Remembering Malaysia Vasudevan on his 81st Birth Anniversary

Vasudevan was born on 15 June 1944 to a Malayalee family in Kuala Selangor in present day Malaysia. He chose to study Tamil at school and took an early interest in drama.

He began singing on stage at the age of eight but showed greater affinity to acting. One of his successful plays was Ratha Paei and its producers took the cast to Chennai to turn it into a movie. Vasudevan sang a song for this film under the music of V. Kumar whose assistant then was a young Illaiyaraja. It was the first meeting between Illaiyaraja and Vasudevan and the beginning of a long and close friendship. Vasudevan recalls his earlier days in this memorable interview.

Vasu subsequently sang a song for the film Delhi to Madras for V. Kumar and then joined Illaiyaraja as part of the Pavalar Brothers group. This led to him being heard by M.S. Viswanathan who gave him first a bit of a song from Bharatha Vilas and then a song in Thalai Prasavam.

The turning point in his singing career was when he recorded the song Kaadhal Seyyum Villaiyaatu from the film Gumasthavin Magal which had music by Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan. It was the producer of this film – A.P. Nagarajan – who began referring to Vasudevan as “Malaysisa Vasudevan”.

The turning point in his career came when Illaiyaraja asked him to sing two songs in Pathinaaru Vayathiniley after S.P. Balusubramaniyam came down with a cold. The two songs became a huge hit and made Malaysia Vasudevan a star.  Nobody can recite this event better than Malaysia Vasudevan himself.

Illaiyaraja continued to boost his career with songs suited to his voice and timbre. It was not long before Malaysia Vasudevan became a household name.

He went on to sing almost 8000 songs – most of them under Illaiyaraja’s music. He was also given choice songs by M.S.Viswanathan. Sadly, he was under-utilised by other music composers.

Vasudevan was also a music composer and composed music for seven movies, including Saamanthi Poo, Kolusu and Rajavin Paarvai. He also directed the Sivakumar starrer Nee Sirithaal Deepavali which did not do well at the box-office.

Vasudevan also acted in more than 80 films and this included sharing the screen with Sivaji Ganesan, Kamalhaasan, Rajinikanth, Vijayakanth, Ajithkumar, Vijay, Sathyaraj, Paandiarajan, Paandiyan and Ramarajan.

Vasudevan’s family

Vasudevan married Annaporani (Usha) on 26 January 1976 and they had three children –Yugendran, Prashanthini and Pavithra. Yugendran has acted in a few films, sharing the screen with actors like Ajithkumar (Poovelaam un vaasam) and Vijay (Youthm Bhagavathi, Madhurey and Thirupaachi) Yugendran also recorded a few songs, with his first solo being Pollaachi Sandhaiyile from Rojavanam. Yugendran has also scored music for 5 films.

Vasudevan’s daughter, Prashanthini is also an acoomplished singer and her songs include Love pannu from 12B, Munthinam Partheney from Vaaranam Aayiram, Vizhi Moodi Yosithaal from Ayan, Ennamo Yedho from Ko.

Vasudevan’s illness and death

Vasudevan had been battling chronic diabetes and severe hypertension for many years. He suffered a stroke in 2003 and developed a high fever in February 2011. He developed gangrene in his toe and eventually passed away on 20 February 2011.

Enjoy a selection of some of his best songs by watching the video below or clicking the link below the video to select the songs you want to watch.