P. Leela Biography 
P. Leela was one of the leading female voices of south Indian film industry. She was one of the top sought female singers during 1950’s and 1960’s and she has sung in all south Indian languages. She was honoured with Padma Bhushan posthumously in 2006. Porayathu Leela, born in Chittur of Palakkad is one of the gifted voices and has proved her versatility in all south Indian languages. She has more than 5000 film songs in her credit and has worked with all leading music composers of the industry. She has also sung a few songs in Sinhala language.
Porayathu Leela was born on May 19, 1934 in Palakkad. She was born as the youngest of three daughters to school teacher, V.K. Kunjanmenon and Porayath Meenakshi Amma. Her father nourished her singing talents and gave formal training in music at a younger age. She started her training under Thiribuvana Manibhagavadhar. Later she learnt from Paththamadai Krishna Ayyar and Maruthuvakudi Rajagopala Iyer. Later she received training from Rama Bhagavathar, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar and Dakshinamoorthy Swami. Later her school mistress advised her father to take her to Chennai for advanced learning as well as pursue a career in music. Menon resigned his job in Ernakulum and took Leela to Madras in 1944. Leela was only ten year old then. Both of them stayed with Vadakkancheri Ramabagavathar in Mylapore and she started learning in Gurukula system. Her father was her big support in grooming her career.
While in Chennai, she received opportunity to attend live concerts of leading vocalists of that time and it helped her a lot too. She too attended in many music contests winning prizes. In 1946 she did her first concert in Andra mahila sabha. She entered Tamil film music at a time when playback singing has just been introduced. But she was ignorant of all languages except Malayalam. Later she conquered all, becoming one of the leading voices of the decade. Apart from playback singing, she has also rendered her voice for many devotional songs.
Published: N/A
Updated: January 21, 2014
