‘To others Yesudas is legend, to me he’s guruji’

Chennai: The world has been singing praises about the voice of Kattassery Joseph (KJ)

Yesudas

, who turned

80

on Friday, for close to six decades, but very few know it was a taunt, from a guru, that set him on the path.

“I don’t know why he [the guru] used to call me ‘mappila,’ the way some people address Muslims in Kerala,” Yesudas had told TOI in 2012. “He always told me I couldn’t sing, but when he repeated, ‘Mappila, you can’t sing for nuts’, before I took the stage at Radha Lakshmy Nilayam music school in Tripunithura, Kerala, it shattered me.”

It goaded him into a strict regimen of learning that has made him what he is today— a

singer

seeking humanism in music, a philosopher who finds music in human relations, and somewhere in between a philanthropist who helps provide free heart surgeries for poor in Kerala and elsewhere.

And he remains ‘

guruji

’ for Gangai Amaran, for taking him to Sabarimala first in the 1970s. The musician-lyricist-director, youngest of the Pavalar brothers including Ilaiyaraja, says it’s just not music that has connected them. “To Yesudas, I was special. Any day, I can gate-crash into his house and have a meal. Whenever I say, ‘Yeniki Malayalam Samasaram Ella’, he would say, ‘Dai Amar, it is Yeniki Malayalam Samsarikaan Arinjunda’.”

On another occasion, they were recording ‘Manitha Manitha Ini Un Vizhigal’ from ‘Kan Sivanthaal Man Sivakkum’ when Gangai Amaran was asked to leave the studio because he found something amiss with the rendition. “Later, he realised I was right, and we patched up.”

Several musicians and singers from Tamil Nadu and Kerala, who greeted Yesudas through videos and tweets, say any conversation with him begins and ends with music, devotion, discipline and god.

Krishnachandran, with 1,000 songs in Malayalam and Tamil, says he faces ‘starting trouble’ when asked to speak about his association with the

legend

. “I was born in 1960 and he started his career in 1961. I grew up breathing and listening to his songs. In Kerala, Yesudas is be all and end all for us. Days begin with his soulful music and the nights end in a similar fashion.”

After making his debut as an actor, Krishnachandran got the chance to sing with S Janaki and Yesudas in Malayalam film ‘Ina’. “I was teased by Das Ettan for debuting in a movie alongside Jayabharathi. But, slowly he realised my singing prowess and after the ‘Ina’ song recording, he complimented me which made me feel I received a national award of sorts.”

Yesudas, Krishnachandran says, never encourages small talk. “Even if a conversation starts on a lighter vein, Yesudas makes sure the discussion is always about music.”


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