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P.Susheela
hails from a music family but she was the first to sing in her
family. Born in Vizianagaram
in Andhra Pradesh,
Susheela is the daughter of Sheshavatataram and Mukund Rao, a leading
criminal lawyer of his time. She studied classical music in Maharaja`s
Music College, Vizianagaram under the tutelage, of the famous violinist
Dwaram Venkatasamy Naidu. With a first class diploma, Susheela went
to Madras for higher studies in music in the Music Academy under
the principalship of Musiri Subramania Iyer. She started giving
classical
music performances in public and also through All India Radio, Madras,
Vijayawada, and Bangalore and Hyderabad stations. Married to Dr.
Mohan Rao, who had kept himself away from the limelight of his
wife`s career,
but had been very supportive to her. Susheela is grateful to him
for providing a congenial domestic harmony and environment so
that her
music career flourished. She has one son P. Susheela has rendered
a song composed by A. R. Rahman for the Tamil movie ``Indian.``
Susheela`s career spanning a period of three to four decades is
a very satisfying
one to the artiste. Susheela, always fascinated by film music, was
thrilled when she was called to record a song for a film, ``Kannatalli``
in Telugu, and in Tamil her first playback was for ``Petra Thai``.
`Music is God`s gift to me”, she says. She sung with A.M.
Raja under the direction of Pendyala Nageswara Rao. Her melodious
voice
caught the attention of other music directors and she became a much
sought after playback singer. There was no Tamil movie without songs
by her. Susheela has sung for all the South Indian language films.
Her songs in movies like ``Pava Manippu,`` ``Palum Pazhamum,`` ``Parthal
Pasitheerum,`` ``Uthama Puthiran,`` etc. still remain favourites
of film music lovers. P.Susheela sings effortlessly and with comprehension.
The depth of the lyrics is brought out very well. There is no strain
while singing. While recording in film studios, recording theatre
or while giving public performances of light music concerts, Susheela
is composed, calm, totally devoid of gimmicks or mannerisms. In
this
she is very much like Lata Mangeshkar who is a picture of composure
and dignity. Susheela has sung a lot of songs under the music direction
of composers Viswanathan-Ramamurthi, and has rendered the maximum
of songs with T. M. Soundararajan. She has worked with music directors
Subbiah Naidu, G. Ramanathan, K. V. Mahadevan, Viswanathan-Ramamurthi,
Devarajan, Raghavan Master, Babu, and Dakshinamurthi, in Tamil,
Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada. Since Susheela feels music nowadays
is too
much noise a playback singer of her calibre may not be able to sing
such songs and so these days one rarely hears a Susheela song in
a movie but she has not bid adieu to film playback. She is willing
to
sing for any music director, but it should be a song with meaning
and melody.`` Like the song ``Kanaka Mai Azhagu`` in ``Puthiya Mugam.``
The song so melodiously sung comes across as a whiff of fresh air
and the picturisation is also good. It fetched a golden disc award
to Susheela. She looks on her career with satisfaction Honours and
Titles: She is the recipient of the National Award for female playback
singer in 1969, 1971, 1977, 1983, 1984 and has also bagged the Tamil
Nadu State Award, the Kerala State Government Award and from her
home State Andhra Pradesh she has won the Best Playback Artiste
Award given
by the Madras Film Fans Associations and during the Indo-Pakistan
war she entertained the jawans at the war front. The Government
of Tamil Nadu has honoured her with the title of ``Kalaimamani``
and
again in the year 1991 she won the Tamil Nadu State Government Award
as best playback artiste for 1990-91. In August 1992 Susheela was
conferred the honourary Doctorate at Washington, U.S. by the North
American Alumni Association. Susheela is now turning more and more
to devotional music and has recorded quite a few cassettes. People
who heard her in the 50`s feel no difference when they heard her
it ``Pudia Mugam`` and ``Indian.``
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