M.K. Thyagaraja Bagavadhar

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I would like to thank all who took the trouble to selflessly enlighten us and share with us so much info on MKTB. Thanks, good people once again esp. Maniskeran and Sathyakeerthi.Regards.

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Manisekaran: I am yet another passive reader of this thread. I dont know enough of MKTB to say anything in this thread. I enjoyed every posting of yours.

One question again; GN Balasubramaniam, the famous Carnatic singer acted in Sakuntala with MS. Did he act in any other movie apart from this ?

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A summary of Manisegaran's posts and the list of songs can be accessed at

http://coldfusion.tfmpage.com/view_artists.cfm?key=mkt

Thanks Satish for compiling the posts.

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Manisekaran

My father is a hard core fan of MKTB. He used to sing all the songs you mentioned, in the night time before sleep. He has told me some of the incidents which happened in MKTB life time which you have mentioned mainly about "After jail" and the last day of his life.

My father has seen lots of times the movie "Haridass". In Madurai City cinema, Haridas was released for the second time. Even for the seond relase it has done a record of running a year. Those days they have given free "Kangi" to celeberate the last day. Chinthamani talkies you mentioned is the one in Madurai or some other place?

I really got "kaNNIr" when I was reading the last part of your orticle. Mainly because I remembered my father, who is 1000s of miles away and he will be very happy to read this.

Thanks

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Rajaraman:

The above tfmpage link that you have given for the
MKTB article is not working. Can you please correct it? Thanks.

Folks:

The CD, Golden Greats of MKTB that Satish
mentioned earlier, is really a wonderful collection.
It has 22 marvellous songs: the best by MKTB.
I bought it for Sing $15 in a store. The owner
was sooo glad to get rid of it because it had been
lying there for two years untouched by anyone.

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RV
GN Balasubramaniam did act in one other movie. But I am not able to recollect at the moment. I may post the info once I am certain of the details.

Syam,
It is the Madurai Chintamani talkies.

Sathya Keerthi:

I am trying to post the complete list of MKTB songs. Please give me some time.

Thanks.
Manisekaran

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Manisekaran:
What a wonderful contribution! Thank you. I've been listening to my MKT collection (only 90 minutes or so) with renewed interest thanks to this topic, and am going to hunt down original videotapes of some of his classics you've mentioned. Thanks again.

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Hi,
I am Vaidyanathan, and I am a new comer to this list. In fact, I just stumbled upon this today. I read these postings on MKT with great interest. I am an ardent MKT fan, and I have a good collection of MKT songs. The ones that I have (and that have not been mentioned here) are:
Vaazhvil Or thirunaaL indre (Haridas; opening scene)
Thottadharkkellaam thappizhuthaal (Haridas; this is where he tries to reason things out with N. C. Vasanthakokilam)
EnnaaLum indha inbam (Haridas; with T. R. Rajakumari)
Maamuni Naadha (Haridas; this is when he loses his legs; fantastic song)
Nijama idhu nijama (last song in Haridas)
I also have a bunch of very short songs from Sivakavi.
Yaanai thantham (Amarakavi)
Chedi maraivile (Amarakavi)
Yen Jeeva PriyE Shyamala (Shyamala)
Ingum angum engum inbamE (Rajamukthi)
Manam kanindhe jeevadhaanam (Sivakavi)
AaraNangE nenjam nee ariyai (Shyamala)
MAnE nAn unnaiyadaiya (Ambikapathi; with M. R. Santhanalakshmi)
Annaiyum thandhaiyum unnari deivam (Puthu VAzhvu); this is different from the one from Haridas)
Annai thandhai anbariyaadha (Amarakavi)
Unnaiye anbudanE vAri (Ashok Kumar; the heroine here was T. P. Kumudhini)
Ellam InbamE (Amarakavi)
SEvai seithAlE (Amarakavi)
Karaikku vadakkirukkum
Ittadi NOga
Enna seidhai (The last three songs are from Ambikapathi; Serukalathur Sama is the "co-singer"; he played the part of Kambar in the movie.)
There is also a song in Ambikapathi sung by Mysore Honnappa Bhagavathar who makes a brief appearance as the court musician just before Ambikapathi and Amaravathi are busted!! It is "Unnai allAl gathi yAr" in the raga Kalyani.
There are four other patriotic songs sung by MKT.
Gandhiyai pol
KaimAru seivadhuNdO
Sudhanthira Kodi
PArukkuLLE nalla nAdu

