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The Singer has Mesmerised one and all with her wonderful voice

It was her sister who was the cynosure of all eyes! Bina was blessed with a divine voice and graceful presence and late Krishnan Nair pinned all his hopes on the elder daughter. However, amidst all the music classes and time invested on Bina, time and again, his younger daughter Chitra would suddenly surprise him by belting out difficult Carnatic ragas with great ease. When she was in ninth standard her father applied for a Cultural Talent Search Scholarship from the central goverment and Chitra shone like a beacon at the selections. Not many people would have dreamed that the simple girl from an obsolete village in Kerala will go on to win six national awards in playback singing in 4 different Indian languages! She was initiated into film music by M.G. Radhakrishnan who had named his recording studio "Chitranjali" even before he met her. The turning point in the singer's life came from Dr. K.J. Yesudas who took her on his live concert tours all over India. Legendary music director Ilayaraja gave her the first break in Sindhu Bhairavi and Chitra won her first national award. What followed is history and offers came pouring in from cine music directors all over India. Soon, she had recorded more then 12,000 films songs in eight different Indian languages of about 4000 non-film songs.

Raja’s contribution to Chitra’s glory

Fazil was doing a remake his Malayalam movie in Tamil Poove Puchudava a strong subject movie with wonderful music of Illayaraja . Raja heard Chitra’s voice in the Malayalam version and got impressed by that and asked her for audition. Then her turn came for the movie Nee thana antha kuyil with a beautiful song “Poojaiketa Poo idhu”

“Antha Kuyil has incidentally become China Kuyil of South India”

Since then she has sung some wonderfully melodious songs mostly with classical overtures in Tamil Films and it is astounding that the Meastro Illayaraja & A.R.Rahman have fetched her some memorable songs leading to the National awards but nobody would have got the best singing virtues out of her than the Maestro. Some of her gems for the Maestro are as follows.

Padariyen Padipariyen : Nan oru sindhu-Sindhu Bhairavi
Ethetho enum valrthen : Punagai Mannan
Idhayul kathai eyuthum : Unnal Mudiyum Thambi
Ninu Kori Varanum : Agni Natchatram
Kuyaloothum kannanuku : Mella thiranthathu Kathavu

Nightingale of the South India

`Piya Basanti Re...' is a rage all over India. The song has given an identity to the nightingale of the south, Ms K S Chitra. Though Ms Chitra has sung several songs for Hindi films, this is the first song that has catapulted her to the centrestage in Bollywood. The five time National Award singer (incidentally one of them came for the Hindi film Virasat in 1997), has got her due in Piya Basanti Re, an album by Sony Music. And she is immensely pleased with the accolades. "One is thrilled that one's voice is now immediately recognised," she says softly.

Ms Chitra has the distinction of singing for the finest veteran music directors as well as for contemporary stalwarts like Mr A R Rehman. She has built a formidable reputation and repertoire as a playback singer for south Indian as well as Hindi films. Ms Chitra's distinctively melodious voice coupled with her musical expressiveness is both pleasing and intriguing. She has won the National Award for the best playback singer five times. The Kerala government has heaped upon her the best playback singer award as many as 12 times and she has the unique distinction of being the first singer,