Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Overrated and Underrated singers







Overrated and Underrated singers

I always admire at singers as singing has been my passion since my boyhood days. It’s a dream that never came true. To me, SPB sir is a God. Even now, if I see his face on TV/Newspaper, I tell my family “Hey…. Salute this God”. He is the best personality I love in this world.

Okay, let’s come to the objective of this post. In any field, there are artists who are overrated and underrated.

Now, I would like to share my view about two Tamil singers Balram and Krish who are underrated and overrated respectively.

Krish – Overrated

Krish, the singer who belongs to nasal voice is definitely overrated. He has sung hardly 10-20 songs out of which two, three songs are passable. Rest of which are avoided by me mainly coz of his nasal voice. He has not even established himself in this field. But if someone who is devoid of Tamil film music watches his interview in TV, they would certainly feel that this guy has achieved something great! The way he blows his own trumpet, his gestures are seriously irritating. That is one thing I hate in few other new comers. He has bagged an award for “June Ponal”. The songs which I like are June ponal and one or two other. I'm not against Krish. I love his voice in June Ponal. It was quite good. Just that, I feel that he is overrated.


Balram – Underrated

Yes. Balram is underrated. He is the real talent who has caught the attention of audience through Katrin Mozhi. He was introduced by ARR in “Nee than en desiya geetham” following which he sang “Pani Katre”, “Oviya” etc. I’m very much sure that this talent has not been given his due. I don’t know if he is choosy in singing songs or composers don’t approach him. After legendary SPB, Jesudoss, it’s Balram whose voice touched my soul. There is something in his voice which is fascinating me. Even now while writing this, am listening to Katrin Mozhi. I go sad when he sings “Unmai oomai aanal, Kanneer mozhi aagum”, I smile along with him when he says “Penmai oomai aanal, naanam mozhi aagum”. Oh My God, his voice is changing my mood and expression in this song. That’s the real success of a singer. Kudos to Balram!

But sadly, there is no proper recognition for this guy. Hardly 3 songs a year! Huh! That’s really sad. I wish music directors use this talent to make their tunes even more successful. Established music directors such as Yuvan, Harris must give opportunity to this talent.

Top three songs of Balram,

Katrin Mozhi (Mozhi)
Iru Kangal Sollum (Kadhal Samrajyam)
Pani Katre (Run)

Hope to see more such soulful rendition from you. Wish you all the best Balram.

Regards,
Vinith

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow!Is it Balram who sang Katrin mozhi?thanks vinith.I thought that it was Shankar Mahadevan all these days.Damn my ignorance.And I seriously loved the guy who sang "Neethan en dhesiya geetham".So thanks for giving me a good piece of information!Keep posting.

Prakash Srinivasan said...

I agree with every word of yours! Krish is incredibly overrated, he has such a girlish, meek voice :( June Ponal was ok but I feel it would have sounded great if someone like Karthik/Naresh Iyer/KK had sung it. Krish keeps singing the same old song in every damn show, its so irritating!

Vinith said...

Thanks Venki.

Yes Prakash. Not a manly voice. Hope our MDs start using Balram.

Anonymous said...

Hi Vinith,

Krish is not a bad singer but certainly over rated as you feel..Balram is amazing and deserves more opportunities. The more and more I see such talented artists that remain unknown to outside world, the more I feel that luck plays a great role in getting name/fame in spite of hard work.

Vinith said...

Yes pranathi. That is what my point is also. Balram deserves more than what he gets. Krish doesn't deserve what he gets.

Anonymous said...

hi,

I didnot know it was Balram. I thought it as madhu. Thanks for the information.

I feel Krish is not overrated. He has different talents. He is supposed to be a (qualified from NY) actor too, from NY I guess. This helps when you are in limelight. I saw he acted in one movie too as a friend of a hero. I guess he is already acting as a hero. Again june ponal song is such a super hit that he was interviewed by every channel. But June ponal is a hit not because of only krish, it is satish the hit dancer, master sundaram, handsome vinay in the movie , a different dance technique and the music score.... etc. I guess eventually the fame will balance out.

Your blog is nice blog and for me and it helps me quickly when i go out and buy a song CD/DVD.

Vinith said...

Hello raja. Welcome and thank you.

Thanks for the information on Krish, an actor.
What i meant is, i liked his youthful voice in June Ponal song. I liked his voice in June ponal. But not in many other songs.

Emjay said...

