Playback singer M.S. Rajeswari, who has sung songs for several movies over seven decades, died in the city on Wednesday. She was 85 and was suffering from liver related ailments for one year, her family members said.
Rajeswari began singing for films in 1941 with a song in the Tamil film Vijayadasami , her son Raj Venkatesh said.
“Through her career, she has sung songs in several languages other than Tamil, including Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi.
As a resident singer in AVM studios, she had sung songs for several of their hit films as well,” Mr. Venkatesh said.
With a distinct voice, Rajeswari sang several songs featuring children and had also been a dubbing artist for child artistes in Tamil movies.
In Kamal Haasan’s first movie Kalathur Kannamma , Rajeswari had sung the song ‘Ammavum Neeye’ which was picturised on the actor who was a child artist then. She had, in particular, sung songs in movies featuring child artiste Baby Shamili and the song ‘Paapa Paadum Paatu’ was very popular.
Her songs featured in several Tamil movies, including Parasakthi, Velaikaran, Mudhalali, Sendhoora Devi and Naan Petra Selvam .
In the late 1980s, Rajeswari had notably sung the hit song Naan Sirithaal Deepavali in the movie Nayakan and she had continued singing in movies till the mid-nineties. She has sung for Viswanathan-Ramamoorthy, Ilaiyaraja and Shankar-Ganesh, among other composers.
In 2013, she was felicitated at an event honouring legends of the Tamil film industry as a part of the centenary celebrations.
Members of the Musicians Unions and president S.A. Rajkumar condoled her death. The funeral will be held at 4.30 p.m. on Thursday, family sources said.
