K Veeramani

K. Veeramani was born in 1936, to Bagirathi Ammal and M K Krishna Kunjaram Iyer. He was the younger of the two brothers. Their mother Baghirathi happened to be hearing impaired. His family was composed of generational singers, and he and his brother were proud members of the same lineage. Their great grandfather, Kavi Kunjara Bharathigal was a saint and had composed Azhagar Kuravanji, while their grandfather N. KoteeswaraIyer had composed 72 Mela Karta Raga on various deities.

His brother K. Somu was four years elder to him. He was taught Carnatic music from their uncle called Nagamani and were later formally trained by Seerkazhi Sadasivan Pillai. His brother had joined him in training. They began to collaborate and composed music in confluence. Their first piece had been composed for a Mercantile Bank office staff who were staging an amateur play titled Kadhalar Kangal. The troupe wanted Somu to draft the lyrics while both the brothers should produce the music.

Their piece was an instant hit with the audience, and soon the duo became famous. Within the duration ranging from 1952 to 1970, they had compositions of over 500 musical pieces to their credit. At the same time, they also sharpened their skills by training under GS Mani for Carnatic Music and Thanjai Balu for Drama music. The brothers seemed inseparable until one incident split them apart regarding their careers. When Somu joined the Manikanda Bhakta Samiti in 1960, he diverted his skills towards devotional outputs, while Veeramani continued to sing songs for films and ended up joining MSV’s troupe.

On one such performance for MSV, he managed to catch the attention of MGR. He was so impressed by Veeramani’s performance that in 1987, he awarded him the prestigious title of Kalaimamani. His performance in movies like ‘Thani Kudithanam’ and ‘Kandhar Alankaram’ had been greatly praised. In 1971, he too had the call of devotion and started off a life of devotional singing. He began on a pilgrimage to Sabarimala accompanied with MN Nambiar Guruswamy. The brothers had gained so much fame that they had been attributed to over 6000 performances. They traveled excessively not just in India but also reached on foreign lands like Singapore and Malaysia.

The brothers even performed in front of the Tamil Nadu governor, Prabhudas Patwari, which turned out to be their most memorable performance. Veeramani had a rough spell of health, and after thorough check up, it had been detected that he had infections and also blood cancer. What was worse was that his cancer had reached its advanced stages. The last performance the brothers gave as a musical duo was at the Meenakshi Amman Temple in Madurai on September 25, 1990. Following the performance, Veeramani passed away on October 29 of the same year.

Veeramani Family Tree (Infographic Family Tree)