Guest article by N Venkataraman Mr N Venkataraman had been benefitting the SoY readers with his erudite comments for quite some time. I am grateful that he accepted my request. He starts with Tamil, and this too he proposes to do in three parts, which he explains in the article. Please enjoy another learned article in the series, which is the first guest article by Venkataramanji. This would be hopefully followed by many more. In his overview he had elaborated the types of possible variations and some very broad categories of this theme. AKji had laid out the road map for further exploration of the subject and reiterated the views expounded by Ashok Vaishnavji on collaborative efforts on this theme. I had mentioned in my comment that this is a monumental task and the effort deserves to be organized and well documented. In the meantime, Ashok Vaishnavji has come out with the second and third part in the series, and in the last post Arunkumar Deshmukhji has given an outstanding overview of Hindi-Marathi linkage in films and songs. Inspired by these painstaking efforts, and after an encouraging communication from AKji, I decided to venture into an area, where I have not made any serious attempt earlier. The South Indian film songs encompass the four major languages, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada. My maiden attempt will delve into Tamil film songs only. I have further classified the subject into 3 sub-categories. From the late 1940s Tamil film music began to be influenced by Hindi film music. In spite of their inherent limitations in understanding the lyrics, Hindi film music was enjoyed and appreciated by South Indian listeners. This trend continued to a great extent till the 60s. But during this period, it is difficult to find any Tamil film melodies adopted in Hindi film music. I would be more than pleased, if our knowledgeable readers come up with examples to the contrary. The music of the South and the North, apparently similar and enjoyed and appreciated by both the listeners, had their differences. One would not find instance of any South Indian music director composing scores for Hindi films in the 50s, 60s or even in the 70s. Some of the double version or multi version films and dubbed films were the exceptions. In most of the Hindi remakes of the Tamil film, the Tamil music directors were replaced by North Indian music composers. The composers of the remakes preferred to score fresh tunes rather than retaining the original Tamil tunes. There were rare instances where they had retained the original tunes. Here are three songs from the film Vazhkai The life 1949. The film Vazhkai was produced and directed by A V Mieyappa Chettiar AVM Productions. AVM simultaneously produced the film in Telugu as Jeevitham and remade it in Hindi as Bahar in 1951. Vyjayanthimala, the budding teenage Bharatanatyam dancer made her debut in this movie and in due course emerged as a major star of Indian Cinema. AVM Chettiar had the screenplay suitably amended to include dance sequences. The original songs were from three different, but earlier Hindi films. This is a classic example of an adopted song, and Kamakshi Sundaram had done an excellent job by providing fitting lyrics. The Tamil version was rendered equally well by M R Rajeshwari. Let us listen to the Tamil version of the song first. Chup chup khade ho by Lata Mangeshkar and Premlata from Badi Bahen 1949 , lyrics Qamar Jalalabadi, music Husnlal Bhagatram While the street singers enact this beautiful song, the leading pair, Suraiya and Rehman, exch
