Group Dancer to Supporting Actress to Leading Lady and Super Star in 161 Movies on an Unbroken Stretch! Six Decades of Continuous Success and Stardom!

Saroja Devi made her debut in Tamil Movies as a group dancer in the movie Thanga Malai Ragasiyam which had Sivaji and T R Rajakumari in the lead roles in the year 1957. Earlier she had made her debut in the Kannada movie industry in the year 1955 as a supporting actress. It was MGR who gave her a major break and a grand entry into the Tamil Movie industry as the second heroine in the super hit movie Nadodi Mannan along with Bhanumathi as the other heroine. From then on Saroja Devi went on to star in 161 Movies as heroine and leading actress in a continuous and unbroken stretch. She had 28 back to back hits with MGR till the time Jayalalitha replaced her as MGR's favourite Leading Lady and Co-Star. During this prolific and extremely successful stretch, she had several hits with Sivaji and Gemini as well. This particular song is from the super hit movie Puthiya Paravai starring Sivaji, Sowcar Janaki, M R Radha, V K Ramasami, Nagesh, Manorama and others along with Saroja Devi. Music by Viswanathan Ramamoorthi and Lyrics by Kannadasan. P Susheela who has sung this song had once mentioned during a stage performance that this song was one of her favourite songs from among the 15000 or so songs sung by her till date! Saroja Devi went to perform supporting roles in several movies during the 90s and till recent times.

Super Hit And Most Successful On Screen Pair! Twenty Six Back to Back Hit Movies During the Golden Era of Tamil Cinema!

This is a hit song from the movie Thaai Sollai Thattaathey starring MGR, Saroja Devi and others. This song has been sung by the inimitable pair of TMS and P Susheela. The music has been composed by K V Mahadevan and the lyrics have been penned by Kannadhasan. Year of release 1962. After making a successful and super hit start together in the Mega Hit movie Nadodi Mannan, the pair of MGR-Saroja Devi gave 26 back to back hit films together during the Golden Era of Tamil cinema. The list of hit movies included Thirudathey, Thai Sollai Thattathey (Song Featured Here is from this movie), Paasam, Thaayaikaatha Thanayan, Asai Mugam, Periya Idathu Penn, Dharmam Thalaikkakkum, Neethikku Pin Pasam, Pannakkara Kudumbam, Padakoti, Nadodi, Thali Bhagyam, Naan Anayittaal, Petraalthaan Pillaiya, Arasa Kattalai and Kudumba Thalaivan. Some of Saroja Devi's best performances opposite MGR were the 'rich girl' roles in Anbe Vaa, Enga Veettu Pillai, En Kadamai, Deiva Thaai, Kalangarai Vilakkam, Pana Thottam, Parrakkum Paavai, Thayin Madiyil, etc., well the list is almost an endless one. Enjoy the song!

Don't Be Scared of Poverty! Don't Forget that You Have the Talent to Overcome any Adversity!

Don't Be Scared of Poverty! Don't Forget that You Have the Talent to Overcome any Adversity! This is the rough translation and meaning of the first couple of lines of this super hit song from the 1961 movie Thirudathe starring MGR, Saroja Devi, M N Nambiar, K A Thangavelu, M N Rajam and others. The movie was directed by P Neelakantan. After the phenomenal success of Nadodi Mannan this is the movie that established MGR's status as a super star who can do equally well in period films as well as social dramas. He needed a talented writer to come up with the story and screenplay for a successful social drama and Kannadasan did exactly that for this movie. The movie was a super hit and ran for more than 150 days in most places. Kannadasan also wrote the lyrics of all the songs in this movie except for this one. The lyrics for this famous song was written by the legendary poet with prodigious talent, Pattukottai Kalyanasundaram. He wrote some of the most inspirational and motivational songs for MGR such as Thoongathe Thambi Thoongathe in Nadodi Mannan, Chinna Payale Chinna Payale in Arasilangumari apart from this one. The essence of this song is to motivate one to fearlessly face life and overcome life's adversities with the help of the innate character and talent which god has blessed each one of us with. We sometimes tend to forget our talent and get bogged down by adversities and self doubt. This song serves as a tonic to wake one up to use one's talent and realize one's true potential without looking for shortcuts to success. Be inspired! Realize your potential! Music by S M Subbaiah Naidu.

First Part of the Song is 400 Years Old! The Final Part is 300 Years Old! Masterfully Blended with Contemporary Lyrics! Divine Music! Magical Song!

