The silent era in south Indian cinema lasted 16 years with more than 120 silent films made in that period. The first feature film in south India, KeechakaVadham , was made, with Tamil subtitles, by Nataraja Mudaliar in 1916. The talkie era in Tamil cinema, began with Kalidas, in 1931. In the first five years, there was no facility in Madras (now Chennai) to produce “sound films” and they were made in Kolkata and Kolhapur. Once sound studios were set up, it was here, along with Mumbai and Kolkata, that the foundation for Indian cinema was laid.
How was the changeover from the pantomime of silent cinema to the cinema of spoken language achieved? What was the narrative tradition followed in early Tamil talkies? How was the challenge of sound handled by film-makers? Unfortunately, we do not have any of the films of the first five years and have to rely on reviews and song books of the period.
The transition from silent movies to talkies in south India took a different trajectory from that of the West. Tamil cinema did not grow out of its silent phase as other cinemas in Europe did. Instead, in an abrupt switch, it adapted an already existing art form, complete with trained artistes, writers, singers and a sound design. It was known as company dramas, the plays of commercial companies. These dramas were predominantly aural in nature, mere vehicles for songs, rather like an opera.
Artistes from the Isai Velalar community (devadasi), traditionally attached to temples, made a major contribution to the early talkie cinema by providing much of the content, drawn from their traditional repertoire, thereby deciding the style of Tamil cinema. This development came about by a historical coincidence when the devadasi system was abolished and the artistes of the community—dancers, dance teachers and singers—had to seek a livelihood elsewhere. They first moved onto the commercial stage and from there into cinema. The song and dance component of Tamil cinema owes its origin largely to the contribution of artistes from the devadasi community who worked in early talkies.
Before talkies appeared, company dramas were the main mass entertainment in south India. Commercial drama troupes appeared by the 1890s, and in two decades many towns had permanent drama halls. The legendary Otraivadai theatre of Chennai was built in 1872 in Mint. There were nearly 240 itinerant drama companies operating in Chennai presidency in the 1920s and 1930s. Many artists from the devadasi tradition found a place in company dramas. T.M. Kamalaveni had an all-women troupe, Kamalambigai Sabha, and travelled to Sri Lanka also. Later, she came into cinema with the film Gopalakrishna (1935).
The plays staged by these companies were limited to a few mythologicals written as musicals. The playwright, called vathiyar , wrote the songs, composed the music and also directed the play. All the actors, including the clown, had to be singers. The emphasis was on singing rather than acting.
The printing press helped the drama company with the publication of songs and scripts. From 1873 to 1900, at least 286 plays were published. The availability of songs and dialogue in a ready-to-use form facilitated the switchover from silent to sound.
The Devadasi tradition
The Devadasi community, a group of men and women accomplished in music and dance and whose life centred on the temple, was the repository of the major music tradition of Tamil Nadu. For centuries these artistes performed in temple rituals, not only in front of the deity but also in processions when the bronze image was taken out. The dance of the devadasis was known variously as sadir and dasiattam. It is out of this style of dance that Bharatanatyam evolved and came to be performed as concerts quite independent of its original context.
Kumbakonam, the temple town, was the centre of the Isai Velalar tradition. Music and dance teachers practised in this town. As the nationalist movement gained momentum, reformists began critiquing the devadasi system as demeaning and immoral. Moovalur Ramamirdham Ammaiyar and Dr Muthulakshmi Reddy, women leaders from the community, demanded legal measures to abolish the practice. (It was Ramamirdham Ammaiyar who rechristened the community Isai Velalar, meaning “farmers of music”, at a conference in 1925.) Gandhi ji and “Periyar” E.V. Ramasamy supported the steps against the devadasi system. A series of legislative measures taken against the system culminated in the passing of the Devadasi Abolition Act in 1924.
The immediate result was the loss of the community’s regular income from the temple. In addition, the princely states and zamindars began steadily losing their power, and this resulted in diminishing patronage for the performing arts. Many artistes from the community began moving into the world of commercial entertainment, which ensured a steady income.
The men were experts in instrumental music and in teaching dance; many of them joined the drama companies. And with them they took their repertoire. What is germane to our discussion is that several Isai Velalar artistes, men and women, joined company dramas. With their training in vocal music, women joined as stage actors, while men got into the pit orchestra as instrumentalists. Some men entered as song-writers and eventually directed plays. When “sound cinema” appeared, it was but a step for these artistes to get into cinema.
A few decades earlier, when gramophone discs were released, musicians hesitated to have their voices recorded. But some devadasi vocalists came forward to record their voices. A few of them attained star status as gramophone artistes; companies such as Odeon had artistes like P. Saradambal and Shanmugavadivu on their payrolls. Their reputation as recording artistes helped them enter talkies also. P. Saradambal even played the lead role in the film Prakalatha (1933).
