Singer Malaysia Vasudevan Passes Away

Popular Singer and well known actor Malaysia Vasudevan(66), passed away at Suriya hospital in Chennai, this afternoon, (February 20, 2011) after a brief illness. Vasudevan’s health was in a critical situation for nearly a week’s time after he had been admitted in the ICU after suffering a cardiac arrest.

“His condition worsened a couple of days ago and he breathed his last at 1 PM today”,a family relative said.

Malaysia Vasudevan is survived by Son Yugendran (actor cum singer) and daugheters Prashanthini(singer) and Pavithra.

Having moved to India from Malaysia, Mr. Vasudevan who could sing all genres of music with great ease, made a mark in the field of Tamil playback singing with his majestic voice. The unique timbre of his voice, the feel and energy he would lend, made his songs such as the unique ‘Attukkutti muttayittu’ in 16 Vayathinile, the haunting ‘Poongatru Tirumbuma’, vibrant ‘Aagaya Gangai’ or ‘Oru thanga radhathil’, stylish ‘Ennama Kannu Sowkyama’ or the moving ‘Thenkizhakku cheemaiyilae’ evergreen hits.

In a career spanning over three decades, Malaysia Vasudevan a legendary has sung more than 8,000 songs in different languages, of which over 4,000 are in Tamil. He has worked with many music directors like MS Vishwanathan, Illayaraja, Shankar-Ganesh, AR Rahman, Deva, Vidyasagar.

This Kalaimamani award winner has given many memorable songs for Superstar Rajinikanth including Ennama Kannu Sowkiyama (Mr. Bharat) Singamondru Purapattadhe (Arunachalam), Yejaman Kaladi Manneduthu (Yejaman) , Vaa vaa vasanthame sugam tharum (pudhu kavidhai), Agaya gangai and oru thanga rathathil (Dharma Yutham).

He also had a stint as actor and donned several roles with leading actors in around 85 films, including ‘Oru Kaidhiyin Diary’(with Kamal), Oomai Vizhigal (with Vijayakanth), ‘Jallikattu’(with Sathyaraj), ‘Mudal Vasantham’(with Sathyaraj) and ‘Povae Unnakaga’(with Vijay). His passing away is a great loss to fans of Tamil cinema.