Of the new lot, I like Balram and Madhu Balakrishnan's voice.

Most of the times, I feel SPB in 60s is better than these young chaps. Not to take away anything from young singers, but, just that SPB is so great and HUMBLE, yet after all his achievements.

Vinith said...

Exactly Emjay. Balram is one of the few best talents of the lot.

SPB is GOD. No one is, will be born to beat SPB.

IMO, SPB is still the same in terms of modulation, high pitched vocals etc. He is still the best.

Can anyone believe that "Yaaro yarukkul" (CH28) is sung by a 62yrs young man.

Musings of an amateur writer said...

Rightly said.. Just look at some live shows or TV shows of Krish.. Everytime fails to maintain the "shruthi", the basic thing required in music...has many problems in pitch too... defintely he is very "lucky" to have reached this place!!

About Balram,200% correct. Who can even forget "Nee thaan en desiya geetham" song??Katrin Mozhi is eternal!!!

Anonymous said...

Hye people....

I defintely dont agree with the statement posted about Krish!!!
Who says that he is overrated?? I dont think so... I feel that making a comparison between Balram and Krish as unfair... Come on, Krish is a new upcoming talent whereas Balram is already established in this field... We should always welcome new talent..
Pls be open-minded.. Krish is very down to earth kinda person...what makes you people think that he is overrated?? He sang the song June Ponal termendously well...It was awesome... and i do think that he deserves the name and fame that he has been getting so far...!!!
And about Krish singing old songs.. I guess its may be because he loves old songs... Old is gold..so is it wrong singing the old songs??
I have heard all of his songs from tamil to telugu and its amazing..
I think a person should not be critisied so publically like this as this may impart a bad image about the person to others...

Anonymous said...

Krish acted in a movie?? Can someone tell me what movie is that??

Vinith said...

Hi Anon1,

I was just expressing my views about these two singers. To agree or not to agree is upto the visitors.

Anon2,

I'm not sure about the movie he acted in.

Anonymous said...

I agree with the statement posted by Anon1... You are so right about Krish.

Unknown said...

i absolutely agree that krish is totally toally overrated! he has earned a name..thanx to harris jeyraj. nothing else. goin into tech details he is always off key when he is singing. tries to imitate SPB in which he miserably fails..its soo artificial. i kno this guy even before he came to the music world. he dosent have a strong music base. its not enough if he knoes 1000 old songs...and he thinks he is the top singer of the country! god knos how long he will survive in this field when 100 other talented singers come up each day.

Vinith said...

Krithika

Yes, had harris not given him those chances, Krish would have gone without a trace.

Your last line reminds me of a singer called "Kalyani" who sang Mazhai nindra Pinbum in RTS. Such a beautiful singer she is... What a voice... If you see, she has sung only a few songs... Talented singers are not given their due in TFM.

Anonymous said...

The first time I happened across the Kaatrin mozhi song, tears streamed from my eyes, so much that I could not bear to listen any more. Saw Balram perform it on a Sun TV program and worked up the guts to listen to it again.

The lyrics, the composition by Vidhya and most importantly Balram's understated performance kept me in tears even after an hour of looping the song.

Looking forward to more of his songs.

Harish said...

Comparing Krish and Balaram is unfair. Because Krish is more stylish(SPB Style). Balaram is more like Yesudoss style. Balaram style will suit for the melody. But Krish is young and will suit to younger generation. So dont compare them. They are two different. Both are good. Its unfair comments.

Mini said...

Madhu Balakrishnan is severely under rated. Please listen to his "Pitchaipatiram" from Naan Kadavul and "Ethilum Ingu" from Bharati...He is a promising singer

http://minisantu.blogspot.com/search/label/madhu%20balakrishnan

Kanimozhi Subramaniyan said...

hey this is to vinith and rest of the people who think that krrish is overrated see i dont knownwer u ppl stand or wat u do bt onething i need to tell u is to comment is very simple but to be in a place wer krish and balram stand is very difficult okkk wat ever they r they r on their own without any support surviving in film industry is very difficult okk and to know better about krish watch his interviews and his knowlegde towards music and morever a child playing cricket needs to be lyk sachin same like that in music world spb is famous so its quite natural to consider him as a milestone okkk

Anonymous said...

I totally agree with vinith..for sure he is a talented singer, got soulful voice. lets not forget beautiful melody rendered by him in " chellame chellame" from sathyam & "vidai kodu" from kannathil muthamittal.
hope he gets more chance...