The Sabha set up the MS Gallery highlighting the major achievements in the life of
Dr. Subbulakshmi through portraits that gave a glimpse of the glorious contribution of
this Mahavidushi to furthering the cause of Fine Arts in the country and beyond. The
Gallery was inaugurated by Shri. M. K. Narayanan, the then Governor of West
Bengal on 21 st September 2013. On 16 th September 2023, the Sabha set up an
annexe to this gallery in the 2 nd floor foyer of the Auditorium. It was inaugurated by
Padma Vibhushan Dr. R. Chidambaram, former Principal Scientific Advisor to the
Government of India and Padma Vibhushan Prof. (Dr.) Manmohan Sharma,
Emeritus Professor of Eminence on the occasion of the 107 th birth anniversary of M.
S. Subbulakshmi on 16 th September 2023.
Can you believe that at the premiere of ‘Meera’ in Regal Cinema, New Delhi on 21 st
November 1947, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the First Prime Minister of India and Lord
and Lady Mountbatten stood at the entrance of the theatre and received every guest
who came for the screening of Meera. Such an honour for an artiste is unthinkable in
present times. On the same occasion, Sarojini Naidu introduced Subbulakshmi to the
northern audience and surrendered her title of Nightingale of India to Subbulakshmi.
Phono autograph was invented in 1857 by the French. Phonographs was invented by
Edison
in 1877. It records and playback around two minutes of recording. Flat disc plates
were
invented in 1894 and 78 rpm discs was evolved in 1912. Earlier only one side of the
disc
was used and later both the sides were used. By 1920, the 10 inch disc with 78 rpm
and
dual side became an industry standard. The disc was made shellac. The earliest
Indian
recording that is available is just 1 min 5 secs in 1902 by various artistes on
railway
station sounds. In the year 1926, Subbulakshmi at the age of 9 recorded her first
song,
Maragatha Vadivum in Senchurutti ragam. At the same time, she recorded
Vithipolumintha
Thirupugazh of Arunagirinathar. Her mother also recorded under the label twin. There
are
also LP records of 1930, 1940 and 1941 on display at this annexe gallery. 98 years
later, they are functional and are played in the gallery.
The section on MS ‘Music to Movies’ carries old posters of the movies. In Savitri,
released in 1941, MS was caste in a ‘MALE ROLE’. It raised funds for Kalki. In
Meera, Radha also acted as a child artiste. The Hindi version of Meera was shot in
Rajasthan. The Maharana of Mewar sent his personal army for the war scenes.
Sakuntalai released in 1940 was directed by American filmmaker Ellis Dungan, who
made great Tamil films without understanding a word of Tamil. All these and many
more interesting anecdotes feature in the gallery.
Original handwriting of Subbulakshmi in the letters and text that are on display
make an interesting reading. Words that were difficult for her to pronounce, she
recorded in the sides in Tamil so that her delivery like her music would be perfect.
The various moods and expressions of Subbulakshmi captured in the gallery bring out
the greatness in her.
The archives of Subbulakshmi in Shanmukhananda Sabha need to be visited and
experienced as to how our Sabha values and regards this Mahavidushi of her living
memories.
