Sunday, January 18, 2009
K.R.Venugopal Sarma - Chronicles of his life
K.R.Venugopal Sarma
A Great Genius of India
Multifaceted persona
1908 – K.R.Venugopal Sarma was Born in Kamakshipatti, Salem district of Tamilnadu (Today, its in the border of Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts) on 17.12.1908 with a elder brother Sri.K.R.Subramanya Sarma and a elder sister Srimathi.Swarnamba. His Father’s name was Sri.Ramaswamy sarma and Mother’s name was Srimathi.Janaki ammal. In his affectionate and close knitted family, one of his paternal uncle Mr.Venkatasubramanyam honored with “Bharathi” award for his immense talent in Tamil literature by Maharaja of Ettayapuram, Tirunelveli. K.R.V.Sarma lost his father at his early period of childhood and brought up by his mother In his childhood . At his age of three, he suffered with severe pneumonia fever and was immobilized upto his age of eight. Since, he didn’t attend any school and didn’t attained any academic qualification. Through his grand father Mr.Seshagiri sarma and his paternal uncle Mr.Venkatasubramania bharathi, he observed the supremacy of language of Tamil and Sanskrit.
1920 – family members found K.R.V.Sarma amazing talent of imitating the various sounds of animals and nature from him and they encouraged him.
1925 – K.R.V.Sarma traveled alone to Mysore to attend the celebration of Dasara as a youngest “Vikatakavi” of that samasthan . At the opening ceremony he started compete with other artist and he recited “Thodi” raga through his vocal chord in the tone of nadhaswara. After saw his remarkable talent at his young age, Maharaja called him and made him sit on his lap and honoured him with a gold medal. Henceforth, he became a renowned royal court artist of the assembly and maharaja gave him title “BALA VIKATAKAVI” of Mysore Samasthan. He stayed there in palace with Maharaja and the Maharaja gave him permission with affection to go to other samasthan to prove his talent . On that time, the Maharaja of Gadhwal Samasthan invited him and he went there. He entered as a official “Vikatakavi” of royal assembly of Gadhwal, and with his immense talent of mimicry, there he created so many animal and nature sounds through his vocal chords in front of high talented artists. By the order of Maharaja, K.R.V.Sarma trained the skill of mimicry to detectives (Spy) of samasthan. Particularly, he mastered the roaring sound of lion and various sounds of birds and all the domestic animals like horses and donkeys including wild animals.
1930 – K.R.V.Sarma returned to Salem and started observe the wonderful skill of painting from his elder brother Sri.Subramaniam. K.R.V.Sarma started practice painting on his own and in this period of time he decided to sketch a universal image of The Tamil poet Saint.Thiruvalluvar. He started sketch of Thiruvalluavar in various angels and forms. K.R.V.Sarma avoided marital life and he spent his most of the time in sketching a image for Thiruvalluavar. He sketched many images and erased since didn’t get the complete satisfaction on his sketched image of the saint.
1935 – The proprietor of Modern theatres, film director Sri.Sundaram invited him to join in his ventures in a friendly manner. K.R.V.Sarma joined with him and he involved in making of film “Mayamayavan”. In that film, Sri.Sundram recorded and used his talent of mimicry and Sarma gave his voice to dub in various scenes including a market scene. After involved in some more Tamil films, he also composed music and lyrics for Tamil films like “Abalai” (1940).
1937 – K.R.V.Sarma painted a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi and he presented to him in a meeting in 1937 at congress ground of Salem, Tamilnadu. Mahathma Gandhi appreciated the young genius painter for his extreme talent in front of the congress leaders Rajagopalachari and Sathyamurthy. Gandhji auctioned that portrait with permission of K.R.Venugopal sarma and he added the earned money for the relief fund of Quetta earth quake and Harijan welfare. (American lady journalist Mrs.Monica felton wrote this incident in her article titled “Story of stamp”, which was written on K.R.Venugopal Sarma and his portrait of Thiruvalluvar.)
