Suresh answered this already.
>2) In the movie saptapadi, the song is used as such in a romantic context.
> (A prEyasi asks her priyuDu). Is there a difference in the "rAgamu" of
> the song, to give it a romantic tinge? (The original, I read in a book,
> is "jayantaSrI" rAgamu).
Though Suresh said he is leaving this one for the gurus, and I am not one,
let me attempt: yes, the movie version of the song is same as the original,
both in lyrics and raagam. This is unlike the practice in
'Sankaraabharanam' movie - the two tyaagaraaja kRtis used there, 'saamaja
varagamana & dorakuna iTuvanTi sEva' match with their originals in title
only. 'saamaja varagamana' used the original pallavi, anupallavi and the
raagam - BTW, this is a kRti written completely in samskRtam. In 'dorakuna
iTuvanTi sEva', only those words are from the original. Rest of the song
was penned by vEtUri. and the movie raagam was 'kaLyaaNi' whereas the
original is in 'bilahari'. An example of director completely goofing up was
in Balachandar's movie 'Sindhu Bahiravi' in which the hero sings a
tyaagaraaja kRti in its entirity in a concert setting, but in a different
raagam - I don't know what the reaction of the music gurus was for this
liberty.
As for the second part of the question, I always felt that raagam can not,
repeat, can not convey bhaavam. At the most, it can create a general mood.
Particularly in Carnatic music, it is perfectly possible to use the same
raagam to create completely different emotions. Quite a lot of tyaagaraaja
kRtis can be used as 'love' songs - the depth of devotion, admiration, and
love expressed in them can be quite easily interpreted as romantic love -
this is particularly true in the case of kRtis where he admires the
physical attributes of Rama; eg., nanu paalimpa, mEru samAna, alaka lalla
lADagaa, lAvaNya rAmA, etc. If you didn't know that they were composed by a
man, they can be easily interpreted as love of a woman for her lover, and a
pretty handsome one at that. I can talk for pages on 'love' of tyaagaraaja
for rAma, but you wouldn't want to hear - so let's move on.
> An open-ended question: What do the "gurus" think of using the kIrtanas
>in a romantic situation? One feeling I got with this "marugElarA" song is
>that it is stupid for a prEyasi to call her priyuDu as "carAcara rUpa...".
Well, I guess this is a matter of personal taste. I don't know what the
reaction of the hard-core purists was. Actually, I do. My brother is one,
and he didn't like it. As for me, as long as there is some 'aucityam' and
decency in interpreting the song, it is OK. I was very thrilled when, in
the same movie, the hero uses the musical notaion of 'nagumOmu' to convey
the message to the heroine - that was subtle. I think I object more to
'khooni-fying' kRtis like he (K.Viswanath) did in Sankaraabharanam, than to
adaptation of this kind. On the other hand, I was fairly outraged for his
adaptation of 'mantra pushpam' in the movie 'sUtra dhArulu'. Did anyone see
that? That was gross.
>P.S: Regarding Prasad's comment about simple telugu, I am reminded of the
>song "gandhamu pUyarugA", one line goes as "kalakani munimukha kaLakani
>soppucu, palukula namRtamu lolikeDi swAmiki gandhamu pUyarugA". Very sweet.
Ah, now I come to the crux (is that the word?) of the matter. Yes, the
words are simple, but the meaning is not. tyaagaraaja kRtis are some of the
hardest nuts to crack. For one thing, he never sat down to compose. They
just came to him. Second, due to the format he adopted (compare his kRtis
with others' before and around his time), his kRtis are very succinct, and
pack a powerful punch. And the purpose he intended for his kRtis is very
wide in scope - he used them to extol rAma, tell stories, teach good
behavior, etc. In this process, he used quite a few cryptic words and
phrases in his kRtis, and some of them are very difficult to interpret, and
some of them have unexplainable 'puns' and word plays in them: for eg.
'sAmaja varagamana' can be interpreted in three different meanings to point
to rAmA, and the way he calls rAma as 'rAja rAja varA' just after telling
him that he (rAma) became a king just because he married sIta..
There are a few exceptions to this cryptic style of writing: They are divya
nAma sankeertanalu (just plain extolling of rAma), utsava sampradAya
keertanalu (describing various worships to rAma), panca ratna keertanalu
(every body knows these), and his two operatic ballets - naukaa caritramu,
and prahlaada bhakti vijayam. All these songs are keertanalu, not kRtulu -
thereby, giving more freedom to the poet, in terms of length, literary
restrictions, etc. So, no wonder 'gadhamu puyyarugaa' seems more enjoyable
- it is from naukaa caritramu: BTW, the line is 'kala kalamanu mukha kaLa
gani sokkucu palukula namRtamu lolikE swAmiki'
I am sorry this had become so long, but I just had to get it out. I hope
this is interesting to at least some of you.
Regards
Nasy