Of melodies and oldies

 I have read that one of the easiest signs that you are getting of getting old is the taste in music. One will begin to appreciate the same set of songs, that they might not have cared much about in their youth, and more so, detest the current crop of songs. I saw it happen with my dad, when he used to term Ilayaraja songs as "dapaanguthu" and would appreciate only MSV. In our household music was mostly silent for we never ever had a fixed time to listen to cinema songs unless they were being played out aloud in streets or in some music channel. I began to listen to music and my sense for appreciating songs from different languages actually blossomed and died in Bangalore. I maintain almost the same playlist that was formed during those days and very rarely does a song manage to squeak in. That playlist was an amalgamation of likes from several people known to me, who used my hard drive as a common repository for storing songs. Whenever i travel to office or on a long distance, both being one and the same, i find comfort in the familiarity of those songs that have been approved and appreciated by many more ears other than mine. It took me a really long while to understand and recognize the genius of one Mr. Ilayaraja. The more interviews i see of his fans explaining for hours together the meticulous detailing the has done in a single song makes me wonder why this person is not celebrated outside of TN to the extent he deserves! Of course there is no such measure available, but still i feel his genius is something that can be cherished and celebrated more! It is not just me but several other folks even from the cine industry itself, who feel that, the last decade is kind of a lost decade for tamil cinema when it comes to music. You can hardly name a handful of songs that are noteworthy, literally as well. With melodies being almost extinct there is hardly any music genre that can survive beyond the running time of the movie. I, for one, love a decent set of lyrics to accompany any good tune for i believe they can only co-exist to be remembered as a good song. On top of that the individual ability of singers to elevate a song with their vocal talent is the absolute garnishment that enriches the flavor. Nowadays none of these items are present to my liking in most of the tamil songs. I like Telugu and malayalam in this aspect, even though i don't understand a word of those languages. They still maintain some effort in churning out one good melody or other. Quite soon we may soon see movies devoid of songs and the day is not far when we would look at wonderment about those movies that had 5 songs with most of them in dream mode, having been shot on expensive sets!! The trigger for all these rant is one song that came up in a show. It was one of my favorite songs that, like my playlist, had an undeniable space in erstwhile doordarshan. It is from a movie, made 7 decades prior, set to tune bby the melody duo of MSV and Ramamoorthy and sung by TR mahalingam (who happened to gift my dad a silver tumbler on my dad's first birthday. Intha paatu antha tumblera vida pazhasu is snippet seidhi!!). The song is "Senthamizh thenmozhiyaal" and enjoys cult following and is fan favorite with absolutely no haters. No true blue tamil song fan or any music fan can dislike this song, be it for the richness of its lyrics or for its simplistic tune. There is no other song composed or in making yet to rival the fame and name of this one. As thala might say, not every song from erstwhile is a classic. But almost every one from this decade is a sham. Till the time an up and coming singer in any music reality show, wins the top prize by singing a song outside of the golden era of tamil cinema music, my judgement remains the same.