"Mile Sur Mera Tumhara" singer M Balamuralikrishna passes away at 86
Singer-composer Mangalamapalli Balamuralikrishna , who caught the nation’s attention in Doordarshan’s iconic music video ‘Mile Sur Mera Tumhara’ in the eighties, passed away in Chennai on Tuesday. He was 86. With a voice magnificently rich and instantly recognizable, Balamuralikrishna excelled not only as a singer but left his imprint as a composer, poet, multi-instrumentalist and innovator of ragas and taalas. He started performing at a very young age and presented his first concert when he was just six years old. Described as a living legend and awarded honorary doctorates, Balamuralikrishna performed at more than 25,000 concerts across the world and has more than 400 compositions in Telugu, Sanskrit, Kannada and Tamil to his credit. In addition to Carnatic vocals, he was adept at playing the violin, viola, and mridangam, a percussion instrument. Reflecting his musical lineage, he once said that “music flows in my blood”. Hindustani music too was not out of bounds for this m...