Ilango Adigal’s Kaanalvari verses from the Silappadhikaram - Karumbu 1973

Saravanan Natarajan writes:

ஆடி வெள்ளி special:

It was the genius Ramu Kariat who brought Salil Chowdhury down south in 1965 to compose music for his magnum opus Chemmeen. And sitting in Room No. 28 in the old Woodlands Hotel in Chennai, Salilda diligently crafted the landmark album. The rest, as they say, is history. The besotted Malayalis now acquired one other common passion, besides communism and football, to share with their Bengali brethren. With his scintillating compositions marked by rich orchestration in film after film, Salilda went on to carve a hallowed niche for himself in Malayalam film music. His albums such as Swapnam, Nellu, Ragam, Raasaleela, St. Thomas, Ee Gaanam Marakkumo and Air Hostess are a discerning collector's delight even to this day.


Unfortunately, contemporary Tamil cinema just did not have the catholicity to embrace this genius and celebrate his music. The first timid foray that Salilda made into Tamil Cinema was Uyir (1971/ TVS Productions), for which he composed only the background music, while the songs went to actor/singer/composer Ramana Sridhar (alias Vijayaramani) more popularly known by his real name T.S. Raghavendra.

The next opportunity came in 1973 when Ramu Kariat got Salilda to compose 3 songs for his Karumbu, an ambitious venture planned in rich magnificence and grand cinemascope. The movie was scripted by none other than Thi. Janakiraman. 3 songs were recorded by Salilda featuring the vocals of Yesudas, P. Susheela and Sabita Chowdhury. Sadly, for reasons unknown, the project was abandoned.

Happily, the songs remain with us. Radio Ceylon played them ever so often in the 70s. Even I who started listening to the radio only in the last years of the decade recall these songs finding abundant airtime. And then...., they disappeared, pushed relentlessly by the swirling mists of time. These songs lay submerged deep in my heart, even when I had forgotten them in course of time. All they needed was a spark to get back into conscious memory, and this spark was provided by a Sri Lankan friend, a kindred soul whose passion for Tamil film music knows no bounds, who was visiting from London.

We sat one afternoon, deep in joyous recollections of songs from the 70s…He sang suddenly the first line of this song, and I joined him excitedly in the second line, brimming with the ecstasy of discovering a long-lost treasure…my voice choked with rapture as we commenced the third line கங்கை தன்னைப் புணர்ந்தாலும்.. He waited for me to regain my composure and patted me understandingly... We then spoke wonderingly of Salilda and discussed his memorable works in the southern languages…

My hunt for the Karumbu songs in all the recording centers I knew in Madras and even all over the South was in the vain, the songs remained stubbornly elusive…Imagine my pleasurable surprise when the same Sri Lankan friend gave me a CD full of obscure songs that I had requested from him, and these songs were part of that precious lot!

Presenting here the Yesudas version of Ilango Adigal’s Kaanalvari verses from the Silappadhikaram, tuned by Salilda for Karumbu. If you haven’t listened to it earlier, you are in for a rare treat. And even if you have, it is bound to bring goosebumps at every listen… Yesudas sounds ruminative and wistful as he renders the ancient lines from the first epic poem in Tamil (circa 5th century AD)… Cannot but salute anew the genius of Salida and at the magic that he has wrought…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwVYnuof_98


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