The great Tamil literary figure, U. V. Swaminatha Iyer wrote two sources for Bhaarati's life: a biography of the composer and his own autobiography, which contains references to Bharathi, who was his guru in music.
Gopalakrishna Bharathi's kritis, portraying several musical facades, were extremely well received by the public and were sung in a number of concerts during his lifetime.
[citation needed] The Nandanar Caritram is a Kathakalakshepam, a genre of religious story-telling with music that was popular in Tamil Nadu in the 19th and early 20th centuries before the advent of film, especially the talkies.
He greatly feared that caste prejudice would prevent him from entering the temple, but his devotion overcame this obstacle, and he obtained his desire, becoming physically merged with Siva in a blaze of light.
The eminent Tamil literary scholar, Meenakshisundaram Pillai, however, criticised him for deviating from historical facts of the story, and for grammatical lapses.
The album of the film version starring the singer M. M. Dandapani Desikar as Nandanar (with music direction by Papanasam Sivan) remains popular.
Others argue that Nandanar, with his burning desire to see Shiva at Chidambaram, captured the mood and paralleled the aspirations of Indian nationalists yearning for independence from Britain.
Bharati's kathakalakshepams were so popular in Karaikal that several government officials would sleep at work after spending the whole night listening to his performances.