Indian Carnatic musician, playback singer, character actor and composer
Birth
M.Balamuralikrishna was born as Muralikrishna to musical parents Mangalampalli Pattabhiramayya and Suryakanthamma on 6th July 1930 at Sankaraguptam in Madras Presidency.
Personal life
He was married to a Veena player, Annapurna. His three sons and three daughters are Doctors.
Musical education of Balamuralikrishna
Muralikrishna’s father sent him to learn music under Parupalli Ramakrishnayya Pantulu, after seeing his son’s music interest. Later, Musunuri Suryanarayana Murty Bhagavathar(a Harikatha performer), on seeing the musical talent of muralikrishna gave him the title Bala before his name. From then, he was known as Balamuralikrishna.
Balamuralikrishna Early life
He started to perform in musical concerts at the age of 5. For the “Thyagaraja Aradhana” in Vijayawada, he gave an exceptional singing at his 8th age, under the guidance of his guru. From then, he began performing throughout his life.
Work and Achievement
He got the perfection in all the 72 Melakatha ragas of Carnatic music. Then he got the excellence in some of the instruments like Violin, Viola, Mirudangam and Veena. He also did solo violin concerts. Balamuralikrishna got the fame of performing 18,000 concerts and had released above 250 cassettes. Also he made above 400 compositions that includes Varnas, Bhavageethas, thillanas and Krithis.
He made the innovations in the Tala system of Indian Music. Then he gave definitions and classifications in that Tala Sytem. He created some of the three note and four note ragas.
Movie Career of Balamuralikrishna
He sang his first movie song “ Oho Ho Vilasala” for a Telugu movie in the year 1957.Then he established the Academy of Performing Arts and Research” in Switzerland. The “Vipanchee” is the dance and music school run by his trust.
Later Balamuralikrishna had sung film songs in many languages like Telugu, Tamil, Sanskrit, Malayalam and Kannada. Then he made his debut as an actor in the role of Narada for the Telugu movie “Bhakta Prahlada” in the year 1967. Balamuralikrishna made his acting in some of the Telugu and Tamil films.
M. Balamuralikrishna Awards
He won the Padma Shri in the year 1971, which is one of the India’s highest awards. Next in 1975, India’s National Academy of Music, Dance & Drama gave him the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award. During 1978, he got the Sangeetha Kalanidhi title from the Madras Music Academy. He got the National film Award under the Best Music Direction award category for a Kannada film in 1986. In the following year, again he got the National Film Award in Best male Playback Singer category for a Kannada film.
In the same year, Balamuralikrishna got the Kerala State Film Award for his film ”Swathi Thirunal”. He bagged the India’s second highest award Padma Vibhusan in the year 1991.During the same year, he was honored with the “Sangeetha Kalasikhamani” title by the ‘The Fine Arts Society” in Chennai.
In 1995, UNESCO gave him the Mahatma Gandhi Silver Medal. After Sivaji Ganesan, Balamuralikrishna is the other person from the Tamil film industry to get the “Chevalier” award of French Government in the year 2005.Then the Sangeetha Bharathi Music School gave him the Sangeetha Virinchi title in 2009.
In the same year, the Government of Andhra Pradesh, gave him the First Citizen Award and TamilNadu Government gave him the TamilNadu State Film Award. In 2010, he received the Kerala State Film Award for Best classical Music singing. Finally, he got the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Global Indian Music Academy in 2011.
Death
M.Balamuralikrishna died due to cardiac arrest on 22November 2016 in Chennai, at the age of 86. His wife Smt. Annapurna died after three months.