T. R. Papa

T. R. Pappa
Birth name Sivasankaran
Born 1923
Origin Thiruthuraipoondi, Madras Presidency, British India
Occupations Film score composer, music director
Instruments Violin

Thiruthuraipoondi Radhakrishnan Pappa (Tamil: டி. ஆர். பாப்பா, 1923–2004) is a famous music director of Tamil, Telugu and Sinhalese movies. He was born in 1923 at Thiruthuraipoondi, Madras Presidency, British India.[1][2][3][4]

Contents

Early life

Papa's real name is Sivasankaran, who is from a lineage of musical family. He started training on the violin from early childhood.

Career Life

Papa started playing the violin in Modern Theatres and Jupiter Pictures. In the late 40s, Papa and T. K. Ramamoorthy were the highest paid violinists for the movies and were always in demand.

Papa became music director for Malayalam film Athmasanthi (1952). The chance was given to him by Joseph Thaliyath Jr of Citadel Film Corporation. This film is dubbed in Tamil under the same title.

Then onwards, Papa went on to compose for many of Citadel films such as Mallika, Vijayapuri Veeran, Vilakketriyaval, Iravum Pagalum and Kadhal Paduthum Paadu.

Papa also composed music for many Singhalese films. The song Siriyame Sara, sung by H. R. Jothipala is one of the popular hits in Sinnhalese.

As a Nilaya Vidwan of AIR from 1946, Papa accompanied the violin for many great classical vocalists. He composed music for many wonderful devotional albums with Sirkazhi Govindarajan where the song Chinnanjiru Penn Pole dedicated to the Goddess Abirami is notable. Papa scored music for the album Abirami Andhaadhi. Papa has served as the Principal of Madras Music College.

T. R. Ramanna and Papa were classmates in Thanjavur. T. R. Ramanna was in the midst of the making of Arunagirinathar when the music director G. Ramanathan fell ill. Papa was called upon to complete the rest of the songs. T. R. Ramana again engaged Papa for his movies in the early 1970s.

Tamizh Isai Sangam conferred the title ‘Isai Perarignar’ on him.

Works

Some of the notable music compositions:

Filmography

Tamil films:

References