June 4 , 2008
Hyderabad

India's famed playback singer SP Balasubramayam today turns 62. Born at the erstwhile Madras state, he now belongs to all over the country, contributing his immortal voice to every Indian language. Seen as the perfect example of national integration, SPB doesn't require an introduction. If we talk statistics about SPB's contribution to the world of songs and music, it will just confuse an average music lover. His ardent fans will not care for the numbers at all. Each and every song that his vocal chords had produced belongs to the treasure trove of Indian music.

SPB, before making his debut as a playback singer, was a professional harmonium artiste and a rocking guitarist. Akin to the adage, early bird catches the warm, SPB started his career as young as 17. In a couple of years, he conquered the South Indian film industry as a potential playback singer. During a career spanning over four decades, he sang nearly 50,000 songs, with admirable partiality towards Telugu. After Lata Mangeshkar, SPB is the second to hold the Guinness Book of World Records as a playback singer in India. Most of his rivals soon find that they are in love with him, his songs and tradition. The awards received by this man from all quarters will make an artistic museum.

He doesn't rest with any particular genre of music. He is an invader of the sensible hearts, crusader against religious barriers, and destroyer of linguistic prejudices. He keeps India sustain its unity in diversity. Perhaps, SPB is one and the only singer in the world, who invoked Gods of almost all the religions in the maximum number of languages.

SPB's frame of mind doesn't belong to any particular mood. He enlivens the atmosphere with all the Navarasas in the annals of music. He is ruthlessly formulaic and mathematical in his compositions for those who talk about rules. Strange, he is absolutely flexible and free like a bulbul in the wild, for those who don't even care two hoots for dogmas. The lure of his voice is a big mystery. He is a cult.

At a recent function in Hyderabad, he decried professional jealousies and humiliations to co-artistes in Tollywood. He placed a request with the so-called big music directors, not to humiliate a singer – by making him sing and rejecting his contribution without his knowledge. This makes SPB's understanding of Art, divine and compassionate. He is one of the rarest individuals who crave to pump new life into disappearing traditions.

It is a matter of joy that our Tollywood's modern singers and music directors owe their professional success to the SPBian influence. Let us hope they will also be inspired by his humanism in Art.

Idlebrain greets SPB – Many happy returns of the day with everlasting health, happiness and prosperity.