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.
Showing posts with label MGR. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MGR. Show all posts
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!
One Composer, Four Languages, 40 Years, 600 Movies! Endless Flow of Everlasting and Sublimely Divine Music!
K V Mahadevan was born in a small town in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu in the year 1918. He made his entry into the world of Films at the age of 24 with the movie Manonmani. A simple background and a humble beginning was not a constraint for this gifted composer for he went on to achieve a truly Legendary status as a Music Composer with a cult following during his life time. He was known for his Classical Music based compositions ingeniously crafted to reach the common man. He teamed up with the great director A P Nagarajan and created some of the best songs Tamil Cinema has ever seen. Apart from having composed music for several mythological blockbusters such as Thiruvilayadal, Kandan Karunai, Thiruvarutchelvar and Saraswathi Sabatham he was equally successful in creating music for social dramas that were blockbusters such as Thillaanaa Mohanambal, Vietnam Veedu, Vasantha Maaligai, well the list is endless as mentioned in the title of this post. He won two National Awards, one for Kandan Karunai and the other for the Super Hit Telugu Film Sankarabharanm. He made SPB sing for MGR for the first time in Adimai Penn. A single post is not enough to pay tribute to the Legendary Music Composer K V Mahadevan. This song from Kandan Karunai is a classic example of his ability to work with varied singers with original voices and his gift in bringing out the best in them. Singer and actor S Varalakshmi. Lyrics by the Legend of Tamil Stage and Drama Sankaradas Swamigal.
Evergreen Romantic Song! Super Hit Tamil Movie Inspired by the Super Hit Hollywood Romantic Comedy Come September!
This Evergreen romantic song is from the movie Anbe Vaa starring MGR, Saroja Devi, Nagesh, Manorama, TR Ramachandran (the other famous Ramachandran of the Tamil movie industry) and others. The movie was produced by the leading production house AVM and was directed by the famous director A C Thirulokchander. The music for the movie had been composed by MSV and the lyrics had been written by MGR's favorite lyricist Vaali. This song has been sung by TMS and P Susheela. The plot of the movie is broadly based on the famous English Movie Come September (1961), which features Rock Hudson and Gina Lollobrigida. JB (MG Ramachandran) is a wealthy industrialist who decides to take a break at his Simla home away from business concerns. He lands there to find that his caretaker has rented his house to Geeta's (Saroja Devi)'s family, taken the rent and left for Kasi with his wife. His daughter Manorama and brother in law Nagesh are left in charge of the house and the guests. JB decides not to reveal his identity and pretends to be a wealthy man, Balu, willing to pay rent for a place in the house. Nagesh takes the money and gives him JB's room. He keeps playing practical jokes on Geetha hand they keep clashing. She brings her friends who are on a trip to Simla and tries to drive JB from the house. After he gets the friends on his side, she gets angry and tells her parents to get her married to Asokan, a relative and an air force pilot. By the time Balu confesses his love for her, Geetha's engagement is already fixed. Asokan turns out to be a school friend of JB's but he also agrees to play along with the trick. Asokan discovers that Balu and Sarojadevi are actually in love with each other and steps aside. When Balu is finally revealed as JB, Geetha thinks that the wedding plans are yet another of Balu's practical jokes and tries to run away. He finds her and all misunderstandings are cleared. The two get married. (Courtesy Wikipedia). This romantic song is one of the most popular songs in the history of the Tamil Movie Industry. 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.
NSK's Partner, MGR's Mentor, Sivaji's Senior! Singer, Actor and Super Star of the 1940s and 50s - KRR
Like many of his contemporaries, K R Ramasamy started his life in theatre, joining the Madurai Original Boys Company when he was 11, which had also launched several other actors and Superstars such as P. U. Chinnappa, M. G. Ramachandran and Kali N. Rathinam. It was here that, KRR met Kalaivanar N. S. Krishnan and formed a bond that would last several years. He had travelled to Ceylon with the troupe and played several roles. One memorable one was the title role in the play Menaka — yes, he was the heroine!
He was playing Hemanatha Bhagavathar in Siva Leela in Kumbakonam when he heard that his father was dying. He would attend to his father the whole day and turn up for his role at night. So conscious was he of his professional responsibility that even on the day his father died, he completed the rituals and turned up for the night’s performance of Ramayana, where he was playing Hanuman.
KRR’s first film was Gumasthavin Penn (The Clerk’s Daughter) in 1941, in which he played the role of a troublesome film director called V. P. Var to great acclaim. It was during this time that he became a follower of Periyar and Anna. Anna wrote a review, praising KRR’s performance. The film’s assistant directors, Krishnan and Panju, promised KRR that they would cast him as hero when they directed a film. And in 1944, when they made Poompavai, they cast KRR as Thirugnanasambandar, a role he played to perfection, singing the songs himself.
Around this time, NSK handed over Yedhartham Ponnuswamy’s drama troupe to KRR to run. With the subsequent arrest of NSK, KRR fell out with T.A. Mathuram and S.V. Sahasranamam, left the troupe, and started his own Krishnan Nataka Sabha. He staged Anna’s play Velaikaari in 1946, which ran one full year at Ramanathan Chettiar Hall in Thanjavur. It was made into a film with KRR playing the lead in 1949. It had a court scene where the hero rids society of irrational beliefs and practices, repeated later by Karunanidhi in Parasakthi, Sivaji Ganesan’s launch pad.
KRR continued to act in plays even after he became a popular screen hero. A close follower and confidante of Anna, his plays were great fund-raisers for the fledgling DMK party.
He staged the play Or Iravu, written by Anna, and acted in the film version. He was with Anna and his party right from its inception in 1949. MGR has said that it was KRR who brought him to Periyar and Anna. Sivaji, too, considered KRR, the senior actor and role model when he too entered movies from theatre. In fact, Sivaji had played the female lead when KRR acted as Manohara in a play before entering movies! Read more about him from the original source here.
This song is from the movie Sathaaram starring KRR, Banumathi, Gemini and others. Music by G Ramanathan, Lyrics by Thanjai Ramaiah Dass and sung by KRR himself.
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