Four delightful melodies from Tamil film Savithri (1941)
Savithri was a 1941 Tamil blockbuster starring the great queen of Carnatic music Madam M. S. Subbulakshmi as mythological sage Narada with the Hindi-Marathi legendary singing star Madam Shanta Apte who was also classicaly trained in not only music but also dance, as princess Savithri.
The songs were a real beauty mostly composed by then famous Papanasam Sivam. Shanta Apte sang 10 songs (8 solos and 2 duets with director actor and hero of this movie – Y. V. Rao) and M. S. had 6 solos. Apart from this Chinnaiya playing the role of Hindu God of death – Yama had 1 solo and comedian pair Vinoth and Menaka had one duet.
Shanta Apte was so devoted to her carrier that unlike present-day actresses, she learnt Tamil just to act and sing in the film. Also it was brave of the hero and director of this movie Y. V. Rao to cast a Hindi-Marathi actress in a Tamil movie and M. S. in a male role. Y. V. Rao played the role of Savithri’s husband Sathyavan.
Here are the first three songs that I uploaded on YouTube (enjoy) :
1. Bruhi Mukundethi by Madam M. S. Subbulakshmi
2. Anandamana Ullasamudan by Madam Shanta Apte
3. Jayadeviye Jagadambike Karunaiyai Arulvai Devi by Shanta Apte and a big female chorus
I also appreciate YouTube user loserbaer’s effort of uploading this heavenly M. S. solo:
4. Maname Kanamum by M. S.
Chinnaiah is also on screen over here.
Although two more M. S. solos are available as MP3. Hope you enjoyed them, I shall upload the remaining songs soon.
Some Vintage Bollywood Fun 
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