Comparable to any other South Indian classic singer, B Vasantha, the melody queen of the Deccan, can render a film song in a very individualistic style. Incidents of affinity between some new singers of the ‘60s and the ‘70s and their composers had pulled down the career graph of this melody queen. In fact, Vasantha’s naivety had never substituted the shrewdness which was necessary for a professional singer to climb the ladder of fame at that time.
In spite of all those obstacles, her dulcet voice helped her to sing more than 3000 film songs in Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Hindi, Konkani and Sinhalese.
In a chit-chat Vasantha says, ‘‘I was born and brought up in Maslipatnam. I learned Carnatic music from Raghavachari and light music from my father Raveendranath. In one sense, I am a self-trained singer. I consider Lata Mangeshkar my guru, like Ekalavya considered Dronacharya’’.
In 1961, she sang her first song composed by Pendyala Nageswara Rao in the Telugu film ‘Vagdaanam’. Vasantha’s first song in Malayalam was ‘Punnara muthalali’ for the film Muthalali in 1965 (composer Pukazhenthi). It was composer Veda who introduced K J Yesudas and Vasantha to Tamil film music.
She says, ‘‘I sang about 300 Malayalam melodies under 20 composers. I have collected almost all my Malayalam songs in MP3 format, except the songs from one film’’. It was amazing to know that she still remembers the lyrics of her songs, while Malayalees might have forgotten them. An example: when asked about the song in ‘Urangatha Sundari’, she immediately says, ‘‘It is the song ‘Priyadarshini Njan Namukkoru’ by Devarajan master’’ and sings in exact Malayalam accent. ‘‘Memorising the lyrics is God’s gift’’.
She sings ‘Chandranudikkunna dikkil...’ and says, ‘‘At the time of recording this song, I had cold and if you carefully listen, you can find the voice variation. This is one of my favourites and every day I used to hum this song’’.
Vasantha’s talent in humming had been obviously acclaimed by music maestros in their compositions. This talent has been beautifully and effectively used by Devarajan in ‘Yavana sundari’ (Pearl View) and ‘Chandranudikkunna dikkil’ (Othenantemakan) and by M S Baburaj in ‘Nadikalil sundari yamuna’ (Anaarkali).
When asked about her favourite composer, she said, ‘‘I like all my composers, but I had a special consideration for Salil Chowdhury (she sings ‘Kannil meenadum periyar’, ‘O sajna barkha bahar aayi’, and ‘Ajaare mem tho kabse’). I have high respect for Devarajan master. He is a master musician and I may call him South India’s Naushad. He never talks much. R K Sekhar explained the tune to me. On one occasion Devarajan master told me that my Malayalam pronunciation was incorrect. Later, I was very much disappointed by his selection of weak female singers without giving me any chance to sing. Master did not call me or talk to me for 15 years. Nor did he give me any song during that period. But one day, he called me and requested me to go to Thiruvananthapuram and render a few songs in the programme commemorating 50 years of Malayalam cinema. I went there and sang for him.’’
She also has a very high esteem for music maestro M S Viswanathan. She says, ‘‘MSV is a genius. He usually gave songs to Susheelamma. Once, at the recording session of a Shankar Jaikishan Telugu film Jeevitha Chakram, Susheelamma was very surprised to hear from me that I got an MSV number.’’
Her voice was still sweet and melodious when she rendered ‘Melemaanathe neelipulayikku’, ‘Kudamulla poovinum’, ‘Thekkumkoor adiyathi’ and ‘Innepol innepol’ after receiving the Kamukara award at Thiruvananthapuram recently.
A recipient of the awards instituted by Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu governments, she still has not got one from Kerala.
stsureshkumar2003@yahoo.com