By the evening of January 10 KJ Yesudas was trending at the no.1 spot on both FB and Twitter. It was his 77th birthday and the glitterati and music lovers alike poured their love for him online with ample links of favourite songs to match. A Padma Bhushan awardee, Kerala State Singer and recipient of the National Award seven times in his glorious career, ‘Gaana Gandharva’ Kattassery Joseph Yesudas recently gave his regular classical music recital to a full house in the 2016 Margazhi season.
A voice which flows like water from a river on to the musical rocks of rhythm and melody, Yesudas is revered among singers for his sheer ability to lend a certain dignity to each song. Be it the peppy Rajinikanth number, Vachikkavaa unna mattum nenjukkulla from Nallavanukku Nallavan (1983) or his eternal best Yenn iniya ponn nilavey from Moodupani (1980 — Ilaiyaraaja’s 500th movie) Yesudas has an enviable repertoire with a voice that matched the soothing gentleman refrain of Mohd Rafi or
PB Srinivas.
A singing career which began in a few Malayalam films in the mid 60s found a slot to switch languages with the black and white number, Neeyum bommai naanum bommai, a song Yesudas sang for a beggar (and not some swashbuckling hero yet!) in S Balachander’s Bommai (1964). This albeit pathos-filled philosophical song proved to be an auspicious start and opened many a door for this aspiring singer from Kerala, who was trained in classical music under the likes of Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar and Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer.
In Tamil, MS Vishwanathan gave Yesudas his first big break — the iconic song for MG Ramachandran in Pallaandu Vaazhga (1975) — Ondrey kulam endru paaduvoam, announced the arrival of a new singer, whose voice replaced the then staple MGR playback-man TM Sounderrajan. The song still blares aloud from the auto-stand microphones in Tamil Nadu! Yesudas also sang for Sivaji Ganesan in the romantic hit film Andamaan Kaadhali (1977) — while his pronunciation of certain words brought a bit of criticism then, he ensured it was never the case moving forward.
Yesudas more than made up for any language drawback with his impeccable singing and his blessed voice, which sounded like ‘I’m-actually-a-heavenly-ghazal-singer’ who has ‘descended’ on earth to sing for mere mortals!
Both Yesudas and SPB found their best in-sync composer in Ilayarajaa. The 1978 film Priya had all songs sung by Yesudas for Rajinikanth, the most famous of them all being Sriramanin Srideviye which Yesudas bellowed with a firmness which belied his usual mellifluous tenor.
A few years later, Yesudas gave another soulful solo super-hit for Rajinikanth in the rather pensive song Oora therinjukittean ulagam purinjukittean from Padikkathavan (1985). Perhaps the best song Yesudas has ever sung or will ever sing for Kamal Haasan also happens to be Kaviarasar Kannadasan’s last penned one from Moondram Pirai (1982) — Kanney Kalaimaaney not just captures the soul of the protagonist but the essence of each lyric comes alive in Yesudas’s rendering of this haunting melody (kadhal kondean kanavinai valarthean, kanmani unnai naan karuthinil nilaithean).
Every time there was a soft number or a sad one or a carnatic-based song, the obvious choice even in Telugu films was Yesudas till SPB proved his mettle with Shankarabharanam (1979). A recipient of five Filmfare awards and state awards from all four States, Yesudas also had a great run in Hindi films with Salil Chowdhary who took him to Mumbai, post Chemmeen (1965). The music of Chitchor (Gori tera gaon bada pyaara) (1976) and Choti Si Baat (1975) (Jaaneman jaaneman tere do nayan) stand timeless!
It was the era of Hrishikesh Mukherjee and other parallel filmmakers from Bengal, who would make simpler non-masala films and the fresh voice of Yesudas lent a certain sincerity to those songs (if you are a Yesudas fan do listen to this non-entity of a movie but a popular song Chaand jaise mukhde pe bindiya sitara). Malayalam cinema soared with his music — Dasettan as he is fondly referred there was THE-GO-TO voice of all heroes post Prem Nazir and the films of Mohanlal which leaned heavily on classical numbers were sung by Yesudas (listen to the tracks from His Highness Abdullah, 1990).
In Tamil, a KJ Yesudas playlist apart from the songs mentioned earlier, would include this Top10: Adhisaya raagam (Aboorva Raagangal, 1975), Senthaazham poovil (Mullum Malarum, 1978), Vellai pura ondru (Pudhu Kavidhai, 1982), Yerikarai poongaatrey (Thooral Ninnu Poachu, 1982), Poomalai vaangivandhaar (Sindhu Bhairavi, 1985), Rajaraja Chozhan naan (Rettaivaal Kuruvi, 1987), Poovey sempoovey (Solla thudikkudhu Manasu, 1988), Nee pournami endrum (Oruvar Vaazhum Aalayam, 1988), Paarthavizhi paarthapadi (Gunaa, 1991), Amma endru azhaikkadha (Mannan, 1992), Pachaikiligal tholodu (Indian, 1996).