Kalyani Menon

Kalyani Menon (23 June 1941 – 2 August 2021) was an Indian playback singer who worked in the Indian film industry. After beginning her career in the 1970s as a classical singer, Kalyani established a parallel career as a singer in the film industry and worked extensively with A. R. Rahman during the late 1990s and early 2000s. She was awarded Kalaimamani Award in 2010 and was also a recipient of Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi Award.

Career

Kalyani Menon learned classical music from M. R. Sivaraman Nair and made a mark as a classical vocalist, before gradually branching out into singing for films. An early Malayalam film song which garnered her acclaim was "Kanneerin Mazhayathum" for composer M. S. Baburaj in Ramu Kariat’s ''Dweepu'' (1977). She began working in Madras during 1977, through Dhananjayan’s Malayalam dance drama ''Magdalana Mariyam'' that was choreographed as part of the Vallathol Centenary celebrations. Kalyani sang Vallathol Narayana Menon’s lines that were set to tune by the Dhananjayan. Her first film song in Tamil was with composer Ilaiyaraaja for the song "Sevvaaname Ponmegame" from K. Balaji’s '' Nallathoru Kudumbam'' (1979) and the track found frequent airtime. The song "Nee Varuvaaiyena" from '' Sujatha'' (1980) and
"Thanniya Potta Sandhosham Pirakkum" from ''Savaal'' (1981), both composed by M. S. Viswanathan became a major hit and boosted her career.

Balaji continued to ensure that Kalyani sang in some of his films in the early 1980s such as "Aei Rajave Un Rajathi" from ''Vazhvey Maayam'' (1982) and the reflective "Vidhi Varaindha Padhai Vazhiye" from ''Vidhi'' (1984). Kalyani also sang other popular songs in the period such as "Naan Iravil Ezhuthum Kavithai Muzhuthum" from ''Suba Muhoortham'' (1983) and "Theril Vandhaal Devadhai" from an unreleased film called ''Mookuthi Meengal''.

After a period away from the film industry, Kalyani Menon worked on several albums for A. R. Rahman during the 1990s and early 2000s. She recorded for songs including "Vaadi Saathukkudi" in ''Pudhiya Mannargal'' (1993), and followed it up with the "Omana Thingal" sequence in "Kuluvalile" from the Rajinikanth-starrer '' Muthu'' (1995). She later worked on songs including the title track from ''Alaipayuthey'', "Adhisaya Thirumanam" from ''Parthale Paravasam'' (2001) and for the three versions of ''Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa'' (2010) made by Gautham Vasudev Menon in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi. Kalyani also featured in Rahman's historical ''Vande Mataram'' album; and also in ''Ussele'', the album by Srinivas, in which Kalyani and P. Unnikrishnan sang Gopalakrishna Bharathi’s "Eppo Varuvaaro" set to a modern beat.

Personal life and death

Kalyani Menon was born as the only daughter of Balakrishna Menon and Karakkat Rajam in Ernakulam. Her husband was K.K. Menon, an officer in Indian Navy, who died of a heart attack in 1978, leaving her a widow at the age of 37. She was the mother of Rajiv Menon, who has worked in Indian films as a cinematographer and director and Karun Menon IRAS, a senior Civil Services officer who currently works with the Indian Railways. Rajiv became acquainted with music composer A. R. Rahman and worked with him on commercial and film projects as a result of the composer's music work with Kalyani. As a mark of respect, when the audio cassette of Rajiv Menon's ''Kandukondain Kandukondain'' (2000) was released in a grand function, Kalyani Menon was called to receive the first cassette from Kamal Haasan. Kalyani had also made a brief appearance in the film as Aishwarya Rai’s music tutor. She died on 2 August 2021 at the age of 80.

Notable discography

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Menon, Kalyani
1941 births
2021 deaths
Indian women playback singers
Tamil playback singers
Kannada playback singers
Telugu playback singers
Tamil singers
Indian women classical singers
Women Carnatic singers
Carnatic singers
20th-century Indian singers
20th-century Indian women singers
21st-century Indian singers
21st-century Indian women singers
Women musicians from Kerala
Singers from Kerala
Film musicians from Kerala