Pulloottupadathu Bhaskaran better known as P. Bhaskaran is a Malayalam poet lyricist, director and actor. His father was a poet, lawyer, journalist and Indian freedom fighter. He inherited father’s talent and started to write poems when he was studying in 7th standard. During his college years he fell in love with literature and communism. He had earlier written poem in local magazine and later joined Deshabhimani Weekly. For his participation the August Struggle, he was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment.

During his earlier days, he used to write songs for communist stage performers but most of the songs were banned in the state. His debut as a film lyricist was with the Tamil film Apurva Sahodarangal in 1949 for its Malayalam song. The first Malayalam film song for which he wrote lyrics was “Madhumadhuri” for the film Chandrika in 1950. He had penned about 3000 songs for close to 250 films. His songs are well known for simple but beautiful use of the language. He also had directed and acted in several Malayalam films. In 1954, he and Ramu Kariat directed the film Neelakkuyi. The movie is regarded as ushering in social realism in Malayalam cinema. It got the President’s Silver Medal, first ever national recognition for a Malayalam film. Bhaskaran directed forty movies. Guruvayoor Mahatmyam in 1984 was the last film he directed.  His films Adyakiranangal (1964), Irruttinde Athmavu (1969), and Thurakkatha Vathil (1971) went on to win National Film Awards for various categories. He also acted in several films including Neelakkuyil. His most vibrant acting was arguably in the film Manoradham (1978), as a strict family head who has deep faith in astrology. He also directed several documentaries including the award winning Vallathol. He won four Kerala State Film Awards including the life time achievement award.

Indian violinist, composer and record producer Balabhaskar has certainly earned a place for himself in the world of music. He has composed more than a dozen albums and music scores for three Malayalam movies, ‘Mangalya Pallak,’ `Kannadikkadavathu’ and ‘Moksham’. He was introduced to the world of instrumental music at a tender age of three, by his uncle. The child prodigy started doing stage show at 12. At the age of 17 he became the youngest music director in the Malayalam film industry when he composed for the movie Mangalya Pallak.

To him the concept of music is anything good to listen to, including silence! There is an innate rhythm in everything and it is the responsibility the composer to position them in a certain fashion. It takes a large heart to locate beauty in everything and Balabhaskar certainly has that large heart. He was able to understand the Kirthis better because he has done his Masters in Sanskrit. He has also tentatively bid goodbye to singing as he feels that there are others better equipped to do the same. He concentrates mostly on composing music for his shows and albums. Among his numerous albums, `Ninakkai’ and ‘Adyamai’ have been huge hits; they are still among the most sought after romantic song collections.

He is often compared to Dr. L. Subramanium, the renowned Indian violinist with his prowess on the violin. His flare of connecting with his audience has made him one of the hot favorites for major stage shows and classical concerts. He is always looking to carve out something fresh and is best known for promoting fusion music in South India. For him, fusion is not the superficial mixing of various styles of music; it is the merging of cultures that each musical style seeks to give expression to.

O. N. V. Kurup (Ottaplavil Neelakandan Velu Kurup) is one of the most renowned Malayalam poets. Though he grew up in a village in Chavara, Kollam and went to a Government school, he made sure that he attained the best education. After completing his graduation in Economics, he did his Masters in Malayalam literature.

His high education and passion for the subject led him to be a lecturer at Maharajas College – Eranakulam, University College – Trivandrum, Arts and Science College – Kozhikode and Brennen College – Thalassery. He was a visiting professor at Calicut University as well. Towards the end of his teaching career he was the Head of the Malayalam Department at the Government Women’s College – Trivandrum. He finally retired from service in 1986. Even during his teaching days he was very interested in writing. He had published his first poem; ‘Munnottu’ (Forward) which appeared in a local weekly in 1946. He later published a book named Dahikunna Panapatram (The Thirsty Chalice) which contained a collection of his early poems during 1946-1956.

