Sindhu Bhairavi (film)

Sindhu Bhairavi
File:Sindhu Bhairavi dvd.jpg Official DVD Box Cover
Directed by	K. Balachander
Written by	K. Balachander
Produced by	Rajam Balachander K. Balachander
Starring	Sivakumar Suhasini Sulakshana Delhi Ganesh Janagaraj
Cinematography	Ragunathaareeddy
Music by	Ilaiyaraaja
Distributed by	Kavithalayaa Productions
Release date	1985
Running time	159 min
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Sindhu Bhairavi is a 1985 Indian Tamil language drama film directed and produced by K. Balachander starring Sivakumar, Suhasini, Sulakshana, Delhi Ganesh and Janagaraj. The film's score and soundtrack are composed by Ilaiyaraaja. The songs in the film were sung by K. J. Yesudas and K. S. Chitra. The film won three national awards in 1986 for Best Actress, Best Music Direction and Best Female Playback Singer.

The plot of the film revolves around the three lead characters J. K. Balaganapathi (JKB), Sindhu and Bhairavi. A Carnatic singer (JKB) at the peak of his career looses his credibility as he gets addicted to alcohol due to the loss of an intimate companion (Sindhu). Bhairavi (JKB's wife) ties to help him get rid of the addiction and fails. As a last resort she requests Sindhu's help and succeeds. The status of relationship between the three after his makeover is the climax of the film.

This film has a sequel teleserial named Sahana produced by K. Balachander. The film ended with Sindhu leaving her son with JKB and Bhairavi. The serial Sahana (Sindhu Bhairavi 2) starts 19 years later. Sindhu's son Surya is now 19 years old. Bhairavi has given birth to a daughter, but they have no clue where Sindhu is.

Plot

JKB (Sivakumar) is a gifted carnatic musician but his wife Bhairavi (Sulakshana), despite her love and loyalty, fails to satisfy or challenge him intellectually. For JKB, this, and her inabilty to have children, is a problem. Gajapathi (Janagaraj) works for JKB as a Tambura musician who is a compulsive liar. The film starts with introduction of all characters of the film followed by JKB going to a concert where he finds Gurumoorthy (Delhi Ganesh), who works for JKB as a Mridangam musician drunk. He instructs Gurumoorthy to leave the premises and performs in the concert without the use of Mridangam which is considered a basic/compulsory instrument to perform a carnatic concert. Gurumoorthy is asked to permanently leave the band, he promises not to drink again. While Bhairavi's grandfather is going to receive his pension which he does on the first of every month, Gajapathi lies to him that his pension has been cancelled. The old man starts crying and JKB intervines to confirm that his pension is not canceled and that he can go and collect it. JKB then scolds Gajapathi for it and tells him the old man could have died on hearing such a lies, as he is very particular about his pension. Following this, when JKB finds out that Gajapathi has lied to him too and others causing problems he asks him to promise to speak the truth.

Sindhu (Suhasini), working as a music teacher in a school, attends one of the concerts of JKB, where she finds some the audience speaking to each other instead of listening to the music. Hence, she asks JKB to translate the song he is singing into Tamil, which everybody in the audience can understand. He then gets angry and challenges her to demonstrate. She successfully demonstrates it and is applauded by the audience. In a few days, Sindhu apologizes to JKB and he finds out that she is an intellectual equal and admires her knowledge of music. However, in a small town in South India, in the 80s, this intellectual attraction is misunderstood based on the cultural limitations of that age. Gajapathi who has promised not to lie informs Bhairavi that her husband is is going out with Sindhu. Sindhu is seen as the home wrecker and is forced to quit her association with JKB. He pines for her and leans on alcohol for support, which sadly leads to his downward spiral ending in an embarrassing barter of his musical knowledge for a drink. He even steals money from Bhairavi's grandfather, which leads to his death. Sindhu reenters his life and brings him around, however she has a secret of her own. In the utmost union of their tastes and ideas the two of them share a physical intimacy too, leading to Sindhu giving birth to JKBs child. However, in a classic act of defiance to society's rules, Sindhu gives up her child to be brought up by Bhairavi and leaves town to pursue and share her knowledge of music with the less fortunate.

Cast

• Sivakumar as J. K. Balaganapathi. JKB is a popular Carnatic singer who is known for his knowledge of music.
• Suhasini as Sindhu. Sindhu works as a music teacher in a school and is a fan of JKB
• Sulakshana as Bhairavi. Bhairavi is the wife of popular singer JKB
• Delhi Ganesh as Gurumoorthy. Works as a Mridangam musician for JKB
• Janagaraj as Gajapathi. Works as a Tambura musician for JKB

Soundtrack Composition

This movie was the first time when Ilayaraaja composed music for a Balachander film. This was a film where Balachander was considered successful in reflecting the thoughts of Ilayaraaja. Innovatively there is no use of Mridangam in the song "Mahaganapathim". This is picturized in the film as a scene where Gurumoorthy (Mridangam musician) arrives drunk to a concert and is asked to leave the orchestra and hence, the day's concert performance has to happen without Mridangam.

