From: hariharn@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Ramesh Hariharan)

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Short essay on Yesudas .... Ramesh Hariharan
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        No other singer in the history of Indian music inspires as much
as awe for supreme level of accomplishment on the classical and light
side as the maestro Padmashree K. J. Yesudas. Bagging the best film
singer award in 1993 for the malayalam movie Soapanam made him the first
singer ever to get the national award four years in a row; the three other
awards  were for His Highness Abdullah (1990), Bharatam (1991) and Sargam
(1992). He has already recorded more than 4000 songs for films in
Malayalam, Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Gujarathi, Telugu and Bengali. The first
of his many national awards was for the best singer in 1972. For his
outstanding contribution to classical music, the President of India bestowed
the Padmashree in 1984. Earlier in 1976 he won the coveted 'Sur Shringar'
award. The ex-president Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy gave him the 'Geetanjali'
as a symbol of national integration. A christian by birth he has sung in
almost every major Indian language including devotional songs in most
religions (hindu, islam and christian).
        His early musical influence was his father Agasthyan Joseph, a
singer of devotional music in the church. In his early years young
Yesudas was a serious Mohammed Rafi fan, admiring tunes from Baiju
Bawra, Dulari among other gems. Yesudas learned classical carnatic music
at the Trivandrum music college, under the guidance of eminent teachers
such as Semmangudi and G.N.B. He even lived in Semmangudi's garage for
a year, as he was so poor. All of this was before Yesudas started
singing movie songs. It is rather amazing that he was able to sing some
of the movie songs of the 60s in such a light manner, without
going overboard with the carnatic style. Thanks to his success with the
film songs and the busy schedule, he never got enough opportunities to
show his capabilities in classical music till mid-70s.  Having risen to
fame initially as a film singer has made his rise to the status of a top
class classical singer slow and fraught with skepticism. Yesudas as a
classical giant had been taken more seriously after his famous concert at
the Shanmukhananda Hall in Bombay when Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar gave
him the congratulatory shawl. A similar spontaneous response also came
at the esteemed Madras Sahitya Academy from the maestro Balamurali Krishna.
        Inspite of the various accolades and awards that have embellished
his career, in person Yesudas remains extremely humble and direct. A
teetotaller, non-smoker and a down-to-earth nature, words used to describe
him were also apt for another jewel of Indian music: Mohammed Rafi. These
two singers embody the confluence of a very lovable personality with a
divine voice; their careers have been motivated not by money or other
personal gains, but by eagerness to discover the various waves of the
ocean of music.
        Although his stint in hindi music was short, some of his numbers are
truly memorable. Ravindra Jain paired up with him a lot. The movie
'Chitchor' made him popular in the hindi film world with songs like 'Jab
deep jale aana', 'Tu jo mere sur mein' and 'Gori tera gaon bada pyara'. Some
other hindi movies in which his music has stood out as being exceptional
: Sawan ko aane do (Rajkamal), Alaap (Jaidev), Choti si baat (Ravindra
Jain ?) and Anand Mahal (Salil Chaudary). He started concentrating much
more in carnatic music concerts since the 1980's. The time commitments
for this is part of the reason why he has not sung much in Hindi since
then.
        His soul-stirring voice lends itself admirably to devotional
renditions inducing a tranquil state of mind revealing the universality
of worship, timeless beauty of bliss and the oneness of prayer. His
music has given us a great deal of joy over the years and I anticipate
more gems from the master in the future.