Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi was born September 16, 1916, to Subramania Iyer and Shanmukhavadivu in Madurai. Subbulakshmi and her siblings grew up in a world of music, as their grandmother Akkammal played the violin and their mother was an accomplished veena artiste. Subbulakshmi's first public performance as an accompanying artiste for her mother's veena kacheri (concert) was when she was just seven.

Later, Subbulakshmi's mother decided to shift base to Madras, as Chennai was called then. She wanted to bring up her children as musicians.

Her decision proved right. Her daughter Subbulakhsmi had her first kacheri in Chennai's famous Music Academy when she was just 17, and there was no looking back for Subbulakshmi after that. It took the young Subbulakshmi no time to become a well-known name in Madras' music circles.

Her beautiful face and her golden voice was noticed by the Tamil film world also; director K Subrahmanyam offered her a role in his nationalist film Sevasadanam. During the shooting, she met Sadasivam, a marketing executive from Ananda Vikatan. Young Subbulakshmi fell in love with Sadasivam, who was already married and had children. They got married in 1940 in Tiruneermalai.

After marriage, Sadasivam did not want her to have any ties with her family, and she obeyed unquestioningly. Later on in life too, it was he who decided what she should sing, where she should sing, what she should say and who her friends should be.

Sadasivam produced Meera, a landmark film in the history of Indian cinema in which MS immortalised herself as Bhakta Meera. It is not an exaggeration to say M S Subbulakshmi's songs and images added a new dimension to bhakti. After Meera, Subbulakshmi quit films, and the decision was taken by Sadasivam. Her last kacheri also was at the Music Academy, where she first started her legendary career as a Carnatic musician. Life had come full circle for her. After Sadasivam's death in 1997, she never sang in public.

Also Read: 'Nightingale' of Carnatic music

Text: Shobha Warrier