Suseela sings Kalaignar's song as CM Stalin presents award; poet Mu Metha too honoured

CHENNAI: Chief Minister MK Stalin on Friday distributed the Kalaignar Memorial Kalaithurai Vithagar Awards for 2023 to legendary playback singer P Suseela and eminent Tamil poet Muhammed Metha at the State Secretariat.

A wheel-chair bound Suseela received the award and sang a few lines of the song ‘Kagitha Odam Kadalalai Meethu’, a favourite number of Stalin's penned by his late father and former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi for the movie 'Marakka Mudiyuma'. Suseela also sang the Tamil Thai Vaalthu (the official invocation song of the Tamil Nadu government) for the CM in the latter's chamber at the Secretariat.

The chief minister also distributed the Kalaignar Memorial Kalaithurai Vithagar Award to Sahitya Akademi award-winning Tamil poet Mu Metha.

The awardees were given a Rs 10 lakh cheque and memento each by the CM.

Instituted in the name of former chief minister M Karunanidhi in 2022 to honour lifetime achievers in Tamil cinema, the Kalaignar Memorial Kalaithurai Vithagar Award is distributed every year on June 3, the birth anniversary of Karunanidhi.

A committee helmed by veteran director S P Muthuraman had selected the 2022 award which was presented to acclaimed screenplay writer Aaroor Dass aka ‘Tiruvarur’ Dass who wrote the screenplay and dialogues for over 1,000 Tamil films including Pasamalar and Anbe Va. He passed away at 91 later that year.

Playback singer P Suseela was born in Vizianagaram on November 13, 1935. She has sung over 25,000 songs for Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films, and holds a Guinness Book of World Records for singing most songs in Indian languages. She was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2009.

Born in Periyakulam on September 5, 1945, poet Muhammed Metha served as a Tamil professor at the Presidency College for decades and has authored several poems, short stories, novels and essays besides writing lyrics for over 70 movies.

Metha won his first award for the book 'Oorvalam'. He has won many laurels including the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award for his work 'Agayathukku Adutha Veedu' in 2006.

(With Online Desk inputs)