He is an ardent lover of music. He composes songs for Malayalam films and received the Kerala State Film Awards for best lyricist 13 times and a National Film award in 1989 for the movie Vaishali. He is also the proud winner of the prestigious Padma Shri in 1998, Vayalar Ramavarma Award in 1982, Kendra Sahitya Academy Award in 1971 and 1975 and the Ezhuthachan Award in 2008.

ONV’s poetry is still committed to a fruitful fusion of tradition and modernity His imaginative skills created poetic expressions often dealt with the land he belonged to and events, people and situations he experienced. He is a strong believer of the leftist leaning and was the Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidate in the Thiruvananthapuram constituency for the Lok-Sabha elections in 1989.

Dr. Kattassery Joseph Yesudas has a divine voice that is so over powering that will mesmerize anyone. This classical musician and a playback singer has won the National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer seven times; which is the most by any Male Playback Singer.

His first guru was his father, who was a well-known Malayalam classical musician and stage actor. He has mastered both Carnatic Music and Hindustani Music. Yesudas began his career during the early 1960s by singing in the south and by mid 1970s, he started singing in Bollywood too. In 2006, he sang 16 film songs in four South Indian languages on the same day at the AVM Studio, Chennai. He is the only singer who has been accorded the title Asthana Gayakan of Kerala State.

He strongly believes in what Shree Narayana Guru said: “One caste, One religion and One God for all humanity”. He’s inspired by the great singers Mohammed Rafi, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar and Balamurali Krishna. From the Padma Bhushan to the Padma Shri; he has won an unimaginable number of awards, honors and titles. He even received an honorary award for “Outstanding Achievements in Music and Peace” by UNESCO in 1999.

Yesudas sings Indian classical music, devotional and popular songs. He lives and breathes music and can sing any kind of song with such ease. He has recorded more than 40,000 songs in many; except Assamese and Kashmiri, he’s sung in all the Indian languages. Celebrities like A.R. Rahman, S. P. Balasubrahmanyam , K.S. Chitra, S. Janaki and Mammootty are just few his loyal admirers His hard-work ethic along with immense talent, continuous practice and dedication, he is unlike any of the singers we have today. He is called ‘Gana Gandharvan’; what else can you call a legend such as him?

Vidhu Prathap is a fairly new Malayalam playback singer. Though neither of his parents were singers, he took up music from the age of three along with his elder sister.

He made his film debut as a singer when he was only in class IV in the movie Paadamudra.  He gained more recognition when he was 17 by winning the “Voice of the Year” award in a music competition conducted by Asianet TV. He made his comeback to films with the song “Pon Vasantham” from the movie Devadasi in 1999. The song “Shukriya” from the movie Niram took his career to a new level that year. He has sung for many popular actors like Dileep, Kunchacko Boban, and Prithviraj. In 2001, he won the Kerala State award for Best Playback for the song “Kalame Kaikolluka nee..” from ‘Sayahnam’. His sensitive rendition of Mohan Sithara’s ‘Enthu Sukhamani Nilavu’; a romantic song in the movie ‘Nammal’ won him the Lux-Asianet best male singer award in 2002.The credit for his ‘mood rendition’ should go to Devarajan, the famous music director, with whom he trained for four years. He has also trained under Music director Perumbavoor G Ravindranath. Ilayaraja introduced him in Tamil in the movie ‘Solla Marantha Kathai’. Later he sang many Tamil songs; most of them became hits. In 2003, he got another hit song ‘Valeduthal Angakali’ in ‘Meesa Madhavan’. Some movies that featured songs by him are ‘Swapnakoodu’, ‘Pattalam’, ‘Runway’, ‘Pandippada’, ‘Ravanan’, ‘Vargam’, ‘Out of Syllabus’, ‘Thanmatra’ etc.

Vidhu is an active performer in many stage shows in India as well as abroad. In his young career, he has already sung many songs in over a hundred films in mostly Malayalam and a few Tamil, Kannada and Telugu languages. He is an upcoming talent with a number of hit songs.

