MS Subbulakshmi
[Pic : The Hindu]

TS Nagarajan’s account of his acquaintance with MS Subbulakshmi, as a photographer is astounding. In yesterday’s Hindu, his column called as Portraits of a diva, he vividly captures the simplicity and the egoless behaviour of MS Subbulakshmi when he met her in her house for a picture sessions. Very interesting is when he talks about the MS blue.

But well before that, in this account of his encounters with MS directly and indirectly, he captures his childhood incident when he saw MS Subbulakshmi for the first time as actrees in the screen and how he remained unaffected by that.

Here is where I am able to connect to him. Similarly, during my childhood, when I used to wake up every morning with that Bhaja Govindam or Kausalya Supraja Rama Poorva Sandhya Pravarthathey singing, I hated it for the morning it brought with itself. I remained untouched by MS or by her god’s own voice. It lasted until I saw a performance of MS Subbulakshmi in Music Academy and was spell bound by the voice, the charm and her personality. It’s from then MS Subbulakshmi became a demi-god, for me. She doesn’t sing anymore in concerts and all that we can get to hear are her old collections/concerts. That only makes me hope that I was born some 25-30 years before to have enjoyed her music in concerts.

P.S : Yesterday’s Hindu Magazine is a collectible for column geeks, for it had some of the best columns including the above one. Suggested reading includes Shashi Tharoor’s column on the global media called Weapons of mass distraction? and the Media Matters column by Sevanti Ninan.

9 Responses to “M.S Subbulakshmi: Portraits of a diva”


  1. Lazy, join me in the league. I am lover of MS songs .

    Posted by: Ravi | June 22nd, 2004 - 6:56 am

  2. me too. It was a while before I started appreciaiting MS myself. here was my take on this:
    http://www.hindu.com/mag/2004/05/16/stories/2004051600400500.htm

    Posted by: viji | June 22nd, 2004 - 7:19 am

  3. Viji, I did read the article in Hindu a month back. Didn’t know it was you who wrote it.

    Would love to add that I was thinking about the similarity of that Thiruvilaiyadal dialogues. Even now I could recite the complete Dharumi story’s dialoges.

    The world is full of approximate similarities ;-), I guess.

    Posted by: Lazy Geek | June 22nd, 2004 - 10:32 am

  4. Sir,

    I read the artical in Hindu. Thank you very much for the same. Meanwhile I request you, if possible can you e-mail few photos of Mrs. M.S. Subbalakshmi. I am very much greatful if you send the same.

    Namaskar,
    veena

    Posted by: Veena Narayan | June 28th, 2004 - 1:53 pm

  5. OK we are off this topic I know but has anyone read TJS George’s bigraphy on MS?

    There definitely is a movie there ……..

    Posted by: Viji | June 29th, 2004 - 8:11 pm

  6. Well, MS is an excellent hostess as well. It has been a delightful experience meeting her.

    Posted by: Ram | December 10th, 2004 - 1:27 am

  7. storage area networks http://storage-area-networks.incsx.com/

    Posted by: storage area networks | December 12th, 2004 - 7:22 am

  8. I like m.s songs

    Posted by: sankar | December 30th, 2004 - 8:27 pm

  9. laughed all the way through

    Posted by: direct tv | April 9th, 2005 - 2:27 pm

scribbles ?

lazy geek a.k.a guru subramanian is from chennai living in the showery seattle a software consultant by destiny loves creative arts yaps about intellectual stuff and still on the only(!) belief that he is a geek!! Read More >>