Ennodu Paattu Paadungal - Episode dated 07.04.2007

Dear SPB Fans,

I am glad to bring to you all one more episode (Episode No.13)-EPP-07.04.07 (courtesy : Covai Ravee for the audio file links).
(note : the audio quality during the initial part may not be good. However, i think it is bearable. Request you all to bear with it)

At the start of the episode, our SPB made a sad announcement that the chief judge of the previous two episodes Mr.Subramaniam Raju had attained heavenly abode. Let us all pray for his soul to rest in peace.

This episode started off with a fresh set of 6 contestants who will continue in the next episode also.

Details of this episode as follows :

Kural for the Episode :

kollaal pulaalai maruththaarai kaikkooppi ellam uyirum thozhum

The message it conveyed was "if one is a vegetarian, all the living organisms will bless him by saying that he had not killed them for the sake of food". Further, our SPB added his following comments "So, Valluvar says that living things should not be killed. Even Buddha, Mahavir & Arutperunjothi had told this. Even, medically there are many benefits being a vegetarian. There are certain diffculties in being a non-vegetarian. To create we have the right but not to destroy or kill. So, Valluvar has said that we will follow the path of not killing". Non-vegetarians may be angry with me. However, medically also the increase in cholestrol is contributed to eating meat. There is nothing special in non-vegetarian food that is not available in vegetarian foods. As far as taste is concerned both are same. So, let us leave alone the harmful practice. Let us all vote for vegetarianism so that the world is evergreen"

Introduction of the Chief Guest / Judge :
The chief judge for this episode was "Veenai" Gayathri. He introduced her by saying that it would not be practical to give a long introduction about her as it would run into several pages like literature on the ragas. He said that normally one has the father's name as the intials but she was known with the initial of "veenai" itself. Her father was the famous music director Aswathama. Veena vidwan Kamalamma was her mother. She had her parents themselves as her gurus. She has become very popular in her own way and is a legend much like the yesteryear veeNai dhanammaaL. One would have heard her veena play in the early 80s songs of ILayaRaja. She has the distinction of popularising the veena around the world. She was also the first to play ghazal songs on the veena. Even, she had played many of the old songs especially his (SPB) songs on the veena and presented to this generation. He sang out a phrase of the song "gayatri manthirathai uchharikkum bakthanama" and then invited her. All the above information was presented by our SPB.

First Round of the Contest :
SPB informed that there would a total of 36 episodes and that this was the 13th. The list of songs of this contest were,
1) unnai onru kaetpaen...... from Pudhiya Paravai (Susheela)
The contestant was Ranjani. Our SPB praised her for the rendition & also for presenting a good song and said that all the parameters were right. ManoBala, the permanent judge shared his experiences about the filming of the songs in this movie. He said that all the songs in this movie had a tinge of sadness in them. He said that he had asked MSV the reason for this and it seems that the Mellisai Mannar had told that since the movie had a sad ending he had given such an effect to all the songs of the movie. Our SPB pitched in with his experiences about the film. He said that this was one of the first thrillers in Tamil Cinema and it was great on the part of Sivaji Ganesan to have done a negative role (because the projected hero himself happens to be the culprit in the end) without bothering about his image. He also queried Veenai Gayatri about her age at that time of this movie. She replied that she was around 5 years of age. Then our SPB started off in a lighter vein and asked her if she had started playing the veena at that age and she said yes. He further asked her if she used a small veena like the one kept in showcases. She replied laughing that she used the normal one. Our SPB then said that he had seen one of her veena performances at her age of 9 and on stage he said that he was able to see only the veena prominently but on hearing the music from it he felt that Goddess Saraswathi herself was playing it. He opined that this gift of playing veena so well must have been a carryover from the previous birth and she replied that it was all God's blessings for which our SPB said "ellaamE unga kaiyilEdhaan irukkuma" (everything is in your hands) for which she laughed gently.

2) vaNNam konda veNNilave.... from Sigaram (SPB)
Bharani Krishnan rendered this song. Veenai Gayatri chipped in with her comments saying that it was good song and that the contestant had sung it well. However, she said that he had faltered slightly in the pallavi but the charanam was bright and that there were small problems in sruthi. On the whole, she said that it was a good performance and presentation. Our SPB also presented his comments saying that this composition was tricky one in the sense that one would tend to sing flat at the higher note or go overboard and land into sruthi problems. He also praised the singer for a good performance with a note to take care of sruthi. I think everyone will be aware that the music director for this song & film was our SPB himself.

3) ninaithu ninaithu ...... from 7G Rainbow Colony (Shreya Goshal)
Shashwathi rendered this song. Our SPB appreciated her by saying that her sruthi parameters were extraordinary. However he pointed out a few mistakes in the thalam saying that she had missed out at certain portions and also that she had delayed the start of the charanam. More focus was required on this, he said. Otherwise, he praised her sruthi parameter and her confidence as well. He felt as if Shreya Goshal herself was singing it, more so as the contestant was of the same age & build as Shreya. He also mentioned that this was the one song of Yuvan Shankar Raja (song of Maestro ILayaRaja) which was his (SPB's) favourite.

