TR Mahalingam

[Oldposts]

TR MAHALINGAM
TR Mahalingam used to act and sing in the stage dramas popularly called special dramas. During childhood days his companion was SC Krishnan and a few other youngsters. But in those days ther was no microphone facility, and amplifiers were uncommon. Therefore singers had to sing aloud to reach the full audience. This was how the early singers like TRM,SG Kittappa, SCKrishnan, MKTB and to a large extent TMS trained their voices.That may explain why these singers are able to reach high pitch. In 1933 SG Kittappa died at an early and unexpected age of 28. There was a complete vacuum after his death. Fortunately, TRM was there to console the old timers. While SGKittappa was still alive TRM used to sing in the style of SGK, and almost tin the same manner.

DEBUT INTO CINE FIELD
When TRM was a successful singer cum actor he was dragged into the celluloid world to act and sing at the same time. At the age of 14 TRM got a chance to act in the film called Nandakumar.hat was the 3rd film of AVM taken in 1937. It was a story about Krishnabhagavan. The film was originally taken on a grand manner by some northerners in Pune(Poona?) Big settings were created to shoot the film in Marati and Hindi. AVM wanted to grab the opportunity to film it in Tamil as well.He signed a contract with the northerners. The Tamil version was shot to a length of 9,000 feet. But soon he learnt that the Hindi and Marathi films were meeting continuous failure. Therefore AVM rushed to Poona to termninate his original contract. In its place he bought outright copyright to film it in Tamil. TRM was signed up to act in the role of Krishna.He made some changes and released. The film did not run well. Nevertheless the film was praised for some wonderful songs.

But the film Sri Valli lifted him.He acted as Murugan. This film was initiated during the 2nd World War. The British made a ruling that no film should exceed the length of 11,000 feet. Somehow AVM went ahead and released it. This film ran for many days and earned the support of the masses. TRM was already a "superstar" after this film. His rate went up.

AVM took Nam Iruvar followed by Vethala Ulakam in Karaikkudi. The Bharatiyar song were kept by the Surajmahal and Sons who owned a gramaphone company in Rattan Bazar in Madras. They had bought the rights at RS600. Bu AVM bought over the copyright for RS 10,000. Baharathiyar's songs and used many of his songs in Nam Iruvar. Of course later he handed over the rights to the government to make them public domain.

Nam Iruvar was released first in Madurai in 1948. It was originally a drama. The role acted by Sahasranamam went to TRM. The others who acted in the film were BR Bantulu, TR Ramachandran, VK Ramasamy and Sarangapani. The very first scene was a Bharathy song called "Aaducome Pallu Paaduvome" which portrayed Kumari Kamala(Double acting) dancing on a gigantic drum. This first scene itself earned loud applause from the audience. It was only in March that the movie was released in Madras. Neelakandan and TR Mahalingam went to Madurai to see the film. Immediately after the film the audience identified TRM who was present there, carried him high and danced around with joy. The grand success could be attributed to the immediate post independence jubiliation as well as Bharathiyar songs. To a large extent the voice, songs and the personality of TRm contributed to the sucess of the movie. At a time when people were verym much attuned to Maya Jala movies, a film of social theme, Nam Iruvar broke record.i is saidthat TRM had also sang some of theSG Kttappa's songs in Nam Iruvar. I do not know which the songs are. Any old timer there?


Pammal Sammantha Mudaliyar's story was taken as Vedala Ulakam. For Vedala Ulakam it was TA Krishnasamy who wrote dialogue while KD Santhanam wrote the songs, with Sudarsanam as the MD. The film saw the debut of the Travangoor Sisters- lalitha and Pathmini who performed dance under the training of Udaya Shanker. This film had some Bharathiyar songs as well.Sarangapani, Rajakantham and TRM acted in this film.

After these films he acted in famous move like Gnanasundari, Laila Majnu and Idaya Geetham. Therefter he became ambitious and took his own movies. They are Mohanasundaram, Chinnadurai,Macharegai, Theruppadagan an Vilyattu Bommai. The last two never got released.He then lost all his wealth and fame. It was Kannadasan's malayitta Mangai which restored his lost glory.

Interesting background to Malayitta Mangai coming soon.
Regards.