Monday, September 7, 2009

Udumalai Narayana kavi -


This great Poet was born on 25.9.1899 in Poolavadi Village near Udumalpet.His early education was only till the 4th Standard and thereafter he learnt under Muthuswamy kavirayar. He later learnt the art of Harikathakalaksebam from the famed harikesanallur muthiah Nhagavathar.

Even as a young lad he was inspired to act and did so in several Plays.It was the time when the Freedom Movement was active and several young men were inspired to join the freedom struggle. He too went around the nearby Villages selling khadi products and singing nationalist songs. Some of these became very popular. His famous patriotic songs were sung by some of the most popular actors of that time - the early 1920s.

Cinema , entered the "Talkie" phase and the need for Actors/Singers and Poets was felt. He came into Cinema in 1933 - his association with N.S.Krishnan brought about several songs that were of great social relevance. His learning the art of harikatha obviously helped him when he wrote along with NSK , the satirical - Kindhanaar - based on the Nandhanaar story. His collaboration with NSK served to enhance the reputation of both. Along with Madhurai Bhaskara Das, Pattukottai Kalyanasundaram he dominated the lyrics department till the advent of Kannadasan the Poet. In the later years he wrote for MGR , with the Dravidian , Rationalist Philosophy in mind.....One of his greatest will probably be....the NSK song- Vingyanaththa Valarkka Poren dee......

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Mohan, back home, promoting one's blog, facebook page, linkedin page or tweets is a time honored pastime. so fuhgeddaboudit.

I wish I could make a half-way intelligent or snappy comment on your posts about Tamil Cinema but I am all at sea. Sadly my knowledge of Tamil Cinema or actually Indian Cinema is virtually non-existent. So to your friends who are movie challenged maybe you can occasionally add other Madras posts on, say, the traffic, the water situation, the political hijinks in the state or country etc.

Giri Guevara said...

I remember reading somewhere that Banumathi considered Udumumalai as a greater poet than Kannadasan till probably the 60's.

Mohans Musings said...

Point noted VVS....in fact I tried to make it always "old" movie oriented....but thoughts on the city...and our lives....certainly.
True mr. Giri Guevara , many may have said so, indeed Bhanumathi was once very critical of a kannadasan song for the film "Rani" and refused to record it saying : Enna bashai idhu" and years later as Director wanted kannadasan to write a song for her - he did , she praised him , when he reminded her of this incident , and she turned red and said " I am sorry".....Let us not compare but just that these were all great people.

Unknown said...

hello sir!
really a good article i got to read when i was surfing for photos for creating a motion graphic promo. udumalai narayana kavi is one among my list.
i am glad if you could suggest/share me few personalities photos(tamilnadu).actually i couldn't find any good resolution of historical persons.
thanks.

baran

Mohans Musings said...

Hi,
Let me know of whp all you want will check in my Library....
or will give you the contact of people who may have it.
please mail me at
mohanraman@gmail.com

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.