Thenkarai Ramakrishna Mahalingam was an Indianfilm actor, singer and music composer of the 1940s and 1950s. He was known for his melodious songs mostly based on romantic or devotional themes.
Early days
Mahalingam's career as an actor and singer began since his childhood. He regularly appeared in stage plays popularly called special dramas. Mahalingam trained as a singer during the time when microphones and amplifiers were rarely present in performance halls. His music training, like those of singers S. G. Kittappa, Krishnan, M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar and to a large extent TMS, stressed voice projection and singing loud so as to be audible in large auditoriums. So it was that in 1933, when the prominent singer Kittappa died at the early age of 28, Mahalingam got his first break in films..
Acting
In 1937, at the age of 14, Mahalingam got the chance to appear in the filmNandakumar, the third film produced by AVM. The film was based on the story of Lord Krishna wherein Mahalingam was chosen to play the lead role. The film failed at the box office in all the three languages in which it was made. Nevertheless, it received great accolades for its songs. Mahalingam got his big break in the film Sri Valli made at the height of the Second World War, in which he played the part of Lord Murugan. The film did well at the box-office and established Mahalingam's reputation as both an actor and a singer.
Music composers he sang for
Many music directors gave him memorable songs, including S. V. Venkatraman, K. V. Mahadevan, Viswanathan-Ramamoorthy, G. Ramanathan, Sharma Brothers, T. A. Kalyanam, C. N. Pandurangan, Lalitha Venkatraman, T. Rajagopala Sarma, C. R. Subburaman, T. G. Lingappa, S. Rajeswara Rao, R. Sudharsanam, and Kunnakkudi Vaidyanathan.
Playback singers he sang with
While Mahalingam had many solo hit songs, he also sang with other singers. He sang the most number of duets with S. Varalakshmi. He also sang duets with other female singers: P. A. Periyanayaki, T. R. Rajakumari, P. Bhanumathi, T. V. Rathinam, A. P. Komala, Soolamangalam Jayalakshmi, Soolamangalam Rajalakshmi, T. S. Bagavathi, S. Janaki, P. Leela and P. Suseela. He was also paired to sing with male singers such as Seerkazhi Govindarajan and S. C. Krishnan.
