SENTHAMARAIYE SENTHENIDHAZHE - PUGUNDHA VEEDU

Saravanan Natarajan writes:

செந்தாமரையே செந்தேனிதழே.....

Pugundha Veedu (1972/ Sri Navaneetha Films) was a successful movie produced by Subramaniya Reddiar and directed by Pattu. AVM.Rajan, Ravichandran, Lakshmi, Chandrakala, Savitri and V.S. Raghavan essayed the main roles.

Shankar-Ganesh’s music was an important ingredient in the success of this venture. All the songs became popular and found repeated air time for many years to come. There were 5 songs, and save one, the remaining were written by Vaali. And save the same one, the remaining songs featured the vocals of either one or both of the lead singers of the time- TMS & P. Susheela.

And it the fifth song that we are going to dwell on today- written by Vichitra and sung by A.M. Raja and Jikki. All that (Shankar) Ganesh whom we met at his residence some years back could tell us about Vichitra was that the lyricist was recommended by the producer and they had to chip in with words and even entire lines when the lyricist seemed stumped.
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‘Unnaiyum, un paataiyum romba pidichirukku. Unnai kalyanam pannikka aasaippadaren. Sammadhama?’- This is what A.M. Raja wrote in Jikki’s notation sheet as they were rehearsing for the song ‘Azhagu nilaavin bavaniyile amaithi konjum iravinile’ (Maheswari/1955). Jikki was startled at this unexpected proposal, but after demurring initially, she gave her acceptance. And the entire film world joyously joined in the celebrations, for weren’t AMR and Jikki the uncrowned King and Queen of Tamil Film Music in the 50s?

The early years of marriage were happy ones, both personally and professionally. But the hugely gifted AMR was always a person with attitude problems, highly sensitive, deep-rooted eccentricities and insecurities and given to hallucinations of imaginary slights and unfounded suspicions. He gradually allowed these complexes to take over his better senses. And thus not only his metier both as a mellifluous singer and as a talented composer came to an abrupt untimely halt, the pitiable Jikki had to sacrifice her soaring career as well.

It was after a long hiatus that Jikki’s enchanting voice was heard once again in Tamil film music, and the composers who called her were mindful of AMR’s foibles, and were careful to give her only female duets initially, or at the most, duets with AMR. Jikki kicked off this second innings with two female duets in 1970: ‘Azhagu mugam pazhagu sugam’ (Sorgam/ with S. Janaki /for MSV) and ‘Kannan varuvaan indru Kannan varuvaan’ (Kannan Varuvaan/with P. Susheela/for Shankar-Ganesh). Some other female duets that came her way in the early 70s were ‘Manjalum thandhaal malargal thandhaal’ (Thenum Paalum /1971/with S.Janaki/ for MSV), ‘Thalai vaazhai ilaippottu’ (Naan Yaen Pirandhen/1972/with S. Janaki/for Shankar-Ganesh), ‘Kanna pesum kannaal’ (VeettuMapillai/1973/ with P. Susheela/ for AMR) and ‘Poomaalai ondru’ (Pathu Maadha Bandham/1974/with P. Susheela / for Shankar-Ganesh).

And as for AMR, his second innings began a year later- in 1971. And it was V.Kumar who coaxed him to come out of his self-imposed exile and sing the lilting ‘Mutharame un oodal ennavo’ (Rangaraattinam/ with LRE). A wonderful part of this second phase was that AMR also got to compose music for 2 films: Veettu Mapillai- 1973 & Enakkoru Magan Pirappaan- 1975. Some of the songs that AMR sang in the 70s were: ‘Chinna kannane’ - Thaikku Oru Pillai/1972/ Shankar-Ganesh, ‘Malare o malare’ & ‘Rasi nalla rasi’ (with Jikki)- both from Veettu Mapillai/1973/ AMR, ‘Oruvan oruthi thunai serndhuvittal’ - Veettukku Vandha Marumagal/1973/with Jikki/ Shankar-Ganesh, ‘ Edhai kettpadho edhai solvadho’ - Pathu Maadha Bandham/1974/ with Jikki/ Shankar-Ganesh, ‘Manathukku theriyum’ (with Jikki) & ‘Roja malaraippole’ (with P. Susheela) both from Enakkoru Magan Pirapaan/ 1975/ AMR, ‘Enada kanna indha pollathanam’ -Anbu Roja/1975/ with P. Susheela/ Shankar-Ganesh, ‘Ananda illam’ (with P.Susheela) & ‘En deivame’ –both from Ithu Ivargalin Kadhai/1976/ V. Kumar.

This second coming of Jikki extended for many more years, from ‘Kaadhalennum Kaaviyam’ (Vattathukkul Sathuram/ 1978/Ilaiyaraja) to ‘Vanna vanna metteduthu’ (Senthamizh Paattu/1993/MSV-IR), she got to sing some noteworthy songs. We shall dwell at length upon this phase of Jikki’s career another time.

So listen on to this bewitching duet by a pair of nightingales.....quirky nightingales who inexplicably stilled their song when spring was beckoning and who came out to sing late in autumn..... few lingering numbers until the onset of inexorable winter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIJgMsoGUu8



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