Lalitha Bhanu was a

Carnatic Carnatic may refer to: *Carnatic region, Southern India *Carnatic music, the classical music of Southern India *, the name of several ships *, a minesweeper of the Royal Indian Navy *, the name of several ships of the Royal Navy See also *Karnata ...

singer. She has also sung a few songs for Malayalam and Tamil films as a

playback singer A playback singer, as they are usually known in South Asian cinema, or ghost singer in Western cinema, is a singer whose performance is pre-recorded for use in films. Playback singers record songs for soundtracks, and the performers lip-sync the ...

Early life

Lalitha was born at

Trivandrum Thiruvananthapuram ( ), also known as Trivandrum, is the capital city of the Indian state of Kerala. As of 2011, the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation had a population of 957,730 over an area of 214.86 sq. km, making it the largest and ...

, 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 Semmangudi Radhakrishna Srinivasa Iyer (25 July 1908 – 31 October 2003) was an Indian Carnatic vocalist. He was the youngest recipient of the Sangeetha Kalanidhi awarded by the Music Academy in 1947, a distinction he holds to this day a ...

was the principal of this college. She received training directly from him. When the family moved from Trivandrum to Madras (now

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

), Srinivasa Iyer directed her to

Musiri Subramania Iyer Musiri Subramanian 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 teach ...

. 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 Indian Hindi-language short film * Kriti TV, Greek TV station People with the name * Kriti Bhar ...

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 a ...

Music career

Her first public concert was staged at

Mavelikkara Mavelikkara () is a municipality in the Onattukara Region of Alappuzha district of Kerala, India. It is located south of the district headquarters in Alappuzha and about north of the state capital Thiruvananthapuram. As per the 2011 ...

(Kerala). She was an artiste in

All India Radio All India Radio (AIR), also known as Akashvani (), is India's state-owned public broadcasting, public radio broadcaster. Founded in 1936, it operates under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India), Ministry of Information and Broa ...

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

Tyagaraja Aradhana Thyagaraja 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, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, primarily ...

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'' in 1952. He provided music for around 250 Malayalam movie songs. Lakshmanan's songs were also used in t ...

, V. Dakshinamoorthy,

G. Ramanathan Gopalan 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 to ...

, Ghantasala,

Pendyala Nageshwara Rao Pendyala Nageswara Rao (6 March 1917 – 31 August 1984), known mononymously by his surname Pendyala, was an Indian composer, multi-instrumentalist, conductor, music producer known for his works predominantly in Telugu cinema along with Tamil ...

and C. N. Pandurangan.

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