Celebrating Shankarabaranam-1- E Teerugananu with Murali Venkatraman

Write up by Murali Venkatraman:

Sabhaku Namaskaaram.

It may not be wrong to call the movie shankarabharaNam as the crowning jewel among the works of composer Shri K. V. Mahadevan. It was a movie that simply established that in the midst of light music, one could really be left captivated by classical music if presented appropriately with a good story-line (by director K Vishwanath) . Although KVM had worked magic all through his telugu and tamil movies (e.g SwatikiraNam, thiruviLaiyaadal ), he made a remarkable choice of a singer in this movie. In all his earlier movies, he went for singers who were either partially trained (Susheela) or at the level of vidwan (Ghantasala, T. M. Soundararajan). In this movie, he picked S. P . Balasubramaniyam (who calls him that ? It is either SPB, SP or Balu) who was completely untrained and established that a committed effort to train him would provide rich dividends. SPB just grew from strength to strength and was associate with so many other films where he breezed through many classical and semi-classical compositions and both telugu and tamil music were never the same.

Science and Art cross barriers. An obscure researcher working quietly in a remote place like port of Madras, was recognized by the great mathematician Hardy only to unveil the genius that was Ramanujan. Ramanujan knew nothing but math. But Hardy ensured that his work was recognized beyond doubt. Similarly for our country that has had many regional problems because of languages, music has often provided the much needed fabric of harmony. How would one explain KVM and SPB’s success then ? SPB – a native telugu speaker – is loved by tamils all over and KVM – a tamilian- whose reputation as a composer in Telugu is unmistakable. Other greats likeMSV, IR, Susheela, Janaki, Chitra, and Yesudas and now Rehman have similar reputations. The beauty of Telugu seems to be locked in the fact that it is heavily derived from sanskrit but slanted in a delivery which is southern. In a way it ideally represents a good blend of the North and South Indian elements in sync. Malayalam is another language which has a similar blend although it is softer on most syllables than Telugu.

In an effort to recall and celebrate 30 years since the release of the movie, I team up with my friends ( Meera, Narayanan, Vidya, Adithi and may be some more) to re-do some of the songs in the movie as a tribute. Some songs will be rendered as they were in the movie and some with slight modifications in arrangements. Some of us are not native telugu speakers but have sincerely tried for dictional accuracy by consulting with telugu speaking friends. Despite our best efforts, if there be errors we sincerely apologize.

The first song in this series is “E teeruga nanu” – a classical composition of Bhadrachala Ramadas who may be called the tamil equivalent of Manikkavaasagar. Both were state-servants who out of their devotion towards their deities,, used up the state money for charity and religious causes. Both were great poets and singers and have left a wealth of literature for us to indulge. This song appeared in a truncated form in the movie. Hence when I created the Karaoke track, I took the liberty of expanding the song to include the last paragraph of the original. In the movie, the song was delivered by the inimitable Vani Jeyaram. In here, we present this as a duet with some extra (hopefully) un-infringing phrases. I find that the raga of the song is either Nadanamakriya or Mayamalawagowla. I am not very sure about the differences between these two. The lyrics of the song were obtained from this link and they are provided here for your reference:

E teeruga nanu daya jUcedavO ina vaMSOttama rAmA
nA taramA Bhava sAgara meedanu naLinadaLEkshaNa rAmA |E teeruga…|

Sree raghu naMdana seetA ramaNA Sritajana pOShaka rAmA
kAruNyAlaya Bhakta varada ninu kan&nadi kAnupu rAmA |E teeruga…|

krUra karmamulu nEraka cEsiti nEramuleMcaku rAmA
dAridryamu parihAramu sEyave daiva SikhAmaNi rAmA |E teeruga…|

vAsavanuta rAmadAsa pOShaka vaMdanamayOdhya rAmA
dAsArcita mAkaBhayamosaMgave dASarathee raghu rAmA |E teeruga…|

Please let us know how you feel about this song and also about the rest of the series to come.

Movie : ShankarabharaNam
Composer and Lyricist : Bhadrachala Ramadas
Originally Arranged by : K. V. Mahadevan
Orignally sung by : Vani Jayaram

Cover version:
Karaoke / Arrangement : Murali Venkatraman
Singers : Meera Manohar, Murali Venkatraman
Mixing : Meera Manohar

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Celebrating ShankarabharaNam - 1 - E teeruga (cover version) with Murali Venkatraman | Upload Music