Sabari
File:Sabari.jpg Sabari Movie poster
Directed by	Suresh
Produced by	Salem Chandrasekharan
Starring	Vijayakanth Malavika Jyorthirmayi Pradeep Rawat Delhi Ganesh Reena Rajshri Nair Mahadevan Aishwarya
Music by	Mani Sharma
Cinematography	Y.N Murali
Editing by	Sasikumar
Distributed by	Sree Saravana Creations
Release date(s)	March 17, 2007
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Budget	5 crores

Sabari (Tamil: சபரி) is a Kollywood film directed by A. R. Suresh. It stars Vijayakanth in the lead role and Malavika, Jyorthirmayi, Pradeep Rawat & more in supporting roles. Shooting for the film was done at various locations in India including Chennai, Pondicherry and Remeshwarm. Songs for the film were shot at Hong Kong. The film released on March 17, 2007.

Tagline: The Sharp Knife

Plot[link]

Doctor Sabarivasan goes on a 'revenge' mode and bumps off the rowdy elements, who are disturbing peace and tranquility in the city.

Crew[link]

• Producer: Salem Chandrasekharan
• Banner: Sree Saravana Creation
• Cast: Captain Vijaykanth, Malavika, Jothirmayi, Pratap Ravat, Aishwarya
• Story, Screenplay, Direction: Suresh
• Dialogue: Pattukottai Prabhakar
• Cinematography: Y N Murali
• Music: Manisharma
• Editing: G.Sasikumar
• Art: K.Kathir, Prabhakar
• Stunts: Rocky Rajesh
• Visual Effects: Murali Krishna
• Lyrics: Kabilan, N.A. Muthukkumar
• Dance: Brindha, Nobas
• Photography: V.Vijay
• Stills: Saarathi
• DTS Mixing: Santhru D.F.Tech, Ilangovan D.F.Tech, Dhaamu Kumar (Sound Effects)
• Avid Operators: Pradeep Balu, Gopi, Rajini Kumar, Subramaniyam
• Associate Cameraman: Eeswar Raja
• Assistant Director: K.R.Kandhan, Mithran Sanakya
• Co-Director: M.R.Kandhan, Mithran Chanakya
• Production Executive: Aruchamy
• Costume Designer: Mallika, Rajendhiran

Alpha Blondy
Alpha Blondy at Solidays Festival, (Longchamp Racecourse), France, 2008
Background information
Birth name	Seydou Koné
Born	(1953-01-01) January 1, 1953 (age 59) Dimbokro, Côte d'Ivoire
Genres	Reggae
Occupations	Singer/Songwriter
Years active	1981–present
Website	AlphaBlondy.info alphablondyjahgloryfoundation.org

Alpha Blondy (born January 1, 1953)^[1] is a reggae singer and international recording artist. Alpha Blondy was born Seydou Koné in Dimbokro, Côte d'Ivoire. He sings mainly in his native language of Dioula, in French and in English, and sometimes in Arabic or Hebrew. His lyrics convey serious political attitudes and a sense of humor.

Early years[link]

Childhood[link]

First son of a family of 9 children, Seydou Kone was raised by his grandmother, growing up in what he described as "among elders", which later was to have a big impact on his career. In 1962, Alpha Blondy went to join his father in Odienné, where he spent ten years, attending the Sainte Elisabeth high school, and getting involved in the Ivory Coast students movement. Here he formed a band. But, this hobby affected his schooling and Alpha Blondy was expelled due to poor attendance. His parents then sent him to study English in Monrovia in the neighboring country of Liberia in 1973. He spent thirteen months there and then moved to the United States of America to improve his English.^[2]

First stay in the USA[link]

In 1973 Seydou moved to New York (also briefly Texas), where he studied English at Hunter College in New York, and later in the Columbia University American Language Program. He majored in English because he wanted to become an English teacher. He had to work part-time, and sometimes at night, and became ill. In New York he met Rastafarians for the first time, and was also able to see concerts by Jamaican artists such as Burning Spear. At this time he was recording Christian music but never stopped writing his own songs. Eventually he got into various scrapes in New York and returned to the Ivory Coast, where he got into even more trouble until he met up with one of his childhood friends, Fulgence Kassi, who had become a noted television producer. This was the beginning of his real career as a singer, and he began to use the name "Alpha Blondy".^[3]

