TeluguCinema.Com - A singer who changed the playback scene

Star Profiles
A singer who changed the playback scene
By NaChaKi
Jun 4, 2006 - 2:20:00 AM

S.P.Balasubramanyam

At a time when the legendary Ghantasala came to the field, most artistes were singing their own songs and verses, and he set a trend as a star-singer so much that some artistes like Nageswara Rao who were singing their own songs welcomed Ghantasala to sing for them. When Ghantasala sang, people were so mesmerized that eventually they could see the stars NTR or ANR, or the comedian Relangi or anyone he sang for, as they listened to varying depths and modulations of his voice. Such was the time when a young chap entered the cine field. No one then knew that he would redefine singing for a star in the name of mimicking voices, so much that several singers that followed him tried to imitate him in an attempt to imitate the artiste on the screen! The young singer on the field then was none other than S.P.B. or Balu like people fondly call him.

Born as Sreepathi Pandiradhyula Balasubrahmanyam on June 04, 1946, Balu turns 60 today! Like most other talented newcomers in the field, he did not really have a red carpet welcome. He entered with no pomp, thanks to the music director S.P. Kodandapani who shared the same surname, who spotted Balu as the winner in a college-level music competition. With Sree Sree Sree Maryada Ramanna in 1966, where he shared his debut song Emi yee vinta mOham... with stalwarts like eelapaaTa Raghuramayya, Balu rose slowly to the level of pleasing the classes and masses equally with his appreciable playback in Sankaraabharanam (1979). He did have achievements, he made his mark several times before Sankaraabharanam happened, but that one movie has definitely shattered people's underestimations about this singer who was not, by then, formally trained in music! Humble enough he was, Balu admits to have learnt several aspects of music from various stalwarts in the industry that he sang for/with, including Ilayaraja and K.J. Yesudas.

Balu was a lot different from those of the Ghantasala era, in that he sang not just 'for' the artistes, but like the artistes themselves! People could relate Ghantasala or other playback singers that preceded Balu to the artistes somehow, but Balu redefined the way by way of his imitation. When asked, he simply says that he changed his voice "slightly" only when he sang for NTR or ANR or a comedian like Allu Ramalingaiah, but then how can we not realize that he also sang in feminine tone in movies like Aadade Aadharam or Madam or that his voice modulation changed significantly for songs such as Junior junior... in Idi Katha Kaadu or even the songs in Sankaraabharanam or Tyagayya? His rendition of Bhagavad Gita under Puzhalendi's guidance is a personal favorite, for the variation he has shown when singing for Lord Krishna and Arjuna

© Copyright by Telugucinema.com