Wednesday, July 4, 2012



Today I listened to some songs sung  by M.L.Vasantha kumari. How original, creative, refreshing her singing is! I also listened to a song she had sung for a film. The difference in presentation was great. The film song had an elementary rhythm and MLV had dutifully fitted the song to the rhythm. But it did not carry the flavor of the raga. It was monotonous when compared to the song sung in the traditional carnatic style. In the carnatic song, she had let herself go in a relaxed way and come up with variations that brought life to the words. And the irony was that, the lyrics for the film song was by Bharathiyar and had a life of their own. Even someone like me, passionate about language, had to accept that language became subservient to music, when some one like MLV took over the lyrics.

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