{"id":55381,"date":"2017-09-22T20:59:06","date_gmt":"2017-09-23T00:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=55381"},"modified":"2017-09-23T00:35:52","modified_gmt":"2017-09-23T04:35:52","slug":"kovarthanam-the-unsung-maestro-of-tamil-cinema-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=55381","title":{"rendered":"Govarthanam \u266b The unsung maestro of Tamil Cinema Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Vamanan<\/strong><\/p>\n

(R.Govardhanam passed away in Salem,Tamil Nadu on Sep 18th 2017)<\/em><\/p>\n

R Govardhanam was neither an M S Viswanathan nor a K V Mahadevan in prolificacy of melodies, but it was the tacit conviction among Tamil film music connoisseurs that he was an equally gifted composer who came up with entrancing songs. Some, like sound engineer Sampath who was his colleague in AVM Studio, put down the scarceness of opportunities to plain ill luck, while his musical colleague and competitor MSV blamed it on his plain appearance. \u201cOne could mistake him for an accountant in a provision store,\u201d MSV once remarked. Looks apart, the fact remains that Govardhanam was a fiend with notes \u2014 he had only to give ear to a piece of music before he poured out the notes in all their profusion.<\/p>\n

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R Kovarthanam (Feb 21, 1918 – Sept 18, 2017)<\/p><\/div>\n

Govardhanam\u2019s father had been an accountant in a grocery store, though he was a musician too. Govardhanam\u2019s elder brother, R Sudarshanam had joined Gubbi Veeranna\u2019s troupe and then worked in film music orchestras before helming one himself in AVM Studio and its gramophone record wing, Saraswathi Stores. It was while accompanying his elder brother to a recording, that 10-year-old Govardhanam\u2019s natural proclivity of deciphering music had suddenly burst out in full bloom. After this, during a song recording, Nadaswaram exponent, Tiruvavadudurai Rajarathinam had played his beloved \u2018todi\u2019 to the boy and been astounded by the latter\u2019s swiftness in scanning the raga\u2019s notational contours.
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\nThe Sudarsanam-Govardhanam duo were known to score the background music for alternate reels of AVM\u2019s film projects aiming at fast completion, but films like \u2018Jathakam\u2019 (1953) and \u2018Orey Vazhi\u2019 (1959) saw the younger brother wielding the musical baton on his own. <\/p>\n