Panthu Varali..(Is it Kama Vardhini ? )

suba Panthuvarali

Ever heard of the Christian concept of Purgatory?

(In Roman Catholic teaching) this is a place or condition in which the souls of the dead are purified by suffering in preparation for Heaven; (vide Oxford Adv.Dictionary)

The ghost of Hamlet's father visits him from thePurgatory!

It is the place that washes you of all your sins.

In music, the raga, which washes the soul of all its sorrows, is SubaPantuvarali.

Remember the days when DD and AIR only ruled the air?

Remember anyoccasion where the entire nation mourned for seven days the death of aNational Figure?

Void of any entertainment, the air used to be filledwith shehanoi or violin playing this Suba Pantuvarali.

It could purgatean entire nation of its sadness over the death of her beloved leader.

Called Thodi in HCM (Thodi in CCM is a totally different raga), SubaPantuvarali has minor notes woven intricately to bring out thequintessence of the raga.

Arokan: S r g M P d N S

Avro : S N d P M g r S

Naushad, the master of classicism in Hindi films, churned out quite afew numbers. He, in fact, used it twice in a film, Baiju Bawra, for thesongs "Insaan Bano" and "Tori Jai Jai Kartar". The forlorn andfrustrated singer, who could never sight the "bahar" of his life,pleads, in "Basant Bahar" , to the Lord "ab to bulale charanon meinteri". Also under the able Naushad's music.

Ravi composed an equally heart rending melody in Ek Phool Do Mali -"aulaadwalon phoolon palo" excites and saddens the Balraj Sahani, whoreacts to it from his then predicament. Though the picturisation was abit cinematic, the underlying beauty of the raga was brought out wellby Ravi.Rafi, with Manna Dey(?) sang "Tu hain prem ki devata", in one of thelesser known movies.To top it all, the son of the Master Bengali Babu, R.D.Burman, createdhis "rainaa bitii jaaye" (Amar Prem). Till date, the melody queenconsiders it as one of her best rendered songs. Recollect the sancharamLata does in the opening line, "Shaam na aaaaaaaa ye", the melodiousbeauty of the raga, filled with inexplicable emotions, would at once berealized.

In Tamil, MSV had a few hit numbers with "indha natakam" (PalumPazhamum), "kala magal kann thirapal" (Anandha Jyothi). Ilayarajahandled it for his sonorous "vizhiyorathu kanavum" (Raja Paarvai) and"Vaigarayil" (Payanangal Mudivathillai). His half hearted attempt tomake a comic song of the raga ("Kandu pudichen" in Guru Sishyan turnedout a farce). With due regards to his mastery of music, endowing aphase totally different to inherent nature of a raga was not everybody's cup of tea.

In my knowledge, the only one who successfullyachieved was the genius, G.Ramanathan, who composed a happy duet "Vadamalare" for Ambikapathy (Shivaji Ganesan) in Mukari.

Try to remember a devotional number of TMS, "Engellam Theduvatho", asoul searching for a glimpse of the Lord to purge itself of all itssins and sorrows. And an equally powerful, classical number by MLV "Srisatya anandha mayam ". What could not be brought about in this wholepage, would be accomplished by just a hearing of the two songs.