M. S. Subbulakshmi: The Definitive Biography by T. J. S. George

Author:T. J. S. George [George, T. J. S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789384067830
Publisher: Aleph Book Company
Published: 2016-08-31T21:00:00+00:00

8

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OUT OF FILM LAND

Oh mind, while a good royal road is available, why take to bylanes? When good milk with cream is available, why should one go for toddy?

—Chakkani Rajamargamu

THE SANSKRITIZATION OF SUBBULAKSHMI—OR ‘IYERIZATION’ in more mundane terms—might have been high on Sadasivam’s list of priorities as they settled down as husband and wife. But Sadasivam was first and foremost a man of the world. Social and spiritual progress would not be complete for him without financial assets and business growth. Networking with Rajaji and other pillars of the Brahmin establishment eased matters in one area. How was progress to be achieved in the other? Much more of his own entrepreneurial initiative was called for if material advancement were to be ensured. But he had to reckon with the fact that the circumstances were quite different from what he was used to till then.

The ground rules had changed for both Sadasivam and Subbulakshmi after their marriage—for Sadasivam because he was no longer employed and for Subbulakshmi because Sadasivam was now her husband and the sole claimant of her love and loyalty. He was also the sole decision maker for the two of them. The fact that both were well established in their respective fields weighed in their favour. Working life had begun unusually early for both of them. With her public concerts beginning at the age of ten, MS could look back upon fourteen crowded years as she made that climb to Tiruneermalai on 10 July 1940 to tie the knot. On that day Sadasivam could count almost twenty-five years of experience behind him. Both had become famous; MS more than Sadasivam. But they could not just continue their lives as before. They faced new challenges and life had to be started afresh on a new slate.

Getting MS out of cinema altogether must have been an option that Sadasivam considered. For all its success at the box office, Shakuntalai triggered unpleasant memories for him because of the loose talk it had generated, linking the heroine with the hero and the director. If the very mention of MS in the gossip columns enraged him during the days of courtship, it enraged him more after marriage. Concert music offered a relatively safer arena because it was more manageable and free of the ‘mammalian monsters’ that the film world attracted. In any case, a singer of MS’s proven calibre and virtuosity could not completely withdraw from classical music. Two highly successful movies had made her the toast of the masses. That fame could now be harnessed to conquer yet higher peaks in Carnatic music.

The calculations that pointed to the possibility of Mrs Sadasivam pulling out of cinema ran into countervailing calculations over the career turns of Sadasivam and his friend and colleague Krishnamurthi. As if in continuation of the parallelism between their careers, Krishnamurthi left Ananda Vikatan not long after Sadasivam did. Rajagopalachari and the nationalist movement had become central to Krishnamurthi’s scheme of things and he had decided to participate

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