"Peerlessness" is her Prefix - P. Susheela (Part 4)

And what about the difficulty level of songs ?!!!?  Very high !!! Especially in Telugu !!! The Telugu filmdom was replete with historical movies and sub-plots culled out of epics like Ramayana and Mahabharatha made into movies. The Hindustani idiom was used extensively by composers such as Adi Narayana Rao, Pendyala Nageswara Rao and Rajeswara Rao for these movies and how Ghantasala Master and P Susheela rose up to this idiomatic challenge !!!! Several unprejudiced artistes up North were forced to marvel at the natural predilection of the Telugu composers, and the singers Ghantasala and P. Susheela towards this Carnatic’s equivalent up North. They were in for a greater surprise when they were informed that none of them had undergone any training in Hindustani Music !!! And add to it , Padhyams that were composed in thousands. Padhyams are typically what in Tamil is termed as “viruthhams” set to a string of ragas (ragamalikas) involving very intricate passages. Tons of such toughies came Susheela’s way and she greeted all those challenges with diligence, patience, understanding and her talent in giving an aural shape to the creations of these masters.

      The VIswanathan-Ramamurthy mode however, posed a different set of challenges !!! In Tamil, post the G Ramanathan phase, the V-R combine  was blooming with its  trail blazing “novelty without loss of worthwhile musical values”  philosophy. They were   presenting songs like none else had with music deeply intertwined with the cinematic situation. The V-R combination touched the innermost recess of the listener’s Hearts as they could spin out compositions that well and truly depicted the common man’s sentiments with uncanny accuracy and telling effect. They mixed the process of running the melody through chord progressions with grammar defying phrases and adding to it, a generous dose of sangathis of the “neo” kind.  Please do listen to “nAN uyara uyara pOgirEn” from “nAn ANai ittAl” , especially the tail part of the charanams which has rapid tonic shifts (an unheard of thing, down South those days) combined with a need for portrayal of drunkenness with brighas as well.  Please do enjoy P. Susheela’s “drunken ramblings” prior to her commencing the second stanza. Unblemished drunkenness alright !!!!  If “thithhippathu ethu” from “thattungaL thirakkapadum” presented an erotic, sleazy invite , “kalyANa panthal alangAram” from the same film portrayed a woman at her bashful womanly best. Polarities of sentiments all of them were dealt with, with alacrity and with obvious dexterity. Turning Westwards, the subtle vibrato delivered in falsetto in the song “enna enna vArthhaigaLO”  at the word “vArthhaigaLO” , the exaggerated vibratos  in “oruvan kAthalan” (both songs in veNNira Adai), letting the proverbial hair down in “pAvai pAvai thAn” in enga mama all of them had the indianized nuggets from the Western world of singing . “ragasiyam parama ragasiyam” in periya idathhu peN was hushed musicality sprinkled with romance, “nAn sathham pOttu thAn pAduvEn” (veLLI vizha) , pesky, impish  mischievousness with immense musicality and swaram phrases, the halting paralyzing shyness in “athhAn ennathhAn”, the brooding “vasantha kAlam varumO” (TKR), the resigned helplessness in “idaya veeNai thoongum pOthu” (KVM) and several hundreds of those, she had them all covered and verily laid down the pathway for others to follow.  “thookkaNAn kuruvi koodu”(KVM) (vANambAdi), “kurunjiyilE” (kanthan karuNai) (KVM), “kaveri meenadiyO” (KVM)(with TMS in ”alli”)  and many others melodiously exhibited the rustic side to Susheela’s singing and what impeccable rusticity in Tamil!!!! Talk about respectable, serious romance and you have the feminity dripping “kaNNan enthan kAthalan”, “oru nALilE uravAnathE”, “kunguma  pottin mangalam” and tons more…womanhood expressed at its feminine, romantic best !!!! Mention racy romance and you have “neeyE thAn enakku maNavAtti”, “nallathu kaNNE” and yet again, tons more !!!! Listen to “paN pAdum paravayE” in arasa kattalai,  the melodious voice comes down as a hammer, a true clarion call for the complacent and the slavish to rise up and show some grit and mettle, an uncommon assignment awarded to lady playback singers. Only Susheela’s voice could have sounded melodious and boldly assertive simultaneously, yet another unique attribute!!! 

       Many have observed that the epitome of precision in pronunciation is Susheela indeed !!!! To us listeners, correctness in pronunciation is one aspect that can be labored upon and mastered , but its abstract equivalent, the style and the aesthetic component require Blessings from beyond the skies. Susheela had this in plenty, words were ornamented and put through with clarity and  deliciousness that augmented the sense of appreciation of beautified singing amongst listeners.  On the other hand,  as mentioned above, her ability to adapt to rusticity in delivery of words extended to other languages too, apart from Tamil and Telugu. For instance, some of Kannada numbers  sung in the North Karnataka folk slang forced Kannada listeners to believe that P. Susheela was at the very least a naturalized Kannadiga if not a Kannadiga by birth !!!     

      P. Susheela’s influence extended beyond the South as well, well, quite naturally. C Ramachandra went to extreme lengths to get to her to sing in Marathi, which didn’t fructify but did cherish all his collaborations with the Songstress in the South. Naushad Ali first recorded “Atrangarai thanilE” the Tamil version of “mohe panghat pe nandalal” in Mughal-E-Azam with the songstress and immediately decided to offer all other songs in the movie to her but not before coercing her for a dinner at his residence in Bandra, Mumbai. When “Dhwani” the Malayalam movie was offered to him in Malayalam, Naushad put down the condition that P Susheela had to be  awarded the contract before he himself signed on the dotted line. Greats like Jaidev and Khayyam had surreptitiously invited P Susheela  to sing for them for their Hindi projects, but alas to no avail, the songstress did not accede to their wishes !!!  Salil Choudhry the maverick genius did 25 films down South and had 25 songs sung by the peerless performer across all the four South Indian Languages and how all encompassing were those ditties, starting from day to day cinema music to folk and classical as well.  Yet again, his requests for her to sing for him in Hindi was not met with an  acquiescence , the partnership thus stayed within familiar bounds, South India. 

   

   One wonders how she negotiated challenges thrown by Master composers such as Rajeswara Rao, Pendyala Nageswara Rao, Adi Narayana Rao, MS Viswanathan-VR, KV Mahadevan, G Ramanathan, SV Venkataraman, G Devarajan, Raghavan Master, MK Arjun and numerous more  to become the most recorded voice and may we add, with least assistance from technology !!! Raise the number of songs she has sung  exponentially by crores and that would be the number of Hearts she has touched and found a primary spot in. Covering  P. Susheela’s career with its multi-dimensional resplendence through an article is akin to  standing atop an insignificant hillock , hoping to scrape the Pole Star.  Please treat this piece of writing ,therefore as a uni-dimensional snapshot of the career of this childlike great who lives in peace, who blissfully allows encomiums from great composers roll down her back, chuckles her way through in the presence of adoring fans and indulges in quick wittedness and subtle humour !!! Her interviews do not involve vainglorious pompousness and  references to  laudatory statements directed towards her, she infact hides them all, never reveals even factual moments of personal glory !!! So there, that’s her, she would rather root herself in the present, in the midst of explosive laughter and light hearted fun than perch herself on a “holier than thou” pedestal . She prefers traveling light, keeps her mind light, never allowing it to get puffed up with her achievements, though incomparable they are !!!