The legendary six times National award winning singer has made a huge mark in the Indian film music playback industry. K. S. Chithra, a Malayalee, has lent her voice to Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Oriya, Hindi, Assamese and Bengali films. Born into a family of musicians, Chithra’s talent was recognized and nurtured from an early age by her father; her first guru. She received extensive training in Carnatic music. Chitra was introduced to Malayalam playback singing by M. G. Radhakrishnan in 1979 and went on to become a regular singer for many legendary Malayalam musicians including Raveendran and the likes. Under the guidance of Illayaraja, she made her debut in the Tamil film industry with the movie Neethana Antha kuil. Chithra has recorded more than 25 thousands of film and non-film songs till date. During her illustrious career which is still continuing, numerous recognitions have come her way including six National Awards for best female playback singer. She is just behind K.J. Yesudas who has won 7 national awards as a singer. She’s won 15 Kerala State Film Awards, 7 Andhra Pradesh State Film Awards, 3 Karnataka State Film Awards and 4 Tamil Nadu State Film Awards. In 2005, she received the Padma Shri Award.

She has recorded many memorable Hindi songs too for various music directors of Bollywood namely Anand-Milind, Anu Malik, Rajesh Roshan, Viju Shah and many others. She also recorded the Hindi versions of her own Tamil songs sung for A.R.Rahman. Her knowledge of South Indian languages and Hindi enables her to render songs with originality and perfection. She is an inspiration for many upcoming female playback singers. She has sung some wonderfully melodious songs most of them with classical overtures. Known as the Nightingale of South India, her voice has a touch of vibrance and youthfulness.

This Malayali playback singer sings in Telugu, Tamil and Kannada besides in his mother tongue. Madhu Balakrishnan is from Tripunithura, Cochin. He use to air on All India Radio and Doordarshan before he got into play back singing. He holds a degree in music from the “Academy of Indian Music and Arts”, Chennai.

He performs regularly in the “Swaralaya Dance & Music Festival” held at Palakkad and “Chembai Sangeethootsavam” at Guruvayur and also appears in popular T.V programs in the south. He started training in carnatic music from his childhood. Madhu has a stunning base and is excellent at giving appropriate sangathis/variations to a song.  He shot to fame with the song “Amme Amme” from the film “Vaalkannadi” in 2002. This song got him a Kerala State Award. After that he has not turned back. He has sung around 88 Malayalam film songs, 63 Kannada film songs, 45 Telugu film songs, & 65 Tamil film songs. He believed to have rendered almost 10,000 songs for albums including devotionals. Some of his hits include “Kuttanadan Kaayalile” from “Kazhcha” in Malayalam, “Konchaneram Konchaneram” a duet with Asha Bhosle from movie “Chandramukhi” and “Kanakandenadi Sharade” from “Aptamitra” in Kannada. Most of his Tamil songs have been under Ilaiyaraja and Vidyasagar who wonderfully tapped his potential of singing melodies/semi-classical songs.

Recently he sung the title song for the Malayalam Serial “Swamy Ayyappan“, which became a great hit in almost all Hindu house holds. The song “Sabarimaamala vazhum Ayyappa” is one of the best devotional songs about Lord Ayyappa released recently.

Madhu Balakrishnan has a classical mould, good expression, and diction. His mature voice resembles that of K.J.Yesudas. He is probably the best among the current singers. He has won over twelve awards and is a life member of the MACTA (Malayalam Cine Technicians Association).

National award winning Malayalam playback singer P. Jayachandran is a monumental figure in the Malayalam film industry. Born into the Cochin Royal Family, he learned music at a young age with the encouragement of his mother who was a great music lover. With her support he also master the percussion instrument; the Mridangam.

During his school days, Jayachandran won many prizes for singing and playing the Mridangam. During one of the school Youth Festivles, he met Yesudas. Yesudas won the Best Classical Singer award and Jayachandran got the best Light Music Singer as well as best Mridamgist award in the same year. He got his first state award in 1972 for the song “Neelagiriyude” for the film Panitheeratha Veedu. He won another award in 1978 for the song “Ragam Sreeraga” from Bandhanam. The prestigious National Award came his way in 1985 for “Sivasankara Sarva Saranya Vibho” from the film Sree Narayana Guru. It is believed that songs from the movie Penpada Velli, then Kinnam Pol in 1975, that were sung by him were composed by nine-year-old Dileep Kumar, now known as A. R. Rahman. 1994, he received the Tamil Nadu state award for the best singer for the song, “Kathazham Kattuvazhi” for the film KizhakkuCheemayile composed by A. R. Rahman. As recognition for his contribution to Tamil film music, he was honored with the Kalaimamani award from the Tamil Nadu Government. Jayachandran finally made his debut in Hindi in 2008 singing in the film ADA…A Way of Life along with Alka Yagnik.

