T. V. Rathnam

Born in Tenkasi to Vallinayagam Pillai and Aavudai Ammal in 1929. Rathnam had learned music from the age of seven under a guru called Ramalinga Aachari, and gave her first full-fledged concert in Sri Lanka. She became a drama artiste and film artist as a child. Pursued her tutelage under Vidhwan Ramnad Krishnan at the age at 12 which paved way for playback singing later.

Married to Visvanathan Pillai in 1947.

Then she moved on to playback singing in the Tamil film industry.

She was 10 years old when she acted in Bhaktha Chetha in 1940 for the Madras United Artitstes. She then acted as the child Kannagi in Kannagi in 1942 for the Jupiter Pictures and also sang her own song. In the meantime, she had continued her training under Ramnad Krishnan, and later trained under Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar.

Rathnam was a much sought after singer in the late 1940s and 1950s. She became popular with the film music directors of that era who had worked with her repeatedly and in that glorious period TVR rendered a staggering variety of challenging songs.

Rathnam became famous by her songs in Miss Malini (1947) by the Gemini Studios. She also had a rare chance in Ponmudi (1950) by Modern Theatres when the music director the great G. Ramanathan had sung the songs by his composition, himself. He had chosen TVR to pair him as the female singer for him.^[2]

She had many solo songs but also sang with other singers. Many of her duets are with S. C. Krishnan, T. M. Soundararajan and Seerkazhi Govindarajan. Others are G. Ramanathan, A. M. Rajah, M. M. Mariappa, T. A. Mothi, Thiruchi Loganathan, C. R. Subburaman, P. B. Sreenivas, S. V. Ramanan, V. J. Varma, V. T. Rajagopalan and S. V. Ponnusamy.

She also sang duets with female singers with most notably with P. Leela and A. P. Komala. Others include P. Susheela, N. L. Ganasaraswathi, K. V. Janaki, T. R. Bhagirathi, Jikki, K. Jamuna Rani, Radha Jayalakshmi, A. G. Rathnamala, M. L. Vasanthakumari, L. R. Eswari, Soolamangalam Rajalakshmi, Swarnalatha and G. Kasthoori.

The singing actors she sang with were T. R. Mahalingam, K. R. Ramasamy and K. S. Angamuthu.

• With music till the last

• Listen to Paadum Radio Buttonai Thiruppi Vittal song from Miss Malini on YouTube
• Watch Alli Veesunga Panathai Alli Veesunga song from Maheswari on YouTube
• Watch En Prema Roobaa.... Inbathin Ellai Ithu Thana song from Ponmudi on YouTube
• Listen to Mohana Muralidhara ... Her first song at 10 years from Baktha Chetha on YouTube

Apart from these songs T V Rathnam has sung many songs. To quote an example she has sung a song ADAKKIDUVEN a duet with S C Krishnan in the movie Aval Yaar.