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+ A grand musical journey
The singer has mesmerised one and all
with her wonderful voice
MEENAKSHI ANANTRAM (The Hindu)
It was her sister who was the cynosure of all eyes! Bina was blessed with
a divine voice and graceful presence and late Krishnan Nair pinned all his
hopes on the elder daughter. However, amidst all the music classes and
time invested on Bina, time and again, his younger daughter Chitra would
suddenly surprise him
 by
belting out difficult Carnatic ragas with great ease. When she was in
ninth standard her father applied for a Cultural Talent Search Scholarship
from the central goverment and Chitra shone like a beacon at the
selections. Not many people would have dreamed that the simple girl from
an obsolete village in Kerala will go on to win six national awards in
playback singing in 4 different Indian languages! She was initiated into
film music by M.G. Radhakrishnan who had named his recording studio "Chitranjali"
even before he met her. The turning point in the singer's life came from
Dr. K.J. Yesudas who took her on his live concert tours all over India.
Legendary music director Ilayaraja gave her the first break in Sindhu
Bhairavi and Chitra won her first national award. What followed is history
and offers came pouring in from cine music directors all over India. Soon,
she had recorded more then 12,000 films songs in eight different Indian
languages of about 4000 non-film songs.
In 2000 Sony BMG released `Piya Basaanti' and Chitra won the coveted MTV
award for the album becoming the first female singer from South India to
win an MTV award. While all this was happening in her professional life,
Chitra studied for a master degree in music from Kerala University. Soon
she had won six national awards - an all-time record for a female playback
singer. However, the crowning glory came in 2005 when Chitra's name
featured in the list of the chosen few for the Padmasree award. She became
the first female singer from South India and the youngest playback singer
in the country to be conferred this honour.
Looking back at the 20 years of the musical journey she has made Chitra is
nostalgic. She remembers those beautiful moments spent in the company of
her seniors and her friends in the industry. "I do not appreciate the
remix music of today", she says vehemently, "and I miss the live
recordings with my co-singers. I used to learn a lot form them and we used
to share a common bond of friendship. Today, we are asked to record from
different locations and composers. Just splice our recordings together.
The human touch is gone. I cannot look in to my co-singers eyes and feel
the common passion of creating a tune anymore. I do not even know many of
them by face," she laments.
She is very appreciative of Shreya Ghoshal, Karthik, and Shankar Mahadevan
of recent times and thinks that these singers have great promise for the
future.
Happily married to electronic engineer Vijay Shankar and blessed with a
beautiful little girl, Chitra is still the happy girl from South India.
She and her husband have opened a studio named Audio Tracks to promote new
talent in playback singing. Her only peeve in life still remains the
unfortunate fact that her teacher, guide and beloved father breathed his
last a few days before her name was announced for the Padmasree and her
mother a few years earlier. However, the presidential hall of the awards
in Delhi echoed with the loud announcement for "Krishan Nair Shantakumari
Chitra"- both her parents were with her in name and spirit as she walked
up the aisle to receive the award. Chitra visited Visakhapatnam only twice
before. A few months ago she was the special guest of the Vizag Steel
Plant and recently she performed on a three-city tour of Vizag, Vijayawada
and Hyderabad for the BRU Chitra live concerts and the magical net was
cast again on the audience. Event Managers RAZZMATAZZ celebrated ten years
of their service with this series. She now looks forward to visiting the
city in August again along with K.J. Yesudas for a spiritual concert.
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