Golden Era of Bollywood: Kavita Krishnamurthy-A Technically Gifted Singer

Wednesday 25 January 2017

Kavita Krishnamurthy-A Technically Gifted Singer

Remembering today on her 59th Birthday as one of the most versatile and technically gifted female singers in the music-reliant Indian film industry.She was born on 25th Jan 1958 as Sharda Krishnamurthy in the South Indian family of Delhi, she came from an artistic background: Her father worked for the Education and Cultural Affairs Ministry, and her mother loved classical Indian music and dance, making sure that Kavita began taking lessons at a young age.
Her Bengali aunt and uncle -- with whom young Kavita spent a great deal of time, to the point where she looked upon them as second parents -- influenced her to learn the Bengali style Rabindra Sangeet as well.
At the age of nine, she got an opportunity to record a Tagore song in Bengali with Lata Mangeshkar under the auspices of the music composer and singer Hemant Kumar. Later on she moved to Bombay when she was 14 to try her luck as a playback singer in the Hindi film industry.
She studied from  St. Xavier's College, Bombay from where she did her BA Honors Economics. She was very active in the St. Xavier's Music Group during her college days. During the annual college festival (Malhar), she met Ranu Mukherjee, the daughter of Hemant Kumar. Ranu took the initiative of reintroducing Kavita to her father.He was impressed by her grounding in music, so he began using her as a singer during his live performances. In one such performance, playback singer Manna Dey spotted her and employed her to sing advertisement jingles. Through her aunt's strong contacts, she met Jaya Chakravarthy, the mother of actress Hema Malini, who later took the initiative of introducing Kavita to the music director Laxmikant (one of the composer duo Laxmikant-Pyarelal) in late 1976.
It was Laxmikant Pyarelal,who gave her first break in hindi films from the film Maang Bharo Sajana, (1980) unfortunately the song was dropped from the final cut of the film.Next year in 1981 she was given a chance to sing a duet with Rafi in a film Ladies Tailor,that got unnoticed.She was getting songs every year in hindi films but her real Break came with Mr India's song "Hawa Hawai" and "Karte Hain Hum Pyaar Mr. India Se" in 1987.
Late 80s and 90s was the era of Kavita Krishnamurthy,she gave many hit songs during this period.Her performance as a singer in the film 1942: A Love Story, composed by R.D. Burman won her much popular acclaim.After that she was a leading Female Singer of Bollywood, Yaraana, Agni Sakshi, Bhairavi, and Khamoshi are notable films in which she gave hit songs.During this period she had tough competition with other female singers such as  Alka Yagnik, Anuradha Paudwal and Sadhana Sargam.
She got married to the famous Violinist Dr. L. Subramaniam in Bangalore on 11 November 1999, after that she got extremely selective and cut down on her film singing.
She  started expanding her artistic range to areas which were never explored. She was the main featured soloist in the Global Fusion album released by Warner Bros., featuring musicians from five continents. Although primarily a playback singer, Kavita has sung with orchestras as a soloist; she collaborated with Western artists from jazz, pop and classical fields.
She won four Filmfare Best Female Playback Singer Awards, including three consecutive awards in the period 1994–1996, and the Padmashri which she received in 2005.
Let's Celebrate her Birthday with enjoying some of her memorable songs.