When mics were hidden in flower pots...

Music director R Rathna and singer LR Eswari in a recording session in the 1970s.

Music director G K Venkatesh, Dr Rajkumar, lyricist Udaya Shankar, producer Abbaiah Naidu and singer S Janaki record a song for the 1976 movie ‘Raja Nanna Raja’.

The Western influence on Kannada film music set in during the 1950s. But the song ‘Sullu pallu’ was an exception. Featured in the 1936 drama ‘Samsara Nouka’, the fourth sound film made in the language, it has traces of traditional Irish-Scottish tunes, reminiscent of ‘It's a long way to Tipperary’, a 1912 soldier’s anthem composed by Irish tenor John McCormack.

“This tune was adapted by Kannada dramatist T P Kailasam during his education at the Royal College of Science, London. On his return to India, he wrote the lyrics ‘Thipparalli balu doora’ for a play. The tune was later adapted in ‘Samsara Nouka’ with the lyrics ‘Sullu pallu,” says Priyadarshini, Singaporean-Indian playback singer who has lent her voice to Kannada films such as ‘Cheluvina Chittara’, ‘Rocky’, and ‘Julie’.

Such nuggets are aplenty in her 1,080-page thesis on the music of Kannada and Tamil cinema between 1931-2020 and 1917-2020 respectively.

Silent era

The music of Kannada theatre, which preceded films as a means of entertainment, was wildly popular. “Rajkumar’s father Singanalluru Puttaswamiah would sing ‘Anuragava bhoga’ in the play ‘Yechchama Nayāka’ so well that audiences would ask him to sing it repeatedly,” she was told by the family. The song was later used in the 1993 action film ‘Aakasmika’, starring Rajkumar.

The first silent Kannada film ‘Mricchakatika’ arrived in 1931. “(Kannada theatre doyen) Gubbi Veeranna had tried to shoot a silent movie in 1924. His troupe had staged the play ‘Mahatama Kabir’ in the forests and open fields and he had recorded a few scenes on a camera. But torrential rains washed away the sets and the movie never got done,” she says.

The films were silent, but not the theatre halls. They wore a carnival look as people arrived in bullock carts, carrying food. “Harmonium and tabla artistes, and sometimes guitarists, would play live music in the theatre, matching the mood of the scene. Everything was impromptu. They were really the first film music directors.” They would play Carnatic classical kritis for the crowds as they walked in, during the interval, and on their way out.

Sound’s on

After an era of silent films, talkies took off in 1934 with ‘Sulochana’. “It had 16 songs and 14 smaller pieces, which I call songlets,” she says. With that, ‘Deva gurugalemage’, sung by director and actor R Nagendra Rao, became the first Kannada song to hit the screens.

Early films would feature up to 40 songs — “Some dialogues were also sung”.

Movie plots and songs were borrowed from famous plays, as in the case of ‘Rajasuya Yaaga’ (1937), ‘Harishchandra’ (1942), and ‘Jeevana Nataka’ (1943).

Actors were chosen on the basis of their ability to sing, and they were preferred if they knew classical music. “They had to mug up the dialogues and songs well. There wasn’t much room for retakes. Plus, they had to speak and sing loudly so that the bulky microphones hidden in flower pots could capture the input,” she says. Orchestras would sit behind the trees and play live music.

The technology was unforgiving of mistakes. “Director R Nagendra Rao wasn’t happy with the output of a sad song ‘Palisu jagadambe’ by actress Chandramma for his film ‘Vasantasena’ (1941). It was impossible to reshoot in those days, so he replaced Chadramma’s voice with S K Padmadevi’s using the post-synchronisation technique. Sound engineer V S Raghavan of AVM Studios had pioneered this method in Madras. Sound engineers were valued a lot,” she recalls.

Because back then, the success of a movie depended on the success of songs and Nagendra Rao’s decision paid off. And thanks to this hack, Padmadevi became the first 'playback singer' of Kannada cinema. Another memorable number was ‘Nikihila paapa vinashini' from the 1943 film ‘Vani’ by legendary violinist T Chowdaiah. It was rendered in the traditional ‘kacheri’ (concert) style for a staggering seven minutes and 28 seconds.

East meets West

The Western sensibilities set in, in the mid-1950s, thanks to music composers like G K Venkatesh, Rajan-Nagendra, and Vijaya Bhaskar. The saxophone, congas, bongos, accordion and clarinet made an entry and were played with desi instruments. “Singers like L R Eswari would do the Western numbers such as ‘My fair lady' from 'Thoogudeepa' (1966) effortlessly,” adds Priyadarshini.

Sharing a piece of trivia from this decade, she said, “Music composer Rajan told me they would record the songs at night to avoid the sound of vehicles. Because, unlike Madras, the early studios in Karnataka did not have recording studio setups.”

The ‘CID-999’ franchise, a set of four films inspired by James Bond and starring Rajkumar, consolidated the Indian-Western fusion music in the 1960s-70s. “By then, songs in a film had come down to eight or 10,” says Priyadarshini.

Pair well

S P Balasubrahmanyam, one of the most prolific singers in Kannada films, received consistent patronage from the star Vishnuvardhan. “He wanted SPB for all his films. He felt SPB could ‘enact the songs’,” Priyadarshini says.

Another friendship emerged in the 1980s. It was that of film composer and songwriter Hamsalekha and actor-director Ravichandran, who first got together for ‘Premaloka’. This 1987 film set trends – the music was peppy and lyrics youthful, and Hamsalekha became the go-to composer.

Turn of the century

The last leg of her research covers 2000-2020, and she says it was an era when everything from ghazals to Hindustani bandish, pop to hip hop, Arabian to Sufi forayed into Kannada film music. “Despite the influences, the Kannada film music continues to retain its local flavour, its culture,” she says.

It took Priyadarshini five years to write this thesis, with guidance from musicologist and professor Dr C A Sreedhara of the University of Mysore, and she has endless stories to tell. But she stops at this: “Music composer R P Patnaik cracks most of his tunes while driving,” he told her.