G. Ramanathan

G. Ramanathan
Native name	ஜி. இராமநாதன்
Also known as	GR
Born	Pichandarkoil, Srirangam, Madras Presidency, British India
Died	1963 Chennai, Madras State, India
Occupation(s)	Composer, music director
Instruments	Vocals (playback singing), keyboard/harmonium/piano
Years active	1940–1963
Labels	Isai Methai, Sangeetha Chakravarthy

Gobalsamy Ramanathan or G. Ramanathan (Tamil: ஜி. இராமநாதன்) was a music composer for Tamil movies. He is also known as Isai Methai (Genius of Music) or Sangeetha Chakravarthy (Emperor of Music) and is considered to be one of the influential Tamil music composers to take Carnatic music to the masses. Notable for his association with M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar. G. Ramanathan also composed for films of Salem Modern Theatres and Coimbatore Central Studios. His career lasted until his death in 1963. During the 1950s G.Ramanathan's music dominated most of the box office hits of the then leading Tamil movie stars Shivaji Ganesan and M. G. Ramachandran.

G. Ramanathan (GR) was born in Bikshandarkoil, Srirangam, Tamil Nadu, India. GR's father was Gobalsamy Iyer who worked as sub-inspector in the Indian Railways. GR studied till standard 5. He was married in 1942 and has two daughters-one is Sai and the other is Lakshmi.

He joined the Baratha Gana Saba, a drama troupe and played harmonium at the age of 18. Then he joined the V. A. Chellappa Drama company, and sang playback and played harmonium. In 1932, he first played musical instrument for a Tamil film called Kalavarishi which was produced in Calcutta.

In 1938 M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar produced Sathyaseelan in Bombay and GR became the music director for that film which followed by the Vipranarayana (old). The first film to be produced in Madras with GR as the music director was Poogailas, followed by Parasuraman and Boologa Rambai (old). GR was a resident music director for the Modern Theatres since the beginning except a few which were done by K. V. Mahadevan.

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