Musical career[link]

After various TV shows for Kassi, Blondy recorded his first solo album in 1982, entitled Jah Glory. This album was to have enormous success and would become later a symbol of resistance because of the song "Brigadier Sabari", where Alpha criticized the harassment by the police. Some of this was based on personal experience, as Alpha himself had seen police violence. Alpha Blondy became a big star in Abidjan with his own African twist of Reggae music, becoming in the eyes of his fans "the Bob Marley of Africa". Alpha Blondy is spiritual, political and positive just like Marley himself, and even recorded a cover of Bob Marley's song "War". And he doesn't stop progressing; in order to reach more people with his message, he chose to sing in many languages: English, French, Baoule, and his own native language – Dioula. Later he also brought new instrumentation to his brand of reggae such as the violin and cello.

Soon the fame of Alpha Blondy spread to Europe. Following the success of an EP entitled “Rasta Poué” he went to Paris in 1984 to make his second album, Cocody Rock, with the label Pathe Marconi. The "Bob Marley of Africa" traveled to the island of Jamaica and recorded the title track of this album with Marley’s backing group, The Wailers.

Back home in 1985, Alpha went into the studio to record Apartheid is Nazism. This album was more politically committed than ever. It is a call for the end of Apartheid and the freedom for all. In 1986 Blondy recorded “Jerusalem” at the legendary Tuff Gong studios in Jamaica, again with The Wailers featuring Bob Marley's legendary Bass Aston "Family Man" Barrett. Blondy tried to promote unity between the religion of Islam, Judaism and Christianity. He drew his arguments and inspiration from his own diverse knowledge of the Bible, the Quran and the Torah. That same year, Blondy sang in Hebrew during a concert in Morocco. At this point he was touring continuously. His new album Revolution had a lighter, gentler sound; this was the album with cellos in the instrumentation, and the line-up included veteran Ivory Coast singer Aicha Kone. The album also included "Jah Houphouët parle", a long speech by the Ivory Coast president with only the most minimal beat behind it.

Blondy spent the years 1987–1989 giving concerts and recording SOS Guerre Tribale in Abidjan. This was promoted by Blondy himself as he was distancing himself from Pathe Marconi at this stage. This was not to be a real success but this wasn't going to stop Blondy and in 1991 he returned to Europe for a concert tour and to record his famous album Masada with the help of musical legends such as Bocana Maiga and UK reggae producer Dennis Bovell. The album, with its hit single "Rendez Vous" was a huge success, and later, Blondy was to receive his first Gold Disc in Paris.

At the beginning of 1993, worn out from a world tour, Blondy succumbed to depression and was taken into an institution for psychiatric help. But as his health recovered he recorded the album Dieu ("God"), on which he appears more spiritual and religious, on tracks such as "Heal Me", about his illness and recovery.

Blondy's psychiatric treatment continued but, on December 10, 1994, Blondy was back with the festival in memory of the late President Houphouet, and later he made his European comeback at a storming concert at Le Zenith in Paris. In 1996, Blondy released a hits compilation and went back into the studio to record the album Grand Bassam Zion, singing in six languages: Malinke, Arabic, French, English, Ashanti and Wolof.

