Santha P. Nair Biography 
Santha P. Nair was a leading playback singer of Malayalam during 1950’s and 1960’s. Her most popular songs are ‘Nazhiyurippalukondu naadake kalyanam’ and ‘Thumbi thumbi vaayo’ and she has sung more than 200 songs for film music. Biggest highlights of her singing career are that Yesudas’ first duet song, Vayalar’s written first film song, first released song of both composers, Baburaj and Raghavan Master and above all the beginning of the magical duo of Vayalar and Devarajan team have all begun with with Santha’s voice((Janani, Chaturangam).
Santha was born in a traditional and well known Nair family of Thrissur – Ambady family. She had 4 siblings. She completed her college education from Queen Mary's College, Chennai and worked for All India Radio, Kozhikode when she got her first opportunity to sing. She was inclined to music at a younger age. Her first song 'Ammathan thankakudame' was a lullaby for the Malayalam movie, