'Varnalaya' Kandaswamy lives at Ponnaiyarajapuram in Coimbatore. His clean and spartan residence is full of history.
'Varnalaya' Kandaswamy lives at Ponnaiyarajapuram in Coimbatore. His clean and spartan residence is full of history.
Yes, Kandaswamy has preserved a number of movie song books and magazines which are connected with Coimbatore. Kandaswamy established 'Varnalaya' in 1972 and has done a lot of work in all the four southern states of our country. His song book collection is impressive. He remembers every detail connected to movie releases in Coimbatore.
"Look at this song book from 1955. I remember going to this movie 'Mangaiyar Thilagam' with my sister. It was released in Raja Theater. The song book was priced at one and a half annas. The song books used to contains all the details pertaining to the movie in a comprehensive manner. The names of the actors, technicians, lyricists, singers and a synopsis of the story would find a place in them. Some of them used to carry an English version of the story too. The names of the producer, director, cinematographer, editor, music director would be found prominently while the complete list of people found in titles would also be disclosed. Attractive pictures and a hint about the forthcoming movies from the same company would be in the back wrapper. Pictures connected with the movie would be on the front wrapper. Every song will be accompanied with details and will announce the name of the composer and singers. These thin books were very much sought after and people used these song books while listening to the songs on gramophones or radios."
The collector has a huge collection of song books at his home and in his office as well. He has biographies of actors, producers, musicians and directors of the yonder era with him. Besides all this, Kandaswamy has a collection of Tamil magazines and bound copies of serialized stories from them. He has 'Ponniyin Selvan' with sketches in his collection. The song books have release dates on them and are like a small wiki chapter.
Kandaswamy spoke about a few of his clients while sharing his experiences, " Our company did a lot of outdoor work for many leading businesses in town. I remember Shanmughasundaram of Sharadha Cloth Centre. He was keenly interested in the promotion of education. Sri Rajeswari Hall was another big textile outlet and M.P. Ranganathan was well known. Royal Agencies Subramaniam was another important client. Ramoo & Co, Parasuraman used to discuss a number of political subjects and he was affiliated to the Swatantra Party. T.P.Krishnan of Rajendra Textiles used to talk in a respectful manner to everyone. Muhammad Ghani Rowther of Shobha Cloth Centre was a successful retailer. ICS was a multi state client. Rajagopal Naidu of ICS used to give us work all over the south and we used to make hoardings for his company in all the four languages of the south. K.P.Subbian of Sri Lakshmi Jewellery was a friendly person. He was known for his humble behavior and would offer coffee to all his guests. P.A.R.Viswanathan Chettiar was the other big man those days and he was our client. Many of the shop name boards and hoardings were done by us. I began my career by sourcing grapes from Bengaluru for a Coimbatore based trading company in the year 1966. Later on I worked with a few firms and began to draw simple boards. I am more of a director of work than an artist."
The book collection includes magazines from the year 1934. Ananda Vikatan, Kalki, Gundoosi, Gangai , Amuthasurabhi etc., are part of his collection. Kandaswamy becomes an excited child while showing off Coimbatore connected advertisements, "See the advertisement of Asoka Betelnut Company. It contains a map of the undivided India and states that it has its market spread far and wide positively like the empire of Samrat Asoka. Look at this advertisement of K.R & Sons which was established in 1934. Their renovated showroom was inaugurated by Diwan Bahadur C.S.Rathinasabapathy Mudaliar and a silver lock was presented to him on the occasion. Stanes Tea & Coffee was popular those days and had been a big advertiser for years. P.A.Raju Chettiar & Brother was known for their full page advertisements and movie actors were part of the campaign. Perhaps they were the pioneers who used movie stars as brand ambassadors in the jewellery business. The note of Dr.R.K.Shanmukham Chetty is found in the column ' Boo Pradakshinam' . it talks about the completion of his term as the Diwan of Cochin. Kesavardhini Oil of Coimbatore features in a number of advertisements. Of course ACC has a space too for it spoke about concrete roads in its advertisements. I become very nostalgic while glancing through the Coimbatore based advertisements in the olden days magazines. The old retailers and advertisers of Coimbatore were second to none in terms of creativity or courage to spend. All of them were visionaries. If not for them, the city would not have become a retail or trading hub."
One of the song books has the name of the iconic 'Central Studios' printed on it. The movie was 'Shaliwahan' and it was directed by B.N.Rao. "You see that Ranjan was Shalivahan the hero and according to the story his opponent was Vikramadityan. M.G.Ramachandran played the role of the villain Vikramadityan. Look at the advertisement of Alibabavum 40 Thirudargalum, it just carries a picture of just the heroine Bhanumathi.
It was a time when the producing company Modern Theatres had an issue with M.G.R ! A wonderful picture of the deity Marudachalamurthy of Marudamalai by Silpi ( famous artist ) is found on the back wrapper in one of the song books. One of the magazines carried articles connected with Tamil Thatha U.Ve. Swaminatha Iyer and he was well known to our own T.A.Ramalingam Chettiar," smiled Kandaswamy while browsing through his collection.
A few of the advertisements are connected with 'temple entry' and they stated that the socially downtrodden should not be prevented from entering the temples. One another advertisement announces the arrival of the metric system. Earlier people were using the F.P.S ( Foot, Pound, Second ) system and the Indian Government brought in the M.K.S ( Metre, Kilogram, Second ) system.
It must have caused quite a bit of confusion in the year 1958, however people had accepted the change with grace for it was in their interest. Thankfully politics had not played its role then. Marketing the book Vatsyana's 'Kamasutiram' was the focus of one of the advertisements. Further, the advertisement had an undertaking attached to it. According to the same, the buyer has to add personal details while guaranteeing that he or she will not sell or lend their copy !
M.S.Subbulakshmi seems to have been ever busy raising money for social causes. Two advertisements solicit contributions. One of them was for a girls school at Tiruvallikeni and another was for the Jabalpur Education Society building fund. 'Kovai' Dakshinamurthy had been the violinist for this fundraiser. The tickets were priced upto Rs.100 for men, however the peak price was Rs.10 for women. The All India Handicrafts Board advertisement is found on all the magazines. Its amazing to look at the prize money announced by Ananda Vikatan for their long story/ novel contests. The prize was a whopping Rs.10000 more than 60 years ago.
Varnalaya Kandaswamy was eager to share details about the huge prizes that were doled out for solving cross word puzzles, "Those days these contests were known as 'Pagutharivu Poty'. Huge prizes were given to the people who solved them. Early birdwinners, group winners and individual winners were listed in the magazines. In one case we get too see Rs.178 and Annas 8 given to 56 people which came up to Rs.10000. A princely sum for the period. The Naradar Chithra Poty with pictures was also popular. You can see this trend from 1934 onwards. In some cases the amount has been as high as Rs.18000 as total prize money much before independence. Gold chains, cycles and radios were also given as prizes . The prizes were picked under supervision. One could participate with just the magazine and or with the aid of a ticket or coupon which had to be bought. The names of the winners were displayed prominently."
The book cum magazine collector 'Varnalaya' Kandaswamy and his wife K.Baby have done a great service by collecting and maintaining old magazines and books with details about Coimbatoreans and Coimbatore based business enterprises. Its Coimbatore, Coimbatore everywhere.
Yes, Kandaswamy has preserved a number of movie song books and magazines which are connected with Coimbatore. Kandaswamy established 'Varnalaya' in 1972 and has done a lot of work in all the four southern states of our country. His song book collection is impressive. He remembers every detail connected to movie releases in Coimbatore.
"Look at this song book from 1955. I remember going to this movie 'Mangaiyar Thilagam' with my sister. It was released in Raja Theater. The song book was priced at one and a half annas. The song books used to contains all the details pertaining to the movie in a comprehensive manner. The names of the actors, technicians, lyricists, singers and a synopsis of the story would find a place in them. Some of them used to carry an English version of the story too. The names of the producer, director, cinematographer, editor, music director would be found prominently while the complete list of people found in titles would also be disclosed. Attractive pictures and a hint about the forthcoming movies from the same company would be in the back wrapper. Pictures connected with the movie would be on the front wrapper. Every song will be accompanied with details and will announce the name of the composer and singers. These thin books were very much sought after and people used these song books while listening to the songs on gramophones or radios."
The collector has a huge collection of song books at his home and in his office as well. He has biographies of actors, producers, musicians and directors of the yonder era with him. Besides all this, Kandaswamy has a collection of Tamil magazines and bound copies of serialized stories from them. He has 'Ponniyin Selvan' with sketches in his collection. The song books have release dates on them and are like a small wiki chapter.
Kandaswamy spoke about a few of his clients while sharing his experiences, " Our company did a lot of outdoor work for many leading businesses in town. I remember Shanmughasundaram of Sharadha Cloth Centre. He was keenly interested in the promotion of education. Sri Rajeswari Hall was another big textile outlet and M.P. Ranganathan was well known. Royal Agencies Subramaniam was another important client. Ramoo & Co, Parasuraman used to discuss a number of political subjects and he was affiliated to the Swatantra Party. T.P.Krishnan of Rajendra Textiles used to talk in a respectful manner to everyone. Muhammad Ghani Rowther of Shobha Cloth Centre was a successful retailer. ICS was a multi state client. Rajagopal Naidu of ICS used to give us work all over the south and we used to make hoardings for his company in all the four languages of the south. K.P.Subbian of Sri Lakshmi Jewellery was a friendly person. He was known for his humble behavior and would offer coffee to all his guests. P.A.R.Viswanathan Chettiar was the other big man those days and he was our client. Many of the shop name boards and hoardings were done by us. I began my career by sourcing grapes from Bengaluru for a Coimbatore based trading company in the year 1966. Later on I worked with a few firms and began to draw simple boards. I am more of a director of work than an artist."
The book collection includes magazines from the year 1934. Ananda Vikatan, Kalki, Gundoosi, Gangai , Amuthasurabhi etc., are part of his collection. Kandaswamy becomes an excited child while showing off Coimbatore connected advertisements, "See the advertisement of Asoka Betelnut Company. It contains a map of the undivided India and states that it has its market spread far and wide positively like the empire of Samrat Asoka. Look at this advertisement of K.R & Sons which was established in 1934. Their renovated showroom was inaugurated by Diwan Bahadur C.S.Rathinasabapathy Mudaliar and a silver lock was presented to him on the occasion. Stanes Tea & Coffee was popular those days and had been a big advertiser for years. P.A.Raju Chettiar & Brother was known for their full page advertisements and movie actors were part of the campaign. Perhaps they were the pioneers who used movie stars as brand ambassadors in the jewellery business. The note of Dr.R.K.Shanmukham Chetty is found in the column ' Boo Pradakshinam' . it talks about the completion of his term as the Diwan of Cochin. Kesavardhini Oil of Coimbatore features in a number of advertisements. Of course ACC has a space too for it spoke about concrete roads in its advertisements. I become very nostalgic while glancing through the Coimbatore based advertisements in the olden days magazines. The old retailers and advertisers of Coimbatore were second to none in terms of creativity or courage to spend. All of them were visionaries. If not for them, the city would not have become a retail or trading hub."
One of the song books has the name of the iconic 'Central Studios' printed on it. The movie was 'Shaliwahan' and it was directed by B.N.Rao. "You see that Ranjan was Shalivahan the hero and according to the story his opponent was Vikramadityan. M.G.Ramachandran played the role of the villain Vikramadityan. Look at the advertisement of Alibabavum 40 Thirudargalum, it just carries a picture of just the heroine Bhanumathi.
It was a time when the producing company Modern Theatres had an issue with M.G.R ! A wonderful picture of the deity Marudachalamurthy of Marudamalai by Silpi ( famous artist ) is found on the back wrapper in one of the song books. One of the magazines carried articles connected with Tamil Thatha U.Ve. Swaminatha Iyer and he was well known to our own T.A.Ramalingam Chettiar," smiled Kandaswamy while browsing through his collection.
A few of the advertisements are connected with 'temple entry' and they stated that the socially downtrodden should not be prevented from entering the temples. One another advertisement announces the arrival of the metric system. Earlier people were using the F.P.S ( Foot, Pound, Second ) system and the Indian Government brought in the M.K.S ( Metre, Kilogram, Second ) system.
It must have caused quite a bit of confusion in the year 1958, however people had accepted the change with grace for it was in their interest. Thankfully politics had not played its role then. Marketing the book Vatsyana's 'Kamasutiram' was the focus of one of the advertisements. Further, the advertisement had an undertaking attached to it. According to the same, the buyer has to add personal details while guaranteeing that he or she will not sell or lend their copy !
M.S.Subbulakshmi seems to have been ever busy raising money for social causes. Two advertisements solicit contributions. One of them was for a girls school at Tiruvallikeni and another was for the Jabalpur Education Society building fund. 'Kovai' Dakshinamurthy had been the violinist for this fundraiser. The tickets were priced upto Rs.100 for men, however the peak price was Rs.10 for women. The All India Handicrafts Board advertisement is found on all the magazines. Its amazing to look at the prize money announced by Ananda Vikatan for their long story/ novel contests. The prize was a whopping Rs.10000 more than 60 years ago.
Varnalaya Kandaswamy was eager to share details about the huge prizes that were doled out for solving cross word puzzles, "Those days these contests were known as 'Pagutharivu Poty'. Huge prizes were given to the people who solved them. Early birdwinners, group winners and individual winners were listed in the magazines. In one case we get too see Rs.178 and Annas 8 given to 56 people which came up to Rs.10000. A princely sum for the period. The Naradar Chithra Poty with pictures was also popular. You can see this trend from 1934 onwards. In some cases the amount has been as high as Rs.18000 as total prize money much before independence. Gold chains, cycles and radios were also given as prizes . The prizes were picked under supervision. One could participate with just the magazine and or with the aid of a ticket or coupon which had to be bought. The names of the winners were displayed prominently."
The book cum magazine collector 'Varnalaya' Kandaswamy and his wife K.Baby have done a great service by collecting and maintaining old magazines and books with details about Coimbatoreans and Coimbatore based business enterprises. Its Coimbatore, Coimbatore everywhere.