Sri - Music Director with energy and audacity. R.I.P.

Music Director Srinivas Chakravarty’s death due to renal failure is eerily similar to his father’s death for the same reason in 2002. Sri, as he was popularly known is the son of the most prolific music director of Telugu Film Industry in the 70s and 80s - Chakravarty. His name meant he was the Emperor and indeed Chakravarty was the go-to music director for all the commercial film-makers at one time whenever dates were difficult to get for the older generation of KV Mahadevan, MSV, Satyam and so on. Chakravarty composed music for 959 films - a feat that has been surpassed only by Ilayaraja. But Chakravarty was adamant his sons had to earn their spurs by themselves. That was how Srinivas Chakravarty and Ramakrishna Prasad came to the industry. Ironically, even between themselves, the two brothers couldn’t even compose music for even five per cent of the number of films their dad composed. But Sri, the elder of the two, made a mark for himself and earned a good name as a composer who can energise the film and uplift the moods to a new high. But in the years that he composed music growing out of the shadows of his dad (“Ammoru” was unofficially his first because he stepped in when his father was ailing and ready to pass out almost in the same style as RD Burman took over the reins from SD Burman in “Aaradhana”), Sri scored some peppy tunes which are still hummed in bachelor parties and chirpy get-to-togethers - “Bhadram Be Careful Brotheru” and “Chakravarty ki Veedhi Bicchagathiki” and so on. With movies like "Gaayam", “Money”, “Money Money” and “Anukokunda Oka Roju” with RGV and movies like “Sindhooram”, “Little Soldiers” and “Sahasam”, Sri proved he is a versatile composer with a sense of modern sounds and orchestration along with musical arrangements that differentiate the new generation of composers from the old. But it remains an enigma why he got so fewer chances despite huge talent and untapped reservoir of musical abilities - he can sing better than many modern music directors in a rich voice that doesn’t need track singers’ support, he can play guitar and violin better, he can create good background scores (although the earlier part of his career was marred by childish imitations of western composers like John Williams from “Jurassic Park”) and he can also give accomplished dubbing support to heroes. Some say, he was whimsical and critical of film producers and directors who were unappreciative of his genius. Some used to say, his ways of working were lazy and wishy-washy, there was no way to trap the tunes that he would think up one fine day. Whereas,  he used to say he didn’t feel like working after becoming embittered after his mother’s death. But his mother passed away atleast five years before his father passed away in 2002.  His elder brother passed away in a bike accident and Sri named his son after him - as Rajesh Chakravarty. Then he came across many times saying the film industry which extracted blood out of his father in over thousand films never came in droves to give his father a fitting final salute - which he truly deserved. In his interviews, he used to be very outspoken about why selection of tunes or the choice of music was beyond the comprehension of the producers and directors who approached him. The industry labelled “Sri” for many years as a composer with loads of attitude problems - but all directors who worked with Sri vouch for his versatility and sincerity in output. Whatever reasons lie in the realms of truth, Sri moved out of limelight into years of wilderness until he re-surfaced a few years back - with “Sahasam” and “Aadu Magadraa Bujji”. Only few stars like Nagarjuna and directors like Krishna Vamsee, RGV, Gunnam Gangaraju and Chandrasekhar Yeleti gave Sri the real breaks - the rest of the heroes hardly engaged with him. Chiranjeevi who has given a chance to RP Patnaik to compose a song in “Indra”  promised a song, if not an album,  to Sri  in “Anji”. But we never heard anything come out in the album.

For Sri, success came whenever he released an album but he was upset with the success-chasing addiction of the Telugu film industry. He wanted to show he was as much a volcano of talent as neighbourhood Rahmans and Jayarajs. But alas, the same directors who gave him an early break - RGV and Krishna Vamsee passed him in later years by recruiting composers like Raj Koti and Mani Sharma who had less qualms and no airs. They had hunger and thirst to be adaptive. But Sri had talent but wanted work on his terms. Unfortunately, thats not how the creative industries work. If you browbeat me today, I will survive for another day and scout for a better guy than you. Despite the nonchalance of Sri, he could have channelised his anger and frustrations into the albums -like what he did with Singer Smitha. Or, he could have taken up the magnum opus work-in-progress of father Chakravarty  - to create a body of compositions based on the 72 Melakartha Ragas of which he recorded about eight cassettes with Veturi Sundara Rama Murthy. Sri’s music has the hallmarks of a great composition - modern orchestration, rhythmic sounds, and an energy to sound different with a western beat. The last famous song he sung himself in “Chakram” was a soulful number written by Sirivennela and composed by late Chakri. But the melody songs never came back in his score after “Little Soldiers” - an album that is still a classic among the school-goers of the nineties. “Little Soldiers” put him in the dazzle of the great composers of the decade but sadly, it created a vacuum after that for a long, long time. Chakravarty, his father also grew lonely after his wife’s death and adopted a girl child (Chakravarty had four sons of whom, one died, and Sri was the second son, followed by two more sons, one in music and another in medicine). Sri’s father gave away half his estate of huge legacy of music rights and royalties to his adopted daughter who is now happily married and settled in life. We still cannot think Chakravarty’s musical legacy has created so many hits and songs that still play in the half dozen radio channels and many other channels worldwide to get huge royalties - because 959 films multiplied by six songs on an average means  5754 songs. That legacy split into two halves, if public domain speculation is to be believed is what could have easily settled the brothers. But bad health has snatched a gifted director who is one of the most intelligent and improvising composers that Tollywood failed to use better. If only the fickle-minded Tollywood had listened to this composer’s tunes more or made Sri experiment more, we would have had atleast fifteen percent of Chakravarty’s musical output in the name of Sri.  But the impact on sounds, musical arrangements, BGM scores and tunes created by Sri will be remembered forever. He will be more than just a footnote in the long tradition of successful music directors in Tollywood. God give him peace tonight as he meets with his prolific dad. His father was popular but not widely respected. Sri, was never popular but widely respected for his candidness. Today, he belongs to the ages. R.I.P.

