Now that noise of fire crackers have reduced post Deepavali, let’s remember the man behind the Deepavali song which has been aired the most number of times since it was created. Yes “unnai kandu naan aada ennai kandu nee aada ullasam pongum deepavali “ from KAlyana Parisu. Music by A.M.Raja, wonderful lyrics by Pattukottai kalyana sundaram & beautifully rendered by Smt P.Susheela. Rajah hails from Chittoor District, having lost his father at his young age their family moved to the then survival land “Madras” Raja was trained in Carnatic and Western Classical and was also influenced in the hindi songs & ghazals during that time. He composed few telugu songs for HMV and thus got to know K.V.Mahadevan. Listening to the Songs he composed & sung for HMV in All India Radio Gemini Studio owner Sri S.S.Vasan was very much impressed and thus Raja sang “Samsaaram” track for the movie Samsaaram in 1951. When the music world was dominated by heavy Carnatic based male voices here came a guy with a mild voice which delivered every emotion with ease and with perfect shruthi. When it comes to happy romance or sad romance Raja had it in his voice. After Samsaaram his career began sky rocketing. He sang the samsaaram title track in all languages including hindi. He started to sing in all languages and for all actors till late 50’s. He was the popular numero uno singer during that period. He along with Jikki went to Bombay for the first time to record Tamil & Telugu versions of Aah and thus he was the first singer from south to go to Bombay to record under a hindi music director. Raja sang for all heroes starting with MGR (Genova ) and many films including the mayakkum malai pozhuthe nee po po(With jikki), kan moodum velaiyilum (with P.Suseela), Sivaji ganesan in several movies, NTR, A.Nageswara rao in many early telugu movies , Prem nazir & Sathyan in Malayalam too, Rajkumar, udayakumar in kannada. Especially in Malayalam Raja was accepted instantly and he sang so many Malayalam songs and to an extent became the voice for Sathyan. Same thing happened to him in Tamil. Gemini ganesh who portrayed soft romantic characters in many movies had Raja sing for him and became Gemini’s permanent voice until G.Ramanathan made P.B.Srinivas sing for Gemini. Raja was offered a music director role in Genova along with 2 others (T.A.KAlyanam & M.S.Gnanamani) but for some reasons he passed it on M.S.V. years later he composed his first movie in telugu (Shoba 1958) but it was genius C.V.Sridhar who gave Raja the perfect Music director status with his Kalyana PArisu (pelli kanuka in telugu ) and with that Sridhar became a star composer as well. Raja was the only person to be successful as singer & composer simultaneously (hemant kumar in hindi). What I mean is composing and singing for his movies and for other music directors as well. Also he was the only singer to be popular in all the languages at that time and have sung equal amount of songs in all languages. Besides tamil & telugu he sang fantastic songs in Malayalam. G.Devarajan who encouraged A.M.Raja with brilliant compositions and thus A.M.Raja was a star singer in Malayalam as well. As a composer he had composed for great films like Kalyana parisu, then nilavu, vidi velli, for Sridhar and Aadi perukku for K.Shankar and this was his last film in the 60’s. he was a man of a kind with little bit of ego and thus became enemy for him & his music and created his own down fall. Later in 70’s V.Kumar and Shankar ganesh brought him back and he sang super songs like senthamaraye senthenmozhiye, Raasi nalla raasi and his voice was as melodious as it was in 50’s He has acted in few telugu movies as well. The telugu original for Adutha veetu pen – Pakkinti Ammayi Starring Relangi as the hero (played by T.R.Ramachandran in tamil) and the singer /guru voice for Relangi was played b Raja himself (played by K.A.Thangavelu in tamil) Raja sang several songs in Sinhalese as well and they were quite popular. Our melody queen Smt P.Susheela started her career – a duet with raja (yedhukku azhaithai from Petra thaai) Raja was uncrowned king of the early 50’s , sought after singer –Many films many songs.. all of them were hit songs and linger in our mind even now. Sirpi sedhukkatha por siliaye (Ethir paradadhu) MAasila unmai kadhale with P.Banumathi (Alabibavum 40 thirudargalum) Thendral urangiya podhum thingal urangiya with P.Susheela (petra maganai vitra annai) Anbe enthan munnale with Jikki (Aaravalli) Aasaiye alai modhuthe with P.Leela (Genova) Aram katha deviye with Jikki(Maheswari) Engirundhu veesudho with P.Leela (kadan vaangi kalyanam) Aadatha manamum aaduthe with P.Susheela (kalathoor kannamma) Aasayinale manam with P.Susheela (kalyana parisu) My fav Vaadikkai marandhadhum yeno with P.Susheela (Kalyana Parisu) Chinna chinna veedu katti with P.A.Periya nayaki (marumagal) Chinnna chinna kannile with P.Susheela Azhagu nilavin bhavaniyile with Jikki (Maheswari) Malarin mathuvellam (vipranarayana) Singara painikiliye pesy with Radha jayalakshmi (Manohara) Brindhavanamum nandha kumaranum (Missiyamma) Pazhaga theriya venum(Missiyamma) En nenjin premai geetham with P.Susheela(Panam paduthum paadu) NAan seitha pooja palan with P.Leela (Guna sundari) Puthumai nila ange (Gomathiyin kadhalan) En kannil aadum jalam yaavum with P.Susheela(boologa rambai) Pazhagum thamizhe , idhaya vaanin with P.susheela (Paarthiban kanavu) Manam ennaum vaanile mazhai megam aagave with P.Susheela (Ellorum innattu mannar) Selodum neerodai meethe with P.Susheela (alavudeenum arputha vilakkum) Mathanode radhiyode with P.Susheela (veetukku vandha varalakshmi) Thanga nilavil kendai irandu with Jikki (thirumanam) KAn moodum velaiyilum kalai with P.Susheela (Mahadevi) Thulli thulli alaigal ellam enna solludhu with P.Susheela (thalai koduthan thambi) Unnai paartha kangal with P.Susheela (Magane kel) Ullangal ondragi thullum podhile with P.Susheela (Punar jenmam) Idai kaiyirandil aadum with P.Susheela (Vidivelli) Koduthu paar paar with P.Susheela, Jikki & Tiruchy loganathan (Vidivelli) Kalaiye en vaazhkaiyin with P.susheela (Meenda sorgam) Thuyilatha pen ondru kanden with P.Susheela (Meenda sorgam) ***my alltime favourite ** Oho enthan baby with JAnaki, nilavum malarum paduthu, chinna chinna kannile with Susheela, Paatu paadava (Solo) all from Then nilavu Ezhil oviyam paarthene with P.Susheela (Veera abhimanyu) The above list is some of his best songs . there are many more Equally popular were his Malayalam songs Periyare Periyare with P.Susheela (bharya) Annu ninte kandathil pinne with P.Susheela(unniyarcha) Chandana pallakil veedu kanan with P.Susheela (palaatu koman) And many more. Raja married Jikki and to some extent was the reason for her career downfall and since he was rigid he lost all friends and slowly faded away. He was busy with his stage shows and thus led the life happily with that. His son chandrasekar has a voice similar to him and Ilayaraja gave him a song in Rasa magan. Unfortunately he couldn’t make it big and hence there is no trace of A.M.Raja except for his songs. Whatever people say, Raja was the sough after voice of 50’s and only successful music director/singer and also equally popular in all the 4 languages.. These kind of Smooth voices are very rare and we will remember and relish his songs for ever and thus Raja lives thru ……………………. Chitralaya Sriramanna thank you for this request. I’m really happy to write about A.M.Raja and I’ve always loved his voice …. Will be back soon with another forgotten artiste – Rajesh LAvanya
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