N.C.VASANTHAKOKILAM VINTAGE CLASSICS OF 1940-1952 ERA
My father K Sunder Ram died in 1966, when I was just five.I was in my class in Palace High School,Tripunithura, when the messenger of death came.His death,coupled with my mother's aversion to relationships,snapped our ties with his family.But my mother V Saradambal,who was born on the year Lenin died,used to say till her death that my father was related to Vasanthakokilam.
The question haunted me always:How is Vasanthakokilam related?In 1996,from Thiruvananthapuram where I was working,I took a taxi to Vellangallur,a village four kilometres away from Irinjalakuda.I didnt have any contact number or address.I asked people for Kunnathu Madom.K in my father's name stands for it.People said it is close to the temple.The Sreekrishna temple,I suppose.There were two people in the old house in an acre.An elderly lady came out.I explained,I have just come to see my father's house.She said: you have come like the flowering of Athi(the laurel tree or the Banyan Fig).Leaf of Athi is good for diabetes,which I have now!
I had already given them a surprise.I wanted to give more.So I asked:what happened to the salagramam?
They,the woman and her son were shocked.Salagramam is a holy stone,a spherical black coloured fossil,found in the sacred river,Gandaki.It is an iconic representation of Vishnu.It had got engraved in my mind when a close relative of my father,Parasuram, mentioned it after the funeral.You can keep a salagramam only if there is someone to do the daily pujas.Yes,her son was doing it.
I didn't ask them about Vasanthakokilam.But now I have found that she was my athai.Father's sister.My father's father,my grand father was K Subramanian.His brother was Chandrasekhara Iyer.N C Vasanthakokilam,legendary Carnatic singer and actress, was his daughter(Athi,I feel,has something to do with Athai!).
Nagapattinam Chandrasekhara Vasanthakokilam (1919-1951) was born in Vellangallur,Irinjalakuda, as Kamakshi.The family shifted from there to Nagapattinam.Her father put her under the tutelage of Nagapattinam 'Jalra' Gopala Iyer,an accompanist in harikatha performances.The family moved to Madras in 1936 encouraged by K Subrahmanyam,film director.Her name was changed to Vasanthakokilam.She won the first prize in vocal music at the Madras Music Academy annual conference,1938.It was presided over by Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar and opened by Yuvaraja of Mysore,Narasimharaja Wodeyar.A star was born.
K(Krishnaswamy)Subrahmanyam(1904-1971),Father of Padma Subramanyam,the Bharathanatyam exponent was a renowned film director in the 30s and 40s. It was in his Pavalakkodi M K Thyagaraja Bhagavathar debuted.Though the progressive Sevasadanam made him popular,his best known film was Thyagabhoomi.M S Subbulakshmi was the heroine in Sevasadanam;Papanasam Sivan wrote lyrics and composed music.Subrahmanyam also produced and directed the first malayalam mythological movie and third talkie,Prahlada(1941).Kumari Lakshmi,daughter of Chidambaram,private secretary to Dewan Sir CP Ramasawamy Iyer was Prahlada;T R Mahalingam,the child Prahlada.The 19 songs in the film,written by Kilimanur Madhavan Nair were set to tune by V S Parthasarathy Iyengar.Actress and singer S D Subbulakshmi was Subrahmanyam's second wife;Padma is from his first wife.Meenatchi.
Vasanthakokilam shared with MS Subbulakshmi a melodious , high pitched voice with perfect intonation,sruti and emotion .Her rendering of higher octaves were remarkable with effortless ease to bring off brigas.
In a male dominated world,C Saraswathi Bai,a Madhva brahmin, was the first woman to give a concert in 1908. First lady among Bhagavatars.
Sir C Sankaran Nair,the first Malayali Congress(AICC) President, was an ardent champion of her.He organized her first performance at Egmore.Following her came Vai Mu Kothainayaki Ammal and DK Pattammal.To this stage,Vasanthakokilam came without a godfather.The Indian Fine Arts Society gave her opportunities.She became a regular at festivals of Tamil Isai Sangam and Nellai Sangeetha Sabha in Tirunelveli.She sang at Tyagaraja aaraadhana during 1942-1951.After Independence,she popularised mystic poet Yogi Suddhananda Bharati's songs.She found and taught Andal,the playback singer,music.She was given the title,Madhuragita Vani by Tiger Varadachari in Kumbakonam.She was a worthy member of the triad of Carnatic music,MS,DK and NC.S (Sundaram)Rajam,actor of yester years,who has acted in Sachi's Radhakalyanam had heard NC singing without a mike.He remembers:"It was a voice with a rich and pleasant timbre,very pliant and malleable.Although she was thin and frail,her voice conbined melody with tensile strength.Her voice rang with vibrancy,a reenkara,as she crossed the tara shadja and dwelt on the rishaba.It is my impression that MS Subbulakshmi took NC's music as a model.In the Simhendramadhyamam kriti Unnai allal vere Gati,NC sang a number of sanchara-s above the panchamam and in the tarashayi.Listeners were astounded by her rendition of this Kotiswara Iyer composition."
