BENGALURU: Ee Pariya Sobagu, in Sandhya Raaga saw two legendary vocalists from different classical schools of music — Dr M Balamuralikrishna and Pandit Bhimsen Joshi — come together. The result was electrifying. N ot many know that Balamuralikrishna had sung in 13 Kannada films — including the classical music-based Hamsa Geethe for which he had won the National award for Best Male Playback Singer in 1976 for the song Himadri Suthe Pahimam.
While he scored the music for the film, B V Karanth provided the background score. T hough he was never keen to sing for mainstream cinema, he made an exception with Muthina Haara that released in 1990. The classical song —Devaru Hoseda Premada Daara — sung by him remains evergreen. Director Rajendra Singh Babu recalls his association with the legendary singer. He told Express, “Muthina Haara shows three phases of love - young, middle and old age.
I wanted a song and a voice, which could bring in the 15 year-time lapse. When music director Hamsalekha and I were thinking of who could bring out the best of the song, singers like S P Balasubramanyam, Manna Dey, Yesudas did come to our mind. But we felt they were regular voices and decided on Balamuralikrishna. He initially declined saying he had stopped singing for films. Not losing hope, I requested him to at least listen to the storyline. He agreed and we narrated the storyline and gave him the track, which explained the situation. He requested for two days time and thankfully agreed and said, ‘I will sing this song.’ I still remember he coming to the recording room at 9pm and singing till 3 am.”