After two more years in Paris, Blondy returned to his homeland in 1998, with a new album, The Prophet. Convinced his label was too much focused on the international market, he decided to create his own label. Since then Alpha has recorded albums and singles, such as "Yitzhak Rabin", in memory of the Israeli prime minister who was assassinated in 1995 (this was accompanied by yet another grueling tour of Europe), the single "Journaliste en Danger" from his 2000 album Elohim.^[4]

Alpha Blondy celebrated 20 years as a recording artist, with the release of his CD MERCI, in 2002 featuring Ophelie Winter and Saian Supa Crew, which earned him a 2003 Grammy Awards Nomination for "Best Reggae Album". However due to the political situation in his home country of Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), he was unable to personally attend the prestigious award ceremony in New York City. In an unprecedented move, the Grammy Awards permitted him to send a representative in his place of honor. ^[5] In 2005 Akwaba was released. His latest CD is entitled "Jah Victory" and was released July 2007. It features Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare as well as Tyrone Downie formerly of Bob Marley and the Wailers. "Victory" is in honor of the peace agreement that was reached and implemented in his country in March 2007. ^[6]

One of his most popular and successful songs was Sébé Allah Y'é.

On July 19, 2009, Alpha Blondy performed at New York's Central Park before a crowd of many native Africans, Jamaicans, and Americans.

June 13, 2010, a large crowd was allowed into a Blondy concert in the Ivory Coast to celebrate the peace and unity of the country, and at least 20 people were injured, two of whom died.^[7]

June 27, 2010, Alpha Blondy was the closing act at Parkpop, The Hague, Netherlands. He replaced Snoop Dogg and Beenie Man.

Blondy has also been an important influence on other African reggae artists such as Ismaël Isaac.^[8]

Faith[link]

Alpha Blondy was born to a Muslim mother and a Christian father, and was brought up by a grandmother who taught him to love everyone. Blondy's respect for all religions and the spirituality he derives from them can be heard on the tracks “God is One” or “Jerusalem” where he sang for unity between all religions in 1986.

Humanitarian[link]

Alpha Blondy (Seydou Kone) was named United Nations Ambassador of Peace for Côte d'Ivoire in 2005. He made great efforts to bring about a peaceful solution to his country's political and physical division which was a result of an attempted Coup in 2001. As of March 2007 a peace agreement was signed and implemented, due to the hard work of many people including Alpha Blondy. Alpha now reaches out further with the newly created not-for-profit, non-government, non-political, charitable foundation, Alpha Blondy Jah Glory Foundation, which works towards ending social injustice and generational poverty by giving people the tools that they need to help themselves. He strongly believes in helping the poor (Jah Glory), and also that children should not be hurt. The Foundation strives to create and implement grassroots programs at the village level, such as the Women’s Self-Sufficiency Micro Loan Program, to teach women who are caring for multiple orphans how to start and manage their own business, to better provide for their families, as well as other sustainable projects, such as the Tafari-Genesis Retreat Camp for Children (Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso). It especially hopes to bring joy and hope to children who have been affected by civil wars, former child soldiers, and those who suffer from chronic life-threatening illnesses, such as sickle-cell anemia, malaria, asthma, etc.

Talking about Alpha Blondy, people think usually of music and indeed since 1980 he has written at least 17 albums and 194 titles. This itself indicates the great value he represents for his fans. Alpha is no longer an Ivorian star but an International Mega Star because of his fight for peace and unity all around the world. One example was his single “Who Are You” with Ophelie Winter against antipersonnel mines. He has also participated at many humanitarian and charity concerts, such as the concert in Senegal in March 2006 for the eradication of Malaria in Africa (where he appeared along with many other celebrities). He has done much, much more of this type of work in the Ivory Coast itself, especially at his annual free concert at Bassam beach called “festa”.

Best known songs[link]

His first success was Brigadier Sabari. Some representative songs are :

• Sebe Allah Y'e
• Jah Glory – in which he sings against poverty
• Apartheid is Nazism
• Brigadier Sabari – satirical lyrics about police brutality.
• Cocody Rock – has become an Alpha Blondy anthem, which everyone knows and sings
• Guerre Civile – about civil war
• Jerusalem – a call for peace. The lyrics begins with a Hebrew prayer in Hebrew
• Journalistes en danger – about the assassination of Norbert Zongo
• Politiqui – about civilian / military government alternance
• Yitzhak Rabin – written in 1995, following the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and dedicated to him.
• Sweet Fanta Diallo
• Téré
• Blesser
• Rasta Poué