Politicisation
In a small town in Punjab in 1919, a British army officer ordered his soldiers to open fire on an unarmed crowd that had gathered defying a ban. Hundreds perished. The Jallianwala Bagh massacre shook the nation and electrified the artistes of the entertainment world into action. Gradually, the world of company dramas got charged with nationalistic fervour which found expression in their performances. The trend began with the singing of patriotic songs on the stage. Artistes sang these songs in appropriate contexts during their performances; they were also sung from political platforms. The next phase was staging patriotic plays. In spite of the repressive Dramatic Performances Act of 1876, many nationalistic plays such as Kadharin Vetri were staged.
Direct political action by drama artistes was the next point of development when they got involved in the non-cooperation movement of 1920 that swept the nation. Many took part in satyagraha, burnt foreign textiles, picketed liquor shops and courted arrest.
The entertainers had an incentive in getting into active politics. Traditionally they were despised and stigmatised. Through their political activism, they gained a respectability they hitherto lacked. Entertainers who remained neglected for centuries could now take their place along with leaders on a political platform. Leaders cashed in on the ability of the artistes to draw crowds. So, by the time film producers sought these artistes out, the company dramas were already politicised. The artistes came into cinema with their political ideology that had percolated into their repertoire. This was the beginning of the interaction between politics and Tamil cinema. The very first Tamil talkie, Kalidas , though a mythological, had a song praising Gandhi ji .
The coming of sound
The absence of a sound recording facility in Chennai was a key factor that made film-makers turn to company dramas. In the first few years, they had to take the artistes to faraway Kolkata, Pune and Mumbai where sound studios functioned. In this predicament the drama troupes came in handy for the film producers. Every aspect of a sound film was there in the company drama in a neat package ready to be used. Even if one artiste fell ill, another could replace him or her because, as per tradition, every performer had to be familiar with different roles to meet any contingency; drama song books facilitated this process.
The talkies produced in the first few years were all film versions of successful, song-laden plays of drama companies. In the silent era, only stunt men and gymnasts found a place in movies. There was no need for singers. But once talkies came, singing actors were in demand because the facility of recording the song separately on a track had not yet been invented and the artistes had to sing as the camera rolled. Thus, stage actors familiar with classical music found themselves being welcomed into the tinsel world.
The technology of recording sound separately was to come a decade later when a new breed of artistes, playback singers, appeared on the scene. There were occasions when owing to the dearth of singing actors, film-makers cast women in male roles. M.S. Subbulakshmi played Naradhar in Savithiri (1941).
The film producer chose a play and hired the troupe that was staging that play. This troupe was taken to one of the cities with a sound studio, and the film was shot. A proscenium stage was set up, with painted backdrops and flats; the camera was placed in front; the play was enacted and the film was shot, head on, in lengthy, frontal shots. Since the stay in the city was expensive, there was pressure to complete the film as quickly as possible. The content of these films was from the repertoire of the devadasi tradition and its songs and dance. The choreographers, also from the Isai Velalar community, did not get credited in the early talkies. However, they continued to work and influence Tamil cinema well into the 1970s.
All the 61 films made in the first five years of the Tamil talkie were exact duplications of stage shows of plays of drama companies. Most of the female leads in these films were from the Isai Velalar tradition. Their daughters and granddaughters would also shine on the Tamil screen. Jothilakshmi and Jayamalini, who were active in films in the 1960s and 1970s, were the daughters of S.P.L. Dhanalakshmi, the star of the films Parvathi Kalyanam (1936) and Kalamegam (1941). Now Jothilakshmi’s daughter is in films.
The pioneers
One of the earliest to move from the stage to the screen was K.R. Saradambal (aka Kondithoppu Saradambal), who appeared in the film Dhroupathi Vasthirabaranam (1934). M.R. Santhanalakshmi from Kumbakonam came into movies from the stage, making her debut in the film Radha Kalyanam (1935). She was active until the late 1950s. Though many artistes of the Isai Velalar tradition came into films, the most well-known among them was M.S. Subbulakshmi, who featured in four films, the most famous being Meera (1945), directed by Ellis R. Dungan.
Another well-known name among women artistes from the community who came into films is T.R. Rajakumari (1922-99). Born Thanjavur Ranganayaki Rajayee, she was the granddaughter of the Carnatic musician Thanjavur Kuchalambal. As a teenager, Rajayee was sent to Chennai to her aunt S.P.L. Dhanalakshmi, who was already playing lead roles. Rajayee got a break in the Hindi film Devadas (1936) in which she acted as Chandramuki with K.L. Saigal. Director K. Subrahmanyam cast Rajayee in the film KachaDevayani (1941) under the name Rajakumari. One after the other films followed, and Haridas (1944), in which she played a wily courtesan, became one of the most successful films in Tamil film history. Her next milestone was the bilingual film Chandraleka (1948) by Gemini Studios. She specialised in seductive roles and was active in films until the 1960s.
A good example of the men from this tradition who came into cinema is Ku.Sa. Krishnamurthy. Born in Kumbakonam, he joined company drama when he was 10 and worked in renowned troupes and earned a reputation as a songwriter. When drama artistes got politicised in the wave of the nationalistic movement, Krishnamurthy became the Congress party secretary for Pudukottai. In 1948, he wrote songs for two films, Sri Andaal and Bhojan . One of his plays, Andaman Kaithi , was well received when the T.K.S. Brothers troupe staged it. In 1952, it was made into a film with M.G. Ramachandran as the hero. Among the many songs Krishnamurthy wrote for films, the most enduring is “Kutram purindhavan” featured in the climax scene of Rathakkaneer (1954). He wrote songs for 37 films and was active as a lyricist and a dialogue writer until 1975.
