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T. R. Mahalingam
T. R. Mahalingam in 1950s
Born	(1924-06-16)16 June 1924 Thenkarai,Sholavandan,Madurai,India
Died	21 April 1978(1978-04-21) (aged 53)
Known for	Actor Playback singer

Thenkarai Ramakrishna Mahalingam (16 June 1924 – 21 April 1978)^[1] born in Sholavandan Thenkarai was an Indian actor and playback singer of the 1940s and 1950s. He was known for his melodious songs mostly based on romantic or devotional themes.

Mahalingam's career as an actor and singer began since his childhood. He regularly appeared in stage plays popularly called special dramas. Mahalingam trained as a singer during the time when microphones and amplifiers were rarely present in performance halls. His music training, like those of singersS. G. Kittappa, Krishnan,M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar and to a large extent TMS, stressed voice projection and singing loud so as to be audible in large auditoriums. So it was that in 1933, when the prominent singer Kittappa died at the early age of 28, Mahalingam got his first break in films.

In 1937, at the age of 14, Mahalingam got the chance to appear in the filmNandakumar, the third film produced by AVM. The film was based on the story ofLord Krishna wherein Mahalingam was chosen to play the lead role. The film failed at the box office in all the three languages (Tamil,Hindi andMarathi) in which it was made. Nevertheless, it received great accolades for its songs.

Mahalingam got his big break in the film Sri Valli made at the height of the Second World War, in which he played the part ofLord Murugan. The film did well at the box-office and established Mahalingam's reputation as both an actor and a singer.

Many music directors gave him memorable songs, includingS. V. Venkatraman,K. V. Mahadevan,Viswanathan–Ramamoorthy,G. Ramanathan, Sharma Brothers, T. A. Kalyanam,C. N. Pandurangan,Lalitha Venkatraman, T. Rajagopala Sarma,C. R. Subbaraman,T. G. Lingappa,S. Rajeswara Rao, R. Sudarsanam, andKunnakkudi Vaidyanathan.

While Mahalingam had many solo hit songs, he also sang with other singers.

He sang the most number of duets withS. Varalakshmi.

He also sang duets with other female singers:P. A. Periyanayaki,T. R. Rajakumari,P. Bhanumathi,T. V. Rathnam,A. P. Komala,Soolamangalam Jayalakshmi,Soolamangalam Rajalakshmi, T. S. Bagavathi,S. Janaki,P. Leela andP. Susheela.

He was also paired to sing with male singers such asSirkazhi Govindarajan andS. C. Krishnan.

• Detailed biography of actor T. R. MahalingamArchived 14 March 2008 at theWayback Machine
• Article on T. R. Mahalingam by Shaji
• T. R. Mahalingam atIMDb
• T. R. Mahalingam, the Actor Singer in My Movie Minutes

• 1924 births
• Indian male film actors
• Tamil-language playback singers
• 1978 deaths
• Tamil male actors
• 20th-century Indian male actors
• 20th-century Indian singers
• Indian male playback singers
• Indian male composers
• 20th-century Indian composers
• 20th-century Indian male singers

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