S P Balasubrahmanyam: The legend whose magical voice will linger on

Legendary playback singer S P Balasubrahmanyam, whose magical and deep melodious voice gave life to thousands of songs that mesmerised millions of music lovers, transcending borders and languages, passed away in Chennai on Friday after losing a 52-day long battle against the novel coronavirus.

Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam (74), who is survived by his wife Savitri, son S P B Charan, and daughter Pallavi, took his last breath at 1.04 pm at the MGM Healthcare, where he was receiving treatment since August 5.

His last rites will be conducted at his farmhouse in Thamaraipakkam in neighbouring Tiruvallur district on the outskirts of Chennai at 11 am on Saturday in the presence of close friends and family members. SPB will receive “police honours” at the funeral, the Tamil Nadu government said.

Though SPB, as he is popularly known as, posted a video on the day he tested positive for Covid-19 in which he looked cheerful, he was moved to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the hospital on August 13. Since then he has been on ventilator and Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO).

His health condition improved as days progressed and the playback singer “actively participated” in physiotherapy sessions and was communicating to doctors and his son Charan by writing on a paper. He also wrote “love you all” notes to doctors and nurses who attended on him during his stay at the hospital.

However, he had a fever on Wednesday midnight that led to further complications in his health on Thursday after which the hospital said he was “extremely critical.”

“In a further setback this morning, despite maximal life support measures and the best efforts of the clinical team, his condition deteriorated further, and he suffered a cardio-respiratory arrest. With profound grief, we regret to inform you that he has passed away at 13:04 hours,” Dr Anuradha Baskaran, Assistant Director Medical Services, MGM Healthcare, said in a statement.

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Braving the Covid-19 scare, thousands of SPB’s die-hard fans made a beeline to his house in upscale Nungambakkam to pay their last respects to their favourite playback singer who healed their wounds through his magical voice.

Rain god too showered his blessings as the mortal remains of SPB were brought from the hospital to his residence.

Police had a tough time controlling the crowd even as hundreds of media crew beamed live the proceedings.

Early life and film career

Born into an orthodox Brahmin family in Konetammapettai, 120 km from here, in the then Chittoor district of the Madras Presidency and the present-day Tamil Nadu in 1946, SPB took to singing at a young age and had recorded over 40,000 songs in 14 languages, including all South Indian languages, and Hindi. He made Madras (now Chennai) his home.

Known popularly as SPB or Balu, his stint in the Indian film industry spanning over 50 years is unparalleled as the legend basked in the glory of his captivating songs by bagging six national awards and being honoured with Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan in 2001 and 2011, respectively.

Though he sang in hundreds of Tamil movies, he won the national award for only one song in the language – Minsaara Kanavu – but received three in Telugu (Sankarabharanam, Rudraveena and Saagara Sangamam), one each in Hindi and Kannada -- Ek Duuje Ke Liye and Sangeetha Sagara Ganayogi Panchakshara Gavai.

Also read — Konetampettai – the TN village that had a special place in SPB’s heart

A multi-faceted personality, SPB was not just a playback singer but also an actor, music director and a dubbing artist. During the later part of this career, the legendary singer was also seen on the small screen as a judge or host of many music shows with the advent of private television channels.

Times changed, SPB never left the stage

Actors left the stage, music composers bid adieu, and generations changed, but SPB’s voice never faded away from the silver screen for five decades – he had worked with legends like M S Viswanathan-Ramamurthy, Ilaiyaraaja, A R Rahman and even with young music composers whose age would just be half his experience as a playback singer.

From legends N T Ramarao to M G Ramachandran to the Kannada thespian Rajkumar to their successors in the South Indian film industry like Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Chiranjeevi, Mohanlal and Mamooty -- there is no actor to whom SPB had not lent his voice in songs.

His voice was so delightful that many movies owed major part of their success to songs in it, especially the ones in which SPB worked with his long-time friend and legendary music composer Ilaiyaraaja.

In the Tamil cinema world, SPB was synonymous with Rajinikanth as he invariably lent his voice to much of his introductory songs in films that would send the cinema halls into raptures. Same was the case with Kamal Haasan.

Also read — RIP S P Balasubrahmanyam: An inseparable part of the film industry

Rendering his voice to 40,000 songs in 14 languages, especially Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam, SPB ruled the hearts of millions of fans for decades together.

A gifted singer, SPB’s vocal range, his deep rich voice, and the mastery style of delivery hypnotised millions of fans across the country and the diaspora who healed their wounds with his exquisite rendition. He also travelled far and wide entertaining lakhs of Indian diaspora by taking his music straight to them.

The man who had deep respect for seniors

A workaholic who breathed music and singing for the most part of his illustrious life, SPB was a devout and dedicated singer who had enormous respect for his co-singers, especially seniors – he and his wife performed ‘padha pooja’ on another legendary playback K J Yesudas on the latter completing 50 years in Indian cinema as ‘guru dakshana’.

The Yesudas-SPB duo stood out among numerous singers who dotted the industry through their enchanting voice and brilliant chemistry that worked so beautifully on the screen. Besides Yesudas, SPB had worked with legends in Hindi playback singing Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, P Susheela and S Janaki.

The man, who ruled the cultural landscape in all four southern states of Tamil Nadu, united Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, and Karnataka for decades together had also sung for a record number of songs in a day. He had recorded 21 songs in Kannada for Upendra Kumar in just 12 hours in Bangalore in 1981, 19 songs in Tamil, and 16 songs in Hindi in a day.

SPB, whose father S P Sambamurthy was a well-known exponent of Harikatha, took keen interest in learning music and his first performance was in 1964 at the age of 18. And there was no looking back for him as SPB’s formal singing career in films began in 1966 with Sri Sri Sri Maryada Ramanna, music for which was scored by his mentor S P Kodandapani.

His friendship with Ilaiyaraaja, who is elder to him in age, is also legendary but it hit a raw nerve a couple of years back when the music composer objected to singing of his songs in concerts without paying royalty to him. However, they patched up in 2019.