Vidyasagar (composer)

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Vidyasagar is a National award winning Indian film composer, musician and singer who works predominantly in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Hindi film industries. After working with several composers as assistant and conductor, Vidyasagar made his debut as a film composer in the 1989 Tamil film Poomanam.^[1] Working for over 250 feature films, he is the recipient of the prestigious National Award^[2] and five Filmfare Awards.

Early life

Vidyasagar was exposed to music at a very early age of 3 by his father who was a self-led musician. He underwent carnatic vocals training first and then joined classical guitar classes from Dhanraj along with A. R. Rahman and then later followed by piano.

Career

Vidyasagar became an independent music director with the song En Anbe in the 1989 Tamil movie Poomanam. Though Vidyasagar started his music career with a Tamil film, he gained recognition in the Tamil music industry at a later stage. He shifted base to Tollywood in 1989.

In 1994–95, Vidyasagar was selected by Tamil actor-director Arjun, with whom he worked for many acclaimed musical films like Jai Hind, Karna and Subash. Vidyasagar composed some of the music for Arjun Sarja's films with some melodic numbers like Malare and Padu Padu.

From 1996 to 2001 Vidyasagar mainly concentrated on Malayalam films.^[3] During this period, Vidyasagar also composed songs for Tamil movies like 1998 Vijay's Nilaave Vaa and Uyirodu Uyiraga, starring Ajith. He won four Kerala State Film Awards. Regarding his stint in the Malayalam Cinema, Vidyasagar was quoted saying "I believe that it was a God sent opportunity for me to work in one of the finest film industries".^[3]

From the year 2002, he started churning out blockbusters in Tamil and Malayalam simultaneously, with Dhil, Run, Dhool, Ghilli etc. in Tamil and Meesha Madhavan, Kilichundan Mampazham, Pattalam, C.I.D. Moosa etc. in Malayalam.The song 'appadi podu' in Ghilli was accepted widely by all the listeners.Akshay Kumar brought the right of the song from Vidyasagar for the Hindi movie Boss.The songs of Meesha Madhavan were the biggest hit of the year and the soundtrack was largely acclaimed for mainly two reasons-for having all genres of songs from classical raga based to pure folk songs and also for the background score of the movie.^[4]

In 2003, he composed songs for several notable films like Anbe Sivam, Run and Meesa Madhavan. This was followed by Madhurey, London Ji and Chandrolsavam in 2004–05. In 2005 Vidyasagar received the National Film Awards for Telugu movie Swarabhishekam by K. Vishwanath featuring carnatic music.^[5] Vidyasagar continued composing music for Chandramukhi starring Rajnikanth. The audio of the movie was a best seller and its soundtrack was also released. Then came the most appreciated Tamil soundtrack of Vidyasagar-Mozhi.All songs were super hits in the movie especially Katrin Mozhi and Sevvanam.Another thing about the Mozhi soundtrack was the absence of any duets.The only female voice was of Sujatha Mohan in Katrin Mozhi.He composed music for the Hollywood movie Beyond the Soul directed by Rajeev Anchal. This period also saw him score music for the Hindi movie Hulchul directed by Priyadarshan. In 2008 Vidyasagar's notable releases were Vijay's Kuruvi and Mere Baap Pehle Aap in Hindi.The songs Rafta rafta sung by Udit Narayan and Sujatha Mohan and Ishq Mein sung by Alka Yagnik were instant hits from the Hulchul movie album.Songs composed by Vidyasagar has wide use of flute(eg.Ambaadi payyukal),violin and Veena(Poove Poove).The songs in Millennium Stars were acclaimed widely by all the listeners and critics. Kamal's azhakiya raavanan After his brief dull phase in Malayalam, he bounced back into the scene with the Lal Jose directional Neelathamara, scripted by the legendary M.T. Vasudevan Nair, with the song Anuraga Vilochananaayi becoming a cult favourite. He followed it up with hits in Apoorva Ragam and Makeup Man. Meanwhile in Tamil, he delivered hits with Karthi's Siruthai and Vijay's Kaavalan. Vidyasagar's identity in comparison with other music directors is his use of rare ragas like naasikaabhooshini raga. In 2012, Vidyasagar delivered two superhits in Malayalam with Diamond Necklace and Ordinary.The soundtrack of Diamond Necklace won him several awards.Critics congratulated him for melodious numbers which were received by all generations.Vidyasagar has introduced more than twenty singers in his career.Some examples are Vijay Yesudas,Vineeth Sreenivasan,Rimi Tomy and so on.Another important thing that singers point out about Vidyasagar is that he himself teaches his song in the studio and remain with them, supporting them and making them confident while singing.

In 2013, Priyadarshan signed him in for his ambitious psychological thriller, Geethaanjali in Malayalam with Mohanlal in the lead role. Lal Jose's Pullipulikalum Aattinkuttiyum and Jannal Oram, the Tamil remake of Ordinary were his other releases of the year. The end of the veteran filmmaker Sathyan Anthikkad end his 10-film long collaboration with composer Ilaiyaraaja to join hands with Vidyasagar for the film Oru Indian Pranayakatha. Te film became a success and Sathyan Anthikad continued his collaboration with Vidyasagar in for his next, Ennum Eppozhum which starred Mohanlal & Manju Warrier in the lead, which opened to packed theaters in 2015.

Discography

References

External links

• New official website