Life
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
A passion for numbers
|
But Naani died soon after. "He was a great lyricist. Listen to this line he wrote - `Saadhagam Saagaram, Sadhanai Oruvaram.' I lost my soul when he passed away. I was at a crossroads. Then I decided I had to carry on his dreams."
|
He would have been another chartered accountant if not for a challenge he threw in college.
With the brashness that comes so naturally to collegians, he had declared that he could compose music better than anybody else.
That was almost 20 years ago. Now, he's gone back to the campus with `University', his first full-fledged Tamil film as music director. "I think I have arrived now," says Ramesh Vinayakam trying to hide from Feroze Ahmed his greying beard, which he has grown for his pilgrimage to Sabarimalai.
"But my face is not me. My music is me," he says.
I STILL remember the place. I was walking on Madley Road to the railway station to catch a train to college when it hit me... `Everyone's doing music; what am I doing here. I should be composing too'." After that moment, his perception of music changed. "I started thinking music as a composer, not as a singer."
Ramesh had started his life in the music world thinking of himself as a singer. But during a discussion with a friend in college, he had boasted that he could compose really good music, better than most music directors. "It was then that I consciously discovered my talent to make music. And with that, my ideas of becoming a banker or a Chartered Accountant went for a six." That discussion had sparked a relationship which he carries till date.
The friend, Narayanan, alias Naani, would write the songs and Ramesh would compose music. They would then pass off the songs for film numbers in inter-collegiate competitions. He performed his first song in Vistaas '83, an inter-college competition. "I won the first prize there and it hardened my desire to become a music director."
But Naani died soon after. "He was a great lyricist. Listen to this line he wrote - `Saadhagam Saagaram, Sadhanai Oruvaram.' I lost my soul when he passed away. I was at a crossroads. Then I decided I had to carry on his dreams."
Surprising that it took all those momentous occasions for Ramesh's transformation into music director. After all, he was only 12 when he composed his first number. "It was a devotional song, which I have included in my first album."The first thing Ramesh did as soon as he turned professional was discover a raaga, `Prathidhwani', also the name of his first album, for which he also wrote the lyrics. That was in 1985.
While waiting for a break into the film industry, the Ayyappa devotee did four more devotional albums, some ad jingles and corporate films, besides teaching piano and Western music theory, which he continues to do even today. "I have had some experience in every genre of music." Ramesh is a lyricist of sorts too, but unlike the singer in him, the poet doesn't surface too often. The singer still holds strong: he has sung three songs in `University'.
But films were still eluding him when `Paila Pachisu', a Telugu film, happened in 1989. He eventually became popular with another film, `Aunty', that he came to be known as `Aunty Ramesh'. But he was still lost in the woods. "Success did come to me but I was not there. That was the main problem - I was there but not there. My real break came with `Aye Nee Romba Azhagha Iruke', in which I composed the `Thotu Thotu' number." Then he got `University'.
But you don't find his mentor, S.P. Balasubramaniam, in the credits. "He is the most important person in my career but I couldn't use him in my first film. But I console myself by drawing a parallel with Illayaraja, when he couldn't use SPB, his friend, in his first film, `Anna Killi'." The singer had not only helped him release his first album, but had also sung the songs in it.
It's people like SPB, Veena Parthasarathy (who had introduced him to SPB), Naani, and his piano teacher, Jacob John, whom he says paved the path to his success. "I will not call them my footsteps; I don't want to step on them. They are the people who took me to their plane - a higher level."
And from that height, life for Ramesh Vinayakam is `Dhool Dhool Mama Mama Dhool'.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Life
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
|
