G. Ramanathan

G. Ramanatha Iyer (Tamil: ஜி. இராமநாதன்) was a music composer for Tamil movies. He is also known as 'Isai Methai' (Genius of Music) or 'Sangeetha Chakravarthy' (Emperor of Music) and considered to be one of the influential Tamil Music composers to take Carnatic Music to the masses. Notable for his association with M.K.Thyagaraja Bhagavathar. G.Ramanathan also composed for films of Salem Modern Theatres and Coimbatore Central Studios. His career lasted until his death in 1963. During the 1950s G.Ramanathan's music dominated most of the box office hits of the then leading Tamil Movie stars Shivaji Ganesan and M. G. Ramachandran. Early life edit: G. Ramanathan (GR) was born in Bikshandarkoil, Srirangam, Tamil Nadu, India. GR's father was Gobalsamy Iyer who worked as sub-inspector in the Indian Railways. GR studied till standard 5. He was married in 1942 and has 2 sons-one is Sai and the other is Baba naming them reflecting his devout to Sri Sathya Sai Baba. He joined the Baratha Gana Saba, a drama troupe and played harmonium at the age of 18. Then he joined the famous V.A. Sellappa Drama company, and sang playback and played harmonium. In 1932, he first played musical instrument for a Tamil film called "Kalavarishi" which was produced in Calcutta. In 1938 M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar produced Sathyaseelan in Bombay and GR became the music director for that film which followed by the Vipranarayana (old). The first film to be produced in Madras with GR as the music director was Poogailas, followed by Parasuraman and Boologa Rambai(old). GR was a resident music director for the Modern Theatres since the beginning except a few which were done by K. V. Mahadevan. He had acted in Aayiram Thalai Vangiya Aboorva Chintamani (1947) as the role Sanyasi. Style edit: GR never had proper training in carnatic music. It was all "keLvi gnanam" (learning by listening). He had a passion and liking towards carnatic music and went all out in composing. GR became the music director when stage dramas were equally popular in the 1940s. He had to balance up between the cinema and the stage dramas. It was conditional that the cinema songs of those days had to be composed to the basic carnatic tune and it used to be thought that cinema music would never equal the pure form of carnatic music. GR had proved otherwise when he had composed music for the song "Manmatha Leelaiyai venRAr uNdO" in Haridas sung by M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar. He is a staunch believer that only music that had the carnatic base could endure where most of his songs were "semi classic". He has a liking for the voices of G.N. Balasubramaniam, M. L. Vasanthakumari, Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer, and the Hindi film music director Naushad and his favourite singers in his compositions were S. Varalakshmi and Jikki. Of all the voices, he is a great lover of M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar. GR believes that only MKT is could deliver what was expected of any singer. He is also a good singer, he had sung in his own compositions in Ponmudi and also under K.V. Mahadevan's composition for Alli Petra Pillai. GR would strive the singers to the excellence. T. M. Soundararajan said that if one could sing to the satisfaction and the tune of GR you could easily sing for the tune of any music director in any part of the world. GR would sing out the songs before recording to guide the singers. His greatest talent was that he was able to compose tunes suiting the storyline as well as the period of production of the films. He produced a film Puthu Yugam. GR's last film was Deivathin Deivam by K. S. Gopalakrishnan. Unfortunately he died of heart attack after in the midst of composing for the film Arunakirinathar. Then T. R. Papa completed it. Filmography edit: Manthiri Kumari {1950), Madurai Veeran {1956}, Chakaravathy Thirumagal (1957), Uthama puthiran (1958}, Veera pandiya Kattabomman (1959), Raja desingu (1960), Arasilagumari (1961), Kappalotiya thamizhan (1961), Pudhumai pithan (1957), Kathavarayan {1958), Thirumbi paar(1953), Kaveri (1955), Amibikapathy (1957), Manmagan Thevai (1956)

Source: Wikipedia

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