From: spandian@nyx.cs.du.edu (Vedanta Desikan)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil
Subject: K.P.Sundaraambaal's Tamil movies
Date: 11 Dec 1992 16:38:53 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

  "pazham neeyappaa, NYaanap pazham neeyappaa
   thamizh NYaanap pazham nee appaa"
                               [ 'ThiruviLaiyaadal' ]

  Tamils have great respect and regard for the
Tamil poet Auvaiyaar. When we say Auvaiyaar,
we cannot help associating the wise Tamil poet
with the Tamil singer K.P.Sundaraambaal who
played Auvaiyaar in many Tamil movies in 60s
and 70s. I think the first movie she acted as
Auvaiyaar is the B/W movie "auvaiyaar" which
came in the 60s. It was a long movie, its length
is more than three hours, I heard. The only
movie where I saw her as Auvaiyaar is the
movie 'ThiruviLaiyaadal' directed by N.P.Nagarajan
who played Nakkeerar in the same movie. ( He also
directed 'Thillaanaa Mohanaambaal' a famous story
with Shivaji, Padmini and Nagesh in the cast. )
K.P.Sundaraambaal has a bronze voice and other
singers like S.Janaki or P.Suseela cannot sing
in her voice. This is also the case with Dr.Seerkazhi
Govindarajan who has a bronze voice. ('vinaayakanE,
vevvinaiyai vEraRukka vallaan..', 'venRiduvEn, naan
venRiduvEn', 'kaadhalikka nEramillai'..etc.) 
Seerkazhi has acted as the Tamil sage 'akaththiyar'
in the movie 'akaththiyar'. It is a long movie also,
which was made in 70s. Seerkazhi's son Siva.
Chidambaram also has a good voice like Seerkazhi
and he has done some songs in movies like 'miruthanga
chakravarththi'. He, who is a doctor in real life,
is acting now as a doctor for a T.V.Serial in Madras,
Sujatha's 'jeenO'- a science fiction novel involving
a robot dog 'jeenO' with artificial intelligence.
( I was told that it is a copy of Isaac Asimov's
'foundation' ).

    Other actors who did 'akaththiyar' in dramas 
include 'avvai' Sanmugam. The male actor Sanmugam
played 'avvaiyaar' so well that he was named
'avvai' Sanmugam. Many Tamil actors in 70s were
from the Tamil dramas, like M.G.R., Shivaji,
( who acted in D.M.K. dramas ), M.R.Radha ( His
'raththak kaNNeer; is popular ), Major Sundararajan
( He acted in K.Balachandar dramas, his drama
'NYaana oLi' is popular ), Asokan, S.S.Rajendiran,
 Manorama etc. The old movies had this drama
tradition and many of these movies had long
dialogues with a lot of 'ethukai' and 'mOnai'.
Shivaji's old movies 'Parasakthi', 'manOhara'
have this drama influence. This trend changed
slowly and after the arrival of K.Balachandar, 
the Tamil movies took a new direction. Balachandar's
'ethir neechchal' was shot in just one house.
Balachandar became very commercial in his later
movies. The 'manOhara' drama trend is now done in
a large scale with 'Vittalaacharya sets' by T.Rajendar.
It is hard to distinguis Visu's movies from his
dramas as they both look very similar. I'll write on
these later. K.P.Sundaraambaal's movies have this
drama tradition..

    K.P.Sundaraambaal or her songs may not be popular
in these days of many advancements in Tamil music,
but she lives in the memory of Tamil public as the
wise Tamil poet 'avvaiyaar'.

- Vedanta Desikan.

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Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil,soc.culture.indian