A hero beyond the score

A single masterpiece from composer M B Sreenivasan is enough to sweep you into the magical realms of his musical imagination. Take ‘Thennankeetru Oonjalile', for instance. As you listen, the music mirrors the lyrics, which have a sparrow calling out to its mate while swinging gently on a coconut frond as clouds wander in the heavens.The Jayakanthan lyric features in ‘Paadhai Theriyudhu Paar' (1960), a critically acclaimed film (that flopped at the box office) made by a group of idealistic communists, of whom MBS was the leading spirit apart from being its music director. A Tamil daily described the film's six songs as ‘sheer nectar', but MBS got no offers from Tamil producers who were suspicious of his political affiliations and trade union activities.Swimming against the current was second nature to MBS. Having imbibed a passion for music from his parents, he sang Bharati's patriotic songs at nationalistic meetings and marches and was a full-fledged member of the communist party during his days at Presidency College in Madras.Though his agro-scientist father's influence seems to have dictated his majoring in botany, he gravitated to the leftist Indian People's Theatre Association and to Delhi, finding inspiration in a musical idiom rooted in folk tradition while incorporating modern influences. He also found his soulmate in dancer Zahida, daughter of nationalist leader Saifuddin Kitchlew. An Iyer marrying a Kashmiri Muslim caused strains in MBS's family, but he had the courage to follow the dictates of his heart.Unlike the Tamil industry, Malayalam cinema warmed up to MBS from the start. Though he did just 60 films in a career of 25 years, he won the Kerala govt's best music director award five times and left melodic milestones up to the 1980s, capping his career, as it were, with a cloudburst of classical music in ‘Swati Thirunal' (1987).The musical career of Malayalam cinema's epochal singer K J Yesudas was launched by MBS with the song ‘Kalpadukal' in ‘Jaathi Bhedam' (1962). Yesudas noted the empathy MBS showed in putting him at ease after teaching him the melody based on the great Narayana Guru's opening lines."Yesu ... give me a good rehearsal," he told the singer, not wanting to make him nervous on his first ever ‘take'. Yesudas never forgot the consideration MBS showed him while recording his maiden song, "by enthusing me, aiding me, protecting me", calling him ‘Uthama-purushan' (noble character).MBS's innings in Tamil cinema was just a faint shadow of his film music career in Malayalam, but even in its flickering moments, he left the stamp of his genius, as for instance in the 1972 ‘Daaham' song ‘Vaanam Namadhu Thandhai', which has an anthem-like dimension underscoring love of nature and oneness of life. He also made a mark in Tamil films ‘Pudhu Vellam' (1975), ‘Eduppar Kaippillai' (1975), and ‘Madana Maaligai' (1976), directed by K Vijayan who, incidentally, was employed in a railway workshop before MBS cast him as the new-face hero of ‘Paadhai Theriyudhu Paar'.These films had their crop of MBS melodies such as P Susheela's rain song ‘Thuli Thuli Thuli' and the enticing Yesudas-Susheela duet, ‘Eriyile Oru Kashmir Roja'. But it is in ‘Amma Undhan Kaivalaiyai', rendered by Vani Jairam in Sethumadhavan's ‘Nijangal' (1982), that you find MBS's creativity in musically parsing a lyric reflecting a daughter's tender solicitude for her mother.Sweeter than his sweetest music must have been the ‘spot payment' MBS ensured for instrument players of film recordings. T K Pugalendhi, music director K V Mahadevan's Man Friday and treasurer of the Cine Musicians Union when MBS headed it for many years, said he had a photograph of the composer in his puja room.In the late 1960s, when terms such as ‘copyright ownership', ‘performing rights', and ‘licence fees' were rarely part of the vocabulary, MBS mobilised composers and lyricists to take control of the situation through the Indian Performing Rights Society. He paved the way for the stakeholders getting their rightful dividends from their music.It was Serndhisai, choral music, that was the mantra MBS cherished most, making groups of men and women sing songs of patriotism, social values, and the environment in various Indian languages. He made commoners and non-musicians take part in this effort as the rewards were great. When singing as a group, the participants develop a sense of discipline and experience the joy of a collective striving for music, he believed.With such noble intentions, in March 1988, MBS went to the Lakshadweep to conduct a three-day workshop for school students, but passed away on the second day. As a perfectionist in everything he did, he would have preferred to have completed the workshop rather than leave in between.(The writer is a historian of Tamil film music)Email your feedback to southpole.toi@timesgroup.com

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