What are you listening to? [8]

Back to the past: 1964 – the living legend Dr.M Balamuralikrishna sang his first number in a Tamil film, a duet with another legend and the nightingale of south-indian cinema, P. Susheela. (Not a regular playback-singer, but a doyen of classical music he had sung only a few numbers mostly in Telugu and Kannada since 1957)

It was a hit.



2012: Now aged 82 and 77, the duo go on a live repeat in a special program.



And the lifetime achievement award with the other awardees , the music composer and another female singer



1965: An everlasting melody and mega-hit that created a mass appeal and earned him name and fame even with the non-classical mass only tuned to film music.



2010: A casual performance in a classical concert on listener’s request. Says he has forgotten the lines but the violinist still remembers. At the end he imitates the actor and draws an applause. ( See the film video again)



And this must have been much earlier when he still remembered the lines – in a Wedding Reception concert



On the Viola



Another interesting video. He accompanies himself on drums.



Says the uploader “Yes. He played on all three instruments one after another and all are synchronised together into one video after editing as you rightly said. And yes again. It is extremely difficult as you again observed correctly ”


A 2005 Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French Government, he had even acted in a 1967 Telugu mythology on a special request by family and friends.



Though I have some of his enchanting classical music renderings and listen to them on and off, I did not know much of these details till I started listening to his megahit film song and from there it took me all over.

EDIT: Two videos , embedding is disabled but can be watched on youtube.