The music of Kerala has a complex history. It is not the same as Malayalam poetry, although most of it is poetry driven. Kerala has a rich tradition in Carnatic music. Songs formed a major part of early Malayalam literature, which traces its origin to the 9th century CE. The significance of music in the culture of Kerala can be established just by the fact that in Malayalam language, musical poetry was developed long before prose. With the development of music in the region, different branches were formed out of it.
Krishnan Nair Shantakumari Chithra is an Indian playback singer and Carnatic musician. In a career spanning over four decades, she has recorded over 30,000 songs in various Indian languages, as well as foreign languages such as Malay, Latin, Arabic, Sinhalese, English and French. She is also known for her extensive history of collaboration with music composers like A. R. Rahman, Ilaiyaraja, Hamsalekha, M. M. Keeravani and with the playback singers K. J. Yesudas and S. P. Balasubrahmanyam over the years. She is cited as the Golden Voice of India by world's Prestigious Royal Albert Hall, London in 2001 and Melody Queen of Indian Cinema by Radio Mirchi, The Times Group in 2016. She is honoured with the title First Ladies by the President of India in 2018 for being the first Indian woman to be honoured by British Parliament at House of Commons, United Kingdom in 2003. People of India fondly called her as Little Nightingale of Indian Cinema.
Unni Menon is an Indian film playback singer. He has recorded over 4000 songs in many Indian languages including Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. In the early part of his career, he spent many years as a low-profile playback singer. The turning point in his career came with the song "Pudhu Vellai Mazhai" from Mani Ratnam's award-winning 1992 Tamil film Roja, composed by A. R. Rahman.
Bus Conductor is 2005 Indian Malayalam-language drama film directed by V. M. Vinu. The film stars Mammootty in the lead role as Kunjakka, along with Adithya Menon, Jayasurya, Bhavana, Nikita Thukral, Mamta Mohandas, Innocent, Harisree Ashokan, and Kalpana in supporting roles. The story revolves around Kunjakka, a bus conductor, and the problems he and his family face. The film was released on 23 December 2005 on Christmas week. It received mixed reviews from critics. However, the film was a commercial success.
Sujatha Mohan is an Indian playback singer who is popular for singing in Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu movies. She has also sung for Kannada, Badaga, Hindi and Marathi and more languages movies. As of 2021, she had recorded more than 10,000 songs.
Vijay Yesudas is an Indian playback singer and actor. He has sung over 1000 film songs. Vijay works predominantly in the South Indian film industry, mostly in Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Hindi. He is the son of acclaimed singer K. J. Yesudas.
Gurusala Krishnadas Venkatesh was an Indian film score composer who primarily worked in Kannada cinema during the 1960s, 1970s and until the late-1980s. He also composed music for Telugu, Malayalam and Tamil films. He produced numerous master pieces of Kannada film music and also brought in Western background score into Kannada films and scored music for all Bond movies of Rajkumar in the 1960s to 1970s.
Manjari is an Indian playback singer and Hindustani vocalist. Her first stage performance was with Shiva, the Kolkata - based rock band, when she was in class eight.
The Filmfare Best Female Playback Award is given by the Filmfare magazine as part of its annual Filmfare Awards South for Malayalam films. The first Malayalam award was given in 2007. Before that, since 1997 till 2005, a common award for playback was available for both Male and Female singers of all the four South Indian languages.
Theekkanal is a 1976 Indian Malayalam film, directed by Madhu and produced by George Thomas. The film stars Madhu, Srividya, Mohan Sharma and Pattom Sadan. The film's musical score is by K. J. Yesudas. The film was remade in Tamil as Dheepam with Sivaji Ganesan, in Telugu as Amara Deepam with Krishnam Raju, in Hindi as Amar Deep with Rajesh Khanna and in Kannada as Amara Jyothi with Ambareesh.
Puttintiki Raa Chelli is a 2004 Indian Telugu-language drama film directed by Kodi Ramakrishna and produced by R. S. Goud and Basavraj. It stars Arjun, Meena and Madhumitha. It was released on 14 April 2004, became a super hit at the box office and was dubbed and released in Tamil as Anbu Sagotharan with comedy track reshot with Manivannan, Senthil and Shakeela. The movie is a remake of the 2002 Kannada film Thavarige Baa Thangi. The movie became super hit at the box-office.
Keratam is a 2011 Indian Telugu-language coming-of-age drama film directed by Gautham Patnaik and produced by S. V. Babu. The film was simultaneously made in Tamil as Yuvan by director R. N. Saran. The film stars Siddharth Rajkumar, Aishwarya Devan and Rakul Preet Singh in the lead roles. A remake of the Kannada film Josh (2009), the films featured music composed by Joshua Sridhar and were released in August 2011. The bilingual version had Rakul making her Tamil & Telugu language debuts respectively.
Siva Shankar is a 2004 Indian Telugu-language action drama film starring Mohan Babu and Soundarya. The film is directed by Kapuganti Rajendra, who previously worked under Dasari Narayana Rao and Soundarya's last film in Telugu. Shiva Shankar is inspired by the 2002 Hollywood film Road to Perdition. The film is presented by Mohan Babu's son Manchu Vishnu. This is the last film for Soundarya in Telugu, released after her death.
Urumi is the soundtrack to the 2011 Malayalam-language epic historical drama film of the same name directed by Santosh Sivan. The music is composed by Deepak Dev whose soundtrack featured lyrics written by Kaithapram Damodaran Namboothiri, Rafeeq Ahamed and Engandiyur Chandrasekharan. Vairamuthu wrote the Tamil lyrics for the songs whereas Ramajogayya Sastry, Chandrabose, Bhuvana Chandra, Vennelakanti and Rakhi were the lyricists for the Telugu-dubbed versions.
