In the late 1930s andf 1940s, songs were prominent in Tamil movies. There was no playback as only expert singers were lead actors. Hence in any movie, songs were predominently rendered by the lead player. eg if M K Thiagaraja Bagavathar was hero, most songs were sung by him with the exception of one or two for the commedy pair of NSK & T A Madhuram or the heroine. Similar was the case for any M S Subbalakshmi movie.
Then playback started in 1950s. In each movie title, you will see a number of playback singers. Gantasala, A M Raja, P B Srinivas, TMS, Seerkazhi Govindarajan, C S Jayaraman, Trichy Loganathan were the lead male singers. Similarly Jikki, P Susheela, T V Ratnam, P Leela, A P Komala, S Janaki, MLV, Sulamangalam sisters were lead female singers. Each movie will figure atleast 4-5 of them.
The trend changed in 1960s when TMS and P Susheela became the dominant players. There would be one or two songs chipped in by PBS,Serkazhi, LRE and Janaki. But most songs came in their monopoly.
There is however a unique distinction for TMS and PS. In the movie ஆலயம் there were just 2 songs and both were rendered by TMS. Likewise, in the movie கற்பகம் there were 4 songs and all of them were solely rendered by Susheela. Is there any other movie like these?
N RAMANATHAN
