In 2007, our
melody queen P.susheela rendered a solo, “Pottu
vaitha mugathai” in the movie ”Sila nerangalil” (Md: Srikanth deva).
“P.Susheela renders a song in a film after 13 years”,
this was the caption in some magazines. A senior singer thinking this to be
true started issuing statements whenever possible in the media like “I have
been singing for many years, not a year has gone without me recording a song in
films”. Anyway is it true that PS didn’t sing for that long? Let’s have a look
in this article. This article makes us peek into PS’s song
list beginning in the 90’s-present . PS has rendered a
song almost every year in any one of the four major South Indian
languages. She has lent her voice for MD’s who approached her
irrespective of whether they were beginners or not so well known persons in the
film industry.
Apart
from film songs, she has recorded the maximum number of devotionals in various
languages likeTamil,Telugu, Malayalam, kannada, Sanskrit etc during this
period(90’s). She could have approximately rendered around 3000 devotionals.
Perhaps there could be some more too…………….. Around 80% of these numbers belong
to the 1990’s. She also engaged herself in giving concerts all
around the world during this time.
Please find
links to Tamil devotionals ( Link),
Telugu devotionals (Link).
Considering the Tamil Film
Industry, Many new faces were introduced as MD’s during the 90’s. some of them
who became popular are S.A.Rajkumar, Sirpi, Vidyasagar, A.R.Rahman and Karthik
Raja. PS has delivered some good numbers under all these MD’s. Songs
like “Paatu onnu naan”,”Idhu mudhal mudhala”,”Or iravil kaatru”, “Aagaya thotill katti” became hits under MD
S.A.Rajkumar. “Sevvanthi pooveduthen”, “yelelaniliye ennai” became popular under MD
Sirpi. She also sang a song “Pudhu uravu” for vidyasagar’s debutant
film “Nila penne”. She has also sang a few songs for him in telugu
too. She also rendered a song “Aathu metu thopukkulla”
for Deva’s first film as MD. One more good number includes “koonda vittu oru parava”
from kattabomman for him. PS-A.R.Rahman combination include hits
like “Kannuku mai azhagu”
from Pudhiya mugam, “kappaleri
poyachu” from Indian,” mettu podu” from
Duet and in telugu she rendered the telugu version “Kannulaku choopandham “ from pudhiya mugam. One of her
interesting songs under karthik raja is “Unnakenna
raasa naan thaane” for his debutant movie Manikkam. Her voice was also
heard in the song “aagayamkondadum
boopalame” for new composer Illaya gangai . She not only worked with
newcomers but also with established directors like Illayaraja, Shankar Ganesh
,Chandra bose, M.S. viswanathan, Shyam,J.Devarajan, chakravarthi, satyam, etc.
in all south indian languages.
The above list has songs
for almost all the years . Apart from this every year she was recording lots of
devotional songs. She also recorded special songs like "senthamizh
manattu paadal" 2011) in A.R.Rahman's music also the latest
"Jana gana mana (2012)". In the year of
2013, She has recorded two movie songs on saibaba, each one in hindi and Tamil
.
During this period some not so good (bitter)experiences occurred in PS’s
career.PS had recorded a number with a well known Music Director and then
left abroad for a concert. In the meanwhile, a change in the lyric was done and
the MD replaced her with another singer . Could this type of disrespect
happen in case the singer was Lata or Asha?
Similarly one more MD replaced PS after recording the song with her
with another famous playback singer.This MD made statements
in the media like “PS’s voice is very melodious and sweet” etc.
In”
Kappaleri poyacchu” song in Indian, PS had sung the full song but only a
charanam was heard and the rest was trimmed. This type of incidents made PS
make statements that she was quitting the industry during her golden jubilee
felicitation . However, she keeps singing once in a while for the sake of her
fans.
Telugu
film industry also had some new composers like Keeravani, Madhavapeddi suresh,
vidyasagar,S.A.Rajkumar, etc being introduced during this time period. A very
rare combination of PS-Keeravani songs can be heard from the movie “Palletoori
pellam”. She rendered “Chikkanayya chakkanayyajanta” along with SPB for
the movie “Dharma Teja ( remake of poonthota kavalkaran and telugu version of
“Sindhiya venmani”) and “ABCD gundelo yedho” for actress Roja in the
movie “Sarpayagam”. Madhavapeddi made her sing a few numbers like “ammante
ilalo” etc. She also sang a few numbers for the duo Raj –Koti.
