Worth singing about
SAYE SEKHAR
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Singer L.R. Eswari laments the fall in the standard of playback singing today.
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PHOTO: K.R.DEEPAK
POP QUEEN L.R.Eswari is amongst the first generation playback singers to make people shake a leg.
Naa peru Selayeru, nannevaroo aapaleru (My name is a stream and none can stop me). That was the first Telugu number that introduced L.R. Eswari to her fans. She, who sang with a husky voicewent on to become the talk of the Telugu film industry with her rasping rendition of her songs. Revelling in the rhapsody of Eswari's songs, younger audiences have continued to patronise them for four decades now. A song is ageless, after all.
Eswari, in a tête-à-tête with Friday Review recalls the glorious past and speaks about the present. "I have been singing for four decades and will continue till my last breath. I can't say which will be my last song," she says with a sense of pride in her tone. Taking a cue from the lyrics of her first Telugu song. Born in Tamil Nadu, Eswari carved a niche for herself in the Tamil film industry, sans any formal training in classical music. Despite this, she grasped the tunes and modulated her tone to suit the song. She is perhaps one amongst the first generation playback singers who made people shake a leg with her songs. Masaka, Masaka, Cheekatilo... , which she sang for Kanchana's bar dance in Devuduchesina Manushulu is still a rage with the youth.
The verve with which she regaled with her Bale, Bale Magaadivoy in K. Balachandar's sensational Marocharitra clearly demonstrated her zest for singing.
When she went for her first voice test , T.S. Rangasami, a sound engineer, said, "How can she be a playback singer?" and asked her to "get out." Today, she is delighted to hear praise coming her way from the same person.She began her career with Vaarai En Thozhi in Pasamalar in Tamil (The Telugu equivalent of the song is Bangaaru Bomma Raaveme in Rakthasambandham).
K.V. Mahadevan was her favourite music director and Eswari liked his intuition, ideas and discipline. If she drew inspiration from Ghantasala Mastaru , she felt the shruti of the melodious tone of Soundar Rajan to be a perfect match to her voice. "A singer like S. P. Balasubrahmanyam will never be born again. He is simply great," Eswari says. Replete with cryptic observations over modern-day playback singing, Eswari detests the way the songs are recorded today. "It is the computer that sings for the singers now," she remarks . "In the good old days, the music director used to give the notes to all the musicians in the orchestra. Now, no one has any contact with the other.They just go to the recording studio, render their lines and return," she laments.
An ardent devotee of `Ammavaru', the awe-inspiring singer released many a music album with bhajans and devotional songs. Eswari's album on Swamy Ayyappa was a hit with the devotees of the God of Sabarimala. A National award and a Nandi award are only some of the feathers in her cap.
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