Fangirling in the 30s and 40s

Rather unusually for someone my age, I had a taste for Indian music from the 1930s and 1940s.  These were the kind of songs that did not even make it to Chitrahaar/Chhaya Geet. Sometimes an old movie would screen on Doordarshan or one might hear a KL Saigal on the radio but on the whole even in the 1980s when I was young, few TV and radio stations ventured beyond the 1950s. Part of the reason for my tastes was my uncle R.  When I used to to go to my grandparents place from hostel, sometimes we would be alone and he would be playing an old song that would burn itself into my brain and I would get addicted to the singer.  He had the oddest tastes and an excellent ear for music so one could never tell what he would choose to play. This was how I was introduced to MK Thyagaraja Bhaghavthar, better known by the moniker MKT. 

Even though their tastes had moved on to the Tamil dramas on television in the 80s and 90s, my grandparents would indulge me now and then with cinema and music tales from their youth if I pestered them enough. Sometimes my grandfather would rent a MKT video for me and though these films were hackneyed I would watch them for the music.  And to listen to the spoken Tamil of the time. And much to my mother's chagrin - because she wanted me to be smart and up to date - I wanted to dress like an old time heroine - in a sari, pallu tucked in, hair in a plait - post any such viewing (I still tuck in my pallu!). Unconsciously perhaps I was deeply influenced by my grandparents because it seems strange that I wanted to be part of a time when they were young. A time they didn't feel particularly nostalgic about. Or perhaps I just had an affinity for that time.

Your average 1930s/40s hearthrob

I want to lick that postcard-Average 30s Tam girl.

My grandfather had seen and heard MKT sing. He was a goldsmith's son according to my grandfather and dazzlingly good looking. His voice of course was divine. This fact was corroborated by my grandmother who spoke pityingly and sometimes witheringly about girls who went into a swoon and daze at his very mention, who kissed the little postcards of his that they slyly bought and no doubt were writing some very erotic fan fiction in their heads and diaries. Even married women were not immune to such immature behaviour according to my grandmother - whether she liked him or not I cannot tell because she portrayed herself as above such frivolities as succumbing to masculine charms. If it was today, those girls would have set up a MKT tumblr. For while notions of masculine beauty may change, the rules of fangirling do not. 

The eyes, that smile!

In one of the movies I saw (Haridas) TR Rajakumari played an oomphy lady who took the hero for a ride before repenting and renouncing her wicked ways as was the case in movies of the time. My mother had mentioned her beauty and my grandfather had added on information about the many men left devastated by her charms, she was after all Tamil cinema's first dream girl. All of this was no hyperbole, on screen the actress was stunning.  It was an alluring beauty - she reminded me a bit of MS Subbulakshmi - but with the sex appeal amped up.  And not in the least bit in a sluttish kind of way, she just looked like a woman who a man would do anything to have.  Or for that matter the lesbian tumblrs that I see in constant meltdown over some actress of the other - if they had existed in the 30s - TRR would be their girl.  Or at the very least everyone's girl crush, she's certainly mine.

Sometimes when I would visit, my uncle would be in that jokey melancholic mood that was a trademark of his. He would then say well soon I shall be old and alone in this house with just a glass of alcohol and MKT singing.  That was not to be.  But as long as that house exists and an MKT song plays in it, he is bound to be there somewhere around, eyes closed and listening to the music,  momentarily free of the tangled thoughts of his mind while he lived. 

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My 30s/40s playlist below. MKT sang a lot of devotional songs - which I like - but I will stick (mostly)  to the more romantic ones:)

1. Manmadha Leelai with bonus Rajakumari.  Not the best dancer in comparison to some others of her time but that blown kiss (about 3.13) was quite a sensation. As it should be, coming from the Princess of everyone's dreams!

2. Vadaname Chandra Bimbamo

3. Krishna Mukunda Murare

4. Radhe unaku kovam

5. Ellam Inbame

And a bit of Saigal

1. Babul Mora

2. Do Naina Matware

3. Madhukar Shyam hamare chor

And a sample of Kanan Devi and MS songs of the time:

1. Ami Bonoful

2.Tum Bina Kal na Aave

3. Engum Nirathaiye 

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Drinking Ladies

There seem to have been a a lot of drinking ladies in Ancient India. There are apparently plenty of sculptures of drinking women. And plenty of verses going on a fair bit about wine being a major beauty enhancer, in Kalidasa's plays for e.g. and especially in the Sattasai. (no face in the gutter modern women in the old texts!).

The above extract is from Malavikagnimitram.  Iravati is kind of famous for making a dramatic entry in an inebriated state in this play. Though who can blame Iravati, the second wife? There is already a senior queen, Dharini. And there is pretty Malavika who the king is courting and who is so going to be the king's favourite. And there is poor Iravati with only a maid to extoll her flushed with wine beauty. And a few passages where she berates the useless Agnimitra.  Who likens her to a crocodile while Malavika is a lotus flower. Pity Iravati didn't employ the crocodile teeth!

So what is a woman to do? All my sympathies lie with Iravati. I say ditch the King, get an ancient vibrator and embrace the bottle, it is far more constant!

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