Smt.P.Susheela shared a duet, “Kalaya
nijama” with MD Illayaraja in the movie “Coolie no 1”. She also
rendered the telugu version “Aadajanmaku”
(china thayaval – tamil) for the movie “Dalapathi and a philosophical number
with Yesudas “Gummalu thommidi” for the movie “Kuntiputhrudu”
under Illayaraja.Among telugu film directors, Dasari Narayana Rao and Padmalaya
studios (Director-actor Krishna and vijayanirmala) offered songs to PS in
almost all their movies.
In Malayalam, she
rendered songs for MD’s like S.P.Venkatesh, Raveendran, Shyam etc and in
kannada for MD’s like M.RangaRao, Hamsalekha, Upendrakumar etc.
There is a general opinion that film artistes from the
South are not being given proper recognition and respect when compared to
their fellow artistes from the North. The awards are given after a
prolonged period even to the most distinguished. The fault partly lies
with the selection committee members who are representing south Indian film industry
. The eligible artistes are not being brought into limelight by this team who
lack proper awareness of the achievement of these great and veteran talented
artistes. The probability of these artistes being known in the north is
less because of the difference in language and culture . So if dedicated,
impartial and experienced selection committee members are chosen there could be
a solution. While the ghatam and kanjira artistes are recognized in other
fields like classical music (with due respect to them) , giants like MSV
etc are ignored due to neglect of the committee. MSV should have been
awarded the “Padma ………..” title a long time ago for his outstanding
contribution to the South Indian film industry. PS was
awarded “PadmaBhusan” very late in her career!
If we have a look at Malayalam film industry, there is
always unity among them and their artistes are promoted to the maximum and
hence all the well- known artistes have been noticed and awarded by the
government at the proper time .That’s not the case with tamil film industry
which is more ridden with favoritism and politics. This situation wouldn’t
arise if the artistes were treated with more dignity and respect from the
committee members who represent the tamil film industry in Delhi. More artistes
from Tamilnadu would have been recognized at the right time!!
If we consider PS, she
is an example of an outstanding dedicated musician who has served the south
Indian film industry for 50+ years!! Her voice is ever fresh, youthful ,
full of expressions and her rendition of songs be it any language will be
filled with purity, clarity with a balanced outpour of emotions and vigor
depending upon the situation of the song.
We can actually test this statement by
comparing her songs with that of any other artiste! At any point in time, we
cannot find mimicry or gimmicks in her songs and one can find almost all
songs being rendered with a strong sense of dedication and not overdone at any point
! Why is a great and talented singer like PS not recognized properly
inspite of such commitment ? The defect lies with our
own people who lack respect towards our own artistes. If a Bollywood
artiste like Asha bhosle is treated with so much respect, pomp and show (with
due respect again, the question is why are our own singers neglected?) and made
to sing in Rajanikanth’s film and showered so many praises (how many
songs did she she actually sing in tamil? ). But Asha Bhosle praised PS
during the film’s audio function stating that she was her favorite singer and
sang “Athan ennathan” in honor of PS !! But was PS even called for the
function? Such is the respect shown to our artistes!
If Asha or Latha are respected so much and
made to sing even now, why not PS? Why are young MD’s not giving chances
to PS? It is because we have treated our own artistes with step -motherly
attitude and carelessness. We have to understand that time is precious and we should
atleast try to make amends now.
At the time of TMS’s death, Bharathiraja made
a statement that he should have made TMS sing in his films and he didn’t
make use of that great opportunity. Such mistakes should be avoided.
PS’s proficiency and prowess in
rendering any type of film music be it classical , Hindustani,
western, folk is unmatched by any other singer from the north. For instance, PS
has rendered Hindustani ragas( the movie “Karna” is enough to write pages about
her) in films with utmost ease and clarity, whereas can we even spot one
Carnatic based song ever rendered by a north Indian musician? The answer is
absolutely not!
Our database shows that PS has rendered 200 film
songs, 2000 + devotional songs in the 90’s. Even though she started her singing
career in 1952, she became popular from 1955 and from that time until the
2000’s she has been striving hard to give us quality numbers. In the 62 years of her career, almost 45 + years she worked hard in the music industry with dedication and determination. But
the recognition that she so duly deserves hasn’t been that much. One can
comment – “why should she be recognized? After all hasn’t she taken money to
render songs? Well , did Abdul kalaam or Latha mangeshkar do their work
for free? It is because their hard work and dedication has
been recognized and respected by the society. As PS fans let’s wish that
our PS madam’s hard work and dedication be given due recognition
before it is too late.
To conclude, among the South Indian artistes, MSV and
PS are rare gems in the film industry and it is our duty to cherish and
honor these treasures while they are still there with us. Let’s try to do our
best before it is too late!
Courtesy : Srividya, United States.
