The sparkling native pen
K.R. GANESH
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Hamsalekha, the first true-blue Kannadiga lyricist-composer, gave film music a major turn in the Eighties. This highly inventive musician has many firsts to his credit
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Photo: G.P. Sampath Kumar
INFUSING NEW ENERGY Hamsalekha has a fantastic receptiveness to language. His grasp of Kanglish that occupies urban spaces is remarkable
Premaloka, the trendsetting Eshwari Combines film that released in 1987, brought star value to two people; actor Ravichandran and lyricist-composer Hamsalekha.
The Eighties was, in a way, peak time for the Kannada film industry. It was a time when there was a reawakening of Kannada pride with the Gokak Agitation of ’82, Lankesh Patrike and others. It will perhaps not be wrong to say that the outcome of such a happening was largely benefited by the film industry. Just when a non-Congress party came to power, film industry also tried to establish itself locally. There was also a shift in attention with the many other backward classes and communities gaining centre stage, a healthy departure from the hackneyed debates that revolved around the hegemonic and marginalised classes. It was during the Eighties itself, that the other backward classes and communities gained recognition – both politically and culturally. Hamsalekha, one could perhaps say, is the outcome of such a materialization.
Not that films of the period were in the strict sense of the term mirroring the Brahmin community. But it was evident that there was a considerable Brahminisation in the manner in which characters were conceived; notional manifestations of what we believed were traits of the community.
Apart from this, it was also the post-zenith period for most Kannada’s brilliant lyricists and composers. They were “tired” and a grating tedium had begun to set in. Hamsalekha, to put in filmy jargon, stormed the scene breaking all time-tested norms and infused Kannada film music with refreshing energy. And thus with Premaloka in 1987, film music entered a new phase. The credit to this, of course, is shared equally by Hamsalekha and the maverick actor Ravichandran.
High flown, chaste Kannada (of course, filmdom had created its own distinctive idiom), came to be replaced by street Kannada, the language spoken by the masses. Hamsalekha’s music rang of a completely unique style, – a predominant strain of Kannada folk music flavoured with other dominant styles of folk and Western music – which he conducted with tremendous élan and perfection. From here, Ravichandran and Hamsalekha, who almost became an inseparable team, and worked with each other for 26 films. The duo not only became responsible for an innovative narrative technique in films, but were also non-conformist in every aspect of film music. What till then seemed like high brow, snobbish conservatism, was replaced by more earthy, semi-urban, realistic creations. These experiments however, were not free from acidic criticism. Traditionalists dismissed them completely.
Interestingly, Hamsalekha in the only composer-lyricist who’s a true blue Kannadiga. He belongs to Tulasithota of the Pete area of old Bangalore. His father K.H. Govindaraju was an actor with company theatre. Hamsalekha, the 13th child of his parents, was originally Gangaraju. His brother Balakrishna, who was a good singer, used to run an orchestra. With such a cultural environment at home, Hamsalekha started playing mandolin for the orchestra and acted in small roles.
At his father’s printing press, Hamsalekha found himself absorbed in all the manuscripts that came for printing – poems, plays, folk songs etc. This tempted him to try his hand at writing and scribbled poems and one act plays. “When I was in high school, I wrote the play ‘Belakina Mane’. My teacher was so pleased and gave me a Swan pen. From then, I decided to keep my pen name as ‘Hamsalekhani’, which eventually became Hamsalekha,” he remembers.
Hamsalekha with his immense hunger to learn went to Shivram for Carnatic music lessons and the teacher who taught him to write music notations was Dasanna. He went to S.K. Joseph for piano lessons and Sebastian for Western classical music. Hamsalekha, deeply fascinated by cinema, had a great desire to script a film and direct it, but in due course he became a composer.
In the Seventies, Hamsalekha, along with friends, set up a theatre group Viveka Ranga and went around the state performing plays. Around the same time, he also worked as music arranger for several re-recordings in Chamundeshwari Studios and worked as a ghost writer for several films. It was in 1986, Ravichandran spotted Hamsalekha making the script for “Naanu Nanna Hendti”. Ravichandran liked his lyrics for “Yaare neenu cheluve”, and asked him to compose it, which went on to become a super hit.
With “Premaloka”, Hamsalekha became a phenomenon. He has composed over 3,500 songs and has made hit numbers such as “Premalokadinda Banda”, “Belli Rathadali Soorya Tanda Kirana”, “Madikeri Sipyai”, “O Premada Gangeye”, “Naa Kande Ninninda Chandrodaya” and many more. In fact, if several remakes, mediocre films became successful it was because of Hamsalekha’s original music score. For instance, films like “Chinna Tambi” and “Meri Jung” had very competent music. But Hamsalekha gave them successful, original scores.
Probably because of his grass roots upbringing, Hamsalekha has a fantastic receptiveness to language. He mixes Kannada and English amazingly well and sometimes even Hindi. From his very first “Hello my lovely lady…” to the more recent “Choriyaagide Nanna Dil Kaledukollode Ondu Thrill”, Hamsalekha has churned out some very interesting songs. His ability to achieve an unlikely rhyme scheme, and sometimes even between languages is exciting. For instance, “Ye Gangu, ee biku kalsikodu nangu…” or “Luna mele nanna myna”. Traditional lyricists would have scoffed even at the thought of using lemon of the backyard as metaphor for a woman’s beauty, but Hamsalekha did it with style. Known for his inventive metaphors, he sang “Nimbe hanninantha hudugi bandlu nodu…”. The other unique ability of Hamsalekha is to set to tune even very prose-like passages. Remember the song, “Tandana Tandana”? The charana of the song is a series of riddles and answers to it, and Hamsalekha manages it beautifully. It is also true of the unofficial State anthem, “Huttidare Kannada Naadalli Huttabeku”.
But it’s ironical that this very composer, who infused life and dynamism to Kannada film music, had to say that it was with “Ganayogi Panchakshari Gawai” that he attained his deliverance. Pity that someone who broke away from the shackles of established standards found fulfilment in conforming to them. Even after nearly three decades of his association with the film industry, Hamsalekha is still full of original ideas. He now pins aspirations on Hamsalekha Desi Vidya Samsthe, that plans to impart all round education in the desi way.
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