RR
31st October 2005, 03:13 PM
Artist of the Month: P. Susheela
By Thiru
(Note: This is not meant to be a comphrehensive biography, but just a glimpse at the artistic brilliance. And also an effort to recollect some of their best music... Your inputs welcome, Thanks!)
It is truly fitting that we start this sequence of Artist of the Month with melody Queen ‘P. Susheela’ on the eve of her 70th birthday. Arguably the best female singer the South Indian film industry has ever produced, Susheela was the voice of the south for almost 3 decades and still continues her service to the Music Industry.
[html:5aea26be75]<img src=http://www.malayalammovie.com/images/p.susheela.jpg align=right>[/html:5aea26be75]
Susheela was born on November 13th 1935 in Vijayanagaram, AP. Having hailed from a musical family, Susheela learnt Carnatic music from a young age. She went to Maharaja Music College in Vijayanagaram and did her diploma. Her magical voice and perfect rendition got her accolades during her pre-film years. She had participated in various musical competitions at a young age. It was early in 1950 that her talent was noticed and she made her entry into the movie industry. She later joined the Sangeetha academy in Chennai under the guidance of Subramanya iyer and completed her graduation in music.
[html:5aea26be75]<img src=http://www.fetna.org/images/47.jpg align=right width=300>[/html:5aea26be75]
The year was 1950 and music director Pendala Nageswara Rao was looking for new talent and approached the AIR to refer good singers from their programmes. Susheela was one among those singers referred and she was selected soon enough. In 1952, the movie Kanna Thalli (Telugu) was being remade in Tamil as ‘Petra Thaai’, and that rendered TFM, the ‘Thaai’ of Tamil film music. Susheela’s first song was a duet with A.M. Raja ‘Edhukku Azhaithaai’. At a time when there was an abundance of singers established well like P. Leela, Jikki, Jamunarani, Bhanumathi etc, Susheela burst into the scene and outshone the rest of the group. She almost ruled the industry the next 3 decades with 60’s and 70’s as her best. The combination of TMS (T.M. Soundarrajan) and P.Susheela was probably the best in TFM industry and it started out back in 1952 in the move Chellapillai. The rest is History…
[html:5aea26be75]<img src=http://www.psusheela.org/photos/images/spb_ps2.jpg align=left width=300>[/html:5aea26be75]
She shot to fame with performances in movies like ‘kanavane kan kanda dheivam’ , ‘missiamma’ and ‘kalyana parisu’ and there was a period in Tamil film industry when it was rare to see a movie without Susheela singing. She has given numerous melodies under famous Music Directors like K.V. Mahadevan, Vishwanathan-Ramamurthy, Illayaraja, and most recently A.R. Rahman. That her name is well known and is remembered with feelings of joy for more than 50 years now goes to her credit. She continues to rule supreme in the hearts of her fans through the thousands of numbers she has rendered in a very long and enviable career.
Filmography (http://psusheela.org/tam/songlist.html)
Awards (http://psusheela.org/awards.html)
Links to P. Susheela’s Songs: Psusheela.Org (http://psusheela.org/tam/songlist.html), MIO (http://www.musicindiaonline.com/l/26/s/singer.21/), Smashits 1 (http://ww.smashits.com/music/tamil/songs/3600/susheela-i.html), Smashits 2 (http://ww.smashits.com/music/tamil/songs/3601/susheela-ii.html), Raaga (http://www.raaga.com/channels/tamil/artist/P._Susheela.html)
Credits: PSusheela.Org (http://www.psusheela.org/) and some net sources.
[tscii:5aea26be75][/tscii:5aea26be75]
By Thiru
(Note: This is not meant to be a comphrehensive biography, but just a glimpse at the artistic brilliance. And also an effort to recollect some of their best music... Your inputs welcome, Thanks!)
It is truly fitting that we start this sequence of Artist of the Month with melody Queen ‘P. Susheela’ on the eve of her 70th birthday. Arguably the best female singer the South Indian film industry has ever produced, Susheela was the voice of the south for almost 3 decades and still continues her service to the Music Industry.
[html:5aea26be75]<img src=http://www.malayalammovie.com/images/p.susheela.jpg align=right>[/html:5aea26be75]
Susheela was born on November 13th 1935 in Vijayanagaram, AP. Having hailed from a musical family, Susheela learnt Carnatic music from a young age. She went to Maharaja Music College in Vijayanagaram and did her diploma. Her magical voice and perfect rendition got her accolades during her pre-film years. She had participated in various musical competitions at a young age. It was early in 1950 that her talent was noticed and she made her entry into the movie industry. She later joined the Sangeetha academy in Chennai under the guidance of Subramanya iyer and completed her graduation in music.
[html:5aea26be75]<img src=http://www.fetna.org/images/47.jpg align=right width=300>[/html:5aea26be75]
The year was 1950 and music director Pendala Nageswara Rao was looking for new talent and approached the AIR to refer good singers from their programmes. Susheela was one among those singers referred and she was selected soon enough. In 1952, the movie Kanna Thalli (Telugu) was being remade in Tamil as ‘Petra Thaai’, and that rendered TFM, the ‘Thaai’ of Tamil film music. Susheela’s first song was a duet with A.M. Raja ‘Edhukku Azhaithaai’. At a time when there was an abundance of singers established well like P. Leela, Jikki, Jamunarani, Bhanumathi etc, Susheela burst into the scene and outshone the rest of the group. She almost ruled the industry the next 3 decades with 60’s and 70’s as her best. The combination of TMS (T.M. Soundarrajan) and P.Susheela was probably the best in TFM industry and it started out back in 1952 in the move Chellapillai. The rest is History…
[html:5aea26be75]<img src=http://www.psusheela.org/photos/images/spb_ps2.jpg align=left width=300>[/html:5aea26be75]
She shot to fame with performances in movies like ‘kanavane kan kanda dheivam’ , ‘missiamma’ and ‘kalyana parisu’ and there was a period in Tamil film industry when it was rare to see a movie without Susheela singing. She has given numerous melodies under famous Music Directors like K.V. Mahadevan, Vishwanathan-Ramamurthy, Illayaraja, and most recently A.R. Rahman. That her name is well known and is remembered with feelings of joy for more than 50 years now goes to her credit. She continues to rule supreme in the hearts of her fans through the thousands of numbers she has rendered in a very long and enviable career.
Filmography (http://psusheela.org/tam/songlist.html)
Awards (http://psusheela.org/awards.html)
Links to P. Susheela’s Songs: Psusheela.Org (http://psusheela.org/tam/songlist.html), MIO (http://www.musicindiaonline.com/l/26/s/singer.21/), Smashits 1 (http://ww.smashits.com/music/tamil/songs/3600/susheela-i.html), Smashits 2 (http://ww.smashits.com/music/tamil/songs/3601/susheela-ii.html), Raaga (http://www.raaga.com/channels/tamil/artist/P._Susheela.html)
Credits: PSusheela.Org (http://www.psusheela.org/) and some net sources.
[tscii:5aea26be75][/tscii:5aea26be75]