He was the first person to be honored with the Swaralaya Kairali Yesudas award. It is given to the best singers and lyricists within a span of 30 years. He has sung nearly 1000 songs for Malayalam movies over the years and is affectionately called the Bhava Gayakan.

Vayalar Rama Varma who is often called as just Vayalar was a prestigeous Malayalam poet and lyricist. He was born in the village of Vayalar, in Alappuzha district, Kerala. Though he belonged to an aristocratic family, inspired by revolutionary ideals, he became a poet. He was associated with the leftist political movement in Kerala during his day.

Vayalar has written over 2000 songs for 223 Malayalam movies and for several plays. His famous works include Sargasangeetham, Mulankaadu, Padamudrakal, Aayisha and Oru Judas janikkunnu. The “Vayalar-Devarajan” was a prolific lyricist-composer combination which lasted till the death of Vayalar. Devarajan was a noted Malayalam music composer who scored music for more than three hundred Malayalam films in his days. He won the President’s gold medal for best lyricist in 1974, not to mention four Kerala state film award for best lyricist and a National Film Awards for the same. In his memory, the Vayalar award for Malayalam literature is given on October 27 each year.

His poems contain romantic notions about “revolution” and about the triumph of science over religion. Even decades after his death, the movie songs he wrote are still popular among Malayalis. His most popular song is the one he wrote for theatre, the KPAC naatakagaanam, “Balikudeerangalae”. Recently, his wife Bharathy Thamburatty wrote a book about Vayalar, Indradhanussin theerathu, which became controversial.

He is considered a legend in the field of malayalam film song writing in Kerala. He has produced a number of hit songs with music directors like Devarajan, Salil chaudary, Dakshina murthy and singers like yesudas, Jayachandran and P Suseela. The only malayalam film song sung by Lata Mangeshkar (Kadali Chenkadali) from the movie Nellu in 1974 was penned by him. Malayalam film song critics say that Malayalam film songs lost its literary perfection after his death.

M.G. Sreekumar comes from a family of musicians. His father was a harmonist and a classical vocalist during the post-independence era of the 50s and mother, a music teacher. MG Sreekumar has received the musical backdrop from his father and mother himself. His brother, M. G. Radha Krishnan, is a Senior Music Director who has done more than 100 films in Malayalam and his elder sister is a renowned classical music vocalist and a lecturer in Kerala Music Academy.

He was working in Middle East before starting his career as a singer. He made his debut with the film “Poochakkoru Mookkuthi”. Sreekumar has sung more than 3000 songs across a number of films in Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi and Telugu and also had the rare honor of conducting the music direction on many cassettes that include devotional songs. He won the Kerala state awards for the best songs in 1989, 90 and 91.

Songs like ‘Nadroopini’ in the Malayalam film ‘His Highness Abdulla’ and ‘Kanneerpoovite’ in the film ‘Kiridom’ established his career and elevated his career to a national repute. Sreekumar’s voice most matches with Mohanlal and their combination has made many super hit songs in Malayalam like the ones just mentioned. The Malayalam movie “Chithram” directed by Priyadarshan in which Mohanlal performed the lead role was the first movie for M.G. Sreekumar where he sung all the songs in a movie.

He became a music director in Malayalam films with movies like Achaneyanenikkishtam (2001), Chathurangam (2002), and Thandavam’(2002).

Sreekumar owns his own cassette company called KMG Music. This two times National Award winning singer has the ambition to be remembered in history as a classical vocalist who has contributed something worthwhile to the art of classical music – something that will be cherished for generations of music lovers and enthusiasts.