Singer Vaikom Vijayalakshmi, whose last hit was Jai Bheem, entered the television space with Namma Madurai Sisters
Singer Vaikom Vijayalakshmi, whose last hit was Jai BheemOn entering the television space namma madurai sisters
Vaikom Vijayalakshmi loves new beginnings. She was born on 7 October 1981, but she usually refers to her birthday as the day of ‘Vijayadashmi’, a festival that is considered auspicious to start anew.
After nearly a decade of singing in the film industry, she has tried something new: crooning for a TV serial. The background of his bold voice graces the score. namma madurai sisters, a new serial is currently airing in Colors Tamil. “We recorded it online from Gauri Studios in Viacom,” says the blind singer, in a virtual conversation from her hometown in Kerala, “I loved Sidhu Kumar’s tune. This is my first Tamil serial and the songs are about women empowerment.”
While Vijayalakshmi is from Kerala, in Chennai, then in Madras, she first discovered her musical talent. “My father (Muraleedharan) had an electronics business in the city, so I was here till I was five years old. It was a great phase as I kept on listening to Tamil songs by MSV and Ilaiyaraaja over and over again. I kept humming them.”
Thereafter, he ate songs from the 1985 hit Sindhu Bhairavi (“I used to sing ‘Naan Oru Sindhu…’). When his family moved back to his hometown in Kerala, he devoted a lot of time to listening to the cassettes of singers KJ Yesudas, MS Subbalakshmi and Balamuralikrishna.” Listening to it helped me start my musical journey.”
a new voice
Vaikom Vijayalakshmi specializes in playing a rare musical instrument called Gayatri Veena; In 2015, he made it to the record books by playing it continuously for 6.5 hours. “When I was 15, my co-brother Veena From a plastic bottle and a string, just for fun. in malayalam we call it black harp, I remember using a spoon to play it. Much later, my father invented and invented a stringed veena, which the famous violinist Kunakudi Vaidyanathan named ‘Gayatri Veena’. I like to play it. I have also tried playing keyboard, mridangam, table, ghatam and kaju,” says Vijayalakshmi, whose other favorites include playing the ‘pee of urine’ that children usually buy outside temples.
While classical music remains her first love, it was film music that brought her widespread fame and recognition, which she describes as the “turning point” of her life. “Malayalam composer M Jayachandran once heard a rendition of me in Amruthavarshini raga. He commented that my voice was like MS Subbalakshmi, which was a huge compliment. Vijayalakshmi debuts silolide (2013), directed by Kamal, and has since forayed into all major film industries. While his first Tamil outing was that of Santhosh Narayanan. Nightingale (2014), his most recent hit was the Sean Roldan track in the Suriya-starrer Jai Bheem, “The song talked about positivity, and it resonated with me.”
She has worked with many established musicians in the industry, but Vijayalakshmi has a dream: to sing for Ilaiyaraaja and AR Rahman someday. Currently, apart from a few shows, he has several film recordings. She is also taking on a new avatar as a music composer in a Malayalam film. oru vattam kudi, whose lyrics are by Vinod. Her biggest lesson in this journey? “Music is everything. It’s the only thing that will stay with me forever.”