela, found place in the movie. And it was this introduction to APN that led to KV making his debut as a music director 2 years later and again it was APN who retained KV as his music director in all his subsequent ventures.
* * * *
One morning KV had just completed his morning prayers when there was a knock at his door. It was a summons from APN, and when KV reached APN’s office, APN welcomed him with the words, ‘Vaa raja vaa!’ APN then revealed to a bewildered KV that the name of the movie that KV was going to compose music for was ‘Vaa Raja Vaa’. Disappointed at his big projects like ‘Thirumaal Perumai’ and ‘Gurudatchanai’ not doing well, APN embarked upon a series of low budget movies, completely eschewing front-ranking actors and technicians. ‘Vaa Raja Vaa’ was the first in this series.
Vaa Raajaa vaa (1969/ C.N.V.Productions) had a child actor Master Prabhakar in the lead role, supported by Seergazhi Govindarajan, Surulirajan, K.D. Santhanam, V.S. Raghavan, Baby Sumathi, Kumari Rukmini and others. The movie was written and directed by A.P. Nagarajan. The movie revolved around a 10 year-old boy Raja who works as a tourist guide in Mahabalipuram. He comes across a pillar on which there are engraved some pearls of wisdom. How the child realizes the truth in each one of the engraved proverbs and how they help him to upgrade his life form rest of the tale.
KV set about composing the songs, with Muthu, Sethu and Raghavan as his assistants. He seems to have obeyed APN’s dictum of avoiding front-ranking artistes and sat instead with an unusual set of lyricists- Ulundurpettai Shanmugham, Azha.Valliappa, Poovai Senguttuvan and Nellai Arulmani, and opted for Seergazhi Govindarajan and L.R. Eswari as his singers. Seergazhi Govindarajan played the role of a CID who dons the garb of a mendicant in order to nab a gang of thieves, and naturally sang his own songs. The first song that KV composed was ‘iRaivan padaitha ulagai ellaam manithan aaLugindRaan’ written by his good friend Poovai Senguttuvan and sung by Seergazhi Govindarajan. Filled with philosophical reflections, the song rendered in Seergazhi’s resonant voice marked an auspicious beginning to KV’s film career.
Listen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2vE0KQ4MMU
The buoyant ditty marked by an extended postlude ‘aadi paadi srikka vaipathu enga oorunga’ has L.R. Eswari accompanied by L.R. Anjali and chorus voices. ‘kallellam silai senjaan pallava raaja’ is a resounding ode to the majesty of Mahabalipuram penned by Azha. Valliappa and sung with gusto by the inimitable L.R. Eswari. The virutham ‘kaLLamilla piLLaiyidam kadavuLai kaNdEn’ that flows into ‘siRu kuzhandai vadivinilE deivam vandhu pEsudhamma’ written by Uludurpettai Shanmugam has Seergazhi at his ruminative best.
‘uNmai edhu poi edhunu oNNum puriyala’ is the last song in the album, written by Nellai Arulmani and sung by L.R.Eswari. In a crevice between two rocks, the child Raja sees a man trying to molest a woman, and rushes to her rescue. It is only then that he realizes that it was actually a movie being filmed, and the man and woman were playing the roles of the villain and heroine. Disconcerted at his hasty conclusion and unwarranted intervention, he runs away from the shooting spot and sings a song on how appearances can be deceptive.
Listen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TjIYnP8jP4
With the backdrop of Mahabalipuram and the simple story of an enterprising child, ‘Vaa Raja Vaa’ had a triumphant run of 100 days. KV’s songs became popular making his debut a grand success.
- To be continued….
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