Tanguturi Suryakumari

Tanguturi Suryakumari. టంగుటూరి సూర్యకుమారి

Surya Kumari (Telugu: టంగుటూరి సూర్యకుమారి) (Tangutoori Suryakumari) (13 November 1925 in Rajamundry, India – 25 April 2005) was an Indian film singer, actress and dancer in Telugu cinema. She was the niece of Tanguturi Prakasam Pantulu. She has sung Maa Telugu Thalliki, the official song of the state Andhra Pradesh, India.

As an actress, She has won the Outer Critics Circle Award for best actress, for playing Queen Sudarshana, in Rabindranath Tagore’s Off-Broadway play The King Of The Dark Chamber in 1961.

She was a film star at the age of 12, when a special part was written into the film Vipranarayana (1937) to accommodate her singing talents.

Tanguturi Suryakumari’s next film Adrushtam was released in 1938 and became a hit. Her other films include Katakam (1948) and Samsara Nowka (1949). Katakam was at first a Tamil play based on a lesser – known William Shakespeare play Cymbeline. Suryakumari acted in the Tamil version of the film. Tanguturi Suryakumari later acted in some 25 films. Among these films, the ‘Devatha’ and ‘Raithu Bidda’ made film history and contributed to the Golden age of Telugu Cinema. In the film, ‘Krishna Prema’ by H. V. Babu, Suryakumari played the role of sage Narada. And it was first time in the history of Telugu cinema; a woman played the male role of Narada. In this film, for the first time, Surya Kumari’s Singing Talents were fully utilised as Narada and her performance won her many laurels. Tanguturi Suryakumari also acted in Hindi movies named ‘Watan’ (1954) and ‘UdanKatola’ (1955). In the second one, Tanguturi Suryakumari acted with Hindi movie icon Dilip Kumar and was nominated for Best Supporting Actress award in the Filmfare Awards.

Apart from her film career, Tanguturi Suryakumari was also well known for her private songs released as gramophone records and later as audiocassettes. The songs were melodious and had impressive lyrics. Her sweet voice added beauty to these songs. Tanguturi Suryakumari also sang some patriotic songs and in few of them Tanguturi Suryakumari praised Mahatma Gandhi. There were numerous songs sung by Suryakumari of which few of them are ‘Maa Telugu Talliki, Mallepoodhandalu, O Mahatma, Satapatra sundari, Maamidichettunu and others’. Tanguturi Suryakumari also sang in a feature-length documentary film about Mahatma Gandhi, which was made by a patriotic Tamil Writer and journalist, A.K. Chettiar.

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Wikipedia