A musical odyssey: Satchu Annamalai’s journey from choir boy to thriving artist

IN THE  vibrant community of Merebank, where dreams and aspirations intertwine with daily life, a remarkable story of passion and perseverance unfolds.

Satchu Annamalai, born and raised in this spirited neighbourhood, has forged a melodious journey that began at a tender age and has since evolved into a multifaceted career encompassing music, acting, and academia. And it all started with singing in a school choir.

Annamalai's love for music ignited when he was eight years old. As a shy youngster in Standard 1, he was chosen to join the school choir at Merebank State Aided Primary School. Under the guidance of Mrs S Naidoo, a music teacher, he discovered the magic of performance.

Though semi-retired, the performing arts veteran continues to embrace his passion for singing and has racked up a following on TikTok and Facebook. This has extended into him becoming an emcee and entertainer. Added to this, Annamalai continues to perform in stage productions, recently with the Dingalings, a Durban-based theatre group.

For him, performance runs through his veins.

"My music journey started when I was chosen, alongside another classmate, to sing in the school choir. I was in Standard 1 and eight years old. Mrs Naidoo spent a lot of time honing our singing skills. I remember the attention we received when we were invited to sing at city hall. It made such a huge impact on me that I still sing the songs we sang there - Three Drummer Boys and Kooka Burra."

Annamalai said his dad was the manager of the band, Jack and the Four Aces, and when the band practised at home, he was always close by listening and admiring how they created music.

He said the only people he knew at the time who played the guitar were two brothers, Alan and Jeffrey. They were older and although they knew only a few basic tunes and played them repeatedly, Annamalai wanted to know everything they knew and worried them to teach him. But there was a problem. There was one guitar and it had to be passed on to each of them to play.

"I was impatient to learn, and not having a guitar of my own frustrated me."

Annamalai had to take things into his own hands.

"I saved up my pocket money, took a bus to Clairwood, and bought my first guitar from Kazulas, a general dealer. For months I watched the brothers closely as they sat on their boundary wall and played. They showed me how to tune my guitar and play a few chords. As soon as I learnt something, I ran back home to practise, so I would not forget."

As time passed Annamalai learnt to play a few simple songs and the singing flowed naturally. He was later called on to join the popular Durban band the, Lingum Orchestra.

After he matriculated, his father encouraged him to study law at the University of Durban-Westville. But the advice he got from "other quarters" was that Indian lawyers were not in demand and he should reconsider registering for another course. This ended up being a BA degree with music as one of his majors.

"There is no other way to describe my time in the music department but loads of fun. I mostly bunked my theory lectures and happily attended my practicals. It was no wonder then that at the year end exams, I fared miserably, even though I excelled in my instrument practicals."

His favourite lecturer in the department, Mrs Laidlaw, then encouraged him to register in the drama department. She believed he had the aptitude to excel there.

"In 1980, I replaced music with drama as one of my majors. This marked a turning point in my career. I fully embraced my new career path, and was a constant in the drama productions at the Asoka Theatre for a number of years, playing the lead roles in many of them."

Passage to India was one of the first followed by various plays. Shakespearean plays like Macbeth and Hamlet dominated.

As the country ushered in democracy and the university opened its doors to all races, the productions also changed and reflected the transformation of the country. Playwright Ronnie Govender invited Annamalai to compose music and perform in his play, Inside, a spoof of the Tricameral parliament.

"I played the role of Bun Thrasee and contributed to the music. The play toured the length and breadth of KwaZulu-Natal and Johannesburg."

He also played the lead role in two of Professor Kriben Pillay's plays, Mr Bunsee is Dead and Looking for Muruga, at the Asoka Theatre.

A few years in the drama department and Annamalai was a confident and sought-after actor.

"I also held the position of drama tutor. By the time I completed my honours, I was writing my own lunch-time plays and staging them for students, all of them musical satires. Meenachie, My Dear Son Smokes Grass, My Mother is Racist, and Fish Curry are some of the titles. During this time, I formed a department showband called, Satchu & the Players. Members of the band hailed from various departments on the campus."

Annamalai thereafter registered for his Master's degree and his dissertation topic was based on the traditional dance drama, Therkoothu, popularly known as the "Six Foot Dance". These all-night performances were linked to religious festivals.

His research took him to remote parts of KZN and to villages in South India from where Therkoothu was brought over with the Indian immigrants. When he returned from a four month research trip to India, he directed a Therukoothu production at the Asoka Theatre, titled The Battle of Mayal Ravanan. This was designed to form part of his research for his degree.

Annamalai thereafter wrote and directed Three Hand Six Foot, an experimental piece which combined traditional performance with contemporary theatre. Much to his delight, the production was a success and led to him being invited to stage it in Rio de Janeiro as part of the Brazil-India Festival.

Something bigger was about to happen in the early 1990s. Annamalai, who lectured in radio and mass communication, landed a role in the Hollywood production, Ghost and the Darkness, alongside Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas. This catapulted him to new levels, he said.

"I was suddenly being asked to feature in various television ads and serials. The drama department also afforded me a number of opportunities, especially to work with talented music, dance and theatre personalities like professor Jay Pather, Dennis Schauffer and Suria Govender as well as Siva Devar and Muthal Naidoo." 

He said his doctoral dissertation, which was completed in the mid-90s, was a detailed documentation of the productions and theatre personalities he had worked with over the years.

"It showed how English theatre by South African Indians was influenced by the changing political climate."

After the closure of the drama department, Annamalai plunged into community activism, working wit schools and community organisations where he provided entertainment, facilitated workshops and co-ordinated community events.

In 2009, the course of his life changed - he contracted cancer and had a kidney removed.

"This messed up my mind considerably. Suddenly, I was having anxiety attacks and vertigo and other psychological issues. But I managed to overcome this challenging period, and in 2010, I released a commemorative music album, Chubhang Legacy 1. It did well after receiving considerable airplay on Lotus FM."

The same year, during the soccer world cup, Lotus FM hosted a song competition between Waka Waka, Raise your Flag, and Annamalai's Goolgoola Jive. He ended up winning the competition.

In an attempt to exploit the attention his music was receiving, he launched a family band, The Raasi Guys.

"My two sons played bass and drums and my daughter was on the keyboards and I played rhythm guitar and sang. This was another highlight as we received contracts to perform at various events. Unfortunately, during the Covid-19 pandemic the performing arts took a dive. I, however, used this as an opportunity to compose a series of short comedic songs for TikTok.

"This created a buzz and created a new fan base. In recent years, TikTok has become an important tool for artists. My presence on TikTok opened up a new path as I now received requests to compose songs for weddings, birthdays and other special events. I fully embraced this as composing music has always brought me immense joy.

"More recently, I joined the Dingalings in some of their comedy shows, contributing to both the drama and the music. A bonus was my involvement in the Lahnee’s Pleasure, which was directed by Yugan Naidoo and produced by the Dingalings. Lahnee’s Pleasure is another iconic South African play written by the late Ronnie Govender."

Today, Annamalai runs his own South Durban project, Life in the Park, which focuses on three critical areas: environment and human health, outdoor education and social cohesion, and he continues to assist community organisations and schools with entertainment, event coordination, team building, and facilitating workshops.

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