Winning moments
K. PRADEEP
|
Ganesh Sundaram won the award for the best singer in the 2006 Professional Drama Awards.
|
Making himself heard: Ganesh Sundaram.
Ganesh Sundaram certainly has reasons to be excited. The award for best singer in the 2006 Professional Drama Awards announced recently is his first recognition. And this comes after more than two decades in a competitive field.
The award is for his song ‘Oru surya hridayathil…’ from the play ‘Achan Mikacha Nadan,’ produced by Darshan Communications, Irinjalakuda. “Any award or recognition has an aura or prestige about it. And this one is so important to me. For all these years it has been one, long, tough journey. At times, it has been frustrating, especially when some of your sincere efforts go unrecognised. But you need to go through all this as it has been a profession by choice,” says Ganesh who has sung in over 400 albums.
Memorable occasions
There have been some winning moments in his career, like bagging the top place in Mahatma Gandhi University Youth Festival light music competitions in 1994 and the first place in the all-India event organised by the Sangham Kala Group in New Delhi.
Ganesh has been singing from 1989 onwards. Like most singers, he began with All India Radio. But what kept him going were the regular work in albums, mostly devotionals.
“Two of my early albums ‘Kuruthipooja’ and ‘Ksheerasagaram’ did extremely well. From then on it has been a regular flow of songs. But I tried not to get myself typed into a genre. I have always tried to explore the umpteen avenues that can make this vocation.”
Ganesh has sung in over 30 professional plays, numerous television programmes, for television serials and is a regular on the ganamela circuit.
But even while doing all this, Ganesh, like most young singers, keeps looking for a place in films.
“Of course, singing in films is something I have always dreamed of. I have sung in two films so far, one song in ‘Kayamkulam Kanaran,’ and two in the Malayalam version of ‘Hai Ram.’ Films are still the most visible media for a singer to get noticed, to be heard. Breaking into this field is one thing but to stay in the field is not easy at all.”
Perhaps what is most gratifying for Ganesh in his career so far is being able to work with some of the greatest music directors.
“I have been fortunate to work with some of the masters like G. Devarajan in his choir, with Raveendran in a few albums and in the serial ‘Krishnakripa Sagaram,’ numerous devotionals for Dakshinamurthy Swami, patriotic songs for M. K. Arjunan and with others like Jaya-Vijaya, Darshan Raman, Alleppey Ranganath, T. S. Radhakirhsnan and others. For most of the dramas, even this award-winning one, has been for Seby Nayarambalam.”
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
