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Photo: M. Moorthy

Articulate Oozing with enthusiasm

What sustained her days of music was the passion for film without an overpowering dose of commercialism. If her ‘elandapazham’ made you shake your legs in high spirits, ‘kathodudhan naan paaduven’ would leave you revelling in the rhapsody of her melody.

“I owe it to music directors. They believed in me and I ensured that they weren’t let down,” says the queen of sensuous voice. In her teens, the young talent was picked up by A. P. Nagarajan in ‘Nalla edathu sambandham.’ With no formal training in music, she learnt the ropes of singing faster than anyone would have ever imagined.

For her, the secret of musical wisdom was straightforward — learning from the mistakes. The string of music directors including K. V. Mahadevan, M.S.Visanathan and T. K. Ramamoorthy began to take her seriously after a series of hits.

But before they could rope her in fully, Tollywood came calling. Her shrill voice, sounding very much like jazz, sat well with item numbers that the Telugu movies were ubiquitous with. More than the musical notes, it was the pronunciation of the new language that excited Easwari a lot. “I have an ear for other languages. Whenever I’m given songs in Malayalam, Telugu or Kannada, I make it a point to read the verses aloud and correct the diction. Never bother to learn to write though,” she laughs.

Like any yesteryear singer, she has a lot to talk about the changing musical tastes of people. “Trends are made by the music directors and technicians. It is not so much the peoples’ choice. You may call me old fashioned but present day songs are difficult to retain for even a month.”

Her songs, on the other hand, transcend generations and still ring in the ear with a new-born freshness. “I do the 20 per cent of the singing. Rest is in music director’s hand.” Her busy days of playback singing acquainted her with celebrated singers.

Her meticulous analysis on options for improvisations in every song and carefully choreographed singing regimen set her apart from her contemporaries.

Rehearsals days were rigorous, the toughest being half-a-month-long one for ‘Pattathu rani.’ “The outcome had been greater than what we thought. That’s the reason why artists go sing the way music directors want. It gives better results,” she asserts.

The old way of recording gave her room to discuss and improvise on the symphony but, of course, only after a nod from music directors. “There was a healthy competition between male and female singers. Since the conventional recording demanded both the singers to perform on a single take, we compete with one another to sound sweeter than the other. It was fun,” she recalls.

Thoughts of the good old days charge her emotionally. After absorbing long minutes to dry the tears, Easwari regains composure to talk about today’s technology-driven compositions. Digital assistance has cut down the efforts of playback singers. Doesn’t she regret for not being a part of the period when singing is much more effortless than her days? “No, this is lazy singing I would say. I’m certainly not cut out for it,” she shrugs.

Whether it was fast beat-rhythm razzmatazz or slow-tempo sensuous melody in Tamil films, Easwari was in thick of it all. But with age taking over, she prefers to lend her voice to satisfy her devotional rapture. The enthusiastic student in her is vibrant as always and now of course with a spiritual ideology.

The nectarine quality of her voice, surprisingly enough, still remains unaffected. That seemingly is the reason why she is still open to film offers. “I sing for the love of music. I’ll accept offers if they came my way. But music directors have turned hip with self-owned studios and posh instruments. They would rather prefer a compliant upcoming performer to a weathered and snobbish singer like me,” she breaks into chuckles.

A song request was readily accepted and she belted out the all-time popular devotional number ‘chellatha.’ Evidently enough, she defied her age to celebrate her evergreen voice. The crisp silk sari, turmeric-borne face punctuated with contrast ‘pottu,’ belied her decades-long experience in film music. “Does it matter?” she comes back with a question when asked about her age. “I’m 60-plus. I prefer to stay that way rest of my life.”

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