Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer – Life & Music (EastWest, Westland Limited), as it’s title explicitly suggests is a book on Semmangudi’s life and his music. V. Sriram has written the “Life” part while V. Subrahmaniam, one of Semmangudi’s disciples, has written the “Music” part. Sriram writes admirably, as he always does, and cleverly sidesteps controversial issues. Subramaniam writes about the specialties of Semmangudi’s music – what gave him superstardom despite having a voice that was not problem free. This part, in my opinion, adds special value to the book. The text in the book is interspersed with a lot of photographs, many of which seem to be rare. Semmangudi’s life and music have taught and influenced me a lot and this book gives me another chance to look at the same from the eyes of the authors.
Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer – Life & Music
Published
Ramkumar R 
Ram,
The only problem with the book to me was that, the life part was very ordinary text book type narration. There isnt anything new in it, which is not heard already. I agree with the photographs, some of them are unseen earlier.
On the other hand, I liked the “MUSIC” part by V.Subramanian, with some insights to the masters preparation for the concerts et al.
Agree with you completely. I also didn’t find anything new in Sriram’s part. However, considering that it is a commemorative volume released during the centennary celebrations and considering that it comes very close to being a coffee table book, I felt Sriram has done justice to his part. Subrahmaniam’s part is what appealed more to me too.