Legendary singer S P Balasubrahmanyam dies

Chennai: Celebrated singer Sripathi Paditha Arathyula Balasubramaniam died in a Chennai hospital after almost two months of treatment. He was 74.

The death occurred at 1:04 pm on September 25, 2020 in the MGM Healthcare.

Balasubrahmanyam was hospitalized in August after testing positive for Covid-19, and while he reportedly did well initially, he took a turn for the worse, and was put on a ventilator.

On September 7, he tested negative for Covid-19 but continued to be on ventilator.

Popularly known as SPB, Balasubrahmanyam made his singing début in 1966 with Telugu movie Sri Sri Sri Maryada Ramanna. He has sung more than 40,000 songs in as many as 16 languages including Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, and Hindi.

Balasubrahmanyam was also a voice-over artist for actor Kamal Hassan, whenever the latter’s Tamil movies were dubbed in Telugu. Balasubrahmanyam also acted in a few movies.

He is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter — both are playback singers.

Balasubrahmanyam sang thousands of songs for five decades for generations of actors — from MGR, Sivaji Ganesan and Gemini Ganesan — and was the winner of six national awards.

Paadum Nila (Singing Moon) as he was called by his fans, had a lilting voice with the finest traces of great singers. “His was a breeze-like voice of A.M Raja, with the softness of the P.B. Srinivas and the effortlessness of Mohamed Rafi,” said film music historian Vamanan.

His voice effortlessly captured varied human emotions and feelings. In one scene he would sing a spoof and in another scene, powerfully express the anguished mind as seen in Apoorva Sagodharargal. He acted in films such as Manathil Uruthi Vendum, Keladi Kanmani and Sikaram, besides scoring music for some films.

An extremely friendly man who enjoyed his moments with interviewers, SPB once said he was fond of life and never wanted to die.

SPB bagged his first national award for Sankarabharanam, even though all the songs in the Telugu film are based on pure Carnatic ragas. “Even SPB had apprehensions about taking on the assignment as he had no proper training in classical music. It was T.K. Pugazhlendhi, the assistant of music director K.V. Mahadevan, who persuaded SPB to render the songs,” said Vamanan.

The second time, he won the award for his first Hindi song, Tere Mere Beech Mein in the film Ek Duuje Ke Liye. Two more awards came his way for the Telugu films Sagarasangamam and Rudraveena. Sangeetha Sagara Ganayogi Panchakshara Gavai, the Kannada film won him his fifth national award.

The award for Tamil films eluded him for many years even though his collaboration with music director Ilayaraja and M.S. Viswanathan had resulted in innumerable memorable duets, solos, folk songs, spoofs and songs with classical touches. He finally won it for the song Thanga Thamarai in the film Minsara Kanavu for which the music was scored by A.R. Rahman. SPB, in an interview, said Tamil films offered a lot of scenes and scope in which a song was perfectly suited, without any artificiality.

Born Sripathi Paditha Arathyula Balasubramaniam, in 1946, to Nelloor-based Harikatha exponent Sambamurthy, SPB’s ambition was to become an engineer. His failure to clear a subject in his PUC course forced him to pursue the now-defunct AMIE course in Chennai. But the music in his blood lured him towards singing competitions, and finally to the film world.

His talent was spotted by another playback singer and music director S.P. Kothandapani, who was sitting among the audience at a competition at the Andhra Social and Cultural Society and he provided him with an opportunity to sing in the Telugu film Sri Sri Mariatha Ramanna. SPB was one among four singers — S.P. Kothandapani, P. Susheela, P.B. Srinivas and Eelapada Raguramaiha — who rendered the ragamalika song, Emi Evindha Mogum.

Source: thehindu.com