The way the folk song "Paadariyen" merges with the Carnatic song "Mari Mari" is admireable. This is picturized in the film as a scene where Sindhu challenges JKB at a carnatic concert. Ilayaraaja is said to have believed that all the emotions, feelings and depth found in the carnatic songs are adequately, if not, equally available in the folk tunes. When Balachander is said to have narrated the situation to him that Sindhu sings a folk song and most unexpectedly switches to a carnatic tune. Within 24 hours he came with up the song which became the biggest controversy in his career. The same musicians who played for carnatic song, played for folk tune, using the same instruments. The Song starts with a folk tune, but then switches to singing sutras in the Thiagaraya Keerthanai. All along this keerthana was sung in Kamboji raga. But he changed it to Saaramathy Raga. The proponents of Carnatic raga erupted with emotions, alleging and accusing that he was killing the very foundation and roots of carnatic music. They argued that while Thiagarayar had sung the keerthana in Kamboji raaga, Ilayaraja had switched it to Saaramathy raaga. As a response he asked if any one could prove to him beyond any reasonable doubt that Thiagarayar did actually sing "Mari Mari" in Kamboji raaga. He asked them to provide a list of all keerthanas and prove if they had been sung in the specific ragas as understood for ages.

Awards

The film has won the following awards since its release:

1986 National Film Awards (India)

• Won - Silver Lotus Award - Best Actress - Suhasini
• Won - Silver Lotus Award - Best Music Direction - Ilayaraaja
• Won - Silver Lotus Award - Best Female Playback Singer - K. S. Chitra

Sahana

Sahana is a Indian Tamil language teleserial produced by K. Balachander. It is a sequel of the popular film Sindhu Bhairavi which K. Balachander also directed and produced. The first episode was aired on "Jaya TV" on February 24, 2003. The characters of the film are now much older in the serial. Balachandar usually names his female lead characters after Carnatic ragas — Srividya was called "Bhairavi" and Jayasudha as "Ranjani" in Apoorva Raagangal, Sulakshana was "Bhairavi" in Sindhu Bhairavi and Khusboo was "Sriranjani" in Jathi Malli and now comes Sahana. Though Balachander had been toying with the idea of making a sequel to Sindhu Bhairavi for the last 10 years, something stopped him from doing so. "I feared people would compare the two and say the sequel was not as good. I didn't want to take such a big commercial risk" he once said. He has been producing television serials through "Minbimbangal", the television offshoot of his movie production outfit "Kavithalaya". Towards the end of his successful series "Anni", he went through his old files looking for an idea for his next serial and chanced on the rough sequel to the film he had written 10 years ago.

Balachander wanted the same artistes to reprise their roles on television. Unfortunately, Sivakumar was committed to a daily soap. Suhasini was willing to play Sindhu but Balachander decided to have a different face -- he felt if Suhasini played Sindhu, viewers would expect Sivakumar to play JKB. "You cannot separate JKB and Sindhu. Sir (Balachander) felt if we are going to have a different JKB, let's have a different Sindhu too," says Subha. This is when Y. Gee. Mahendra, a well-known theater and film personality was selected to play JKB. "It is a challenge for a comedy artist like me to do a character role like JKB. I am enjoying both the challenge and the role," he said. He, who has acted in more than 300 films, said it is a kind of homecoming for him. "I acted in a Balachander film 26 years ago!". He was not worried about the fact that JKB was once successfully portrayed by Sivakumar. "Had it been done by Sivaji (Sivaji Ganesan), I would not have accepted the role. Only two people inspire me, and they are K. Balachander and Sivaji . When I have KB on the sets to guide me, why should I worry? I also have my other guru Sivaji in mind".

Balachander and his unit could not trace Sulakshana who disappeared from the film scene 12 years ago. So they decided to kill Bhairavi's character and keep her as a photograph in the serial. As it transpired, Sulakshana found out about the sequel from the newspapers and contacted Balachander. To his delight, she told him she would play Bhairavi. "They were so happy to see me," she said. "The script was rewritten and Bhairavi was alive again. I am happy to act as Bhairavi. She is still the same soft person. The only difference is she is older and the mother of two children. There is more understanding between JKB and Bhairavi now -- she doesn't fight with him". Carnatic singer Anuradha Krishnamoorthy, who has never acted before, will play Sindhu. When contacted by Minbimangal, a surprised Anuradha was reluctant to accept the offer. "My initial reaction was I am not interested in acting. I am a professional singer. I had absolutely no plans to act. I told them I needed time to think. It was my husband's gentle persuasion that made me meet K Balachander. Once I met him, I was struck by his simplicity. When he told me they would see to it that my kacheris (concerts) would not get affected because of the shooting, I said yes". "That Suhasini acted in the original film does not bother me at all," she says. "I am a student as far as acting is concerned. My only concern is I shouldn't disappoint Balachander". Rajesh Vaidya, who is composing the songs for the serial, faces a tough challenge; the songs composed by Ilaiyaraaja for the film are considered masterpieces. Carnatic stalwarts Dr M Balamurali Krishna and Sudha Raghunathan will render the songs.

Soundtrack

Untitled

The film's score and soundtrack were composed by Ilaiyaraaja and was released in the year 1985. The songs of the film were sung by K. J. Yesudas and K. S. Chitra.

No.	Title	Singers	Length
1.	"Kalai Vaaniyae"	K. J. Yesudas	3:54
2.	"Mahaganapathim"	K. J. Yesudas	4:32
3.	"Mari Mari"	K. J. Yesudas	2:48
4.	"Mohum Ennum"	K. J. Yesudas	2:41
5.	"Poomalai Vaangi Vanthan"	K. J. Yesudas	9:02
6.	"Naan Oru Sindhu"	K. S. Chitra	4:03
7.	"Paadariyen"	K. S. Chitra	5:29
8.	"Thanni Thotti"	K. J. Yesudas	6:00

External links

• Sindhu Bhairavi at IMDb
• Sindhu Bhairavi Soundtrack at Oosai