KOCHI: It may be purely coincidental that Radhika Thilak, who started her stage performance by singing a prayer song at Chinmaya Vidyalaya, Ernakulam, was later noted for her devotional songs, even though she had a tryst with the film world.
Though the number of her film songs is just around 70, she was one of those singers who belonged to an era that did not have umpteen number of television channels and music reality shows that made stars out of nowhere.
Though born in a family of musicians, with singing coming to her naturally, it was Radhika’s principal Kamakshi Balakrishnan who spotted the talent in her. Later, devotional songs rendered under the guidance of T S Radhakrishnaji turned out to be the highlight of her career spanning quarter of a century.
Radhika was a relative of singers Paravoor sisters and playback singers Sujatha and Venugopal. Sujatha, who was very popular as Baby Sujatha, was Radhika’s early inspiration. Sujatha was winner of the light music competition at the Mahatma Gandhi University. She had bagged prizes for light music at three consecutive youth festivals as a graduate student of the college.
Radhika belonged the last generation of playback singers, whose mettle was adjudged by All India Radio from the quality of their voice. Her song ‘Dwapara yugathinte’, a light song tuned by Perumbavoor G Raveendranath, is rated among the best 40 songs in the list of AIR. For those who are familiar with serials of the late 80s, ‘Varuminiyum’, the title song she sang for ‘Sararanthal’, was very popular. She was trained in Carnatic music under Mavelikkara Prabhakara Varma, and her association with T S Radhakrishnaji was a blessing for bhajan lovers.
Though her film career started in 1989 with ‘Cheppukillukkunna Changathi’ composed by Johnson, her voice resounded in movie halls two years later when ‘Ottayal Pattalam’ was released. ‘Mayamanchalail’, a melodious duet with a base of ‘Hamsadhwani Raga’ tuned by Sarath was an instant hit.
Radhika had sung under many masters, including Ilayaraja, Vishal Bharadwaj, Raveendran and Mohan Sithara. ‘Omana Malare’ from Kunjikkoonan (2002) won her the Film Critics’ Award.