SPB at 80: How one voice captured every mood

For implicit 5 decades, movie euphony fans successful South India shared a heavy affection for a dependable that permeatedtheir homes and hearts similar nary other. SPB, arsenic helium is affectionately known, would person turned 80 this week. It is nary astonishment that celebrations are being held everywhere, adjacent if we mislaid his carnal beingness a fewer years ago. In fact, it inactive feels surreal to talk of the fable successful the past tense.

An engineering pupil with nary ceremonial grooming successful music, SPB utilized to execute astatine movie euphony shows, hoping for a breakthrough arsenic a playback singer. A accidental brushwood with 2 legends — K.V. Mahadevan and M.S. Viswanathan — changed his destiny. He recorded ‘Ayiram nilave vaa’ (Adimai Penn) for K.V. Mahadevan and ‘Iyarkkai ennum ilaya kanni’ (Shanthi Nilayam) for non-pareil M.S. Viswanathan successful precocious 60s. The 2 deed songs — sung for 2 apical stars, MGR and Gemini Ganesan — ensured that helium ne'er had to look back. It was a refreshingly unsocial dependable — breezy, youthful, melodious, hummable and yet not high-voltage — arsenic was the norm then. ‘Ayiram nilave vaa’ became the go-to opus for aspiring singers astatine competitions then. So, SPB’s accomplishment was arsenic effortless arsenic his singing style. 

Between past and the 2020s, the juggernaut recorded implicit 50,000 songs (SPB himself contested it arsenic an unverified exaggeration) and near astir antheral voices of his epoch successful the South, astatine a distant second oregon 3rd place. At 1 time, helium is besides said to person recorded 10-12 songs a day. SPB lent dependable to implicit 50 on-screen actors, including MGR, NTR, Sivaji, Rajinikanth, Kamal Hassan, Ajith Kumar, Vijay and galore much caller pb actors. He sang for astir each the composers of his time, but his enactment with Ilaiyaraaja stood out. The duo fed off each other’s originative vigor and contributed to communal occurrence unequivocally.

Though SPB had declared galore times that Mohammed Rafi was his relation model, helium carved retired his ain benignant without imitating his idol. It would request a thesis to break-down the atomic elements that led to SPB’s exploits. Here is simply a teaser effort — a silky, resonant bass voice; a immense multi-octave scope susceptible of expressing divers emotions, emulating classical nuances and sustaining infinite energy. He was the delight of each his composers. Legend MSV erstwhile referred to him arsenic a ‘blotting paper’ who could sorb the creator’s ideas and adjacent unspoken embellishments astir naturally. While SPB, perhaps, sang much songs successful Tamil films, helium was a polyglot who sang successful implicit 15 languages. 

It is astir intolerable to azygous retired the defining features of the immense fig of songs helium rendered, due to the fact that helium would often spell beyond the composer’s blueprint to marque them his own. That, successful turn, reflected his singular quality to internalise each creation. And yet, adjacent a tiny clump of songs reveals however effortlessly SPB could determination done shifting moods and situations wrong a story. ‘Engaeym eppothum’ (Ninaithale Inikkum), ‘Kamban emanthan’ (Nizhal Nijamakirathu), ‘Vaan nila nila alla’ (Pattinapravesam), ‘Uchi vahundeduthu’ (Rosappu Ravikkaikari), ‘Pani vizhum malarvanam’ (Ninaivellam Nithya),  ‘Thooliyile alavantha’ (Chinna Thambi), ‘Nilave vaa’ (Mouna Ragam), ‘Mannil intha kadhal’ (Keladi Kanmani), ‘Oru nalum unai maravatha’ (Ejaman), ‘Ilamai itho itho’ (Sakala Kala Vallavan), ‘Vandenda paalkaran’ (Annamalai) and ‘Enakkoru kadhali’ (with MSV arsenic co-singer). These span a spectrum of look — from the gentlest to the astir robust — crossed a mates of generations. SPB topped it disconnected by switching to a afloat classical show successful the 1980 film, Sankarabharanam, winning his archetypal National grant for ‘Om kaara nadhaanu’.

SPB besides did a fewer cameos successful films and was connected par with full-time actors. He erstwhile remarked that his knowing of acting enhanced his quality to emote similar the on-screen histrion helium was singing for. 

His occurrence was not conscionable astir his exemplary singing; it besides stemmed from his good idiosyncratic qualities — affable and humble. His fame ne'er came successful the mode erstwhile 1 met him. K.J. Yesudas, a legendary vocalist and contemporary, erstwhile recalled however SPB served him a “room-cooked” blistery repast astatine a Paris edifice aft a show. Many actors and singers, too, ever talk of however helium endeared himself to them with his childlike humour and warmth.

In his aboriginal years, erstwhile helium was nary longer moving from 1 workplace to different signaling songs, helium turned to judging euphony world shows connected television. There, too, helium near a heavy content connected contestants with his gentle mode of pointing retired flaws and his generosity successful appreciating their singing. He spoke to them similar a friend, offering elemental guidance. In doing so, helium softly reiterated that euphony is much than method — it is simply a lived experience.

They accidental creation emulates life, but successful SPB’s case, his beingness seemed to emulate his creation — marked by the aforesaid ease, open-mindedness and affectional sincerity that defined his singing.