Anything about IR found on the net - Vol 3

kiru wrote:I doubt IR would be so insensitive and not help an instrumentalist, especially in need of some support.

I think the bills are too hefty and Viji is struggling. Sample this: https://www.facebook.com/fundraiser.viji.manuel

^ that page was created by the (sorry to be blunt) comedian James Vasanthan. And it didn't fly.

fring151 wrote:Have to say I don't quite see what right a singer has to fight for royalties? That way, one might argue that actors can also claim it. After all most Indians seem to identify (even enjoy) a song based on which actor it is picturised on. Seems self-evident to me that only a composer (and perhaps arrangers and others who had creative inputs) can stake a claim on royalties, if at all.

Let me also disagree with the contention that Lata's being a stuck up spinster held her back from being more expressive. Rarely have I heard a woman sound so much in love as in Naino me badra chhaye. If the point is about duets specifically, then I might revise my views.

On the topic that set this whole, rather meandering discussion rolling, earlier only one VM was not to be taken seriously, now another added to the list?

Was indeed thinking of duets when I said that.  She was inconsistent in solos but still has a vast oeuvre of masterpieces so far be it for me, as a fan, to disdain that.  In duets she tended to hold back for whatever reason, especially when compared to Asha and Geeta Dutt's more exuberant approach.  Interestingly even MM favoured Asha for duets.  SJ preferred the Rafi-Lata combination for a long time but when they finally used Asha with Rafi for Raat Ke Humsafar, it was great.

In short, this 'everyone contributed to Raja songs also' is a pathetic attempt by Rahman fans to bring Raja down. That will not happen because everyone in the industry knows the truth. There is enough and more confirmation from various people (recorded ones) which clearly state that what Raja did was his own and what Rahman did was always collaboration. This will not change inspite of what Viji Manuel says or what Rahman fans say.

bingo also now we might see lot more piano solos in AR albums with Viji in the mix

^ that page was created by the (sorry to be blunt) comedian James Vasanthan. And it didn't fly.

all I wish is for Rev. JV to talk(music) in vicinity of Raaja, mathathellam avar parthupaar

SPB (though supposedly in ladAi with rAsA at present), throws some light on vAnilE thEnilA guitar "notes"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=ZNN5p2vSFvE&t=300s

app_engine wrote:SPB (though supposedly in ladAi with rAsA at present), throws some light on vAnilE thEnilA guitar "notes"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=ZNN5p2vSFvE&t=300s

enna puthu ladaai? ingE San Jose concert-la rendu pErum katti pidichi urundaangaLE?

Gokul

writeface wrote:

app_engine wrote:SPB (though supposedly in ladAi with rAsA at present), throws some light on vAnilE thEnilA guitar "notes"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=ZNN5p2vSFvE&t=300s

enna puthu ladaai? ingE San Jose concert-la rendu pErum katti pidichi urundaangaLE?

Gokul

adhu pOna mAsam. nAnga solradhu indha mAsam. idhar aavo --> http://twitpic.com/e7c9ck

Wizzy wrote:

In short, this 'everyone contributed to Raja songs also' is a pathetic attempt by Rahman fans to bring Raja down. That will not happen because everyone in the industry knows the truth. There is enough and more confirmation from various people (recorded ones) which clearly state that what Raja did was his own and what Rahman did was always collaboration. This will not change inspite of what Viji Manuel says or what Rahman fans say.

bingo also now we might see lot more piano solos in AR albums with Viji in the mix

^ that page was created by the (sorry to be blunt) comedian James Vasanthan. And it didn't fly.

all I wish is for Rev. JV to talk(music) in vicinity of Raaja, mathathellam avar parthupaar

Wiz, sagi, suresh et al: Look for Viji Manuel at 9:32 here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L20Fb2j7kEM&list=PL73F38D8A1933965D&index=8#t=572

LOL. But below the belt yo! Way below the belt.

fring151 wrote:LOL. But below the belt yo! Way below the belt.

To me, Viji succumbing to the lure of "sympathetic words"(to be charitable) or lucre(to be realistic) and claim credit for IR's compositions is not exactly way below the belt - but it is not way below because way below the belt would have been toleralble. Viji hit just below the belt. Unpardonable.

if he werent aged and sick, I would have stronglt lobbied for a defamation case on him. heck, I would still do that but I think even Karthikeyan is not as heartless as me to pursue it ruthlessly.

