Saravanan Natarajan writes:
The Celestial Nightingale
Am reproducing my article as a 3-part series to coincide with the birth anniversary of the celestial nightingale.
Part 1
* Getting down tiredly from the train from Madras, she found an unoccupied seat on the swarming platform in Trichy Junction. Placing her bags on it, she sat in an unobtrusive corner, waiting for the train that would take her to Kodumudi. She woke with a start from an unintended doze, as she noticed a crowd gathered around her, and no less a person than M.K.Thyagaraja Bhagavathar, then at the pinnacle of his glory, standing respectfully beside the bench. MKT enquired solicitously about her well-being and expressed his reproach at her not informing him of her transit in Trichy, for he would have gladly taken her to his house and dropped her back in the station in time for the Kodumudi train. So much was his reverence for her that he continued standing until she compelled him to sit beside her. And there they sat on a crowded platform, the peerless singing star and the woman who he was so much in awe of, chatting happily till the train arrived.
* The venue this time was the drought-stricken Rishivandiyam, where she was called to sing invoking the Rain God. “I will sing till the rains descend” she declared, and sing she did for a full four and half hours, till the skies opened up and poured in copious benevolence. The singer, now wholly drenched, continued to sing to her favourite Lord Murugan, and the ecstatic crowd threw up their hands in heartfelt gratitude...
* A furious S.S. Vasan had ordered the termination of services of Program Officer Varadachari and ‘Mess’ Goplalakrishnan, both trusted employees of Gemini Studious, when it became known that due to an inadvertent communication error, she had been refused food after office hours. Hearing this as she was getting ready for her shot, she hastened to Vasan’s room, even in her half made-up state, and demanded that the termination order be revoked forthwith, and Vasan had no option but to comply!
* ‘I will not leave Madras without meeting her!’ declared Lata Mangeshkar who had come to Gemini studios for a recording. And Vasan had her brought down from Kodumudi. They met at Vasan’s residence. Lata prostrated at her feet and sought her blessings and wanted a picture to be taken of them, and the photo clicked by Vaithi of Carnatic Studio remains to this day among Lata’s prized possessions..
·* “How can you fall at a woman’s feet?’’ queried scandalized friends to the great Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer, when they heard that he was asked to do so in the course of the shooting of a movie in which he acting, even if the scene warranted such an action. “She stands in front of me as a divine incarnate!” was the blissful, unrepentant reply from the celebrated vocalist.
* Veteran sound engineer, ‘ஒலிப்பதிவு மேதை' Rangasami had this to confess, “When madam soars in mind-blowing high scales, we do not have equipment sophisticated enough to do adequate justice. We can only do whatever is possible for us!”
You would have doubtless realized by now that the great personage referred to above is none other than K.B. Sundramabal, whose life was filled with heart-warming vignettes like these, all highlighting the admiration and respect she commanded from front-ranking artistes, even while revealing her humility, simplicity and humane qualities.
* * * * *
Kodumudi Balambal Sundramabal was born on 11 October 1908 in Paandi Kodumudi, a hamlet near Karur. Her mother Balambal struggled to make both ends meet. Even as a child, KBS was immensely talented, and though not formally trained, could render even intricate classical compositions, traversing the higher octaves with nonchalant ease.I have read two different versions of her entry on the stage. One report has it that the child KBS was singing and begging for alms in a running train, when her pristine performance caught the attention of F.G.Natesa Iyer, an Railway Official and an amateur stage actor (he later acted as the aged husband of M.S.Subbalakshmi in Sevasadhanam). Highly impressed with the prodigious talent of the child, Natesa Iyer is said to have enrolled KBS in a drama troupe.
Another account of KBS’ early years relates that Balambal, along with her daughter moved to nearby Karur in search of livelihood. There the Deputy Superintendent of Police, R.S.Krishnaswami Iyer, a great patron of arts, was drawn by the child’s singing. He realized that the child would go places if properly trained, and took her to P.S.Velu Nair, who was a renowned dramatist. Velu Nair took KBS under his fold and KBS made her stage debut appearing as the 7th child in Nallathangaal.
Thus KBS grew up learning acting and singing. And her god-given gifts were honed to perfection under formal training and rigorous practice. As she grew up, she became a much sought-after stage artiste, and people thronged to watch her performing Rajapart and Sthreepart with equal felicity in famed plays like ‘Sri Valli’, ‘Harichandra’, ‘Pavalakkodi’… It was while she was performing in Sri Lanka in 1926 that she was introduced to S.G.Kittappa, and her life took a different turn from the momentous moment.