4) Thamizhukku amuthenru.... from panjavarna kiLi (Susheela)
Radhika rendered this. Our SPB mentioned that it was a wonderful composition for a Bharathidasan song. He applauded the contestant for a good performance. However, he unearthed some mistakes in the alapana portion saying that she had diverted a bit there but expressed that it was always difficult singing it live as compared to a recording where one had the liberty to go in for many takes to attain perfection. He also said that she had a sharp voice which is a boon. During this, i noticed one aspect of our Guruji. We have always heard many people saying that he is fast in picking up a song during recording. When he reproduced the alapana in this song for explaining the mistake to the contestant, one could see his talent of picking-up come to the fore. He rendered it perfectly as if he had heard rehearsed it many times.

5) kaNNa karumai nira.... from naanum oru peNN (Susheela)

Pallavi sang this wonderful song. Our SPB started off his feedback on a lighter vein saying that the contestant was not dark (the song is picturised on a dark woman singing out to kanna for creating her like that) and anyhow nowadays lot of facial creams were available to overcome this defect whereas in earlier times it was a problem. He pointed out to the contestant that she was singing in a false voice and that the orchestra had helped her by downplaying their part to make her voice louder. He also said that this was a problem with many of the new and upcoming singers who cultivate the habit of singing in false voice in order to reach higher pitch. He said that this would be a deterrent for them when they sing at lower pitch and they could end up blowing out only air. He mentioned that this tune was used as such for both telugu & hindi versions as it was a great tune.He finally advised the contestant quite strongly to do away with her false voice and use God given natural voice and make the song bright like the light.

6) maalai pozhudhin........ from Bhagyalakshmi (Susheela)
Vijayalakshmi sang this song really well in a bold voice for her age. She was just a Std IX student. Here again Veenai Gayatri expressed her comments first by saying that the contestant had sung well with a bright voice. She called for better expression, however, she said that the contestant was quite young and better expression would make the performance total. Our SPB also called for more involvement. He once again talked on breath management as the contestant had broken up words for want of breath. However, he felt that she was very young and had enough time at hand to learn the naunces. Overall, he appreciated her for her wonderful rendition, bright voice & presentation. In fact she was the youngest among the contestants.

The contestants part being completed, our SPB turned his attention to the chief judge Veena Gayatri with a few questions to her. He asked her if the modern digital technology available for music was a boon. She replied saying that it would be a boon if it retained the identity of the performing artiste. She pointed out the example of our SPB himself saying that he sings from the naabi and has thus established an identity for himself which the digital technology would not spoil and that anyone could identify his voice without any problem. She further said that nowadays it was getting extremely difficult to identify a singer even if there is a mention of their name because they sing different songs in different voices thereby not creating any identity for themselves. She mentioned that this also applied to the veena where digital technology should aid enhancement and not spoil the identity of the playing artiste. She told that the sound from the veena represented the inner soul of the human. Our SPB shared his knowledge about the veena saying that the sound emanating from it could be equated with that of various zones of a human body which he said had been proved scientifically also. Gayatri also added saying that she had done her research work on this very topic.

With this, the episode came to an end and would continue next week also with the same set of contestants and then the winner would be declared

Message from our SPB :
The message for this episode was about AIDS. He started saying that all were aware enough about this and hence he did not dwell on it. He only had an information to pregnant woman saying that even if they had AIDS, it was not a must that the child will also get AIDS. There were free medicines available in hospitals which the AIDS effected pregnant woman can avail to prevent the child being born with AIDS. So, he requested one and all to educate woman about this aspect in order to eliminate their worry.

SPB song :
He started off saying that he would be singing a song that would not have been heard till date. He mentioned that many were of the impression that "aayiram nilave vaa" from "adimaippeN" was his first song. He informed that "iyarkai ennum" from "shanthi nilayam" was his first song in Tamil and that aayiram nilave vaa must have been his fourth or fifth song. He said that for adimeippeN he had recorded one more song in addition to aayiram nilave vaa but this was not featured in the film as many had felt that it was a slow & ghazal like number and hence it was sidelined to the archives. But this song, he told, had wonderful lyrics by Pulamaippithan. He said he was lucky to have sung that wonderful song as well and then proceeded to sing the song "veeraththile kaviyezhudhi...".

My experience with this song is dated back many years. In one of the "paattukku paattu" program of SUN TV, telecast every Sunday at 8:30am, he was the chief guest (during those times when Adbul Hameed was compering the program) and he sang this song at that time.

Now, let me say bye to you now and comeback with yet another episode next week.