S. Mahathi – Ghost voice of Trisha Krishnan in Tamil chartbuster hits,”Pudichirukku” and “Mudhal Mazhai”

S. Mahathi, or simply Mahathi is a south Indian playback singer, who predominantly sings in Tamil movies. Apart from Telugu and Kannada films, she has also sung a very few Malayalam and Punjabi film songs. As a singer she shot to fame singing the duet,”Pudichirukku” aside Hariharan for 2003 movie, Saamy. In a career spanning to nearly two decades, she has recorded over 500 film songs in different languages. She is also a trained Carnatic singer regular with classical concerts, and has recorded devotional albums during her teens. She has also appeared as a celebrity judge for a few TV shows on music.

Mahathi hails Chennai. She belongs to a family with strong musical background in Carnatic music. Her younger days were spent in different places of Kerala, where her father worked. Her father P. Shekhar was a student of famous Carnatic singer Dr. M. Balamurali Krishna. Her mother Vasanthi is a flautist. Mahathi learnt early lessons of Carnatic music from her parents. She studied at Thrissur, Ernakulam and Thiruvananthapuram. Deepa Gayatri was her first guru, while she was a primary school student in capital city. During her stay in other towns and cities, she continued learning under different gurus.

To pursue a career in music, Mahathi gave up her dreams in engineering studies and took English as main subject for higher studies in Chennai. She recorded her first film song for Ilaiyaraaja – Kaadhal Jaathi, but the song was not released. Then she got the major break through ,”Pudichirukku” song when she had turned just 18. Since then she has recorded numerous chartbuster songs with many leading music composers. She has sung hit songs for Chellamay, Vallavan, Osthe, Bheema, Ayan etc. She is married to a surgeon in Thrissur and has one child.

Mahathi – Some interesting and less-known facts

1. She is the great granddaughter of violinist Pazhamaneri Swaminatha Iyer.

2. She is an “A” grade artiste of the All India Radio / Doordarshan.

3. She started live Carnatic concerts at the age of 10.

4. Her top two duet songs,”Pudichirukku” and “Mudhal Mazhai” were sung aside Hariharan and interestingly, both the songs were composed by Harris Jayaraj and filmed on Vikram and Trisha.

5. In 2001 Kerala state Kalolsava, she got first prize in Carnatic music. She is also a recipient of Central Government Scholarship for Carnatic Music in 1994.

6. Her first recording was at Chetana studio in Thrissur for a devotional album, while she was a school student. After that she recorded songs for many devotional albums.

7. A child prodigy, she started identifying classical ragas at the age of just 1.5 years. It was noticed during her father’s concert at a temple in Palakkad, and since then her parents have nourished her talents.

8. By the age of 2.5 years she could easily identify about 75 Carnatic Ragas. Her father used to mix up Carnatic swaras to test her talent.

9. On the Christmas evening 1988, when Mahathi was just three years old, she could easily identify Indian ragas played on a stage program in Chennai by U. Sreenivas in mandolin. Surprised by it, he gave her opportunity to sing on stage after his performance, and she could identify the ragas. It was her first public performance, and it was reported by newspapers of Chennai.

10. Since 2004, she has worked as a chorus singer with A. R. Rahman, and later sang tracks as well.

11. Mudhal Mazhai from Bheema (and “Naeraa Varattuma” from Nenjathai Killadhe) and Nenje Nenje from Ayan gave her Tamil Nadu state award for best playback singer for years – 2008 and 2009.