By the way, SivaperumAn krupai is from the film Naveena SArangatharA and not SArangatharA. The latter is a Sivaji Ganesan starrer (of the vasanthamullai fame).
If anyone has access to video/audio cassettes of the following MKT films, please let me know: PavaLakkodi, RAja mukthi, ShyamaLa, Naveena SArangatharA, Sathyaseelan
I also have articles by Randor Guy that were published in The Indian Express about ten years ago. He actually wrote a series of articles on the Lakshmikantham Murder Case under the title "Vintage Crime-The case that rocked Madras." I could type it in and post it here, but could somebody advise me about copyright and related things? I also have copies of Guy's articles on Haridas, Chinthamani and Ambikapathy.
Another thing that I have heard about MKT is that he funded the Vadapalani temple tank (KuLam).
NSK died in 1957, and the story is told of how MKT came to pay his last respects to his friend and found it impossible to get through for no one in the crowd recognized him!!!
MKT actually died in 1959. To quote from Randor Guy's article:"He passed away in pain, poverty and obscurity in 1959....His end was a sad epitaph to a success story of the incredible kind, the likes of which are most unlikely to be seen again...."

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Yesterday I bought, from a Singapore Store, three
more audio cassettes containing songs of MKTB:

1. Ringing Voice of MKTB
It has: sivaperumaan, sollu paappaa, saraasarangaL,
un azhagai, aRavaa varNam, chandhirasooriyar,
uNmai ondrE pEsum, raadhE unakku, aRpudha leelaigaLai,
jnaana sabaiyil, thillaiyin naayaganE, chidhambara naadhaa,
aanandha nadana, dhyaanamE

2. Sweet Songs That Stay For Ever - MKTB
This has: bajanai seyvOm, vaNdaaR kuzhal, unnaiyE,
dhyaanamE, ellaam inbamE, annai thandhai anbaRiyaadha,
soppana vaazhvil, krishnaa mukundhaa, manmadha leelaiyai,
sathvaguNabOdhan, dheena karuNaakaranE, annaiyum
thandhaiyum munneRi, uNmai ondrE pEsum, suttum
vizhi chudar, paadupattu, sEvai seydhaalE, oru pizhaiyum

3. Pazhamai Endrum Inimai Vol. 9 (The Golden Voice of MKTB)
It seems this is also available as CD for a very
cheap price: Sing $6.
This has: jnaanakkaN ondru, naattiyak kalaiyE,
suttum vizhi chudar, yaanai thandham, sedi maRivinilE,
thOrumai, en jeeva priya shyaamaLaa, ingum angum,
manam kanindhEn, Gandhiyaip pOl, aara nangai,
chidambara naadhaa, saraasarangaL, sollu paappaa,
raadhE unakku, aRpudha leelaigaL, thillaiyil naayaganE,
aanadha nadana, vasantha rudhu, oru naaL oru,
maRaivaay pudhaiththa

Just for completion, here are the songs in the CD,
The Golden Greats of MKTB:
soppana vaazhvil, krishna mukundhaa, manmadha leelaiyai,
rajan maharajan, sathvaguNa bOdhan, dheena karuNaakaranE,
unnaikaNdu mayangaatha, amba manam kanindhu,
maRivaai pudhaiththa, jnaanakkaN ondru, naattiya kalaiyE,
oru naaL oru pozhudhu, pavazha maal, boomiyil maanida
jenmam, manamE nee, dhyaanamE, vaLLalai paadum vaayaal,
vadhanamE chandrabimbamO, vasantha rudhu,
annaiyum thandhaiyum thaanE, ennudal thanil, maanidan jenmam

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I am also an MKTB fan. I have not spent too much time listening to MKTB's immortal songs, whose singing gets me the cherished memories of my childhood in Tamilnad.