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MUSIC AND CINEMA

Indian cinema has its roots in theatre. Most of the plays used music and this feature was later included in cinema too. In those days, film actors were chosen on the basis of their singing abilities. Thus we find that singers like M S Subbulakshmi, G N Balasubramaniam, M K Tyagaraja Bhagavatar, Dandapani Desikar, T R Mahalingam, K B Sundarambal etc assumed dual roles as actor-singers. Whereas there were others like S G Kittappa, D K Pattammal, M L Vasantakumari etc who just lent their voices.

Most of the early films were musicals, heavily laden with songs. Even the dialogues were delivered musically.  The music used was either folk or classical-based. Many Carnatic ragas and occasionally Hindustani ragas were employed. Today however, one finds a blend of many genres of music, including the Western, Pop and so on, besides Carnatic. And many Carnatic professionals like K J Yesudas, P Unnikrishnan, Nithyasree Mahadevan etc., still lend their voices. 

Though there have been films without songs, music does play a very important role in conveying the emotions of that particular moment, scene and film as a whole.

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