P. Leela

Porayath Leela (19 May 1934–31 October 2005) was an Indian playback singer, Carnatic vocalist, and a music director.

She has recorded more than 5,000 songs in various Indian languages including Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Hindi, Bengali, Sanskrit, Odia, Gujarati, Marati.

and also Sinhale. She is also known for her extensive history of collaboration in the songs with Music Composers v.Dakshinamoorthy, MS Baburaj, G. Devarajan, ghantasala, MS Viswanathan, K. Raghavan, Br Lakshmanan, LPR Varma, BA chithambara athletes, AT ummer, MK Arjun,Johnson, Ouseppachan, ilaiyaraja, and with the playback singers KJ Yesudas and Ghantalasa over the years.

Leela was born in 1934, in Chittur, Palakkad, Kerala to V.K. Kunjanmenon and Porayath Meenakshi Amma.

She was the youngest of three daughters – Sharadha, Bhanumathi and Leela.

V.K. Kunjanmenon was a teacher in Ramavarma Higher Secondary School at Ernakulam.

Leela's father wanted her and her sisters to learn Carnatic music, and she states that her father was the reason she became a singer.

Since the age of 13, she has sung some 5,000 film songs in all the South Indian languages – Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada.

She also sang for a Bengali film and in Sinhala movies.

Her songs are known for their emotional touch and classical discipline.

She made a name for herself by singing both in film industry and in Carnatic music.

She considered it an honour to have sung in the same period as Subbulakshmi, M. L. Vasanthakumari and D. K. Pattammal – three giants of Carnatic Music.

She has worked under most of the great music directors and has sung with many of the major singers of the South Indian film industry.

Leela's first guru was Thiribuvana Manibhagavadhar, the uncle of musician T. V. Gopalakrishnan.

Later she learnt from Paththamadai Krishna Ayyar, Maruthuvakudi Rajagopala Iyer and Rama Bhagavathar.

Leela was trained in Carnatic music by doyens such as Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar and V. Dakshinamoorthy.

Vadakkancheri Ramabhagavadhar was a close friend of Menon.

He had settled down in Madras.

He would invite Menon and Leela to Madras to learn music whenever he visited Ernakulam.

The headmistress of the school where Leela was studying advised her father to take her to Madras for further training in music.

It was Menon's ambition to make his youngest daughter an accomplished singer.

A.V. Meiyappa Chettiar came up with the innovative idea of replacing the soundtrack with voice and the playback system was introduced in Tamil cinema in 1938.

It gradually got acceptance and many singers entered the movie world.

When she landed in Madras she did not know Tamil or Telugu.

She used to write the song in Malayalam and practice them to perfection.

Once she started her career as playback singer she arranged tutors and learnt other languages.

Menon resigned his job in Ernakulam and took Leela to Madras in 1944.

They stayed with Vadakkancheri Ramabagavathar in Mylapore and the 10-year-old Leela started learning in gurukula style.

Her father was particular that Leela do sadhaka (practice music) early in the morning.

In Madras, Leela had opportunities to listen concerts of singers like Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, S. Ramanathan, G. N. Balasubramaniam, Chembai and others.

Leela said this 'kelvi gnanam' (learning music by listening) helped her much in fine-tuning music and molding her.

Leela sang at many music competitions in the city winning prizes in 1946.

Durgabai Deshmukh gave her the first concert at Andra Mahila Sabha.

Leela was giving concerts in various places.

Columbia Recording Company was looking for a female voice and the manager Ganabathirama Iyer recommended Leela.

She was appointed as their artiste.

This paved the way for her entry into films.

In Tamil, Nandakumar was the first movie to introduce playback singing.

She made her debut as a playback singer in the 1948 Tamil film Kangkanam.

Leela is known for her sweet and melodious voice that she named Ganamani. She was awarded Padma Bhushan in 2006.