MUMBAI: NCPA is celebrating legendary vocalist Subbulakshmi’s glorious music career with the documentary, Music Mirror: Forever A Legend, which will be screened on 11 May 2018.
The biographical film traces the journey of the Nightingale of Indian music a title presented by legendary poet Sarojini Naidu, from a humble beginning in Madurai to performing at many national and international arenas including the UN General Assembly. A shade of blue was named after M. S. Subbulakshmi called the MS Blue and on her birth centenary, the United Nations issued a stamp in 2005 to honor the renowned singer. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru has conferred on her the title Queen of Music while Lata Mangeshkar called her Tapaswini (the Renunciate). She has has also been the recipient of various high ranking awards such as the Padma Bhushan, Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, Padma Vibhushan and many more.
Popularly known as M.S., late Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi was a legendary Carnatic South Indian vocalist, whose name is etched in golden letters in the history of Indian music. Her appealing voice, crystal clear enunciation and expressions, laden with devotion made her music truly divine. She is the first Indian musician to accept the Ramon Magsaysay award, renowned as Asia’s Nobel Prize and was also the first Indian musician to receive Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award.
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M. S. Subbulakshmi has been a part of the Board of Advisors at the NCPA and rubbed shoulders with the bigwigs of the performing arts and culture scene. She has been part of curated recordings at the Little Theatre. The Little Theatre was built as a multipurpose auditorium and a state-of-the-art recording studio and also its Archives are the world’s finest documentary resource for Indian music with over 5000 hours of audio recordings and 1200 hours of video footage. Archival footage acquired from these recordings has been used in the documentary and also captures a series of interviews with people who had the privilege of watching her from close quarters, and some rare footage of her concerts including devotional renderings in Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi and Bangla makes the documentary interesting.
