The Great MS

No, I am not talking about Microsoft here. Its been a year since MSSubhalakshmi passed away. Tilo remembers this diva in her post.

Madurai Shanmugavadivu SubhaLakshmi, often called MSSubhalakshmi, was born as a
daughter of Shanmugavadivu, a "dasi" in Madurai. Shanmugavadivu was a well-known Veena artist. MS made no bones about her origins, never felt the need to lie about the profession of her mother nor did she feel ashamed. Her mother was the one that indoctrinated her into the world of music. Its very progressive of a lady to have her mother's initial and that was MS, who always did things that were not considered "normal" by most people.

She along with her brother Sakthivelu were always interested in music. She entered the films, mostly because of her singing prowess. Those days, males used to dress up like females as not many females would come forward to act. She sang Carnatic music in the simplest of forms. She broke the trend or dispelled the myth that Carnatic music was for brahmins. She captured the audience with her mellifluous voice. Remember, she did all this when big artists those days never used to patronise people who were from the so-called lower caste. Her foray into films was a huge success. Even now people remember the song "katriniley varum geetham" from Bhakta Meera. She not only had the tamil audiences spell bound, but also impressed the N.Indians with her extremely gifted talent. No other carnatic music singer has ever been as popular as MS has been with the entire music circle of the country and she also represented India in various world fora and rendered songs. The most famous one was when she sung a sanskrit song on world peace "Maitreem Bhajatha" in the UN
when U.Thant was its head.

Not only music patrons, even politicians held her in high-esteem. Lot of people say that she had an affair with Nehru. She never agreed or denied such talks and continued to do what she does best, sing. She was the second wife of late Dr.Sadasivam. If one listens to her song or even a simple slogam (like the Suprabatham),its very diffiult not to get mesmerised by the voice that makes music sound very simple. She has always been a charitable person. What differentiates her class from the likes of lesser mortals like the Lata Mangeshkars is that she withdrew herself from the music scenario or the December season (considered to be the music season where musicians display their talent & give concerts) & restricted her performances to charity concerts & invocation ceremonies. She wanted the youngsters to be given a chance & didnt want to hog the limelight till her voice died. She didnt have kids but adopted Radha Viswanathan, who sings too but only alongside MS. She entirely stopped singing after her husband's demise and confined herself to the four walls of her house. She is not only a great artist but also a great person, an inspiration to many people like me.