Madhivanan Rama Chandran writes:
The Legends of Tamil Cinema of 1930s and 1940s - K Subramanyam
K Subramanyam (1904-1971) was one of Tamil Cinema's earliest notable director and producer.
K Subramanyam (KS) was born in Papanasam town. He was basically a lawyer but took interest in movies. He started his film career as an assistant to Raja Sandow who was popular diretor of Tamil silent movies of 1920s and early 1930s.
Pavalakkodi was a popular stage drama in which M K Thyagaraja bagavathar and S D Subbulakshmi paired together as hero-heroine. It was staged at various towns. When this was staged at Karaikudi businessmen Lena Lakhsmana chettiyar and KS watched it and was highly impressed. They decided to make a movie based on this story and KS directed the movie. It was the first movie for KS, MKT and SDS. The film was a commercial success and enabled MKT and KS to shine well in the successive years. KS asked his homwtown friend Papanasam Sivan to write songs and compose them. MKT later said that it was his first movie and he did not know how to act and he just followed whatever KS told him to do. This was released in 1934.
After this film, Subramanyam formed his own production company and named it "Madras United Artists Corporation". He produced many films under this banner and Naveena sadharam (1935) was first movie.
The union KS-MKT-SDS along with Papanasam Sivan followed next film "Naveena Sarangadhaara" which was released in 1936. Two back-to-back hits of MKT were directed by Subramanyam. In the same year KS produced and directed movie named "Baktha Kuchela" in which he asked Papansam Sivan to play lead role as "Kuchelan". SDS played dual role (Lord Krishna and Kuchela's wife). The dual role for a woman was first of it's kind and KS was highly appreciated. In the same year he directed another movie named "Usha Kalyanam".
In 1937, KS produced and directed a bi-lingual movie named "Balayogini" in which he also scripted the story. It was one of the popular movies of social theme criticising untouchability and also talked about rights of widows. His neice "Baby Saroja" got popular in the movie with powerful dialogues and expressions. In this period, KS married SDS with permission from first wife.
Another social themed movie named "Sevasadanam" was released in 1938. KS again produced and directed this movie. This film talked about women rights and criticised women abusement and prostitution. M S Subbu lakshmi was introdcued into this movie. This was also first movie of S Varalakshmi, the popular actress of 1950s and 1960s.
The last Tamil movie of K Subramanyam was "Thyagaboomi" which was released in 1939. It was on the subject of freedom movement. The story was inpired from Kalki's one of the novels and S S Vasan helpd KS financially to produce this movie. However this movie was banned few weeks after the relase. In 1941 he directed Malayalam movie named Prahlada which was his last movie to work with.
When MGR produced and directed Nadodi Mannan (1958), he asked K Subramanyam to overview his direction skills. After few days, Subramanyam told MGR "You are doing good job as a director. You do not need any overview" and MGR was fully satisfied with this comment from the prominent director. It was like வசிஷ்டர் வாயால் பிரம்மரிஷி for MGR
His children were popular personalities in Tamil Nadu. S V Ramanan, Krishnaswami and Padma Subramanyam are associated with Tamil cinema. His grand sons and great grand sons/daughters are also closely associated with Tamil Cinema
K Subramanyam was notable for the following
1 He was instrumental in introducing lot of legends like Papanasam Sivan, M K Thyagaraja bagavathar, S D Subbulakshmi, M S Subbulakshmi etc into Tamil talking cinema.
2 He was the first notable director to give two hit movies on the social theme at the time only mythological oriented movies were ruling Tamil Cinema.
3 He was the first to condemn women abusement and insisted women freedom thru the movies.
4 He was the first to make an heroine to play dual roles that too way back in 1936
5 He was the first to produce and direct a full length movie purely based on Indian Freedom fighting movement
Despite all of these, in my opinion, the family members failed to bring out all his old movies into new DVD format. Some of his movies were under "lost film" category as not even a single print remains today. MKT's first movie Pavalakkodi also had few roles only. Sevasadam was a completely lost film. I do not know if other movies are available in DVD format.
Some of the sonngs from the movies KS directed
Pavalakkodi - 1934
என் நேரமும் ஜலத்திலே - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J0fAgN6O1E
அர்ஜுனா இது உனக்கு தகுதியா - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpQ0bt8FJTE
Thyagaboomi - 1939
தேச சேவை செய்ய வாரீர் - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MXIm7f4Yb8
சொல்லு காந்தி தாத்தாவுக்கு ஜே ஜே ஜே - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5aihy2Rhng
ஜெய ஜெய ஜெய தேவி - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R4Djz1PTMI
PS : My next post will be about T P Rajalakshmi
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