She would often take up niraval on the phrase,kai mei palan arul daivamey.The song was a great hit.Sulochana Pattabhiraman,singer and musicologist had heard NC rendering the Bhairavi varnam of Adiyappaiyer,set to aditala at a chamber concert.She remembers:"Among the rasika-s was the inimitable Alathur Venkatesa Iyer.Even he,the uncompromising great gave a nod of approval after the rendering of the Viribhoji varnam.On another occasion,when she presented a concert at the Srinivasa Gandhi Nilayam,her delineation of Kambhoji in the three octaves held the audience captive.Sarasa dala nayana in Khamas,Mayetwamyahi in Tarangini ,sundari ninnidarilo in Begada and the piece de resistance,Thanthai Thai Irunthal in Shanmukhapriya were some of the sparkling gems in her vast reportaire".
By the time she entered the film world in 1940,her marriage had failed.He never encouraged her career.She acted as Princess Chhaya in the movie,Chandragupta Chanakya,directed by lawyer turned film maker,C K Sathasivan,known as Sachi.
He hailed from a family of noted lawyers in Coimbatore and was a cousin of novelist,R K Narayan. He had a brief training in film making in London.He became associate director of noted American Tamil film maker,Ellis R Duncan in his historic maiden movie,Sathi Leelavati(1936).He entered Vasanthakokilam's life,became patron,protector and much more.A Sadasivam to M S Subbalakshmi;another to Vasanthakokilam.He promoted her as a film singer and actress.She looked stunning as Chhaya.The make up came from London.
She acted in six more movies:Venuganam(1940),Gangavathar((1942),Haridas(1944),Valmiki(1946),Kundalakesi(1946) and Krishna Vijayam(1950).Papanasam Sivan scored music for Valmiki.He knew malayalam well.
Papanasam Sivan,Incidentally,has a Kerala connection.He was born as Ramaiah in the Polagam village in Thanjavur.After his father's death,in absolute penury,he and his mother shifted to Thiruvananthapuram,the attraction being the free food of Padmanabha Swamy temple.He studied in Sanskrit college,learnt Bhajans from Karamana Neelakanta Sivan and lived in a room in Karamana agraharam.After passing the grammar examination,he went back to Thanjavur and became a regular at Papanasam Siva temple,with bhasma smeared all over:People began to call him Papanasam Sivan.Later he flourished in Mylapore.
Haridas,the Vasanthakokilam movie,is the only movie to cross two deepavalis in Indian theatres. Its music director G Ramanthan took Carnatic music to the masses through film songs.He dominated Tamil music in the '50s. All the music lovers would have listened to Vasanthakokilam rendering Yen Pallikondeerayya,written by Arunachalakavi.This song,rendered by Krishnakumar,becomes the soul of the malayalam movie,Swam,directed by my friend,Shaji N Karun.Her other famous songs are:Thanthai Thai Irundhal,Nitirayil Vandhu Nenjil,Aananda Nadanam aadinal,Aasai Konden Vande,Thithikkum Senthamizhal,Andha Nal Ini Varumo,Varuvano Vanakuyile,Saarasa Dala Nayana...
Gangavathar,was made by Sundaram Sound Studios,Adayar.MGR bought it and made it Satyam Studios.Her song,Kalaivani Arul Purivaai in Gangavathar, in raga Dhanyasi,became very famous.I have seen pundits saying this:she was not photogenic;she didn't have glamour or charisma MS wielded and,with MS and DK Pattammal reigning supreme and with ML Vasanthakumari becoming a cynosure,NCV was beginning to be outshone.I want to say,all of it was in the womb of the future.When she died,she was only 32.She could have done more.But,the fact remains that Sachi who took her under his wings, had lost his hold in Kollywood.Remember,he directed only one movie of her.To be fair to him,he was with her till her end.
It was a struggle for Vasanthakokilam.She was not accepted by the orthodoxism in her family. She was an outcaste for two reasons:she ditched her husband for a partnership with another;secondly,she acted in films.She was never discussed with adulation in family circles.So, for me,this is a reinvention and a revisit.Vasanthakokilam died of tuberculosis;my father too surrendered to it.Perhaps,it is in the DNA.
R eference:
Flight of A Nightingale by Sriram Venkat Krishnan(The Hindu,december 5,2008).
Blast From the Past:Gangavathar 1942 by Randor Guy.
Sruti magazine,August 15,2007.