My favourite top five tunes composed by Sri:

1.“Vaarevva Emi Face” (Money)
2.“Aayilaaa Aayilaaa Aiyilaaayeeee…Lechinde Lediki Parugu” (Money)
3.“Chakravarti Ki Veedhi Bichchagathiki” (Money)
4.“Adagalani Undi Oka Doubtu ni” (Little Soldiers)
5.“Alupannadi Undaa” (Gaayam)

#SrinivasChakravartyKommineni #Sri #SriMusicDirector #MusicDirectorsofTollywood #ChakravartyMusicDirector

Music Director Chakri No More! If only...

Music Director Chakri's premature demise due to heart failure is a grim reminder to all of us  to take care of the address that holds the key to the length of our stay on this planet - our body. My doctor friend tells me that the heart is the only human organ that stops working just like that one fine day without telling us. But it gives us warnings. Yet, one third of heart attack patients never make it alive to the hospital, he says. Chakri's must be unfortunately one of those unfortunate one-third who had a fatal attack. 

I saw Chakri's live music performance at a family friend's Shastipoorthi birthday a few years back. He was lively and humble but rarely smiled unless people greeted him. But he showed greater resilience in his career of over 100 films composing some of the best chart-busters that created mass following. He embarked into film music at almost the same time as RP Patnaik but lasted a wee bit longer than the latter - scoring hit tunes for Ravi Teja, Nagarjuna, Allu Arjun, Nitin, Siddharth, Sumanth, Gopichand, Ram, NTR Jr, Prabhas, Venu,Tarun, Jagapathi Babu and lately for Balayya and Vishnu. Only Chiranjeevi, Venkatesh, Mahesh Babu and Ram Charan did not sway to his tunes. Directors like Puri Jagannadh swore by him for a long time before moving on to others as it happens in a film industry seeking success than substance. But directors like Krishna Vamshee, YVS Choudhary, and Vamshee himself have hired his services as a composer where he belted out some amazing numbers - "Jagamantha Kutumbam Maadi..", "Neeve Neeve..." and "Vennello Hayi Hayi..".

Chakri's music had some essential qualities that ensured his tunes the staying power - rhythm, stylish arrangements, energy, speed, simple instrumentation, buzzwords repeated with hypnotic effect and the occasional melodies. It had an uncanny resemblance to old film tunes and hip hop music but rarely his music lagged. That is because in a career spanning films with so many directors bursting at the seams and so many stars, there was little room for error and Chakri fit the bill pefectly - even if his music had shades of Ilayaraja, Bappi Lahiri and several old film songs. For instance, remember that mass song in Ravi Teja's "Krishna": "Nee Soku Maada, Ammo Nee Jimmadaa..". I pointed out immediately while watching the film that this song is a fast-tempo replica of the famous Ghantasala song composed, sung and enacted by the legend himself himself: "Sesha Sailaa Vaasa Sri Venkatesaaa..". He had the knack of improvising songs like that - straight-lift some black and white melodies and remix them to modern settings. Perhaps this is what made directors like YVS Choudhary and Vamshee seek him out for giving some of the best hit films in their second innings. Nobody could mix up the Ileana item song in "Devadasu" from the old L.R.Maheshwari "Mayadari Chinnodu.". Even Vamshee sought his compositions and Chakri returned his faith with great numbers in some of his films which resembled the old magic of Ilayaraja-Vamsee tunes which had an atypical mixture of hummable melodies with simple dialogues and peculiar sounds created by mouth.

Amongst the new crop of music directors to enter Tollywood in the nineties, few have had such a run of success that Chakri had - with the only exceptions of MM Keeravani,  Mani Sharma, DSP and Thaman. Chakri seemed to have created his mark with clever remixes, smart composing and a legacy of hummable songs that had a modern tinge, simple rhythms and a melody mix that made him a sought-after for a major part of his career. If he had failures, that would have come only with his inability to handle success, not without an ability to persevere and re-adapt himself to the new demands and new heroes.  How else would you explain his awards from Filmfare to Nandi for "Simha" quite recently! His untimely death could have been prevented and he could have given more breaks to many other new singers like Kaushalya, Simha. It is a stark warning for all of us who die out empty in their brains every day  but may wake up dead one day in the body. Chakri may not be a maestro, may not have given us the best lyrics to be proud of or set the highest standards of composing  - but success sought him mostly before success took him away from us. May his soul R.I.P.

What is the legacy of his best five melodies? Methinks the following five:

1. "Jagamantha Kutumbam Maadi"  (Chakram)

2. "Rama Rama Rama Neeli Megha Shyama" (Sivamani)

3. "Vennello Hai Hai Mallello Hai Hai" (Avunu...Valliddaru Ishta Paddaaru)

4. "Konchem Gaaranga ... Konchem Kaaramga" (Chakram)

5. "Bangaaru Kondaa...Maru Malle Danda" (Simha)