PV. Subramaniam, popularly known as Subbudu, one of the most colourful personalities in the field of music and dance criticism in the twentieth century, passed away on the evening of 29th March 2007 at his residence in Delhi. He had completed 90 years just two days earlier.

With a penchant for paan and pun, Subbudu was piercingly precise with his vitriolic pen, spicing the criticism with pungent comments as strong as the tobacco in his paan. He was a pioneer of sorts, establishing a new, exciting style of review writing, going much beyond the usual reporting style of listing the items in a concert. He often referred to the advice of his mentor, ‘Kalki’ Krishnamurthy, that “the review should be remembered and talked about more than the performance itself”. He believed in the power of the media and would often point out that the number of people reading the review was always much larger than those listening to the programme or witnessing the dance.