Deivathin thereduthu - Paattum Bharathamum

Saravanan Natarajan writes:

The Master and his Muse

24 June is a hallowed day in the annals of Tamil Film History for it is the birthday of 2 of the greatest colossuses who bestrode the Tamil Cinema like none other. One of them a lyricist nonpareil and the other a matchless composer. What is common for both of them is that they have never been accorded the recognition they so richly deserve… National Film Awards, Dadasaheb Phalke Awards, Padma Awards have all continued to elude them, while we continue to watch with growing dismay lesser mortals being honored year after year. On second thoughts, I feel it no longer matters, they have long outgrown these acknowledgements and recognition so late is not going to bring them any additional glory. The unquestioned love of generations of Tamils for this Poet Laureate and Monarch of Music is the priceless jewel that glitters in their crowns.

Serendipity happened when Kannadasan and MSV came together and they enriched the fabric of Tamil Film Music with their exquisite collaborations. Indeed, for many Tamils, the 60s and early 70s, the prolific years of Kannadasan and MSV (with TKR till 1965) constitute the golden years of film music. The sheer poetry of the lyrics and the tantalizing tunes embellished by the novel nuances and grandeur of orchestration so well complemented each other that each song was a marvel, an object of art, a masterpiece. The singers who sang the songs and actors who acted in the sequences considered themselves blessed, the directors found their work made simple and the producers laughed all the way to the bank…
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I am celebrating this day with an exquisite collaboration of these 2 giants. No, it is not a song from their golden years, not from a successful film and not even a song that would find place among their 100 most popular collaborations or mp3 compilations… yet like an intricate casket containing some precious pieces of jewelry that lies hidden in some forgotten nook of the King’s Treasuries, this album contains some scintillating songs that surely deserve a kinder destiny…

‘Paattum Bharathamum’ (1975/Arun Prasad Movies) had music and dance woven into a storyline surcharged with emotion. Much against his wishes, a young business baron is persuaded to be the chief guest in a dance recital. Little does he realize then that his life would never be the same again. For the nimble feet, graceful steps and jingling anklets of the striking young danseuse offer him a glimpse of an intriguing new world quiet alien to his own. The tycoon falls in love with… the dance…and the dancer. As is the inexorable norm, the romance begins with a row, and our hero even learns and masters dance to prove a point!

She relents finally, and he woos and wins her. But he had not reckoned with his wily father who cannot bear the bourgeois becoming a bohemian. The old man contrives circumstances that lead to our hero suspecting her morals. Hurt and humiliated, she goes away, carrying his child in her womb. Realization of his father’s machinations dawns on him rather late, and the years pass by as he waits with penitence and patience for her return… She returns, with their son accompanying her…. Music is in their son’s blood too…. The young man is a pop icon… The awaited rapprochement forms the climax.

Produced and directed by P. Madhavan, the movie starred Sivaji Ganesan in the dual roles of father and son. The pivotal role was played by Jayalalitha and her powerful performance matched that of the thespian. Sivaji’s portrayal of the businessman suffering the pangs of separation from his beloved was marked by his usual stateliness. Least said about the ‘son’ Sivaji, the better though. (How I wish P.Madhavan had chosen Kamalhasan to play the son!) Playing the son’s love interest, Sripriya was cast opposite Sivaji for the first time. Gopikrishna, ‘Major’ Sundararajan, Vijayakumar, R.S.Manohar, M.R.R. Vasu, Sukumari and Manorama formed rest of the dramatis personae. Story and dialogues were by Balamurugan. Editing was by R. Devarajan and Cinematography by P.N. Sundaram.

The dances were choreographed by P.S. Gopalakrishnan, Gopikrishna and Salim.
An impetuous hero who is goaded to mistrust by circumstances, an alluring danseuse as the heroine, and an engrossing story with music as the mainstay- P. Madhavan B.A. (1928-2003) must have thought excitedly that he had chanced upon another ‘Thillana MohanambaaL’ and mounted the movie on a lavish scale. However, though the magazine reviews hailed ‘Paattum Bharathamum’ as several shades better than the kind of movies that Sivaji was acting at that time, the movie did not fare as well as expected.
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Nevertheless, ‘Paattum Bharathamum’ cannot be forgotten, not at least by connoisseurs of music, for it is one of the finest albums of MSV in the 70s. A musical subject such as this would have filled the Master with joy and he sat with the Kaviarasar to extract the best out of the bard. The songs glitter with lyrical and musical magnificence. The album begins with the irresistible ‘mazhaikkaalam varugindRathu thEn malarthOttam therigindRathu’ that opens with MSV’s sonorous recitation ‘thirisoolam saththiyam puliththOlil thaththuvam naagamaNi mandhiram naanmaRaigaL sundaram’. Vani Jairam at her evocative best brings the lines alive with forlorn yearnings.