Personally, I would be extremely reluctant about condemning a close and important member of IR's orchestra based on a transcripted interview to a Tamil magazine.

The whole "financial-insecurity-during-retirement-healthcare-cost-issues" etc of artists, especially those in the TFM domain is sad
(I don't mean VijiM specifically, who could have easily planned it well - considering all those opportunities he had while IR was at his peak, but in general, for many who struggle).

I guess it's bad for even actors / actresses, despite having all kinds of associations etc. (There are any number of sad stories w.r.t. finance once they lose the limelight, including MKT kinds  )

That doesn't mean such people should be pushed into slandering biggies (especially by media that looks out for juicy stuff all the time).

In any case, IR does not need conduct certificates ("he is not hitler but colloborative" etc) from dimwit ARRFs, who lack basic sense of music or even math

Going by reports like this one , we can safely conclude that even IR keeps running into finance troubles from time to time.

Earlier we read about his trying to build a studio and the project not materializing. Then some music university thingy. TbI project itself. And lamentations from time to time about lack-of-finance for instrumental albums.

Well, most genius artists had struggled for money in their prime of creativity and such things made great historical accounts now.

rAsA no vidhivilakku

BTW, I need to share an incident here (இல்லாட்டி தலையே வெடிச்சிடும் போல இருக்கு )

Friday evening had a "bollywood karoke" party at my previous boss's bungalow. The chief singer was our HCIRF tfmpage veteran who did excellent with his voice for a number of famous 70's numbers such as khil tE hain gul yahAn , O sAti rE ...

...and towards the end, as a lone "TFM representation" இது ஒரு பொன் மாலைப்பொழுது got a karoke singer who can be termed as "கற்பூர வாசனை அறிந்த கழுதை" (known here as a_e).

BTW, this post is not about that nice evening with excellent food, exotic ambience and some terrific beverages. 

It is about a funny SPB - IR comparison

It was a mixed crowd, but since host is from AP, the AP members perhaps outnumbered others. I spotted a couple of guys in their 30's with whom I've worked in the past and was striking up a conversation. A Keralite colleague joined too. Since I wasn't sure about the musical leanings of the group, I was mostly silent, trying to understand the tastes etc...

There came this 'mErE jeevan sAthi...sathyam shivam sundaram' number from Ek dujE kE liyE. I've excitedly told - that was by our SPB. (Though I know SPB is not AP equivalent of KJY in people's adulation, I was pretty confident that these guys in 30's possibly warm up to him  )

What remark came from one of those guys was totally unexpected and almost jolted me out of the two pegs gone in.

"He is a good singer but a very bad person"

(அடடே, எங்கேயோ கேட்ட மாதிரி இருக்குல்ல?)

...to be continued

app,

As Viju Manuel's hardcore fans themselves say, Viji Manuel's major issue has to do with liquor addiction. There are many such cases where people have destroyed their health and wealth due to this addiction. Even Eddie Dinesh, who is one of the chief promoters of Viji, had said in FB that for a long time a certain amount went from Raja's studio on a monthly basis to Viji (as some charge. Don't know what it was but an amount was sent to Viji every month though he didn't play in the orchestra)

And yov a_e, put up the full detail immediately. எங்களுக்கு மண்ட வெடிக்கும் போல இருக்கு இப்போ.

Sureshji

Well, he continued on without stopping "the fellow is arrogant, manipulative and sadistic"
(No additions by me, these were all his archanai to the famous singer, and some of them are once again "எங்கேயோ கேட்ட மாதிரி இருக்கே" thingies).

I didn't know how to continue - to be honest, I had no intention of defending the singer or doing any kind of service to SPB at that juncture. However, having started off as "namma SPB", I had to logically do something about the situation - at least to diplomatically diffuse it. Who knows, this guy had some personal slighting by the celebrity or something like that and had been fuming since then.

The opportunity to think before responding came, when the host lady asked me for help
(I've earlier volunteered to "help in whatever way")...

She asked me "can you mix a drink, vodka with orange juice, for this lady who had just come in"...I was happy to move away from the "SPB-tense-scene" (that guy was really serious as could be made out from his face), so I made a ""தங்கள் சித்தம் என் பாக்கியம்" kind of gesture to the host lady -who is of some royal family background - and an "excuse me buddy" to the anti-SPB guy to go to the stylishly arranged drinks table. 

