The machismo in ‘Jagada Jagada’ and ‘Nandikonda’ is much more prominent in other hits like the title song of Gang Leader and Balapam Patti, but here, it’s worked into the dramatic context of the film, like it would be again in ‘Kattu Kuyilu’, (‘ Singarala’ in Telugu) from the last of the Mani Ratnam-Ilaiyaraaja collaborations, Thalapathy. His typically mellifluous voice becomes gruff - he growls with an ironically distanced menace.
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Then there’s Thriller- esque ‘ Nandikonda’, the duet with KS Chithra where SPB pushes his ‘Marana Mass’-like machismo to the point of farce: he is singing to Nagarjuna play acting as Count Dracula after all, and you can feel his range - both vocally, and in terms of the amount of character he can infuse into the song. The song is a play on ‘Suhana Safar’, and there’s a hint of Rafi in the way he stretches the Manchu Thaaki Koyala line, but this is a signature SPB ballad in the way that listening to it, you can picture his crystal clear voice as a stream running through the landscape he is singing about. ‘Aamani’ is the song he sings while tending to his wounds. Icarus’ wings burn, and he crashes to earth. The ease with which he moves through the tongue-twisting lines that seem to have too many syllables packed in (suggesting the restlessness of youth, the desire to do too many things in too little time) is barely noticeable in the orgasmic build-up to the crashing end. Veturi’s tongue-twisting lyrics are filled with delicious irony - marala marala maranam mingestham (we will devour death) - and this is where SPB soars - his voice suggests the bravado of an Icarus flying too close to the sun. Songs like ‘Jagadame’ in Pokiri verbalise the hero’s attitude towards life, his machismo but with ‘Jagada Jagada’, there’s a catch - this machismo doesn’t last long: at the end of the song, Prakash ( Nagarjuna) meets with an accident, and is then diagnosed with a terminal illness. Revisiting it after news of his death, I realised that the album contains so many shades of SPB that listening to it feels like tracing the contours of his voice.
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Not only did he embody the machismo of Rajnikanth’s Nen Autowadni, the break-dancing energy of Chiranjeevi‘s Bangaru Kodi Petta and the lilting melody of Jaamu Rathiri in song he was also Kamal Hassan‘s voice in Telugu dubs, the host of Paadutha Theeyaga, a singing reality show that was a staple in Telugu households, and a frequent presence in multiple films.įor someone born in 1995, Ilaiyaraaja’s Geethanjali is an album that seems like it has always been around, in audio cassettes, on TV, and in people’s fond recollections. His voice was everywhere, and seemed to do everything.
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By this metric, SPB was some kind of emperor, not just of song, but of the act of vocalising itself. There was a time when stars in Telugu were evaluated primarily by how “versatile” they were: ANR was great because he played Arjuna in Maya Bazaar and Devdas NTR played Krishna, Karna and Duryodhana all in the same film.