The lilting ‘maanthOraNa veedhiyil mELangaL ragam’ by TMS and P. Suseela is a dainty duet wherein she expresses her surprise that this magnate should know music! He proves that commerce can marry art in the next song, ‘ Sivakami aadavandhaal Natarajan enna seivaan, nadamaadi paarkkattumE – endhan udanaadi paarkkattumE’ (TMS & PS again)– a dance competition that ends with his ‘eye-opening’ triumph. ‘ulagam neeyaadum sOlai mugilgaL thaalaattum maalai’ is another winner- this one by TMS & Vani is as graceful as the movements of the peacock that the lines portray. TMS has another majestic solo, ‘aadhi sakthi vizhipOla vetRi nadamaadugindRa sivanaathanE’. And SPB makes merry with the boisterous ‘My song is for you’ that ends with a rollicking Jugalbandhi that climaxes with a rollicking ‘Ennadi Rakkamma’.
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The remaining song is the one that tugs at my heartstrings at every listen.
‘Deivathin thereduthu deviyai thedu’ by TMS.



What is the worst of woes that wait on age?
What stamps the wrinkle deeper on the brow?
To view each love one blotted from life's page,
And be alone on earth as I am now...

- Lord Byron (Childe Harold)

He has acted in haste and is now repenting at leisure… But all his repentance is not going to bring her back. All his attempts to locate her have been futile. So he waits resignedly, for she would surely return some day… Oh the aching emptiness!

kaRpanaikku mEni thandhu..kaal salangai pOttu vittEn
kaal salangai pOna idam ..kadavuLukkum thOndRavillai…
deivaththin thEreduthu dEviyai thEdu
dEvikku thoodhu solla thendRalE Odu
aavikkuL aavi ananda yEdu,
avaLillai endRaal naan veRum koodu
paavaikku pOttu vaithEn naanoru kOdu
paadi paRandhadhamma iLankuyil pEdu

He dons the anklets again in her memory, and as his ruminative steps resonate on the rostrum of life, the years pass him by… season follows season in unfailing monotony… he knows them not, for he experiences each of them within- he is scorched by the summer of remorse even as memories of their spring of romance come flooding in. Monsoon laden clouds find hospitality in his grieving eyes, while her smile seems as beguiling and just as fleeting like a drop of dew in a winter morning…

neer vatRi pOnadhendRu, ninaivinil vedippu
nenjathil thOndRuthamma vasanthaththin thudippu
maamazhai mEgam indRu kaNgaLil iruppu
margazhi paniyandRo avaLadhu sirippu

Absence makes the heart fonder, and filled with shame at how he had wronged her, he draws parallels to the women of the great epics who had suffered similar separation – Seetha and Shakuntala. Like Kamban and Kalidasa who immortalized their tragic heroines in their works, to him she is the epitome of his art. And though age had caught up with his outwardly appearance, his heart remains youthfully athirst in love…. It is not time for the curtains yet… the show must go on…

kambanai koopidungaL seethaiyai kaaNbaan
kavi kaaLidasan avaL sakunthalai enbaan
nayagiyE enathu kaaviya ellai
narai vizhunthaalum nenjil thirai vizhavillai...

The Kaviarasar dips his pen in angst and the lyrics cascade in poetic analogies. The Mellisai Mannar weaves the lines into a heart tugging Chakravagam, and whom else could he entrust the ballad to but TMS! The seasoned songster opens his account with lines redolent with contriteness, and MSV’s Shehnai responds like drops of tears shed hurriedly. Hark at the unobtrusive percussion that lends its reassuring support throughout the song- the hallmark of the master! The interludes mark the passage of time, and each one is remarkable in its arrangements. The song stores surprises till the very end…. A pulsating postlude lasting for more than a minute, ending with TMS reciting jathis with inimitable majesty…

Yes, TMS was already past his prime then. Yet, I would rank this song as among his very best and he brings so strikingly the august sedateness that the composition demanded. I remember listening to it so often on radio in the late 70s, and recall an inexplicable sense of loss engulfing my childish thoughts…

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