While mixing Absolut with orange juice, my mind was asking - "does this guy know SPB personally or some relative or some other close connection?". After all, that evening's crowd was sophi - not many were nAttuppuRaththAns like me...we had this main singer whose family is (was) close to PBS and another Delhi couple whose appearance / demeanor was like that of Bollywood celebrities. Some of these AP guys that I come across at workplace often have connections with movie people. (For e.g. one former co-worker, who is no more, was Gautami's collegemate / friend).

So, I was wondering - does this guy have some insider connection of some sort. Also, I questioned my own knowledge on SPB's background - what do I know? Not much, other than what we read on Thamizh tabloids / internet and what we see on kuppai super singer kind of shows, which are often filled with mikaippaduththalkaL and showy marketings.

So, I decided to adakki vAsichchufy and understand his PoV by asking him questions  That way I can carefully hide my ignorance

Walked around to find the lady who needed the drink (very fashionable, another person who looked like a bollywood actress that evening) before joining back my chat gumbal.

"Sorry our conversation got interrupted...I could see you had some strong remarks on SPB...why do you say so?" I asked him politely.

He went on to kottify his allegations as to how SPB manipulated things for years to make sure no one gets chances, challenges his spot etc . The Keralite colleague joined him in telling how a similar thing happened in Mal field with singer Venugopal who was far more talented than MG Srikumar. MGS got ahead simply because of his proximity to Lalettan (classmates or something like that) stealing away the opportunities of the other singer. I was in "listening mode" to those things when the AP guy charged back, "now he is not in top spot anymore - credible ones have replaced him and he is sidelined to do ETV kind of reality shows"

Well, he didn't stop with that. He had been watching those shows and that's where SPB's all bad qualities are on public display. He sadistically harasses the new talents - never encouraging anyone but only nitpicking. The guy said  "often, one feels like slapping him when he makes such ridiculous comments" - he got very emotional

I thought, well, let me say something to change the topic / relax the situation

(Post is getting too long, let me post the balance in the next & last installment)

Not unusual for *some* telugus to allege that against SPB. In fact, do you recall me pointing to a ETV episode where SPB said "evLO nAL dhAN bavyamA nadikkaRAdhu? Yes I got near monopoloised opps in 80s but that wasnt because I manipulated but because I was THAT TALENTED".

I temd to think so, too. Who was SPB's competition? The limited Ramakrishna, a Ghantasala clone; Mano; KJY or PJ werent factors in Telugu and pronounced telugu horribly. Ramesh et al dont count.

It's like sahying IR monopolised TFM by sidelining genuine talents like Chandrabose, S-G, TR etc

I mean the reaction of SPB that day was due to such allegations, which are sporadic in nature.

As for the reality show comments, that is where your clue probably is. I don tthink SPB makes undue criticism. He is fairly insightful in his comments.

My guess: your co worker had a relative rejected in ETV Padutha Theeyaga. Just like the Kalyani Covering incident that turned Shaji against Raja

I am not a great fan of SPB the singer like you guys and obviously, not a fan of his humble poses. But this doesnt sound real

plum wrote: My guess: your co worker had a relative rejected in ETV Padutha Theeyaga. Just like the Kalyani Covering incident that turned Shaji against Raja

That was exactly what was going on in my mind too...but just for decorum, I didn't ask 

now he is not in top spot anymore - credible ones have replaced him and he is sidelined to do ETV kind of reality shows

What a pathetic understanding! Who is that credible singer who replaced SPB?

I don tthink SPB makes undue criticism. He is fairly insightful in his comments.

Exactly! Good that you connected the dots perfectly. Kalyani covering

Plum,

Yes, does sound like the Kalyani covering (what a coinage  ) incident.

Why blame SPB? IFM has mostly been this way. Ghantasala molopolised TeFM till his last days. Susheela monopolised TeFM for a long time. It was TMS and PS in Tamil. There was Lata in HFM first with Rafi and later with Kishore. Then the talent dried up there. KJY in Malayalam is well known. Initially PBS in Kannada and later SPB. So singer domination was always there in IFM. It was only in Raja's regime that it continued but under the Raja banner. As you rightly pointed out Ramesh, Ramakrishna, Raj Seetharam(?) et al were not singers in the strict sense of the word. 

SPB comments are always a bit lenient. Mostly he gives encouraging comments.