Shencottah Gangadhara Kittappa (1906-1933) was the uncrowned king of the Tamil stage. He came under the tutelage of the revered dramatist Shakaradas Swamigal, and even as a 5-year-old lad displayed astonishing artistry. As a young man, his startling good looks and wondrous voice made him the darling of the adoring masses. To hear him render ‘காயாத கானகத்தே’ and 'கோடயிலே இளைப்பாறிக்கொள்ளும்’ was a sublime experience, it was said. And to watch him don several roles with alacrity in Dasavatharam, including that of Vishnu in the garb of Mohini singing ‘தேவாசக்குலத்தோரே’ was mystical, magical…
Thus they met in distant Ceylon, the two treasures of Tamil theater, and it was love at first sight. SGK was already married- his marriage to Kittammal in 1924 had been attended by the cream of the Chennai society. This fact could not alter much in the altar of love; SGK and KBS became an inseparable pair and married in 1927.They began performing together, and thus began a glorious, though short-live era of Tamil theater. They toured Malaysia, Singapore, Burma where rapturous crowds showered gold and silver on the cult icons.
They returned to India to a tumultuous welcome. And in the months that followed they performed to packed houses all over Tamilnadu. Their masterpiece was, of course, ‘Sri Valli’, where SGK and KBS often interchanged the roles of Murugan and Valli with fantastic ease, and their intimate on-stage chemistry, delightful repartees and wonderful songs made the play an audio-visual extravaganza that one would remember for a lifetime. Both were also deeply patriotic and did much for the nationalist cause. Both took to wearing Khadi and inserted inspiring patriotic songs into their performances. They donated much of their earnings to deserving charitable and religious causes.
However, their happiness did not last long. They were forced to live away from each other for a while. I chanced to read some letters that KBS wrote to SGK, from July to November 1928. The letters are filled with expressions of unbounded love and anguish, and a heart-rending plethora of emotions. She bemoans her destiny in one epistle, she thanks God for giving her SGK in another; she is resigned to their separation in one, she questions the necessity for the same in another; she pleads with him to reply at once in one; she tells him to reply if he felt like it, or ignore her letter in another. In one of her letters to him, written at Karur in November 1928, she signs off plaintively as ‘தங்கள் அன்பையே ஆபரணமாக கொண்ட அடியாள்...சுந்தரம்’.
Things became better between them in due course, but fate then dealt KBS one cruel blow after another… She lost her child soon after she was born and as if this was not enough, while performing in a Kumbakonam, SGK, then only 27, collapsed on stage and died soon after in December 1933. KBS was benumbed with grief, and at the age of 26, took to wearing spotless white, and lived an austere life of a hermit. Decades later, the wound remained unhealed….to an interviewer’s query (Bommai/1970) she replied in a voice quivering with emotion “அவருடன் வாழ்ந்த காலம் கொஞ்சம்... ஆனாலும் எனக்கு மஹாபாக்கியம் தான். ஆண்களே பார்த்து மோஹிக்கும் சுந்தரப்புருஷர், கந்தர்வ கானம், பச்சைக்குழந்தை மனசு! தினமும் அவர் படத்தின் முன்னால் நான் கண்ணீர் விட்டுக்கொண்டே இருக்கிறேன்.."She vowed never again to act opposite any male actor. She took recourse to the stage once again, but this time, not to act, but to sing devotional and patriotic songs. Congress leaders, Satyamurti in particular, were among her ardent admirers and she readily complied with requests to sing for the party gatherings. Many of her songs were released as gramophone records.
In a gramophone record brought out to commemorate the 50th Jubilee of the Indian National Congress in 1935, KBS sang songs such as 'வாழ்க பாரத மணிக்கொடி பார்' and 'ஜெய ஜெய பேரிகை கொட்டுவோம்'.
Listen to two such vintage treasures here:
KBS laments the demise of Pandit Motilal Nehru:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr-ch2OtVx0
She constructs a requiem to honour the memory of Kasturba Gandhi:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luEEykPg2N0
- To be continued...
Discussion at:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1018417744856618/permalink/1349726998392356/
Part 2 here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1018417744856618/permalink/1350578841640505/
Part 3 here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1018417744856618/permalink/1351635404868182/
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