Here is a tribute from TFM Page to the legend who passed away on Dec 11,
2004. Too numerous are her achievements and too profound is her impact that
in this short span of space we can only briefly summarize her TFM
contributions.
engum niraindhaiye indru engru maraindhaayo
'MS' in her youth acted & sang in four popular Tamil films. The songs are arguably one of the earliest instances of popularising classical music through the films.
- Seva Sadanam (1938): directed by K. Subramanyam, the film starred MS
along with F.G. Natesa Iyer, Mrs. Jayalakshmi, Varadachar and Rampiary.
She acted as a poor girl married to a rich old man.
It was a ground-breaking film on the relevant issues of women's emancipation.
Based on Premchand's Urdu novel, the work was translated into Hindi for another film - the author was not pleased with it. The Tamil version had his approval - Subramanyam had the courage to hold good to the novel's plot concerning prostitution and related matters. To appease the die-hards, Subramanyam presented the film as a musical. The film marked Subbulakshmi's debut.
"Shyama Sundara Madana Mohana" was one of the songs (MS has said that it was taught by Pandit Vyas) that became very popular.
- Sakunthalai (1940) : MS played a lead and glamarous role teaming up with G N Balasubramanian, the most attractive vidwan of that time.
- Savithri (1941): MS played the male role of Narada in this film
with north Indian star Shantha Apte as Savitri. This too did extremely well at the box office and the income from this movie was largely used to start the "Kalki" magazine.
MS sang a Sanskrit bhajan, Bruhi Mukundeti, by the saint, Sadasiva Brahmendra, which was a rage in South India for a long time after.
- Meera (1945): Her title role of the Rajasthani saint-poetess Meera
created a sensation and mesmerized everyone. 'Giridhara gopala', 'kaatrinile varum geetham' (lyrics by Kalki) became all-time hits. SV Venkatraman was the composer.
It was the Hindi version of the film Baktha Meera that introduced her to people in North India. Referring to the film, Sarojini Naidu described MS as the "one great woman artiste in India who has moved the hearts of millions with her songs". The film revealed yet another aspect of her genius - she was a superb singer of Hindi bhajans.
This film also marked the end of her film career and MS gave up films once for all and turned wholly to concert music.
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