Vijayabhaskar

Vijayabhaskar was born in 1925 in a Tamil Mudaliyar family.

Hs music career started in Bombay as an assistant to Noushad and Madan Mohan. He was overheard speaking in Kannada by BR Krishnamurthy who asked him to compose music for Kannada films and Vijayabhaskar agreed. His first Kannada movie was Sree Rama Puja in 1953.

A recipient of rajkumar award and sur singar prashasthi, vijayabhaskar has scored music for nearly 600 movies. they include films in tamil, telugu, malayalam, marathi, tulu and konkani languages. the popular kannada films include rani honnamma, santha thukaram, gejje pooje, mana mechida madadi, belli moda, naandi, shara panjara, naagarahaavu, sakshaathkara, shubha mangala and neela. influenced by r.c. boral and mukul mehta, vijayabhaskar developed his own style of music. he also proved that kannada films too can have theme music. vijayabhaskar did not limit his musical talent for commercial movies alone. he directed music for experimental movies like grahana, yellindalo bandavaru and naandi.

His first Malayalam Movie was Kusrithikkuttan which was released in 1966.

Popular malayalam director adoor gopalakrishnan always preferred vijayabhaskar for his movies. adoor was very much impressed when vijayabhaskar gave music for his movie mathilugal which had no songs at all.All in all Bhaskar gave music for three of Gopalakrishnan's films in Malayalam -- Kathapurushan, Vidheyan and Mathilukal.

In Hindi Bhaskar did G. V. Iyer's Vivekananda. vijayabhaskar took the credit for inspiring producers to select popular works of kannada poets through his music. The popular numbers include moodana maneya and uttara dhruvadin.

Bhaskar also went to London and did an English film. The film was called Robert Clive, and it was released in India also. It was shot mostly in India, and Bhaskar did a major part of the score.

Vijayabhasker passed away on 3rd March 2002 in Bangaluru following a heart attack. He was 77. He is survived by his wife, a son, and two daughters.
Courtsey: The Hindu, Kannada Music discussion forums.

Prepared by: Sreedevi Pillai