He made waves with children
SUGANTHY KRISHNAMACHARI
| Koothapiran struck instant rapport with the young participants, who called him Vanoli Anna. |
CHILDREN’S COMRADE: Koothapiran. (Right) Vignettes from his album. The last picture shows Mandolin Shrinivas and Arun Prakash performing for Paappa Malar.
“My father, Vittal Iyer, was a mridangam vidwan at Kalakshetra. I therefore had the good fortune of listening to the arangetram of Mysore Vasudevachar’s compositions at Kalakshetra. As soon as a kriti was ready, MDR, Mani Perundevi (Mani Krishnaswamy) or D. Pasupathi would sing it,” says Natarajan. Attending programmes at Kalakshetra gave Natarajan a taste for the fine arts, early on. While his brother learnt Bharatanatyam, Natarajan was attracted to the stage. He would walk all the way from Adyar to Teynampet Congress Grounds to watch plays staged by Nawab Rajamanickam Pillai and T.K.S. Brothers. “A ticket cost only twenty five paise in those days,” he says. “Even a balcony ticket in R.R. Sabha cost only 50 paise.”
Having decided to have a shot at writing plays, Natarajan gave himself a pseudonym. “What better pseudonym than Koothapiran, the Tamil equivalent of Natarajan?” he asks. Although he started out as a writer, Koothapiran later began to act too. He trained under actor/director Paul Storm at Kalakshetra. Today, Koothapiran’s whole family is involved with the stage one way or the other.
The stage brought him into contact with writers such as Sujatha, Savi, Marina, Bhagirathan, Akhilan and with Poornam Viswanathan.
The stage also got him his job. All India Radio was looking for good voices. No formal qualifications were needed, said the advertisement. So Koothapiran, who had learnt voice modulation on the stage, attended the interview, and was selected. He was asked how quickly he could translate from English to Tamil. Koothapiran admitted that he did not know English, but was willing to learn. How long did it take him to learn English? “At first it took me 20 minutes to translate a weather bulletin. Later on, I just translated live, as I read the news!”
But Koothapiran is more famous for the children’s programmes he produced. How did he get involved in these programmes?
“I had always wanted to involve children in theatre. So I started a club for children called Adyar Siruvar Sangam. My first play for these kids was ‘Amma Sol Amritam,’ which they enacted in 1955 at the Kuzhandaigal Nataka Vizha, inaugurated by Rajaji. Our play was adjudged the best. Incidentally, the club still functions and is managed by my brother.”
“I joined AIR to assist in children’s programmes, besides announcing other programmes. AIR had four programmes for children — Siruvar Solai, Paappa Malar, Muthukuvial, and Mazhalai Amudam. The guidance of Ayyasamy, who was in charge of these programmes was invaluable. Of course, my stage experience also helped,” Koothapiran adds.
Paappa Malar
But wasn’t Paappa Malar the most popular? “Yes. That’s because it was broadcast at a convenient time — 2.10 p.m. on Sunday.” And it was Paappa Malar, whose signature song was sung by K. Jayashree, that made Koothapiran famous as Vanoli Anna.
“In those days even children’s programmes were live. Only towards the end of my tenure did we begin to have recorded programmes.” Children are unpredictable, and from Koothapiran’s recollections it is obvious that this added to the humour quotient in Paappa Malar. He tells of a girl who, during the rehearsals, did a song routine. But when the programme went on air, she changed her mind and said she would tell a story instead. “Once upon a time there was a king. He died,” she said. Koothapiran asked her to continue with the story. “How can I continue, now that the king is dead?” she retorted!
There were touching moments too. Koothapiran toured many villages so that children there could participate in Paappa Malar. On one such visit, a boy came for the rehearsal in a striped shirt. A little later another boy, who looked a lot like the first, came in the same shirt. “Now look here. You were here awhile ago. I recognise that shirt. You can’t have two chances,” Koothapiran said sternly. The boy replied, “The boy who came earlier is my brother. I too want to be in Paappa Malar. But we only have one shirt between us. So once he finished, he passed it on to me.” Azha Valliappa said in an interview, that it was Koothapiran who had written the maximum number of plays for children.
Children could send in their date of birth to Vanoli Anna, and he would greet them on their birthdays. “Even now, people in their fifties, who took part in Paappa Malar programmes, address me as Vanoli Anna,” Koothapiran beams. Koothapiran auditioned Sudha Raghunathan, Mandolin Shrinivas, Embar Kannan, S.P. Ramh, Arun Prakash, when they were child artists.
Unforgettable moments in All India Radio? “Many, but to me it is most significant that the very first announcement I made was for an Ariyakkudi concert, and my last was for a KVN concert,” signs off Koothapiran.
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