A. G. Rathnamala Biography 
A. G. Rathnamala was a playback singer associated with south Indian cinema and also a stage actress. She recorded over 500 film songs belonging to all the four south Indian languages. She was also a group member of drama troupe of M. G. Ramachandran during her younger days in her profession. She was involved in the singing field at a time when south Indian talkies had just started to flourish in, and the era of singing actresses just began to depart. For the same reason, she got some good opportunities from film music industry, and she also worked with almost all leading music composers of the time. Thus Rathnamala is one of the first generation playback singers of south Indian cinema.
A. G. Rathnamala was born in 1931 in Madras Presidency during British rule in India. Initially she was a stage actress and singer for plays before she joined film industry in the year 1950. She played the female lead of actor MGR for the play, Inba Kanavu. Later she worked in K. R. Ramaswamy's drama troupe too. She played Sivaji Ganesan’s younger sister in the play, En Thangai. She also worked in Sivaji ganesan’s drama troupe later. Thus she has worked with many leading film and theatre personalities during her younger days.
Her first break to films was given by S. M. Subbaiah Naidu and G. Ramanathan in 1950, and it was a duet with U. R. Chandra for the film, Digambara Samiyar and the song was Kaakka Vendum Kadavule Nee. Since then she sang around 500 film songs, and recorded them in Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil and Kannada languages. Devaki, Andhaman Kaidhi, Rajambal, Pona Machaan Thirumbi Vandhan, Marumagal, Pudhu Yugam, Kaveri, Moondru Pengal etc are among the movies for which she sang later.
Published: February 19, 2019
Updated: February 19, 2019
