Sometime back, i sat with my family members watching, Zee telugu"s little champs,....A boy was singing "idele tharatharaala charitham" from "peddarikam" ...We were listening to it, all mesmerised...,when one of my sisters thoughtfully remarked "i never realised that Koti gave so many hits"...Koti,.. the composer of the number was sitting there in a judge"s seat,listening attentively,with a little smile playing on the lips....and eyes that lighted up with happiness.....One is actually surprised to find him ,looking so young on the telly and he comes across as a bluff, hearty , down-to earth person....I mean , we are hearing him from ages and the person turns out to be not too old...:)...not at all, sir,.....My husband even wondered idly why he did not take up acting....
The kids rendered many of his hits, some melodies, some dhammakedaar songs...A girl sang ""muddula jaanaki pelliki mabbula"...From Peddarikam"...woow...Another one broke into "roop thera mastaana",.."guvva gorinkatho"...Someone else rendered "priyathama priyathama"..."o navvu chalu."....Lovely melodies and foot tappers...One liked both the genres...I, particularly love his dhamaaka madhyamavathis in "mechanic alludu',..."bangaru bullodu" and the thunderous.."amma brahmadevudo" from "govinda govinda"...What range?.....and what pure dynamite music?....After hearing them, one strangely felt grateful to the creator of the music....For how happy did he make us all.........I and my daughter loved to listen to those blasted beats of his .._---pun intended----and would break into smiles whenever we thought we detected his father"s strains among them..."after all..it is "baabu sommu"...we would say...Who else has rights on it?....
......and then came the wonderment i wrote earlier....For, though casual, i think that remark of my sister"s sums up it rather neatly...Koti always remained on the peripheries or at the end of the critic"s list... He ..Was,..Is a busy music composer,...worked for top stars.,..top banners,gave thundering hits....but.. somehow, one never associated koti with serious music...or took his name when discussing it..in those haloed, reverential tones one reserves for some others....though he kept regaling us with one after one of his hits...and we kept crooning them....Perhaps because most of his earlier --or later films---were mainly big starrers and that meant mostly catchy numbers with a good deal of jhum jhum jhum orchestration....
My daughter, who self appointed her self as my teacher, in musicology---She thinks she is an authority on it----took pains to enlighten me on this little issue...She argues that koti has not evolved a distinct style of his own-----i mean, the hallmark progressions,notes, sangathis and touches ---- and that was his undoing.....I do not quite see her point.....What style?...As far as i can see, there are only three schools---or styles--- of music in telugu cinema...One was Rajeswara rao"s style..(koti"s father and guru)....Another was K.V. Mahadevan"s....Keeravani and others seem to follow it...But the difference between the two was not too great...Ilayaraja, ofcource was a later addition and gave completely different music....One is slightly mystified and also amused with this practice in film music...One wants and glorifies variety and breaking away from tradition...Whereas in classical music, you tend to emphasize on following PARAMPARA and think mighty well of it...
In my opinion, the real bane Koti had to suffer were the times he found himself in...He is preceded by stalwarts like his father, Mahadevan,Viswanathan....Trying to survive that inheritance is a daunting task in itself......Then he had to fight for his space in a world filled with Ilayarajas,..manisharmas, and Keeravanis and Rahmans...It was a fierce competition,..In the melee, i think, he might have got a little bruised but it is said competition eggs one to further efforts and true enough Koti peaked in his career with "hello brother"...."peddarikam"..."nuvvu naaku nachavu"..."nuvve kaavali"..."nuvve nuvve"..That was first class music...kudos to Koti....
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