1940 – At the end of the year 1940, K.R.V.Sarma traveled to Bombay to observe the latest technology of film industry to start a film studio for his own productions. There in Bombay, he got the enormous friendship with the film genius Sri.Bhagawandas who directed and acted in the films like “Geet govind”, “Heera” and “Satyawan savitri” etc.
1941 – At the end of the year 1941, K.R.V.Sarma purchased the “Chithrakala” studio in Madurai with his elder brother. There in Madurai, he met Mariappa swamigal and admired his singing talent. They both became good friends he decided to make a film with Mariappa swamigal.
1944 – K.R.V.Sarma handed over the Chithrakala studio to his friend and he came to Chennai. In Chennai, he started “Green pictures” studio in beach road of Marina (just opposite to All India Radio and the present place of Light house). There, he started plan to produce his dream venture “Nadhavijayam”. He introduced Sri.Mariappa swamigal as a hero and he shot most of that film (more than 19,000 feet) at Sopanachala studio (After named as Venus studio) and he recorded songs in Narasus studio. Also he acted in a main comedy role in that same film. Meanwhile, Sri.S.S.Vasan was involved in making of “Chandralekha” and during the shoot of the climax scenes (the familiar drum dance sequences), Sri.Vasan invited K.R.V.Sarma through Sri.Kothamangalam Subbu. He went for the discussion with Sri.Vasan and Sri.Vasan respected him for the ideas and designs given by him to shoot the “drum dance” in climax. In this period, Sri.Mariappa swamigal fell in illness and the film “Nadhavijayam” was completely stopped. Thus, He closed the studio without complete the movie in the absence of Sri.Mariappa swamigal.
1950 – K.R.V.Sarma went to Kottayam, Kerala to meet his long time friend and familiar actor Sri.Thikkurichi Sukumaran nair. Sri.Thikkurichi had great respect on the multi talents of him and he introduced him to a true Christian friend named Sri.Joseph at Kottayam. Sri.Joseph invited him to his house for next day prayer and he went there. There, he had a mysterious feel in his mind and that same night he saw a radiant and lively images of “Mother mary and infant Jesus” in his lonely room at Kottayam. Next day, when he met Sri.Joseph with Sri.Thikkurichi, he described the experience he had last night. Sri.Joseph was simply smiled and told to him that he had a dream last night like with same sequences. Joseph insisted Sarma to write a “Classical Ballet drama on Jesus christ in Tamil”. He urged him to go to Chennai immediately and he said that “In Chennai, plenty of great duties waiting for you”. He presented his new car to Sarma for his traveling to Chennai. While he was traveling, he decided to achieve his long time accomplishment of painting a universal image for saint Thiruvalluvar. He spent several months to finish the final pencil sketch of saint Thiruvalluvar and he started coloring the portrait to give a finishing touch for that lively portrait in multi colour.
1953 – Poet Bharathidasan used to meet him to discuss in various topics including Tamil literature. Bharthdasan published plenty of articles of K.R.Venugopal sarma in his magazine of “Kuyil”. In this time, he encouraged him to finish the portrait of Thiruvalluavar soon and he highly respected the skill of creativity of K.R.V.Sarma and the way he attained his ambition through his hard work.
1957 – K.R.V.Sarma invited the Chief minister of Tamilnadu Honarable Mr.K.Bhakthavatsalam and the Great leader and founder of political party DMK, Peraringnar C.N.Annadurai to get their opinion about the portrait painted by him. Annadurai amazed after seeing the aceivement of him and he proposed Chief minister Bhakthavatsalam to recognize the portrait as a official and recognized image of Saint Thiruvalluvar through issue the same image in Indian postal stamps. So, many celebrated personalities from various profession were greatly appreciated the achievement of him and they all participated in the grand function of unveiling the portrait of saint Thiruvalluvar which was held in Congress grounds of Teynampet, Chennai. Leader Annadurai appreciated K.R.V.Sarma for his achievement and the congress leader C.Subramanyam received the first copy of Saint.Thiruvalluvar from him in front all great leaders of Tamilnadu who all attended that function with great cheers. In that fuction, K.R.V.Sarma issued the souvenir and in that book, he explained the image of Thiruvalluvar which was painted by him in a detailed manner with scientific reasons.
