Celebrating the melodies of the Celestial Singer: Dr. K J Yesudas

“The Melody Explored” blog series of Urbanpanipuri deferentially featuring K J Yesudas is essentially a divine spur.

“Gana-Gandharvana” a Malayali word, translates to “Celestial Singer”, which is a title given to the grand old man of Indian melody, Dr. K J Yesudas.

I’m sure most of the generation of the 21^st century has not heard those divine melodies of K J Yesudas. To them, I say this, your ears will never be mature enough to judge good music until they hear K J Yesudas. To the guys of the 90s, I’m sure “Gori tera gaon bada pyara” is still your all-time calming companion and will be for the rest of your life.

With over 80,000 songs recorded in not only Indian languages but also in Latin and Arabic also, his achievements in the Indian music industry are truly unparalleled.

Yesudas was born in 1940 in the erstwhile kingdom of Cochin, British India, in a Latin Catholic Christian family. He received his early lessons in classical music from his father who was also a renowned Malayalam classical singer.

Well, we are not here to discuss his history and achievements, neither we are qualified enough to do so.

One thing we can do is remember and celebrate his melodies and how they made our childhood awesome.

I’m a big fan of K J Yesudas, because the first song of my life that I can remember, is “Surmayee Ankhiyon se” is still my favorite melody. I’m sure most of you guys have watched that video of Shreya Ghoshal and Yesudas duet on YouTube. If you haven’t, go and watch it now first, click here.

You also wanna watch its original video, as you won’t see such a cute and emotional video featuring Kamal Hasan and Sridevi anywhere else.

“Teri Tasveer ko Seene Se Laga Rakkha hai, Humne Duniya se Alag Gaon Basa Rakkha Hai”, first, beautiful lyrics by Fauq Jaami and how awesome it is to see Arun Govil’s face in a different setting with the playback voice of Yesudas. You can listen to it here.

Have you ever found a song so full of pleasure that you just can’t resist telling your friends about it?

How immensely satisfying it becomes when that person listens to the whole song in your headset and you just stand there truly enjoying him listening, more than he could ever. We share the same delight in such moments and that why, it’s even more exciting to share this blog with you.

Do you guys remember the song in Chitchor, filmed on Amol Palekar, one of the most innocent faces in Indian film history. The song is “Aaj se Pahle, Aaj se Jyada”. If you have watched the music video already, I must say, That’s the spirit sir.

His most calming and full of spiritual vibe voice probably can only be experienced from his songs in the movie ‘Apne Paraye’. Came in 1980, the music of all its songs was composed by none other than Bappi Lahri. The mood these songs create from their simple melody and light percussions is soothing and irresistible.

If we start to discuss Yesudas’s songs one by one, it’ll take years of our life, beautiful years nonetheless.

So, here’s a list of 8 of the best Yesudas songs.

If you are willing, play these songs to your parents and I’m sure they’ll be surprised and happy with how mature you’ve become. The songs we have discussed already are not included in this list, as they are already the best of bests.

• “Sunayana”, a composition of the great Ravindra Jain. You can listen to this all day and still feel just like the first time.
• “Mana ho tum behad hansi”, the composition of Bappi da, movie: Toote Khilone.
• “Dil ke tukde-tukde karke”, the composition of Usha Khanna and Ravindra Jain, movie: Dada (1979).
• “Chand Jaise Mukhde Pe”, again filmed on Arun Govil, the composition of Raj Kamal, Movie: Sawan Ko Aane Do (1979).
• “Kahan Se Aye Badra”, music again by Raj kamal, movie: Chashme Buddoor (1981).
• “Madhuban Khushboo Deta Hai”, music by Usha Khanna, Movie: Sajan Bina Suhagan (1978)
• “Jab Deep Jale Aana” and “Tu Jo Mere Sur Mein” in the voice of Yesudas and Hemlata from the movie Chitchore (1976)

If you are going to listen to every song mentioned in this blog, you are a person of elevated soul.

K J Yesudas received his first break in Bollywood as a playback singer in 1976 from the movie Chhoti si baat. In this movie, he performed this duet song “Jaaneman Jaaneman Tere Do Nayan” with Asha Bhosle and music by Salil Chowdhury. This was a strong compelling melody that even today you can’t resist listening to it.

In the following years, Yesudas worked with a great many pioneers of the Indian music industry, and all of them in their own words felt blessed and fascinated in one way or another.

Bappi Da has put it very precisely calling Yesudas’s voice ‘Touched by God’. Indian’s most revered music composer, Academy award winner A R Rahman calls Yesudas’s voice his most favorite voice in the world ever.

This January, 2020, K J Yesudas has completed his 80 years.

In his long career in music, K J Yesudas have achieved many awards and international recognitions. He has been awarded all three Padma awarded by the Government of India.

He is a hero of many great musicians who came after him, but his heroes are only Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar and Mohammad Rafi. Although he is born and raised Christian, you can often see him spending time and singing keertan to Saraswati devi at  Kollur Mookambika temple, Kollur KT.

Very few people in North India and Bollywood knows that Yesudas is also an excellent actor. He has played in more than 10 Malayalam movies where he performed the lead character in some of them.

Yesudas still lives in Chennai, where he has set up his own studio called Studio27 under his Music company known as Tharangani Studio. You can still hear his voice in local events and radio in all of South India.

References:

• Nagarajan, S., Athira, M., & Pradeep, K. (2020). KJ Yesudas: A name that spells melody. Retrieved 25 October 2020, from https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/music/kj-yesudas-turns-80/article30522919.ece,
• Wangchuk, R. (2020). 80,000 Songs, Many Languages, 60 Years: Here is Why KJ Yesudas is Known as ‘Celestial Singer’. Retrieved 25 October 2020, from https://www.thebetterindia.com/208934/kj-yesudas-greatest-singer-malayalam-tamil-hindi-telugu-illaiyaraja-ar-rahman-india-nor41/.