Face To Face: Satin Mellow

The Gulf Today, Thursday, May 17, 2001

Manjula Ramakrishnan meets SP Balasubramaniam, the Indian playback singer and actor, for 'a straight from the heart' interview

HE CAME three hours late for the scheduled meeting. The organisers who had arranged the meeting were left baffled for it was totally uncharacteristic of the enormously popular celebrity who is known for his own-to-earth approachability. But when SP Balasubramaniam did walk in carrying his characteristic girth in a majestic walk, with his face bearing an apologetic smile and explained that he was late due to circumstances beyond his control, you actually believe him.

For what strikes you most about him is that here is one very honest man who tells you what his mind dictates and what he tells you is all there is to the man. There is no innuendo and his thoughts come without mincing words, straight from the heart.

"Today we have a whole breed of newer and younger singers who flood the music industry," Balasubramaniam said. "Some of them possess genuine talent and there are innumerable others who have inveigled themselves into this creative art. But competition has never fazed me for this is the single elixir that makes an artist perform better. Without this, complacence will set in and the smugness will prove detrimental to progress. I am a man who has carved out my own destiny as also my very special niche and even today despite the fact that a music director can turn to many other singers, I operate on my set of rules and turn down songs with obscene lyrics. For to me it is a very simple logic. If the singer is important they will alter the lyrics, or if the words are important they are at a liberty to seek another singer."

But it is evident that the music industry has played by his rules for with over 35,000 songs to his credit. Balasubramaniam is all set to enter the Guinness Book of World Records. He still records three to four songs each day and is a popular singer and actor rolled into one.

To this he chuckles and remarks with his trademark corner-of-the-mouth smile: "I am glad to hear that I am still everybody's favourite. Believe me when I say that I have never consciously gone all out to earn this pampered position. But I must have been good, I have always striven to give the very best to my music and at the end of the day have never thrown any celebrity tantrums. I have treated my music with the utmost respect and with humility all these 35 years, just the way I did on day one when as a young lad I stood in shivers and sweat clutching the microphone for dear life."

But what is amazing is that the singer of mellifluous melodies like Deedhi tera dewar diwaana, Tere mere beech mein, not to forget his magnum opus in the movie Sankarabaranam, which won him the 1979 award for the best singer, is today a much sought after actor. His role as the wise cracking doctor in Avvai Shanmugi will be remembered as much as the hero who toiled hard for it. And the list is endless with character roles, rib-tickling comedy characters and the tear-jerkers.

"Acting happened because I identified an intelligent actor within me who was bursting at the seams trying to emerge and evolve. Not wanting to suppress this creativity, I decided to try acting alongside my music." Balasubramaniam today is into the big and the small screen, regaling his audience with his own stamp and style.

He has recently been awarded the Padmashree and he accepts it with a "could have been earlier, but better late than never" attitude. It is not even the delay in getting this high accolade that upset him as much as the desideratum that his mentor, music director Kothandapani who predicted his rise to fame, is not alive today to witness and participate in his ward's euphoria.

"When I was a nobody in the music industry, director Kothandapani spotted my talent and predicted that I would mesmerise the people with my music for well over 40 years and that I would march right ahead to win the highest encomium in this country. As his ardent disciple, I have been fulfilling each of his predictions but miss the man who with his dheerga dhrishti (sharp foresight) promised me it was bound to happen."

If director Kothandapani has been his inspiration, his father who was a Harikatha exponent was Balasubramaniam's inspiration to achieve more. It is in a trust started in his father's name that the singer is carrying on his charity work. "Such of these acts are not meant to be publicised. These are the barest minimum that a man who is established in life, who is blessed with surplus resources ought to do for a fellow human being. When you give back to life, it reaches God and helping one another is the single superlative act in the name of God above."

Today he derives as much pleasure from his acting as he does from exercising his vocal cords. "There is certainly more strain involved in acting, for you travel a lot, reach locales, stick to unearthly schedules. But creativity is at its best, technology is at work in front of you and better still the pleasure of being able to interact with your co-artists. Whereas singing is done in the air-conditioned comfort and the most contemporary recording techniques makes it easier still for the singers. But nothing is laborious if you enjoy your day's work."

The fact that acting is more arduous is evident from the bandaged foot that he was limping on, no thanks to a fall in Kodaikanal during the shoot of a Telugu television serial.

Why is it that today's songs are ephemeral and lack the staying power of his old time hits of the '70s and the early '80s like Aayiram nilave vaa or Pournaminilavil we wonder.

"This is because today what we listen to is edited music and lyrics. In the yesteryears, songs were written and music composed with a certain singer in mind, his tenor, his range, his capability and the texture of his voice. Today music is a filler in movies. The mandatory six songs are composed and fitted into various parts of the film to satisfy the distributors. The singers are incidental. The nucleus of the movie is of no consequence. The events surrounding a song is nonexistent. Thus the songs never mesh with the rest of the movie and the result is that they stand out like a sore thumb and are "in today, out tomorrow." Music today is a kadambam (a mixture) of several incompatible aspects and do not stand the test of time."

While Balasubramaniam laments that he cannot start a crusade as a one-man army, his duty towards the music that has made him the man he is today is to talk about these maladies. And this he does candidly and without fear and with a fervour befitting the status he enjoys in the Indian music world. "I am not questioning the talent of today's generation of singers. But when they punch in the first four bars and then practise the next four to be recorded later, the whole effort becomes highly plastic, synthesised and the soul and heart is missing from the song. It is thus a self defeating exercise from the word go."

Balasubramaniam proceeds to further bemoan the fact that "today heroes and production executives come into the recording studio armed with discs of Hollywood movies. Most of the background scoring, the melodies are plagiarised. Thus contamination is rampant and unless the masters of the film industry sit together to hit at the very root of this affliction, the problem is only going to assume larger proportions."

He laughs his typical seismic laugh and says: "My son Sharan who is himself an established playback singer and actor today is at a definite disadvantage in having a celebrity father. The poor lad is compared at every turn and it is amazing he manages to keep his morale up."

With that perpetual smile lighting his eyes, he unplugs the mike from his shirt indicating the meeting is over and hurries to his room to leave for the airport. Only to take on another telephonic interview in the car on his way to catching his flight, for a Bahraini newspaper, for he can never say 'No' to his fans. Another secret of the saga of his 35-year old success, apart from a voice that melts butter and an acting prowess that teases your funny bone or makes you weepy with his elegiac ability.