Discography[link]

1980s[link]

1990s[link]

2000s[link]

2010s[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alpha Blondy

• Official website
• Sahel University, (2006). Alpha Blondy’s Actions.
• Alpha Blondy Grammy Awards nomination
• PCCI Center, (2006). Alpha Blondy’s Engagements.
• Alpha Blondy Music

K. J. Yesudas
K. J. Yesudas
Background information
Birth name	Kattassery Joseph Yesudas
Also known as	Gana Gandharvan, Dasettan
Born	(1940-01-10) 10 January 1940 (age 72) Fort Kochi, Cochin, Indian Empire
Origin	Kochi, Kerala, India
Genres	Indian classical music, playback singing, music director[1]
Occupations	Singer, composer
Years active	1961–present
Website	www.yesudas.com

Kattassery Joseph Yesudas (born 10 January 1940) is an Indian classical musician and playback singer.

Yesudas sings Indian classical, devotional, and popular music. He has recorded more than 50,000 songs in many languages including Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Bengali, Gujarati, Oriya, Marathi, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tulu, Malay, Russian, Arabic, Latin and English during a career spanning five decades.^[2][3] He has performed in most Indian languages except Assamese, Konkani and Kashmiri.^[4][5] He also composed a number of Malayalam film songs in the 1970s and 1980s.^[1] Yesudas is fondly called Gana Gandharvan (English: The Celestial Singer)^[6][7]

He has won the National Award for the Best Male Playback Singer seven times (the most by any Indian singer) and the State Award for the Best Playback Singer 43 times, which consists of awards by the state governments of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and West Bengal. He was awarded Padma Shri in 1975 and Padma Bhushan in 2002 by the Government of India for his contributions towards the arts.^[8]

In 2006, he sang 16 film songs in four South Indian languages on the same day at AVM Studio, Chennai; the 16th song won him a Kerala State Award.^[9]

Early life and background[link]

K. J. Yesudas was born at Fort Kochi,in the erstwhile Kingdom of Cochin, into a Latin Catholic family to Augustine Joseph and Alicekutty. His father, who was a well-known Malayalam classical musician and stage actor, was his first guru. Later he joined the R.L.V. Music Academy at Thrippunithura and underwent training. Later he studied at Sree Swati Thirunal music college, Thiruvananthapuram under the late Semmangudy Sreenivasa Iyer. But he could not complete his studies due to financial constraints. For a brief period, he was with Sri Vechur Hari Hara Subramania Iyer, after which he took advanced training from Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar.In 2011 he completed his 50 Years as a Play Back Singer.

• Completed the Ganabooshanam course at R.L.V. Music Academy, Thripunithura, Cochin
• Graduated from the Sree Swathithirunal Music Academy, Trivandrum
• Trained under K. R. Kumaraswamy (former principal of the Music College, Kochi), Kunjuvelan Aasan (a disciple of Nadaswara Vidwan Rajaratnam Pillai), Augustine Joseph (his father), Dekshinamoorthi Swamikal V. Dakshinamoorthy, Ramankutti Bagavathar, Sivaraman Nayar, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer and Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar.

Playback singing career[link]

Debut and Early career: In 1960's[link]

The first song sung by Yesudas is Jaathi Bhedam Matha Dwesham (music: M B Sreenivasan) on 14th Nov 1961, which he usually sings on all the special occasions in front of the audience. Yesudas began his career in playback singing in the Malayalam movie Kaalpadukal^[3] and Tamil movies in the early 1960s.