This is a divinely magical song from the movie Aadhi Paraasakthi written masterfully by Kannadasan, composed by the legendary music director K V Mahadevan and sung by the inimitable TMS. PBS the famous singer paying his tributes to Kannadasan had referred to him as having been the most well read person he had ever met. He said Kannadasan is not someone who has merely read several books but he is someone who has acquired and assimilated the knowledge from several libraries. This song is a best example of this fact and showcases Kannadasan's genius. This song begins with a bit from Abhirami Anthathi (Maniye Maniyin..) from 400 years ago written by the ardent devotee of Goddess Shakthi Abhirami Pattar. The last bit of the song is from 300 years ago taken from Kutraala Kuravanji (Sengaiyil Vandu..) written by Thirikooda Rasappa Kavirayar an ardent devotee of Kutraala Naathar in Kuttraalam. The rest of the lyrics have been written to fit this particular scene in this movie and ingeniously blended with these two bits from classical literature by the legendary genius Kannadasan! K V Mahadevan for his part has injected energy into these divinely crafted lyrics and brought them to life in a scintillating fashion through his magical music.  M V Subbaiah has played the role of Abhirami Pattar originally known as Subramaniya Iyer. In this particular context, using the clichéd expression, M V Subbaiah has literraly lived in the character and not just acted out the role, is surely not an exaggeration and befits the occasion!  This song is a scene depicting a real life incident in the life of Subramaniya Iyer also known as Abhirami Pattar. M V Subbaiah's portrayal of this historical character is ample proof of his supreme talent for bringing to life some of the most powerful legends that history has ever witnessed! What an amazing amalgamation of wonderful talent! End result is a magical song that is a timeless classic!

Correlation Between Intelligence and Success, Wealth and Compassion, Love and Marriage, Dreams and Reality - All in Just One Song!

Is there any correlation between intelligence and success? If at all there is a correlation, according to the lyrics of this song of Kannadasan from the movie Annai, there is an inversely proportional correlation rather than a direct relationship! The song goes on to establish a similar inverse proportion between various other aspects of life's realities that we face in our day to day living and societal experiences.  Kannadasan's phenomenal success is due to his gift and ability to present simple and subtle niceties of life on the one end and on the other end of the spectrum the harsh and painful realities of life, with equal clarity using a clever arrangement of tastefully poetic words without compromising the greatness of Tamil Poetry's Classical Grammar! While we are with this song it makes sense to discuss a bit about what success really is. Is success money? Is success good relationships? Is success good health and fitness or as Martin Seligman says is it Good Character? All the above aspects (except health) which we assume to be elements of success are basically components related to physical pleasure and our perceptions of externally oriented societal interactions. The truth is every human being wants to be happy! But none of the above can make you happy. The richest person can be unhappy! A person surrounded by friends and relations can be unhappy. The person with best fitness, health and character can be unhappy. So the most successful person is one who can be truly happy in spite of and irrespective of all these components of life! There is a saying, 'An artist is never poor'. The logic behind this saying is that the constant creative process the artist experiences is so rich that he doesn't need other things to be happy! So live a rich and creative life! Be Happy! Thereby Be Successful! You don't have to prove anything to anyone! It's your life! As Shakespeare says, Live it "As You Like It"! Enjoy this song from the movie Annai, sung by the great Chandrababu (A Deserved Separate Post about Him Will Follow Soon), written by Kannadasan and Composed by R Sudharsanam.

Tamil Movie Industry's True Gentleman, People's Artist and Popular Super Star! James Bond of South India!

Jaishankar was known as the James Bond of South India primarily because of his portrayal of the character CID Shankar in the movie of the same name and in the movie Vallavan Oruvan. In the 60s, an era that was dominated by MGR and Sivaji along with Gemini, Jaishankar managed to create a niche for himself and had his own group of ardent fans and the fan following continues to this day going by the number of positive comments on YouTube. He was loved by everyone in the Tamil Movie Industry as a person known for his kindness and compassion - A true gentleman! He was also know as People's Artist (Makkal Kalaingar). Action movies as a genre was rare in those days. Jaishankar was a pioneer in the sense that he was the first true action hero of the Tamil Movie Industry. He had a flair for comedy too as showcased by such movies as Bommalaattam, Aayiram Poi, etc. This song is from the movie Vallavan Oruvan that features Jaishankar and L Vijayalakshmi. The Plot of the movie is as follows: On an investigation regarding arson crimes, a C.I.D officer is shot dead. C.I.D Shankar(Jaishankar) is brought into the investigation of the death of his colleague. He quickly unravels the mystery behind his colleague's death and the mastermind behind the incendiary crimes. C.I.D Shankar's efforts to wipe out these miscreants and arrest them is the rest of the story. This film is loosely based on the 1964 classic French movie Banco à Bangkok pour OSS 117 and some scenes were based on 1962 James Bond Movie and Sean Connery starrer, 'From Russia with Love' and Dr. No with a few songs and romantic interludes. This film was a box office hit and earned Jaishankar a nickname Thenagathu (South Indian) James Bond. Due to the success of this movie, a sequel was made by the name CID Shankar in 1970. An interesting tidbit is that the heroine of this movie L Vijayalakshmi went on to become the Finance Director of a leading University in the USA, Virginia Polytechnic Institute in her later life! This song was written by Kannadasan and music was composed by Vedha.