I read with sorrow of the passing away of Kalyani Menon.
Here is an extract of my account of Kalyani Menon when I presented the lilting ‘Nee varuvaai ena’ from the movie Sujatha as part of the ‘Song of the Day Series’ in tfm page/ dhool way back in June, 2004.
The Wikipedia page on Kalyani Menon is a word by word copy of my article…. I should have become immune to such blatant acts of plagiarism, as they have become too many in number to respond to or get perturbed about.
“Nee varuvaai ena’ was a song written by Kannadasan, set to tune by M.S. Viswanathan and sung evocatively by Kalyani Menon. Sujatha (1980/ Sujatha Cine Arts) was the film from the Balaji stable that followed in the wake of the massive success of Billa. The film starred Shankar, Raveendar, Saritha, Rajalakshmi and others. I believe the film came and bit the dust even as Billa was nonchalantly notching record box office collections. The movie was a remake of the Malayalam film ‘Shalini Ente Koottukaari’ in which Shobha essayed the title role.
The highpoints of MSV’s album were, of course, the two versions of ‘Nee varuvaaiyena’- the pleasing solo by Kalyani Menon, and a shorter pathos version, movingly rendered by Jayachandran—the thogayara that makes up most of the song, ‘Antharanganeerkkulathe poothezhundha thamaraigal’, should have been a celebrated landmark in Jayachandran’s career, as his voice, bereft of any instrumental accompaniment, makes a lingering, haunting statement. MSV fills this delightful song with dainty guitar bits and lilting flute notes. I particularly fall for the terrace-formation like tempo buildup that commences with ‘kangal urangavillai, imaigal thazhuvavillai’; and upon reaching the summit with ‘Vaaraayo,’ the gentle decent from the crescendo that the synthesizer facilitates back to the Pallavi. The charanams too soar towards the end in similar alluring arrangements.
Towards the late 70s and later in the early 80s, some upcoming singers found themselves singing for MSV. T.L. Maharajan, Jolly Abraham, Seergazhi Sivachidambaram, B.S. Sasirekha, S.P.Shailaja, and even Bombay Jayshree bagged such prized opportunities. Kalyani Menon was among these beneficiaries, and though she has sung for many other composers, this song remains the most popular in her career.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mJ1J2VAtz0
Some years back, I was in Chennai in December, and found myself, albeit unwillingly, chauffeuring my mother to various concert halls. And thus one balmy morning, we entered the Balamandir German Hall a little after the concert had commenced. I was soon spellbound by the song (‘Evarani nirnayinchiri ra’, if I remember right), and was wondering about the vocalist who seemed quite familiar. And glancing at the program, I was jerked out of my lethargy when I realized that the singer who was effortlessly traversing those intricate Harikhambodhi passages was none other than Kalyani Menon!
Kalyani Menon learned classical music from the famed guru ‘Sangeethabhooshanam’ M.R. Sivaraman Nair. She soon made a mark as a classical vocalist of merit and then gradually branched out into singing for films as well. ‘Kanneerin mazhayathum’, the song that Kalyani sang for the legendary composer M.S.Baburaj in Ramu Kariat’s 1977 film Dweep, is a tender, tremulous song, punctuated by moments of moving poignancy. She made her debut in Madras in 1977, through the famed Dhananjayan’s Malayalam dance drama ‘Magdalana Mariyam’ that was choreographed for Madras DD as part of the Vallathol Centenary celebrations. Kalyani sang Vallathol Narayana Menon’s lines that were set to tune by the Dhananjayans.
Kalyani’s first film song in Tamil was under Ilaiyaraja’s baton, and the song ‘Sevvaaname ponmegame’, which she sang along with Jayachandran, T.L. Maharajan & B.S. Sasirekha in K.Balaji’s Nallathoru Kudumbam (1979), did find frequent airtime. And Balaji continued to ensure that Kalyani sang in some of his films in the early 80s- ‘Nee varuvaaiyena’ (Sujatha/ 1980/ MSV), the hilarious ‘Devadas’ dance drama (‘Thanniya potta sandhosham pirakkum’) that she sang along with Kamal (Savaal/1981/MSV), the breezy duet with SPB- ‘Hey rajave un rajathi’ (Vaazhve Mayam/1982/Gangai Amaran) and the reflective ‘Vidhi varaindha paadhai vazhiye’ (Vidhi/1984/S-G). Kalyani also sang a memorable duet with K.J.Yesudas for Shankar-Ganesh – ‘Naan iravil ezhuthum kavithai muzhuthum’ (Suba Muhoortham/1983).
Another song that stays on in memory, thanks to Radio Ceylon, is Kalyani’s wonderful duet with Jayachandran ‘Theril vandhaal devadhai, enai thedi vandhaaL thaaragai’ (from an unreleased film called Mookuthi Meengal).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMKhB5QW5RE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fwo0hnenRKs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXmQFaNqLOc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AQF_Ja3Qyw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSuAwZvLoS4
And Kalyani Menon was soon forgotten by Tamil Cinema, and would have probably remained so, had not A.R. Rahman brought her back to sing ‘Vaadi saathukkudi’ in Pudhiya Mannargal, and followed it up with giving her that ‘Omana thingal’ piece in ‘Kuluvalile’ (Muthu). Her later songs for ARR include ‘Alaipaayuthe kanna’ (Alaipaayuthe) and ‘Adhisaya thirumanam’ (Paarthaale Paravasam). Kalyani featured in ARR’s historical ‘Vandhe Maataram’ album; and also in Ussele, the album by Srinivas, in which Kalyani & Unnikrishnan sang Gopalakrishna Bharathi’s ‘Eppo varuvaaro’ set to a modern beat.
Her talented son Rajeev Menon has never failed to acknowledge his mother’s constant encouragement and support for all his endeavors. As a mark of respect, when the audio cassette of his magnum opus Kandukkonden Kandukkonden was released in a grand function, Kalyani Menon was called to receive the first cassette from Kamalhasan. Kalyani had also made a brief appearance in the film as Aishwarya’s music tutor. Rajeev has also gone on record that the movie, though inspired from Sense & Sensibility, was also a reflection of their own coming up in life, as his widowed mother had single-handedly brought up her two sons.
Kalyani Menon has left behind some exquisite imprints in the annals of Tamil film music. Om Shanthi🙏
https://youtu.be/oAq-8rmSgHU
