This is a reblog is from a year ago. The following is written as an anecdote to our young featured singer Sanjay Santhosh. In 2020 when Arjun Krishna about whom we wrote very passionate at that time, finally came back to the movie singing through this excellent melody Vathukalu Vellari Pravu Song from the latest hit movie Sufium Sujathayum.

Introduction

In our features, we really like to highlight the importance of learning India’s classical music and always wanted to highlight the advantages of learning Classical to perfect the singing. When India was ruled by Kings, they supported music and musicians. These are times in the history of India’s classic music seen the geniuses making music that still is treasured valuable. We decided to ask this very relevant question ourselves. What would be the life of a Classical musician in the modern age? To look into this we surveyed the life and career paths of several young musicians. Arjun’s story was really captivating.

Arjun B. Krishna- a singer of beautiful raagas.

Arjun B. Krishna. Maybe half of our readers from Kerala never even heard about this singer. All playback singers in India’s music industry remain mostly faceless. But let us tell you who this young, talented, charming singer is. Arjun came into the public eye as a young boy with a great talent for singing. Coming from a musical family with both parents singers, he was trying out in a reality show Gandharvsangeetham judged by none other than K. J. Yesudas, (for the show he went on to win ultimately). The film director from South Jayaraj saw his talent and called him to sing in his film. Not just some songs proper classical songs, nine Keerthanams. At that time Arjun was only thirteen years old. The movie depicted the biopic story of a young singing prodigy and the young boy actor in the movie lip-synced all the Keerthanas sung by Arjun. Not many knew this. Here is one of the main songs from that movie. Karuna cheyvan enthu.

People knew Arjun is a prodigy and among music circles, people were comparing him to legends like Chembai. In the following video, Arjun is singing in a music competition on stage. Forgive the bad video quality. Arjun’s singing at a young age itself was praised for its Shruthibedam, which only comes to experienced musicians. This performance is beyond belief. God bless

Arjun took a break from public performances when his voice changed. Then he emerged as a strong classically trained musician on All India Radio, grading him as an Upper high B-grade singer in South India classical music. If you have not subscribed yet to TV Gopalakrishnan sir’s YouTube channel yet, you are at a loss. Here is the link do listen there is a ton of Carnatic performances of the highest quality stuff there. Thanks for this share. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCehwxQ1ZGiAgui_jvP4xaHA/featured

Arjun at the adult age gave an interview to Times of India and please see the interview here https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kochi/arjun-b-krishna-its-challenging-to-be-a-classical-musician-in-kerala/articleshow/63783247.cms. There you will find some copyrighted videos of him singing Michael Jackson songs.

He needs to be more famous than this. In the following video, he was able to do music composition at thirteen. Watch this video. Music directors started from legendary Dhakshinamurthy among the Judges. In the video, all the judges like Dhakshinamurthy sir took so much time to tell him how to make music compositions. What a blessing for anyone at that age to be blessed by such legendary musicians. They all knew he was worth all that.

We were really awed by this singer. The question, in the beginning, was why with such talent he struggled so much. In his interview with Times of India, he mentions that it is really hard for a Carnatic musician to survive solely on a career in Kerala. He had a parallel career of working in the “Technopark” to find a livelihood.

A musician of his caliber finds it so difficult to survive, which means that there is not much being done for music by anybody in the sub-continent. Chitra chechi, of Malayalam, had been talking about setting up a fellowship for artists who really want to dedicate their life to music. If there is a will there is a way. To know more about this wonderful singer listen to this one kind of interview with him. Thanks for the share of this video here.

We leave you all with this recording of his Kacheri during an Onam fest part one to enjoy.

END NOTES:

The brief write-up above is so relevant when considering the amount and time many singers spend during their lifetime learning the basics of India’s music system. The critical point in all these to understand is that putting a lot of effort to learn India’s classical music is not based on whether you make a money-making career or not. Learning classical music is like a way of life and the joy and the perspective it gives to a singer is priceless.

When we are on the back here interviewing Amrith Ramnath, who is the most prominent young talent on India’s scene we will be coming back in a few weeks’ time with a full exclusive interview with him.