The Hall wore a festive look with the Melody Queen’s
mellifluous songs on its sound system and eager to have the South
Indian Film Music Legends within its fold.
Orangisers, invitees, media personnel trickled in. Mellisai Mannargal
Shri. T.K.Ramamoorthy & Shri. M.S.Viswanathan followed by Shri
P.B.Srinivas and Shri. Nalli Kuppuswamy Chetty arrived sharp at
11AM.
Smt P Susheela and her family stepped in at 11.05 AM to a warm
welcome at the Lounge and escorted by the group to the Venue. Smt
P Susheela personified, grace, eloquence, throughout the reception.
On seeing Shri. M.S.Viswanathan at the hall entrance, Smt P Susheela
paid respects to her director by touching his feet. This gesture
not only shows the greatness of the lady but an example one has
to follow.
It was a great moment to see the Veterans together exchanging pleasantries.
Ceding to M.S.Viswanathan’s excuse request, the program commenced
with felicitations by M.S.Viswanathan. M.S.Viswanathan was honored
with a shawl and memento.
Ms Sandhya rendered the invocation song followed by the dignitaries
moving to the main table.
Adhepalli Rajagopal in his welcome address gave a brief about the
formation of this group on the net, their hard work which has culminated
in this site.
Smt P Susheela and Sandhya, lighted the traditional lamp.
Birthday Celebrations - Smt. P.Susheela cut the cake and the site
was offered as gift to the Birthday lady.
Shri T.K.Ramamoorthy inaugurated the web-site to a thunderous applause.
Kalaikumar and Rajeskumar surfed the site with explanations, ably
supported by Rajagopal and Subramanian.
Shri T.K.Ramamoorthy in his address bestowed his blessings and
showered praises citing the great qualities of Susheela like Humility,
Serenity which have contributed to her stupendous success. One would
not know her presence but for her voice while at work. He described
her as “MARKANDEYINI”(ever young).
It was P.B.Srinivas who delighed the gathering with his speech
filled with joyful accolades, which rose to heights with Smt. P.Susheela
joining. This combo proved their versatility was not restricted
to the golden melodies.
Highlights of P.B.Srinivas’s speech:
‘P’ in P.Susheela means Perfection
Smt. P.Susheela, herself a “Susruthi” = “suthamana sruthi” requires
no Thambura
On-the-spot song in praise of Smt. P.Susheela set to “Kaalangalil
Aval Vasantham”
Kaaviya paadagi Susheeeeela,
nithya vasantham susheela,
nenjin punnagai susheela,
kavagalil sandham susheela,
uvamai illa mangai susheela…
P.B.Srinivas recalled their duets and wondered how they sang together
the song “naalaam naalaam thirunaalaam”,
under the music direction of M.S.Viswanathan-T.K.Ramamoorthy, and
emphasised the need for synchronization in those days of direct
recording with one mike.
Smt. P.Susheela brought emotions in her voice, which was a challenge to the
actresses, citing the song “sonnadhu nee
dhaanaa”.
S.Janaki feels like kissing Smt. P.Susheela, whenever she hears
Smt. P.Susheela songs
Smt. P.Susheela joined his address, with her congratulations on
P.B.Srinivas getting the post “Thalaivar of Tamizh Iyal Isai
Nadaga Mandram”. She praised TN CM Jayalalitha that she always
encourages and honors the legendary artists.
Smt. P.Susheela does not need any post, but she deserves nothing
less than Bharata Ratna.
Smt. P.Susheela interrupted saying some fans in AP said there can be no name
before and after P Susheela, which is enough and that she considers her fans’ appreciation
as great awards/rewards.
P.B.Srinivas and Smt. P.Susheela recalled Vennira Aadai song “Enna
enna vaarthaigalo”. Smt. P.Susheela sang
the start line effortlessly. On repeated requests from audience,
P.B.Srinivas sang a few lines of "Roja
malare raja kumaari". Smt. P.Susheela stopped
with start humming.
It was wonderful to hear Smt. P.Susheela singing "nilave
ennidam nerungadhe", a classic number of
P.B.Srinivas.
Smt. P.Susheela recalled that P.B.Srinivas wanted to teach her ‘urdu’ somehow,
but she was not responsive at all. She called herself as “somberi”(lazy)
which evoked laughter among the audience. In between, P.B.Srinivas
rendered a few lines of a Hindi number sung by Smt. P.Susheela,
set to his tune, from the EP record “Meera Bhajans” released
in her Silver Jubilee function.
Smt. P.Susheela jocular comment was that the session resembled
Visu’s Arattai Arangam.
A treat to one and all.
Sri Kaaviri Maindan of Kaviarasu Kannadasan Thamizh Sangam offered
his felicitaions and read the note captioned “sugamaana
kural endraal susheela-vin kural”.
Mementos were presented to the dignitaries.
Subramanian proposed the Vote of thanks and adjourned the meet
to lunch.
As part of Vote of thanks he described the wonderful innovative
work of Mrs. Lalitha Rajagopal. It was a white metal sheet on which
a Tree was sculptured with branches , sub-branches and 52 leaves,
each depicting a raga. A symbolic tribute to our “Raaga
Devadhai”. This number 52 was to denote the
completion of 52 years by Smt. P.Susheela in the music world.
Not to miss the autograph session. Fans thronged Smt. P.Susheela
for her autograph. Kalai requested a special autograph for her devoted
fan SreeVidya, an active member of the group.
Press continued their job:
- NDTV interviewed P.B.Srinivas, T.K.Ramamoorthy, Adhepalli Rajagopal
and Smt. P.Susheela. Clippings were relayed in Vijay TV News the
same day.
- As part of Smt. P.Susheela interview, she said she was not
for birthday celebrations but yielded to honor the wishes of her
fans. She expressed her gratitude and acknowledgements to M.S.Viswanathan,
T.K.Ramamoorthy, P.B.Srinivas and all her fans; also to Cheif
Minister of Tamilnadu Ms. J. Jayalalitha for her recognizing veteran
artists like T.M.Soundararajan and P.B.Srinivas.
- When questioned as to “how she feels about this website”,
Smt. P.Susheela replied that "creation of website is not
a light task. It is easy for me to say that the site is good etc.;
but I know honestly the effort spent by my fans. It is very difficult
to come to this stage”, thus appreciating the enthusiasm
and hard work of her fans.
- She sincerely thanked Adhepalli and narrated how the web-site
thought was conceived when she met with him at the airport a couple
of years back.
- She very promptly mentioned the names of Thenraja and Andal
Balu for their kind support behind the website creation.
- Of course, she was very pleased to mention the names of her
fans like Kalai, Rajesh, Subbu etc.
- Concluded her interview with Thanks to Vijay TV (NDTV News)
and the viewers.
Fans had party with Susheela who was cool and jovial all through
the lunch session. Interesting events, titbits were exchanged with
Smt. P.Susheela. It was a great moment for everyone.
Smt. P.Susheela was given warm send-off with Rajesh and Kalai escorting
her to her house.
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