It was so malleable that she could reach high octaves with seemingly effortless ease which even trained classical Carnatic musicians found it difficult to achieve. Her voice had an astonishingly wide range absolutely fascinating even though it was totally untrained. After nationalization it was prohibited as it was considered against Indian culture!Įven as a little girl Sundarambal was blessed with the natural feel and flair for music and possessed an excellent voice. In Northern India and also in some parts of the South, a Hindi song from the super hit 'Kismet', ab tErE sivA kOn mErA was extremely popular and formed part of the repertoire of class of beggars moving on trains and also on terra firma. Indeed if a move song which became a popular with this class of beggars it came to be known in Tamil as 'Picchakaran pāttu!' (songs fit for beggars!) One such song ayyA siru pEN Ezhaiyin pAl ' sung by the well-known Madras socialite, singer and actress Tanguturi Suryakumari in the hit film ' Adrishtam' (1939) was extremely popular with the begging class in South India. It had many facilities for passengers like fans in compartments which the British - owned railways did not have except in the first class compartments mostly used to by white skin travelers.ĭuring that period the railways allowed beggars of both sexes to freely move around the lower class compartments asking for alms by singing popular movie song hits of the day. The Nizam of Hyderabad who was during his heyday one of the ten richest men of the world had his own railway known as the Nizam State Railway. These British owned private companies enjoyed a monopoly until railways were nationalized after India became a free nation on August 15, 1947. Bombay Baroda and Central Indian Railway. There were many of them with the more prominent being, Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway. incorporated in England.That was the period railways in India were in the private sector and were incorporated in England with their stocks and shares quoted on the London Stock Exchange. As the legend goes she was left with no option than to resort to begging, singing for alms and copper coins in running trains in and around Trichy which was then the headquarters of the privately owned South Indian Railway, (S.I.R).

K odumudi Balambal Sundarambal hailed from Kodumudi, a small town near Trichy and was born in 1907 on the wrong side of the tracks in abject poverty.

K B sundarambal mp3