Saindhavi, Vinaya, Suchithra & Vidya’s musical tribute to Subramania Bharati

It is Mahakavi Subramania Bharatiyar’s death centenary today and the team of V2S2 — consisting of singers Saindhavi Prakash, Vinaya Karthik Rajan, Suchithra Balasubramanian, and Vidya Kalyanaraman — have come out with a tribute consisting of 12 songs, which were visually represented on celluloid and tuned by yesteryear composers. With songs ranging from the popular Senthamizh Nadennum Pothinile to the rare Vellai Kamalathille, the four singers have got a varied mix for the centenary tribute.
The tribute is conceptualised by art promoter Subhasree Thanikachalam. The idea, she says, came from their mutual love for Bharati’s works. “Bharati is more prevalent in schools and Carantic stages. But even on Carnatic stage, his works don’t get the prime spot as many a time, singers usually sing his songs towards the end of the concert. However, some singers have rendered his songs as a themed concert. But we wanted to do something slightly different for his death centenary and chose to present his songs that have been captured on celluloid. According to research, about 136 songs of his songs have been used in films. We have taken 12, based on various themes like sorrow, love, patriotism, and bhakti, as Bharati has written a song for every emotion. We were conscious to take a mix of songs that were both popular and rare so that we offer something new to our listeners.”
Subhasree, who has worked with V2S2 previously for conceptual works based on Thiruppavai and Thiruvempavai, feels that they can do justice to the theme. “I wanted to do a full series called ‘Kannamma’ and even spoke about it to Saindhavi. Eventually, I felt everyone in the band together would work much better. They have carved their niche with their band, too. Bharati envisioned the modern woman and what else could be better than getting all the four girls for the series,” she asks.
Talking about this series, Saindhavi says, “We’ve been having this conversation on doing a series around Bharati’s works for over a year now. I have rendered his songs in my Carnatic concerts and have done a Bharati album, too. But when this concept fell in place, we were kicked about it because some of the songs we chose are rare and have hardly been heard before; even the ones that were popular were tuned differently by yesteryear composers. So, we had to unlearn and learn things for the series.”
Vinaya chips in, “That’s true. Popular songs like Theeratha Vilayaatu Pillai by R Sudarsanam and Chinnanjiru Kiliye by MS Viswanathan tunes are so different from the ones we’ve sung. And Mangiyadhor and Vellai Kamalathile were songs we haven’t heard before. In that sense, it was challenging to learn and do justice to the song.”
Suchithra says that the four of them strived for perfection. “The four of us had to sit together, do a lot of rehearsals and strive for perfection. Like Vinaya said, we know a version of say Aaduvome, but to learn another version from scratch was a different experience. For some songs, it was hard to find the original song on YouTube. Also, some of them were duets, so imagine four girls singing it!” she smiles.
A lot of planning went into this project, adds Vidya. “Everything was decided prior — who will sing which portion, the splits, and so on. Rehearsals helped us achieve proper sync. All of us have ensured that we sound like one voice though we have different voice textures. That was the hardest part,” she explains.
The team shot all the songs in a rustic location, to go well with the theme.
Bharati’s work was always ahead of time and spoke about so many intricacies, especially with regards to the liberation of women. Vidya says, “I loved his conviction and that is a quality I like to imbibe. His writing can help you snap out of this world and take you to a place that he lived in.” Saindhavi adds, “His choice of words is something I admire about him. For instance, the words in Suttum Vizhi Sudar Thaan Kannamma are so beautifully written. Also, he never objectified women and spoke about equality 100 years ago!” Vinaya couldn’t agree more. “The vision he had for women is inspiring — Bharati kanda pudhumai penn. So many women back in the day were forced to stay at home despite their talent. He wanted to break those chains and set them free,” she says.
The singers feel that there should be more cinematic presentations of his songs. “Cinema is a powerful medium and I feel today’s composers should feature his poetry more. If we are aware of songs like Suttum Vizhi Sudar Dhaan or Kaatru Veliyidai Kannamma today, it is through cinema,” says Saindhavi.
Subhasree adds, “The shelf-life for old songs is gone and no good version of these songs is available on the internet. My wish is that when someone types Bharati songs, I want this to show up. In that way, we all can be happy that we’ve contributed to increasing the shelf life of these songs by another 50 years or so.”