Gantasala

 
Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao familiarly known as Gantasala was born on Dec 4, 1922. He sang for many languages such as Telugu,Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Tulu and Hindi. He was the recipient of the Padmashree award, India's fourth highest civilian award.
He composed music for more than 100 movies. He sang the Bhagavad Gita just before his death in 1974, a rendition which became highly acclaimed and continues to be as popular as ever. On 11 February 2003, a stamp was released in honor of Ghantasala at Telugu Lalita Kala Toranam, Public Gardens, Hyderabad.
"Ghantasala's blending of classical improvisations to the art of light music combined with his virtuosity and sensitivity puts him a class apart, above all others in the field of playback singing". Ghantasala was "no mere singer" but also a "true poet" who with his melodious voice could comprehend and did give expression to the deepest feelings of love, pity, joy, suffering, piety, happiness and bitterness in a manner no one else could, or did. One cannot help feeling that it would have been hardly possible for him to sing on all those varied themes with such intensity of fervor and likeness to reality, and precision in apprehension, had he not himself lived and experienced these basic emotions inwardly, in as great a manner as any of the great poets ever had. The "Melody King" legendary Ghantasala continues to hold sway over millions of music lovers, crossing generation barriers, with the mellifluous magic spell of his golden voice
We miss him on Feb 11,1974 at the age of 51 in Chennai, Tamilnadu