B. A. Chidambaranath Biography 
in Nagercoil of Travancore Princely state (now a part of Tamil Nadu), he has given some outstanding compositions for Malayalam cinema. Both his son Rajamani and grandson Achu Rajamani are popular music directors of south Indian cinema. He owns the credit of introducing the popular playback singer Jayachandran to cinema world, through the movie Kunjali Maraikkar. Noted playback singer Unni Menon sung his first song for Chidambaranath – Amudhum thenum, though the movie never got released. Vellinakshathram, Rajamalli, Viruthan Shanku and Murapennu are some of his popular Malayalam compositions. "Karayunno Puzha Chirikkunno" and "Kadavathu Thoniyaduthappol" of Murapennu are his evergreen compositions.
He was born in a reputed music family of Nagercoil. He learnt first lessons of classical music and mridangam from his father, B. K. Arunachalam Annavi. Later he trained Mridangam under Muttiah Bhagavathar and attended many music concerts at a younger age. He also learnt violin from Nagamani Marthanda Nadar and the famous Kumbakonam Rajamanickam Pillai. His music talents were noticed by music director C. N. Pandurangan who gave him the big break to the industry. He watched Chidambaranath’s performance in a Carnatic music concert.
He started his film journey in 1948 and worked as an assistant of C. N. Pandurangan for Tamil films Gokuladasi and Jnanasoundari. As an independent music director, he first composed for a Sinhalese film followed by Malayalam movie – Vellinakshatram. Stree was his third composition which released in 1950 and he took a long break of 14 years from the industry. P. Bhaskaran brought him back to film industry and B. A. Chidambaranath worked most with this legendary film personality and poet later. Maximum of his songs were penned by Bhaskaran.
Published: N/A
Updated: September 24, 2014