He got the first break in his music career with the hit malayalam film named Bharya ( music by G. Devarajan and lyrics by Vayalar Ramavarma). He sang in Tamil for Bommai first (music: S. Balachander), but the first released movie was Konjum Kumari (music: Veda).^[10]

The trio combination of Salil-Yesudas -Prem Nazir (the evergreen hero of Malayalam Cinema) took the Malayalam Cinema Industry of the 70's by storm. It was generally agreed that Yesudas's voice was the most suited one for Prem Nazir.^[11]

In 1970 he was nominated to head the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Academy and was the youngest person ever to occupy the post.^[12]

Bollywood entry: In 1970's[link]

By the 1970s Yesudas entered Bollywood.The first Hindi song he sung was for the movie Jai Jawan Jai Kissan (1971), but the first released movie was Chhoti Si Baat. He has sung Hindi songs for many leading actors in Hindi cinema including Amitabh Bachchan, Amol Palekar and Jeetendra. He has sung many evergreen Hindi film songs for music directors including Ravindra Jain, Bappi Lahiri, Khayyam, Rajkamal and Salil Chowdhury.^[13]

Yesudas's most popular Hindi songs are in the 1976 movie Chitchor, with music given by Ravindra Jain. The greatest tribute to Jesudas was paid by Ravindra Jain, in an interview wherein the blind music director confessed that if ever he happened to regain vision, the first person he would like to see would be Yesudas.^[11]

Prominence over the world[link]

Yesudas has performed in many major cities around the world. In 1965, he was invited by the Soviet Union government to perform at music concerts in various cities in the USSR and also sang a Russian song over Radio Kazakhstan.^[12][14] Yesudas became one of the senate members in the International Parliament for Safety and Peace.^[15] On November 14, 1999, Yesudas was presented with an honorary award by UNESCO for "Outstanding Achievements in Music and Peace" at the "Music for Peace" event in Paris.a concert held to mark the dawn of the new millennium and whose attendees included artistes such as Lionel Richie, Ray Charles, Montserrat Caballé, and Zubin Mehta.^[16]

In 1971, during the Indo-Pakistani War, Yesudas traveled all around Kerala with his musical troupe to raise funds for the Indian Prime Minister's National Defense Fund.^[13]

In 2001 he sang for album Ahimsa in Sanskrit, Latin and English and in a mix of styles including New Age and Carnatic.^[17] In his music concerts in the Middle East he sings Arabic songs in the Carnatic style.^[18] He frequently serves as a cultural ambassador for India through his performances abroad, promoting Indian music.

In 2009 Yesudas began a cross-country musical campaign against terrorism in Thiruvananthapuram, with the motto 'Music For Peace'.^[19] Kavita Karkare, wife of Hemant Karkare, handed over the torch to Yesudas to mark the launch of the 'Shanthi Sangeetha Yatra'.^[20]

Personal life[link]

Yesudas is married to Prabha. They have three sons, Vinod, Vijay and Vishal. The second son Vijay Yesudas is a budding musician who won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer in 2007. The family is currently settled in Chennai and Trivandrum. He also owns estates in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA and Flower Mound, TX, USA for personal and business reasons.^[21]

Role models[link]

Sree Narayana Guru’s great message, "One caste, One religion and One God for all humanity", influenced young Yesudas in his dealings with his fellow men. He had his own heroes among the musicians too. Mohammed Rafi, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar, Mukesh and Balamurali Krishna are the ones he admires the most.^[22]

Spiritualism[link]

For the past 30 years Yesudas has been visiting Kollur Mookambika temple, Udupi, Karnataka on his birthday to sing keerthans of Saraswati devi, the Goddess of knowledge, music and the arts. The music festival started on his 60th birthday. The nine-day music festival begins every January at Kollur Mookambika Temple. On Sunday, January 10, 2010, he celebrated his 70th birthday (Sapthathi) at Kollur Sri Mookambika Temple with ‘Sangeetharchana’ (classical devotional songs), along with 70 singers before goddess Mookambika. The Sangeetharchana included "Pancharatna Gayana" of Thyagaraja’s poems. He also took part in the Vidyarambha function. All India Radio broadcasted the special Sangeetharchana all over Kerala.^{[23] [24] [25] [26]}

Music company[link]

