CHENNAI: We know how he has lent his voice to more than 40,000 songs in 16 languages, how his career spanned over a period of 50 years and how his work garnered multiple state and National awards. But did you know that MGR postponed a song recording because SPB fell sick? Or how he managed to trace the physical recordings of 38,000 out of his 42,000 songs? Or how he had the habit of wrapping up a recording in 30 minutes and that irked composers who couldn’t get the whole day’s salary? I went down the memory lane when I attended Madras Week’s ‘A Tribute to SPB’, a talk by Mohan V Raman.
Sifting through songs
Mohan recalled how fate had its plan coursed for SPB when the singer attended a singing competition and got the second prize which was to be given by Janaki. The legendary singer, who listened to SPB sing once again, asked the organisers why he wasn’t given the first prize. “‘I am not saying that the person who got the first prize doesn’t deserve it, but this guy deserves it equally’ is what Janaki amma said. That was all the signal it took for SPB to give cinema a shot,” said Mohan. Another competition, this time in Chennai, had famous singer Ghantasala, music director S Dakshinamurthi and Nageswara Rao as the jury.
After getting another first prize, SPB was approached by Telugu music director SP Kodandapani to sing in his upcoming film.But when the time for their actual collaboration came, things were haywire. “Kodandapani wanted to rope in SPB for a song in a film titled Sri Sri Sri Maryada Ramanna (1967), but he never got his address. He had to send his driver to Balu’s college, meet the principal and get hold of him. At the studio, to impress the producer, who happened to be actor Padmanabham, Balu sang Jaanewalon zara mudke dekho mujhe from Dosti (1964) and indirectly asked them to ‘look at me’, followed by his rendition of Mere mehboob tujhe from Mere Mehboob (1963).” And when he finally sang in the film, his co-singers for the song Emiyee vinta moham were P Susheela, K Raghuramayya and PB Sreenivas. Could there have been a better debut?
In Tamil cinema
His first tryst with the Tamil film industry happened when he met MS Viswanathan who found SPB’s Tamil to have a heavy Telugu accent. “Balu took that up as a challenge and learnt the language by reading film posters and hoardings,” said Mohan who recalled how MSV later worked with SPB in hit songs like Pournami Nilavil (from Kanni Penn, 1969) and Iyarkaiyenum ilayakann’ (Shanti Nilayam, 1969).
“When a car came to his house to pick him up and the driver said ‘Chinnavar koopudraru’, Balu didn’t know that it was MGR. He was ushered to the actor’s gardens where MGR was along with Susheela amma and KV Mahadevan. They practised the song Aayiram nilave va (Adimai Penn, 1969) and MGR was happy with Balu’s rendition,” said Mohan, adding that on the day of the recording, Balu was down with typhoid and couldn’t even get off his bed. “When everyone thought he lost his golden opportunity, he was called a month later for the same song and when he enquired about it, MGR told him that Balu would have told everyone that he’s singing in his film and if it doesn’t end up happening, it would sabotage his career. MGR actually postponed the song’s shooting in Jaipur so Balu could sing it after recovering.”
Recalling another incident on how SPB worked for the first time with Sivaji Ganesan in Sumathi En Sundari (1971), for a song Pottu vaitha mugamo, Mohan said, “Everyone around Balu told him how to sing like other singers and it pressurised him. Sivaji sir, who spotted this, called him aside and told him ‘Don’t sing like me but sing like how you usually would and I will act like you in the film’. No wonder, in the song’s visual, Sivaji sir’s actions are very restrained.”
A similar incident apparently happened during his Hindi debut in K Balanchander’s Ek Duuje Ke Liye (1981) when Laxmikant-Pyarelal were against the idea of roping in the singer. “KB sir was keen on retaining him given the hit of their earlier collaboration Maro Charitra (1978). The legendary composer duo complained how Balu’s Hindi isn’t proficient to which KB sir said that’s actually the story of my hero who doesn’t know Hindi. That was also the first time he met Lata Mangeshkar for the first time and all the rush made him slip his cup of coffee which landed on Lata ji’s white sari. Her magnanimity was on a different level as she cleaned her saree and said Balu will be a phenomenon in Bollywood. And rule he did!”
The rest of the evening saw multiple such incidents that were a treasure trove for the audience. So much so that many of us walked out humming his tracks but with a lump in our throat making it difficult to sing them in our own voice, let alone in that of SPB’s.