Along with Nagendra, Rajan redefined melody

BENGALURU: An era of flourishing melody that underlined Kannada film music during the second half of the 20th century ended with the passing away of composer Rajan, of the celebrated Rajan-Nagendra duo, on Sunday night. Rajan died of age-related ailments. He was 85.


Having scored music for 200 Kannada films, brothers Rajan and Nagedra left their mark on hundreds of songs that have become all-time classics. Melody and embellishing orchestration were the hallmarks of their music and they blended these elements in such a way that their songs served as a catalyst to enhance the movie’s narrative.

The song, Aakashave Beelali Mele-...Naa Ninna Kaibidenu, that the brothers composed for Nyayve Devaru (1971), effectively highlighted the central theme of the film. “Normally, music composers ask directors to explain the sequence of the song before composing it. Rajan-Nagendra would ask for the entire plot so that they could think of a placement for the song and tune to supplement the plot,” said KS Bhagavan, filmmaker of Dorai-Bhagavan fame.

Hailing from Shivarampete in Mysuru, Rajan and

Nagendra

were initiated into film music by their father Rajappa, a composer who scored music for films produced by Mahatma Pictures. Rajan-Nagendra, still in their teens, got an opportunity to score music for the same banner’s Sowbhgyalakshmi in 1952. Since then the pair composed songs and scored background music for more than 375 films, including in Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi. The duo was inseparable till Nagendra, the younger of the two, died in 2000.

At a time when stalwarts like GK Venkatesh were producing mesmerising numbers by blending Indian classical with western music, Rajan-Nagendra brought in an additional element of light music (bhavageethe).They wove magic in collaboration with singer-duos SP Balasubrahmanyam-S Janaki and Rajkumar-S Janaki. Rajan was particular about quality. Even when Nagendra OK’ed a take, he would ask for a retake just because of a single note rendered wrong. I can never forget the songs such as Pavadisu Paramaatma… (Srinivasa Kalyana), Aaseya Bhaava… (Mangalya Bhagya) I sang in their collaboration,” Balasubrahmanyam had said in an interview.

The impact of Rajan-Nagendra’s songs would be so profound that they would at times grow larger than the film. Parasanagada Gende Thomma ( 1978) touted to be arthouse film went on to become a musical hit because of their songs.

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