A. M. Rajah was born on 1 July 1929 in Ramapuram village,
Chittoor District,
Andhra Pradesh. His father died when he was three months old and the family moved to Renukapuram then. He graduated
Pachaiyappa's College with a
Bachelor of Arts.
Early career Whilst attending university, Rajah wrote, composed, and sang two songs in
Telugu with the instrumental support of the music director
K. V. Mahadevan for
His Master's Voice. These songs were broadcast by
All India Radio whereupon they caught the attention of
S. S. Vasan. After listening to these songs, Vasan, with the approval of his music directors
Emani Sankara Sastry, and
Kalki Krishnamurthy, booked Rajah for his upcoming film,
Samsaram. By this time Rajah was also recording songs for the films
Rajambal and
Kumaari (for
M. G. Ramachandran). His first Telugu film was
Adarsham (1952). He also acted and sang in
Pakkinti Ammayi (1953). His first song in Malayalam was for
Lokaneethi (1952). In 1953, Rajah and
Jikki were chosen by
Shankar Jaikishan and
Raj Kapoor for the multilingual film
Aah. Rajah also sang in a few Sinhala films produced in Chennai and
Sri Lanka with Jikki and
K. Jamuna Rani. Rajah's exit from the film world was controversial. He fell out with a number of music composers and developed a reputation for being difficult to work with. He was direct and had his own strong opinions about how songs must be composed and sung. Mahadevan was the first to openly drop him after recording the song "Kayile Inippathenna, Kaniyanal Kasappathenna", which was followed by a heated argument on the set of
Manamulla Maru Tharam (1958). It was also known in the cinema circles that
M. S. Viswanathan always resisted using Rajah in his films after their collaboration in
Genoa. Film critics noted that he was his own worst enemy. However, he continued to sing for Malayalam films longer where particularly
G. Devarajan was able to coax Rajah to sing from time to time. Rajah however continued to reside in Chennai. It is noteworthy that
G. Devarajan mentioned in his book that not only Rajah was an excellent melodious singer, but also of a straightforward character often misunderstood. Most composers called him an arrogant cynic. Rajah made a comeback in the 1970s through composers
V. Kumar and
Shankar–Ganesh, and the songs were amongst the hits of the respective years.
Music composer Rajah was booked early in his cinema life as one of the music composers, but he passed the opportunity to Viswanathan. Rajah's debut as music composer was for
Sobha (1958). It was
C. V. Sridhar who gave his friend the second break to be a music director, fulfilling his promise that the day he directed his first film, Rajah would be its music director. The film was
Kalyana Parisu (1959). Rajah received the Madras Film Fans Association award of Best Music Director in 1959 for this film. In the same year he composed music for
Anbukkor Anni (1958). Sridhar and Rajah thereafter collaborated on
Vidivelli (1960) and
Then Nilavu (1961). They separated after the film was completed and Rajah refused to do the background music, but eventually did under pressure from mutual friends; Sridhar wanted to go back to Rajah for
Nenjil Or Alayam (1962), but he refused. He then composed music for
Aadi Perukku (1962). In the 1970s, he composed music for films
Amma Enna Stree(Malayalam-1970),
Veetu Mapillai (Tamil-1973) and
Enakkoru Magan Pirappan (Tamil-1975). ==Death==