Singers and music composers also came from this tradition. The most well known among them is C.S. Jayaraman, who began as a child actor in Sri Krishna Leela (1934) and lasted as a much-admired playback singer well into the 1960s. Nagaswaram maestro N. Rajaratnam Pillai played the lead role in Kalamegam (1940). Among female playback singers, M.L. Vasanthakumari (1928-1990), who was conferred the prestigious Sangeetha Kalanidhi award, is well known. Beginning with the film Krishnabakthi (1949), she was active in films until 1965.
Some dance teachers (nattuvanar) also moved into film studios when sound films appeared. One writer records how “the uncertain future prompted several nattuvanars to leave their villages and migrate to urban centres, where upper- and middle-class girls had started showing an interest in learning the art. The celluloid medium was a new frontier, and a veritable gold rush commenced.” The nattuvanars, who found jobs as choreographers in studios, brought in the dance tradition of the Isai Velalar.
One of the illustrious nattuvanars of the film world was V.A. Muthuswami Pillai (1921-1992). He came to Chennai as a 15-year-old with his teacher Meenakshi-sundaram Pillai, who had found work in the studios. Muthuswami Pillai’s career took the familiar trajectory of dance teachers when patronage to dance declined in temples. He began with a position in the dance school Nrithyodaya founded by the film-maker by K. Subrahmanyam. Dance teachers from different traditions were brought together. The performances were fusions of various styles falling under the rubric “Oriental Dance”. The comedian Chandrababu, who is much loved by the Tamil audience for his dance and song routine, was trained here. Muthuswami soon began to get work in studios. A good example of his work is the dance by Sayee and Subbulakshmi, both from the Isai Velalar community, in Malaikallan (1954). He choreographed the dances in Rathakkaneer (1954) in which the duo danced to a song that is supposed to be sung by devadasis addressing the patrons. Vyjayanthimala danced the traditional devadasi-style sadir, which he choreographed, in the film MarmaVeeran (1956). There were other well-known nattuvanars such as K.N. Dandayuthapani Pillai and Vazhuvur Ramaiya Pillai whose names often appeared prominently in the credits.
Some men from the community made it good as actors also. K. Sarangapani came to cinema from the stage with Baktha Ramdas (1935). In a few years, he was cast in lead roles in films such as Rambaiyin Kadhal (1939) and Vazhkai (1948). He played important roles in many films, including Thillana Mohanambal (1968), a story woven around the life of a devadasi.
Once some of the artistes from the Isai Velalar community established themselves in studios, they found a place for their relatives too. V.S. Ragupathi, a sound engineer in AVM studios in the initial years, trained quite a few in the field. Ramanna, the younger brother of T.R. Rajakumari, started as a sound technician and made his mark as a director with films such as Koondukkili (1954) and Gulebakavali (1955).
The impediments
The dependence of film-makers on drama troupes in the early years had a lasting impact. The movies of the early film-makers were simply photographed dramas. The camera acted as a mere recording medium and not as a creative medium. It was mechanical reproduction of one kind of art form, as Walter Benjamin would say. Films made on contemporary themes, or “socials” as they were referred to, though few in number, were also adaptations of popular stage plays. These film-makers brought into cinema the dramatic structure, music and style of acting from the stage. Thus Tamil cinema, in its formative years, came under the influence of the aesthetics of company drama, which also provided a repertoire of plays to draw upon, mostly from mythology. Out of the 210 films made during the nine years from 1931, as many as 177 were based on mythological episodes. Some of the lead actors of the early talkies, all from the stage, brought their mannerisms and body language into cinema.
Later, when films based on contemporary themes began to be made from 1935 onwards, the film-makers were not equipped to narrate a story visually. So they gave in to a film-maker’s perpetual temptation of verbal narration. A character in a film would often explain things verbally rather than depict them visually. This led to a preponderance of orality in Tamil films, a tendency that persists.
I have pointed out earlier that the stories of films made from company dramas were episodes from mythology, stories already well known to the audience. When such episodes were filmed, the film-maker did not have the burden of telling the story visually, cinematically. He felt no pressure to develop a language of images. This retarded the growth of a cinematic vocabulary.
Songs, forming an important part of filmic entertainment, continued this oral tradition. By curbing cinema-specific characteristics, songs keep films at the level of entertainment. This makes the prospect of political cinema blossoming rather bleak. Even films that espouse an ideology, however obliquely, are diluted by the position given to songs. Viewers fail to receive the point because they get distracted by songs and dances. Instead of images, spoken words take a prime place. The primacy of images was lost.
The list of Isai velalar artistes active in the early years of Tamil cinema is long. I have provided only examples. It was these artists who provided the initial thrust for Tamil cinema, a totally new art form, to take off and set the trajectory.