1960 – The Government of India issued postal stamps with the image of saint Thiruvalluvar which was originally designed and painted by K.R.V.Sarma.
1961 – All India poastal union celebrated a function to honor him at V.O.Chidhambaram park in Coimbatore and Peraingar Annadurai attended the function as a chief guest. In that function, Annaduari granted the title “Oviyapperundhagai” to K.R.V.Sarma and he praised his enormous life time achievement.
1964 – K.R.V.Sarma was honored by the President of India Dr.Zaheer hussain in the legislative assembly of Tamilnadu for his life time acheivement. Through this occasion K.R.Venugopal Sarma earned the name that he was the only individual who honored in the legislative assembly in the history of India. Frequently, he was honored in that same assembly by the Governor of Tamilnadu Dr.Ujjail singh and Chief minister K.Bhakthavatsalam in front of all the Ministers, MLAs and the great leaders of Tamilnadu.
1965 – K.R.V.Sarma painted the icon of hindu godess Bhuvaneshwari and it was unveiled by “Prathivathi bhayankaram” Swami Annangarachariar at Madurai Meenakshi amman temple in front of Hindu personalities. After this occurrence, Kanchi matathipathi, Jagathguru Sri.Chandrasekarendra swami invited him to paint the icon of Goddess Kamakshi. Other then this, he also painted the image of the great karnatic musical saint Thyagabrahmam.
1966 – K.R.V.Sarma wrote and composed the life history of Jesus Christ in the form of Bharathanatya ballet and it was staged by the Bharatha natya guru Udipi Sri.Laxminarayanan. He also written and composed several musical opus for Bharathanatyam and those all staged by Udipi Sri.Laxminarayanan.
1967 – In the beginning of the year 1967, K.R.V.Sarma met Thapovanam Mahaguru His holiness Sri.Gnananadha swamigal and he painted his portrait on the requests of his devotees. In the beginning of this year he met Mrs.Mallika Sharma of Srirangam, Thiruchirappalli, Tamilnadu and they both loved each other, finally they married.
1967 – Chief minister of Tamilnadu C.N.Annadurai ordered all the government institutions to keep the portrait of Saint Thiruvalluvar in their office respectively and he requested K.R.V.Sarma to supply the portraits to all the offices in Tamilnadu. K.R.V.Sarma honoured by Chief minister of Tamilnadu as a special guest in the Tamil world conference.
1975 – K.R.V.Sarma designed and painted the image of saint Thiruvalluvar in standing posture for Tamilnadu government to being kept in Rajaji hall.
1976 – K.R.V.Sarma painted the portrait of Pasumpon Muthuramalinga thevar and Qaid de Millath and they were kept inside the hall of assembly of Tamilnadu. He was specially honored by the Chief minister of Tamilnadu Kalaignar.Karunanidhi in a government function for his achievements.
1979 – K.R.V.Sarma painted the image of Thamizhthai (Mother of Tamil) and Perarignar Annadurai to keep in Tamilnadu house at Delhi on request of Tamilnadu government.
1981 – K.R.V.Sarma was affected by stroke due to high blood preasure and he was paralyzed for eight years. Entirely in his life time, he painted only 19 pictures with his inventive skill and some of the concealed portraits of him is still secured by his sons.
1989 – On July 31st, K.R.Venugopal Sarma expired at his residence at the age of 81. The ministers, MLAs and important persons visited to his home and paid their homage to him. His family received plenty of condolences from through out the country and all the media including the leading news papers conveyed his greatness in various articles. At 1991, Tamilnadu government declared that the portrait of Saint Thiruvalluvar which was drawn by K.R.Venugopal Sarma is a national property and the government of Tamilnadu brought the whole rights of the portrait from the family of K.R.Venugopal Sarma.
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