Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

Musical feat of a record

It does not take long for a music-lover to feel lost in Seetharam's world of melody, says J. R. Shridharan

PHOTO: CH. VIJAYA BHASKAR

TREASURE TROVE The records are Seetharam's most precious possession

If music be the food of love, play on ... Shakespeare in Twelfth Night.

This famous quote of the bard aptly suits 56-year-old Nemani Seetharam. Unlike others of his ilk, he worships music in a unique manner. Neither a trained musician, nor a scholar or a composer, he has acquired the sobriquet of `a walking encyclopaedia' of Telugu and Hindi film music.

His collection of over 35,000 gramophone records (LP, EP, RPM) is a testimony to his obsession with music, which he has been pursuing with great passion. Be it the `Nightingale of India' Sarojini Naidu's Song of the Cradle (1940, 78 rpm record) or Lava Kusa (1934), Dhruva-Anasuya (1936), Harischandra (1935), or Draupadi (1935); you name the film and he pulls out the record from the shelf in a jiffy.

His collection includes songs from 1934 to 2006 and some of the rare vintage compositions of Galipenchala Narasimha Rao, Ogirala Ramachandra Rao, S. Rajeswara Rao, K.L. Saigal, Pankaj Mullick, K.C. Dey, Suraiya, Noorjahan, Balasaraswati Devi and Anil Biswas.

One-stop shop

His nondescript house nearerstwhile Satyanarayanapuram railway station has become a favourite one-stop shop for many music-lovers across costal Andhra who visit the place to enhance their knowledge in film music and lay their hands on the best of the musical hits of the golden era.

For them, it is not a just a recording shop, but a library to fine-tune their music knowledge. His prowess in music is so praise-worthy that you just have to hum a line of a song and he would not just sing the entire song for you but will also furnish information about the composer, the singer, the lyricist and the name of the movie.

Seetharam has helped numerous researchers in film music. "It all began in 1966 when my favourite pastime was to stay hooked to Radio Ceylon, which was known for its popular film songs. In fact, radio was the only source of entertainment those days," he recollects.

The man often felt the urge to listen to some good music. And when he was unable to do so, he was overtaken by a sense of restlessness.

Thus began his long musical journey and he began collecting gramophone records for keeps. "I have been collecting these records with a missionary zeal. I used to travel to different places to buy these records. Till 1978, I bought only the records of songs I liked the most. But, very soon I realised that good music should be made available to everyone and hence the assortment of vintage records," he says.

Music as option

Life has not been all that kind to thispassionate music-lover."I had many options, but I chose music to eke out a living. I make money with these records and I am also a resource person for HMV Recording Company.

I help the company by providing it inputs and various compilations since 1984," he elaborates.

Not confined to music alone, Seetharam extended his area of interest by bringing home audiocassettes of famous dialogues from old movies. He has 250 cassettes of film dialogues " I used to take permission of the theatre owners and sit in the cabin room to record the entire film," he recalls displaying a sense of pride.

After amassing the rare musical treasure left behind by scores of legendary composers and singers for 40 years, Seetharam realised that the precious collection could perish due to the vagaries of nature.

"I want some individual or an organisation to protect this treasure. I am only too willing to donate them as I earnestly wish that these songs remain fresh in the minds of the future generations," says the die-hard music-lover with a tinge of sadness.

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter, wrote John Keats ages ago.

Seetharam has many such unheard melodies, which he is keen to pass on to the youngsters hooked to the digitised music.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail