Remembering A.M. Rajah on his birth anniversary

Music composer and singer, A.M. Rajah was born in Andhra Pradesh on 1 July 1929. He completed his tertiary education in Chennai and began composing music while still studying at college and collaborated then with the great K.V. Mahadevan.

In 1950 he was introduced by S.S. Vasan of Gemini Studios as a playback singer. It was then that he met fellow singer, Jikki, whom he later married.

He made his debut as a music composer in the 1958 Telugu film, Shoba which had N.T. Rama Rao and Anjali Devi in the lead roles.

C.V. Sridhar made his directorial debut with the 1959 film Kalyana Parisu and signed his old friend, A.M. Rajah to score the music – a combination that created one of the most memorable albums of all time.

The two of them collaborated again in Vidi Velli and Then Nilavu, but a dispute arose between the two during the filming of Then Nilavu and this resulted in Rajah walking out of the project, returning only when coerced by a mutual friend to do the background score.

Unfortunately, A.M. Rajah had developed a bad reputation among music composers and film directors. He even had a heated arguyment with K.V. Mahadevan who had helped him when he was in college to start his music career. Even the ever humble and compassionate M.S. Viswanathan refused to work with him.

Despite this, Rajah had a relatively successful career and enjoyed a long and successful collaboration with Kerala’s G.Devarajan.

Rajah passed away on 08 April 1989 in a bizarre way: He was attempting to board a moving train, slipped and fell on the track. He was killed instantly. His wife, Jikki unfortunately witnessed the accident and was so traumatised by the event that she ended her singing career, returning only to sing for Illaiyaraja.