Updated: September 25, 2020 7:00:41 pm
SP Balasubrahmanyam passed away on September 25.
Shripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam (SPB), who passed away on Friday, was an absolute legend. One of the reasons he was revered by fans of all ages is the fact that he made an incomparable contribution to the music scene without even receiving a formal education in music. By his own admission, even after nearly six decades as an award-winning playback singer, he was unable to write a musical notation. And yet there was no match for the power of his singing prowess. It was a natural phenomenon.
In addition to singing in mainstream movies in 16 languages, including Tamil, Telugu Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi (the man has sung over 40,000 songs and that’s a record in itself), he also appeared in a large number of movies with major roles.
Not many replay singers have accomplished what SPB did as an actor. He received a lot of love from the audience and made a name for himself as a character artist.
Here is a list of movies in which SPB acted as an actor:
Keladi Kanmani (1990): SPB recommended to director Vasanth, who was K Balachander’s longtime assistant, not to make his debut film with him. He told Vasanth that if the movie fails, he has nothing to lose, but that the young director will be doomed even before he begins. But, a determined Vasanth persuaded the singing legend to act in the film. Contrary to SPB’s concerns, the film became a huge success and ran successfully for 285 days in theaters in Tamil Nadu. SPB played the role of a widower with an impressive talent for singing. The film follows the resulting family drama when his teenage daughter disapproves of his idea to remarry. With the compositions of the teacher Ilaiyaraaja, the soundtrack of the film also became a great success. It is difficult to distinguish SPB from his performance in the “breathless” song “Mannil Indha Kaadhal”.
Thiruda Thiruda (1993): Who can forget SPB’s performance as CBI officer Lakshmi Narayanan? Her effortless screen presence and ability to naturally add to the underlying humor aided Mani Ratnam’s heist comedy. It’s easily one of SPB’s sharpest performances as an actor.
Kadhalan (1994): It won’t be wrong to say that it was a turning point in SPB’s acting career. As after this movie, he became a favorite actor to play the hero’s father. In the romantic drama, which was directed by Shankar, SPB had played the role of a quiet police officer and a loving and caring father, who gets his son drunk so he can mend his son’s broken heart. In the early ’90s that was the benchmark of an ideal father.
Ullaasam (1996): SPB plays a doting father again, but with a little variation. He was not warm and charming like Sheriff Kathiresan. But he played an always disappointed father, who loses sleep over the uncertain future of his rebellious son.
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