Madhu is the ‘best young singer of the decade’

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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: His voice stands out among the male playback voices of the past decade. Madhu Balakrishnan is certainly a talent to be reckoned with. Considering his immense potential, he should have sung many more Malayalam songs than what he has sung so far. Incidentally, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada films have recognised his talent and given him many more songs.

It is heartening to note that the reputed Thiruvananthapuram-based cultural organisation, Swaralaya, has now chosen him for the ‘Best Young Singer of the Decade’ award.

“This award has been given by Swaralaya and its Dubai branch Eenam. I am very happy to have got this recognition,” says the unassuming singer. Madhu who grew up in Chalakudy began learning carnatic music from a young age and later completed a four-year course in classical music at an academy in Chennai under the guidance of maestro TV Gopalakrishnan. The classical base is evident in his rendition.

Madhu is also blessed with a melodious voice which many listeners compare with Yesudas’s divine voice. The resemblance is only a coincidence. Madhu says, “I grew up listening to Dasettan’s songs and I have always adored him. But I have never tried to imitate his voice.”

This voice, coupled with an elastic range, provides immense scope for a music director. No wonder veteran composer Dakshinamurthy remarked a decade back, “This boy’s voice reminds me of Yesudas of the Seventies.”

In 2003 Madhu won the Kerala State award for ‘Amme Amme’ (‘Valkannadi’) composed by M Jayachandran. In 2008 he won the Tamil Nadu State award for the Vidyasagarcomposed song in ‘Mozhi’. The same year he won the Filmfare award for the best Malayalam singer for his song ‘Ravereyay’(‘Rock and Roll’). This year he won the Kerala Film Critics Award for his song in ‘Patham Nilayile Theevandi’.

In 2007 the Tamil Nadu State Government honoured him with the Kalaimamani award. Madhu also won the Virtuoso award instituted by carnatica.com for the best melody in Tamil films in 2005. The song was another Vidyasagar composition, ‘Kanden Kanden’.

A few years ago he narrowly missed the National Award for his song in the Tamil film ‘Pitamahan’. In 2005 Vidyasagar won the National Award for music direction for the Telugu film ‘Swarabhishekam’. Madhu had rendered semi-classical numbers in this film. His lilting duet with the legendary Asha Bhonsle,’Konja Neram’ in the Rajnikanth film ‘Chandramukhi’(2005) retains its popularity even now.

Composers Vidyasagar and Ilayaraja have given him the maximum number of songs in Tamil films. “I have also sung severalsongs for Harris Jayaraj, Kartik Raja, Yuvan Shankar Raja, Deva, Imaan, Sabesh-Murali and other music directors,” he said. His duet with Chitra, ‘Chentharmizhi’ in ‘Perumazhakkalam’ is one of the best melodies heard in the past few years. The others being Malayalam hits like ‘Mandarappoo’ (‘Vinodayatra’), ‘Ponnavani ’ (‘Rasathanthram’) and ‘Thiruvarangil’(‘Udayon’).

He has sung in Malayalam films such as ‘Neelambari’, ‘Penpattanam’, ‘Yakshiyum Njanum’ and ‘Inganeyum Oral’. The number of film songs in his mother tongue are less compared to other languages. But he still enjoys immense popularity in Kerala too, thanks to the hundreds of melodies he has sung in devotional and other non-film albums.

“I feel that perfection in Shruti is the greatest asset for a young singer,” says Madhu who was one of the judges for a recent music reality show on a TV channel. In tune with his name, Madhu has a honey-sweet voice!

When you listen to his impeccable rendition of Yesudas’ evergreen semi-classical songs and melodies on stage and TV shows, you realise how much the Malayali lovers of genuine melodies are losing out because of the under-utilisation of this singer in Malayalam films. If only we had composers like Devarajan or Baburaj or MB Srinivasan to tap this youngster’s talent!