In 1980 Yesudas established the Tharangani Studio at Trivandrum. In 1992 the office and studio were moved to Chennai, Tamil Nadu and the company was incorporated in the US in 1998. Tharangni Studio and Tharangni Records became a recording center in Kerala which, for the first time, brought out audio cassettes of Malayalam film songs in stereo. The record company also had a voice mixing studio in Studio27, Chennai. The studio continues to produce and present events of Yesudas both for film and Indian classical music concerts throughout the world.^[27]

Notable facts[link]

• After winning the Kerala State Award for Best Playback singer on numerous occasions, he asked that he be ruled out of contention so as to give his peers and newcomers a chance of winning the award. Despite his request, he was still given this award several times in the following years.
• Playback singer Unni Menon, who was singing track songs for other prominent singers, got a break when Yesudas, after hearing the track songs Unni Menon had sung for the Malayalam film Kadathu, asked the music director Shyam to record and release the songs as they were. Yesudas was of the opinion that the songs did not need to be rendered by him as Unni Menon had already done it well and there was no need for improvement.
• Harivarasanam, a devotional song musical version composed by G. Devarajan, recited before closing the temple at Sabarimala was sung by Yesudas. Though there have been many different renditions of this song by many different renowned singers, Sabarimala officially uses Yesudas' voice for Harivarasanam every day.^[2]
• Swaralaya Yesudas award is a prestigious award for music artists in recognition of their outstanding performance. The award is instituted jointly by Swaralaya, an organization that promotes music and Kairali Channel, based in Trivandrum, Kerala. Awards have been given annually since 2000. Yesudas presents the awards at a Gandharva Sandhya every January.^[28][29][30]

Awards and honours[link]

Yesudas has recorded over 50,000 songs and has won scores of accolades including the coveted Padma Shri (1975), Padma Bhushan (2002)^[31] and seven National Awards for Best Playback Singer. He is the only singer who has been accorded the title Asthana Gayakan (official singer) of Kerala State.

• National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer a record seven times by the Government of India
• Kerala State Film Awards a record 24 times for the best playback singer by the Government of Kerala
• Tamil Nadu State Film Awards five times for the best playback singer by the Government of Tamil Nadu
• Andhra Pradesh State Film Awards four times for the best playback singer by the Government of Andhra Pradesh
• Karnataka State Film Awards five times for the best playback singer by the Government of Karnataka
• West Bengal State Film Awards one time for the best playback singer by the Government of West Bengal
• Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1992)
• D. Phil by Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu (1989)
• D. Litt by Kerala University, Kerala (2003)
• D. Litt by Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala (2009)
• Swaralaya - Eenam Awards 2010 - Decade's Best Talent in Malayalam Music
• Swathi Sangeetha Puraskaram in 2011, highest music award given by Government of Kerala

Filmography[link]

As Actor[link]

Discography[link]

See also[link]

• List of K. J. Yesudas concerts
• Swaralaya Yesudas Award
• List of Carnatic singers

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: K. J. Yesudas

• "Site dedicated to yesudas: ‘kjyesudas.com’". The Tribune. June, 2001. http://www.kjyesudas.com. 
• "Article on Yesudas: ‘For me music is God’". The Tribune. October 15, 2005. http://www.tribuneindia.com/2005/20051015/saturday/main1.htm. 
• Interview with Yesudas: "Religions and races should not be obstacles but challenges for us"
• K. J. Yesudas at the Internet Movie Database
• K.J.Yesudas Tamil Songs

Vishaka Hari is a prominent Carnatic music vocalist and established exponent of Harikatha, otherwise known as a story teller of Kathakalakshepam.

Vishaka Hari learnt Carnatic music under the legendary Carnatic violinist, Lalgudi Jayaraman, while her spiritual guru and father-in-law is Sri Krishna Premi,^[1][2] Vishaka Hari has performed in several sabhas during the Chennai Music Season since 2006.

On occasions, Vishaka Hari also performs with her husband, Sri Hari (Krishna Premi's son), who uses his English literary background to supplement her kathakalakshepam performances.^[3]

Vishaka Hari learnt Bharatha Natyam from prominent dancer, Professor Sudharani Raghupati.^[2]

References[link]