S Sadanandam
He was 79. Sada, as he was known, first played for ‘Yaarukkaaga Azhudhaan’ (1966), a Jayakanthan film starring Nagesh and K R Vijaya.
“He was the heart in most of the maestro’s songs,” says composer C Sathya. “Sada Master is the reason why I love the guitar,” says music producer Subhasree Thanikachalam. Sadanandam’s introduction to the guitar came by chance. A musician once brought one to his brother, a mechanic, for repairs. Sadanandam began plucking its strings, until his brother scolded him. But by then Sadanandam was so fascinated by the instrument that he decided he wanted to learn to play. A decade later, he played for ‘Annakili’, Ilaiyaraaja’s debut as a composer, and remained in the maestro’s orchestra for more than five decades. His guitar helped make the background score of ‘Mouna Raagam’ inseparable from the film. In ‘Thendral vandhu ennai thodum’, musicians heard a guitar that sounded like a veena; in ‘Indha maan’ from ‘Karakattakaran’, he sounded two notes together, giving the melody fuller texture.
S Sadanandam, a self-taught guitarist whose strings, nylon and electric, ran through four decades of Ilaiyaraaja ’s film music, often without his name on the record, died in Chennai on Thursday of age-related health issues.