KOCHI: For the common man in Kerala, Yesudas is a synonym for music. The average Malayali’s musical taste has been developed and refined by this one individual, more than anyone else over the past five decades. Yesudas completed 50 years of playback singing on Monday, November, 14, 2011. It was on this day, way back in 1961 that he recorded his first ever film song for ‘Kaalpaadukal’ under the baton of composer M B Srinivasan. And this is not a merely chronological completion of 50 years on the scene. All through these 50 years he has been active as a playback singer and carnatic vocalist. Over a decade back, when this writer interviewed him for ‘The New Indian Express’ in Chennai, he had said ,“Music is God’s gift. I put my heart and soul into it and leave the rest to God. It is He who decides whether I should perform well or not on any day. So I eliminate tension! It is not just the Malayali listener who adores him. With thousands of songs in all the other South Indian languages and Hindi films too, he has endeared himself to lovers of melody all over the country.Raju Bharatan, the doyen among Indian music critics described Yesudas in 1981 as ‘God’s own voice’. Composer Salil Chowdhury once described him as a synthesis of the qualities of Mohammed Rafi, Manna Dey, Hemant Kumar,Kishore Kumar, Talat Mehmood and Mukesh.Composers in all languages have marvelled at his quick grasp, the elastic range, classicism and expression. And the connoisseurs as well as the lay listeners go into raptures about his golden voice which is honey-sweet and yet packs in tremendous depth, plus flexibility and feel.Yesudas is the singer with the maximum number of National awards. He has won seven National Awards and scores of State awards in all the South Indian languages. Motivational speakers do not have to look anywhere else for an example of how a person who suffered initially, turned things around magically by the sheer weight of his talent. In 1958 All India Radio rejected Yesudas in an audition, citing the reason as an ‘inadequate voice’. Later he emerged as the most consistently-broadcast voice in AIR over the next 50 years! As a young music student Yesudas sought and failed to get a scholarship from the Sangeet Natak Academy and then went on to become the Chairman of this very Academy a decade later! The singer who had to borrow eighteen rupees for his train fare to Chennai( while going for his maiden recording) in 1961 went on to win in 1978 the honour of being the most frequent traveller on Indian Airlines in 1978 !
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