In all widespread Indian languages, film songs were popular across social strata. Even the votaries of classical music, and some vocalists and instrument players occasionally listened to them when friends recommended them.
In the early talkies, there were no playback singers; the players themselves sang, some well and some only passably. Playback was used once in a blue moon in the late Thirties but the audience was not aware of it. By the mid-Forties in Hindi films the names of playback singers came to be known, such as Manna Dey, Amirbai Karnataki etc.
A little later, playback singing came to be known in the South too, mostly in Tamil and Telugu. In time, Kannada and Malayalam also. Most of them were hits. By the Fifties, T.M.Sounderarajan in Tamil and Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao in Telugu led the pack by a wide margin. They sang thousands of songs while others, all together, had to make do with hundreds. Yes, there were accusations by parties concerned, of nepotism but only one fact prevails; the public, beyond any string pulling genuinely preferred those voices.
TMS was one of a kind. His singing appealed both to the laity and the lofty in their eyries. His songs of devotion, ditties of love, scathing attacks on society's foibles, satiric jabs at human nature and many other kinds rang true.
Yes, he had the help of the lyricist, the music director's tune and orchestration and the recording engineer's artistry.
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