Lalitha Bhanu was a Carnatic singer. She has also sung a few songs for Malayalam and Tamil films as a

playback singer A playback singer, also known as a ghost singer, is a singer whose singing is pre-recorded for use in films. Playback singers record songs for soundtracks, and actors or actresses lip-sync the songs for cameras; the actual singer does not app ...

Early life

Lalitha was born at

Trivandrum Thiruvananthapuram (; ), also known by its former name Trivandrum (), is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala. It is the most populous city in Kerala with a population of 957,730 as of 2011. The encompassing urban agglomeration populati ...

, Kerala, as the daughter of Narayana Bhagavathar and Parvathy ammal on 19 August 1931.
Her father, Narayana Bhagavathar was a violinist and one of the three Trivandrum Brothers. The brothers were ''Asthana Vidwans'' (in-house musicians) at the Royal Palace of Trivandrum. She learnt her initial lessons from K. R. Kumaraswamy. Afterwards she joined the Swati Tirunal College of Music, Thiruvananthapuram. Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer was the principal of this college. She received training directly from him. When the family moved from Trivandrum to Madras (now

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

), Srinivasa Iyer directed her to

Musiri Subramania Iyer Musiri Subramania Iyer (9 April 1899 – 25 March 1975) was a Carnatic vocalist whose stage performing career spanned the 1920s to the 1940s. After retirement from the stage, he remained an iconic figure in Carnatic music as a dedicated teache ...

. She learned many

Kriti Kriti may refer to: Art and entertainment * Kriti (music), a format of musical composition typical to Carnatic music * ''Kriti'' (film), a 2016 Hindi-language short film * Kriti TV, Greek TV station People with the name * Kriti Bharti, Indi ...

s for about 8 years from Musiri Subramania Iyer. Musiri even made Lalitha sing all the varnams in his own style, thereby imbibing in her the “Musiri bhani”. She learnt many kritis from

Papanasam Sivan Paapanaasam Raamayya Sivan (26 September 1890 – 1 October 1973) was an Indian composer of Carnatic music and a singer. He was awarded the Madras Music Academy's Sangeetha Kalanidhi in 1971. He was also a film score composer in Kannada cinema ...

Music career

Her first public concert was staged at Mavelikkara (Kerala). She was an artiste in

All India Radio All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All a ...

and sang for almost 50 years at various radio stations of the AIR including Pondichery and Chennai. She had performed at the

Tyagaraja Aradhana Tyagaraja Aradhana is an annual ''aradhana'' (a Sanskrit term meaning act of glorifying God or a person) of Telugu saint composer Tyagaraja. The music festival is observed in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, primarily in Tiruvaiyar ...

Playback singer

Lalitha had sung in a few Malayalam and Tamil films as a playback singer. She began her film career with

Ponkathir ''Ponkathir'' is a 1953 Indian Malayalam-language film, directed by E. R. Cooper and produced by P. Subramaniam. The film stars Prem Nazir and Thikkurissy Sukumaran Nair. The film was dubbed into Tamil with the title ''Irulukku Pin'' and releas ...

, a Malayalam language film released in 1953. The traditional song "Anjana Sreedhara" was a hit. When this film was made in Tamil with the title Irulukkuppin she sang for that too. She has sung under several music directors including

Br Lakshmanan Br Lakshmanan was an Indian music director in Malayalam movies during 1950s and 1960s. Lakshmanan started his career with ''Aathmasakhi ''Aathmasakhi'' () is a 1952 Indian Malayalam-language drama film directed by G. R. Rao. The film marks ...

, V. Dakshinamoorthy,

G. Ramanathan Gopalan Iyer Ramanathan was an Indian music composer for Tamil movies. He is also known as ''Isai Methai'' (Genius of Music) or ''Sangeetha Chakravarthy'' (Emperor of Music) and is considered to be one of the influential Tamil music composers ...

, Ghantasala, Pendyala Nageshwara Rao and

C. N. Pandurangan Cuddalore Nagarathinam Pandurangan (1912 – 1975) was a noted music director who had scored music for Tamil, Kannada, Telugu and Sinhala movies. C. N. Pandurangan was an Indian music director who worked mainly in South Indian films. Early life ...

List of film songs

List of Carnatic songs

All these songs are available on YouTube.

Titles and awards

Lalitha Bhanu was conferred with the title "Ganabooshanam" and was presented with a Tambura (with an emblem of Swathi Tirunal) by Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer.

Family life

Lalitha was married to Perumal Bhanu Bharadwaj. They had three children including two daughters and a son, Anand Bhanu Bharadwaj.

Death

She died on 20 August 2020 at Chennai.

Bibliography

List of Malayalam songs sung by Ganabhooshanam N. Lalitha

References

External links

* - in Malayalam language Amrita TV * - Her hit song from the film Ponkathir. * - Meenakshi Memudam in Poorvikalyani raga. * - (Duration 55:20) was probably performed sometime in the 1960s {{DEFAULTSORT:Bhanu, N. Lalitha 1931 births 2020 deaths Carnatic singers Musicians from Thiruvananthapuram