SPB.
Something that my father and I share is our love for music and movies. Our taste in music might often be on the opposite ends of the spectrum (he is very often shocked by some of the film songs I listen to these days), but it is through him and his love for S.P. Balasubrahmanyam’s singing that I discovered Tamil film music from the 70s and 80s.
For many of us who were born in the 90s, these songs rank among our favorites. We weren’t around when these films released, but SPB’s voice echoed in our houses thanks to our fathers, mothers or grandparents who exclaimed every time an old song of his played on theTV or the radio. “Listen to how he sings. That line…” was a common refrain in my house. Something I regularly heard especially when my father played Sippi Irukkuthu from Varumaiyin Niram Sivappu.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JS0fPN3_hA
As a reporter, I’ve had to cover the deaths of several notable personalities over the last seven years. But nothing affected me the way SPB’s passing away did.
With all of us stuck indoors owing to the pandemic, I was waiting anxiously in front of my TV when the dreaded announcement came. Mind completely numb and a blank word document staring at me- it took one line of Nilave Vaa that a news channel suddenly played for me to burst into tears.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V-QkRVBIeQ
The day went past in a blur- hearing people speak about the man he was and seeing people pay tributes on social media, on the radio, on television…everywhere. Here was a man who had touched a million lives, and not just through his singing. With every person I spoke to, I began to piece together the human being that SPB was- a kind, compassionate artiste, someone who respected everyone around him, always had a kind word to say, an immense zest for life, an enthusiastic actor and someone who just wanted to make people happy through his singing.
When I was in Class 10, the Mozhi released and I remember my father telling me then how ‘young’ SPB sounded, singing Kannal Pesum Penne. Years later, when he sang Ayayyo in Aadukalam for Dhanush and Naan Pogiren for Prasanna, his voice remained ‘young’. Filmmaker Rajeev Menon said something when I asked him about this that I loved- “The joyousness and the smile he brought into his singing is what made his voice remain young. His voice was an ageless one- with a smile”
The last six months have been trying, uncertain and scary for many of us and more than ever before, I’ve turned to music and placed my faith in the power it has to pick us up and heal our souls.
And that is exactly what SPB’s music has been and will continue to be for many, of us. Sometimes a balm for the heart, on some days…a motivator, a reminder of some love lost, or… the background music for us falling in love. But always, always around us.
