Chidambaram Sundaram Jayaraman or C. S. Jayaraman (

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

: சி. எஸ். ஜெயராமன்) (6 January 1917 – 29 January 1995) was a noted actor, music director and a successful

playback singer A playback singer, as they are usually known in South Asian cinema, or ghost singer in Western cinema, is a singer whose performance is pre-recorded for use in films. Playback singers record songs for soundtracks, and the performers lip-sync the ...

, whose numerous songs were featured in many

films from 1940s and 1960s.

Early life

Jayaraman hailed from the temple town

Chidambaram Chidambaram is a major town and municipality in Cuddalore district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, on the banks of the Vellar River where it meets the Bay of Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Chidambaram taluk. The town is believed to b ...

and his father was the noted traditional Tamil music vocalist Sundaram Pillai. Jayaraman was a brother in law of M. Karunanidhi, then the chief minister of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

, India. It was through the courtesy of Jayaraman, who had solicited a movie-industry career to Karunanidhi as a good script writer to the senior script writer-cum-director Arul Soosai Arokiya Sami, popularly known as A. S. A. Sami. M. Karunanidhi entered the Tamil movie world in 1947 in the A. S. A. Sami directed movie '' Rajakumari'', which starred

M. G. Ramachandran Maruthur Gopalan Ramachandran (17 January 1917 – 24 December 1987), popularly known by his initialism M.G.R. and as Makkal Thilagam/Puratchi Thalaivar, was an Indian actor, politician, and philanthropist who served as the chief minister of ...

in the hero role.

Career and life

Jayaraman was born on 6 January 1917. He had begun acting in Tamil movies in 1934. The names of movies he had starred in include ''Krishna Leela'' (1934), ''Bhakta Duruvan'' (1935), ''Nalla Thangaal'' (1935), ''Leelavathi Sulochana'' (1936), ''Izhantha Kaadhal'' (1941), '' Poompaavai'' (1944) and '' Krishna Bakthi'' (1948). In addition, he was the sole music director for the Tamil movies ''Udayanan Vaasavathatha'' (1946) and ''

Ratha Kanneer ''Ratha Kanneer'' () is a 1954 Indian Tamil-language drama film directed by Krishnan–Panju, and written by Tiruvarur K. Thangaraj. Based on Thangaraj's play of the same name, the film stars M. R. Radha, Sriranjani and S. S. Rajendran, with ...

'' (1954). For two movies, ''

Vijayakumari Vijayakumari is an Indian stage, television and film actress. She was a stage actress at Kerala People's Arts Club and Kalidasa Kalakendra. She is the winner of the Kerala State award for best stage actress. She received the Kerala Sangeetha Nat ...

'' (1950) and '' Krishna Vijayam'' (1950), he functioned as a co-music director as well. Jayaraman's gifted

tremolo In music, ''tremolo'' (), or ''tremolando'' (), is a trembling effect. There are multiple types of tremolo: a rapid repetition of a note, an alternation between two different notes, or a variation in volume. Tremolos may be either ''measured'' ...

voice and his enunciation of Tamil words had a mystic charm and grace, to the point that he had the title "Tamil Isai Chittar" (

: தமிழ் இசை சித்தர்), which reads as Tamil Music Mystic. Jayaraman also had sung a number of songs in Kannada. One of his Kannada songs, , from ''Bedara Kannappa'' starring ''Rajkumar'', became a huge hit and is played even today. Jayaraman is one of those singers who have performed full-fledged

Tirukkural The ''Tirukkuṟaḷ'' (), or shortly the ''Kural'' (), is a classic Tamil language text on commoner's morality consisting of 1,330 short couplets, or Kural (poetic form), kurals, of seven words each. The text is divided into three books wit ...

concerts. Jayaraman died on 29 January 1995, 23 days after his 78th birthday.

Discography

Citations

General references

External links