Shantha Apte

ragam-talam · Post by **ragam-talam** » 24 Jun 2009, 01:28

Came across this lovely video clip of Shantha Apte's singing (from way back in 1937!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMSIr4Om36Y

Would like to learn about this wonderful artiste. Anyone has more of her recordings?

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 24 Jun 2009, 08:52

This must have been one of her earlier films. She was a top star in the forties.
You say this is from 1937? Even in a film (always fashion setters), you can see that the choli hasn't made its appearance yet. Blouses were worn long. And school boys wore panca kaccam (taTTu suTRu in the south)! The teacher playing a plate on a gramaphone must have amazed children. What a wonder machine! She is possibly wearing a karachi silk sari....

gobilalitha · Post by **gobilalitha** » 24 Jun 2009, 10:18

starred in Sakuntalai OR Savitri along with LEGEND ,MSS. Songs 'ADUVOM VARUNGAL BANKIYARE, MAYE ENADHU THAYE' WERE SUNG BY SHANTA APTE, Cds may be available from AIR's archives gobilalitha.

Lakshman · Post by **Lakshman** » 24 Jun 2009, 18:06

lyrics for some of her songs are here:

http://smriti.com/hindi-songs/name-shanta-apte

ragam-talam · Post by **ragam-talam** » 14 Jul 2009, 03:30

One more song of Shantha Apte:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1Kbndtn5_U

Lovely song. Did she sing these songs herself?

Lakshman · Post by **Lakshman** » 14 Jul 2009, 21:53

Shanta Apte was a good singer.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 15 Jul 2009, 20:49

And in those early years, playback singing was unheard of. The first qualification a star had to have was to possess a good voice and have the ability to sing.

ragam-talam · Post by **ragam-talam** » 18 Jul 2009, 13:57

Approximately when did playback singing take off in Indian movies? 1950s?

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 20 Jul 2009, 08:11

I guess so. There was Bhanumati who sang beautifully and continued to do so even after the advent of playback singing. There was a period when both original singing and 'playback' existed together. Then it all changed. Vyjayantimala who sang very sweetly, mimed the words to the voice of Lata, Asha and others.
Bhanumati, Vasundara Devi, T.R. Rajakumari are a few original singers I can think of. Needless to say, MSS, NCV and KBS sang their own songs!

ragam-talam · Post by **ragam-talam** » 11 Aug 2009, 02:44

Arasi, is this the Banumathi you refer to above?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6El-YIeRP4

Beautiful singing indeed!

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 11 Aug 2009, 09:39

ragam-talam,
The one and only Bhanumati! I am glad you enjoyed her singing of kApi, tilang, yamuna kalyaNi or the imported managamma sabatam tune in telugu (in tamizh sung by Vasundara Devi-Vyjayanti's mother playing the lead against the same male lead--Ranjan.
Thanks to you, I had a generous helping of her singing--and that flicker in her voice! She could dance, wrote (poems, songs, scripts and stories too), produced and directed films with her husband, owned the Bharani studio and was a vivacious personality. A sakala kalA vallavaL.
Look at all her leading men! NTR, Nageswwara Rao and MGR looking young and handsome!
By the way, she had a say in her costumes as well, I think. She had good taste and often wore a gold dotted blouse or skirt, oDDiyANam (belt) and the braid jewel (tirugup pU). You will see her costumes to be refreshingly different from her contemporaries who were dressed by the studio's dress department!
She does not sing in the Mandiri Kumari clip with MGR (cidambaram Jayaraman singing) ?? ettanai kAlamdAn EmATruvAr. She sings very appealingly in her other two hits too--Malleswari and Malaik kaLLan.

ragam-talam · Post by **ragam-talam** » 11 Aug 2009, 11:58

Arasi - I agree with you, that flicker in her voice is awesome! I too watched some of the other video clips, and she is quite good both in her acting and singing.

Found this Wiki entry on her: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhanumathi_Ramakrishna
Her career is quite impressive, especially her philanthropist work. Apparently she passed away as recently as in 2005. A great soul indeed.