Narayanan Swaminathan writes:
The King's Treasuries - 12
Tabla-tarangam
This instrument is arranged just like the jalatarangam. In jalatarangam, china clay or porcelain cups of different sizes are used to produce different frequencies of sound.
The cups are usually filled with water and are arranged in a semi circle in front of the musician. the player strikes the porcelain cups with a stick to make music. usually, there will be around 15-20 cups covering 2 octaves 1/2 + 1 + 1/2.
Similarly, if the tablas are arranged to produce all the swaras or notes, that is called tablatarangam.
Usually mridangam or tabla is tuned to a sruthi, that of the main artist. In tablatarangam several tablas of different sizes are tuned to different sruthis or tuned to produce the swaras of a raga.
You may remember MGR playing the tablatarangam in the movie 'mannadhi mannan' in the song 'aadadha manamum undo'.
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Raja has used the instrument in several songs. check out the following songs
'Pattu kannam thottu kolla' from 'kaaki sattai'.
this is a class song starting with a beautiful chorus complementing the egyptian style set and attire.
check out the first interlude. it starts with the tablatarangam, aptly used to embellish the royal regalia.
Pudhiya poovidhu
in the first interlude, eventhough it sounds just like tabla, if you keenly notice there are some notes played on the tabla.
Siriya Paravai Siragai
In the 2nd interlude of Siriya Paravai song from Andha Oru Nimidam , there is a short piece played on the Tabla-Tarangam and Jalatarangam in unison.
Goods vandiyile from Kunguma chimizh which is also like siriya paravai featuring three different styles for each stanza of the song.. In the 'chola era' portion tabla tarangam is used.
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Muthumani Chudare Vaa .... from Anbulla Rajinikanth.
When Producer Azhagan Thamizhmani and writer Thooyavan saw a film called Touched by Love in 1980 which had Elvis Presley in a guest appearance at a film festival, they wanted to make a similar story in Tamil.
Thooyavan finished screenplay within a month. He wanted to cast MGR as the hero but couldn't do so. Thooyavan narrated the story to K. Natraj who was working as one of the assistant directors in Devar films.
K. Natraj, also known as manasatchi natrajan for his role as rajini's conscience in the movie '3 mudichu', agreed to work on the film and Rajini accepted to act in this film. Rajini initially agreed to give callsheet of 6 days then extended for 10 days since he wanted the film to come out well. It was his first directorial venture and he came out quite successful.
The film was entirely shot in a school with 300 students. Rajkumar Sethupathi, brother of actress Latha and husband of actress Sripriya did a small role as Ambika's husband. Rajinikanth, Jaishankar, Bhagyaraj, Radhika all played as themselves in the movie. Actor parthiban also made a screen presence as bhagyaraj's asst. director.
Under the banner S.T. Combines, the movie was released on 2.8.1984 and had a decent run. Already a big attraction among children, this movie sealed Rajini's place as the kids' most favourite superstar forever. Baby meena played the role of a child with terminal cancer and won many accolades.
All the songs were given enough airtime during those days. While 'kadavul ullame' was a serene number, 'then poove' was a romantic's eternal favourite. 'muthu mani sudare' was an orchestral beauty giving ample room for the imagination of a child in her dreams about her favourite hero. Na.Kamarasan's lyrics were beautifully sung by K.J.Yesudoss.
In this song too, the second interlude has notes played on Tablatarangam, after the Piccolo & Strings ensemble. Listen and enjoy.
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