Chennai comes together to bid tearful adieu to M Balamuralikrishna

The body of 86-year-old Balamuralikrishna, who passed away on Tuesday after a brief illness, was taken in a decorated vehicle and cremated at the Besant Nagar electric crematorium. Earlier, music lovers and celebrities made a beeline to pay their last respects to the exponent, who started his musical journey as a child prodigy and later strode classical and cinema worlds effortlessly across generations. He was not keeping well for some time and breathed his last here on Tuesday, leaving the rasikas (fans) and fellow musicians in a state of shock, with political leaders and celebrities condoling his death. Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao, Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, J Jayalalithaa and N Chandrababu Naidu, respectively, Union Minister M Venkiah Naidu and Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi among others had condoled his death on Tuesday. 

Earlier on Wednesday, singers KJ Yesudoss and Mano, actors Kamal Haasan and Sivakumar, musician Ilayaraja, Director Vasanth and vocalist Sudha Raghunathan were among those who paid tributes to Balamuralikrishna at his residence where his body was kept. 

DMK President M Karunanidhi also condoled the death of the veteran musician. The celebrities heaped encomiums on the legendary singer, hailing his ‘unparallelled’ talent and describing him as a ‘genius’. Having started his musical journey as a six-year-old boy, Balamuralikrishna grew to be one of the most well renowned names in the profession, leaving his imprint in the field of Carnatic music. 

A multi-faceted personality, he enriched music not only with his voice but also by composing over 400 songs in various languages like Telugu, Sanskrit, Kannada and Tamil besides playing various instruments. This included devotional to var nams, krithis, javalis and thillanas in all the fundamental 72 melakartha ragas. He was a towering figure in Carnatic music world and was loved equally by the masses and connoisseurs. His songs like Oru Naal Po thuma in Sivaji Ganesan-starrer Thiruvilayadal , Chinna Kannan Azhaikiran in Kavikuil and Thanga Ratham Vanthathu in Kalai Koil were great hits and are popular even today. He was a great crowd-puller in the Carnatic music arena.