His early song ‘Nadukkadalula’ from Santhosh Narayanan’s Attakathi (originally composed and written for Bala’s album ‘Vanavil’) have lyrics that remind you of of the simplicity and social concern of Pattukottai Kalyananasundaram’s lyrics in the 50s, with lines like: ullasa vaazhkaiyile panatha serkka mudiyuma (can you make money when you’re always enjoying yourself) ? You could take this as an echo of Kalyanasundaram’s line ‘ vizhithu kondorellaam pizhaithukondaar, unpol kurattai vittorellam kottai vittaar (the wakeful survived but you were snoring and lost everything)’ in MGR’s Nadodi Mannan.
The answer to that is that Gana Bala is not just a singer, he’s a singer-lyricist. And if it was Deva who made gana – the native and eclectic musical genre of the common people of Chennai – mainstream with hits like ‘Kavai Padathey‘ from Kadhal Kottai or even ‘Autokaran’ from Baashha, it was Gana Bala who kept it alive in our films in the last decade. He’s the father of gana and it’s because of his work that we get opportunities.” He credits Deva for breaking the impression that gana songs were inauspicious to the point that they were an important part of mass hero films in the 90s. īala says “w hen Deva sir came into films, it gave us a lot of hope. The common element in all these very different songs is the genre of music that he personifies: gana. He has also sung quirky gems with lesser known composers like ‘Patha Oru Lookula’ (also the lyricist) for Santhosh Dayanidhi in Inimey Ippadithan and ‘Doggy Style’ for Dharan Kumar in Naaigal Jaakirathai.
He has sung for many of the major composers of the last decade, mixing gana experimentally with a variety of other genres: ‘Adhaaru Udhaaru’ for Harris Jayaraj in Yennai Arindhaal where he mixes gana with the sensibility of coastal music, ‘Hey Baby’ for GV Prakash Kumar in Raja Rani where gana meets jazz and ‘Vandha Kada’ for Yuvan Shankar Raja in Vai Raja Vai, a straight up philosophical gana song with a pop sensibility. We think we know Gana Bala, the singer of popular dance hits like ‘Kaasu Panam’ from Soodhu Kavvum and ‘Athangara Orathil’ from Yaan.
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