AL Raghavan

AL Raghavan who is fondly remembered for the song 'enkirunthaalum vazhga' in the movie nenchil oru aalayam, is a Tamil singer.
He started his career as a drama actor but later joined the film industry as a singer.

Raghavan's father, a music teacher at Ayyampettai, died when Raghavan was only eight. Raghavan then left home, and became a member of Arunachalam Chettiar's Sri Rama Bala Gana Vinoda Sabha, where he sang and acted in their mythological plays. S.K. Mohideen and M. Somasundaram of Jupiter Pictures were so impressed with Raghavan's acting that they booked him to play the role of Krishna in their film ‘Krishna Vijayam.' For three years Raghavan was with Jupiter Pictures, and then had a stint with Royal Talkies. He then left Madras for Kumbakonam, where his mother resided and stayed with her for the next three years. On returning to Madras, he went back to playback singing for stage actors. And it was then that he was noticed by M.S. Viswanathan and G.K. Venkatesh, and offered a chance to sing in ‘Pudhaiyal.

Raghavan hasnt sung any song for MGR or Sivaji. It was not that music directors did not want to give him a chance for singing for the two heroes, but the distributors insisted that his voice was not ideal for them.

He is known as the comedy king for Tamil comedy songs. Raghavan sang comedy songs with mastery and has sung innumerable songs for the veteran comedian Nagesh. Melodies, Comedies or classical, Raghavan handled everything with a unique ease characteristic of him.
He has sung six songs for Malayalam movies Lilly, Manavatti, Kalithozhan, Kanakachilanka and Sabarimala Ayyappan. His songs Ammayiyappanu Panamundenkil from Manavatti and Chummathiri from Manavatti are popular comedy songs in Malayalam.
Apart from being an accomplished singer, he has produced a number of movies as well. Most of them failed in the box office incurring huge debts to the singer.
He lives in Chennai with his actress wife M N Rajam.

Prepared by: Sreedevi Pillai