I got a chance to watch భలే అమ్మాయిలు, an old Telugu movie the other day.
More info:
భలే అమ్మాయిలు (1957)
సాహిత్యం: సదా శివబ్రహ్మం
సంగీతం: సాలూరి రాజేశ్వర రావు
The movie was engaging for the most part. And that's meant as a compliment, given the simplistic movies of the time. Savithri and Girija are talented sisters with a great competitive spirit. The movie opens with them trying to outdo one another in Bharathanatyam.
A few minutes later, they are at it again, singing Carnatic.
The highlight of the movie, to me, was the music, the best of which is this competitive duet between P. Leela and M. L. Vasantha Kumari, గోపాల జాగేలరా (gOpAla jAgElarA).
The play of the swaras towards the end of the song is thrilling. You can sense that it is a ragamalika as the song is transformed further and further.
The song starts off in Mohana and all is well for the first two minutes of the song. As the swaras roll by, I realized that they transitioned into షణ్ముఖప్రియ (Shanmukhapriya).
Following that, with the help of my keyboard, I deciphered that they moved subtly into చారుకేశి (Charukesi). At this point, I was struggling to identify patterns as the swaras whizzed by. With further effort, I learned that they shifted to హరికాంబోది (Harikambhodhi). It was just amazing to hear the verbal and musical acrobatics in the song.
I have left out further twists as they were beyong my comprehension. I felt there were at least a couple of more changes in the ragam. I hope someone with greater insight can enlighten me on the other ragams used.
It was extremely satisfying to listen to such a great work. It is a source of pleasure more than 50 years after it was composed. That is a testament to the talent of S. Rajeswara Rao among others.
You can listen to the songs from this movie here:
http://www.oldtelugusongs.com/cgi-bin/search2/search.pl?mcode=M0199
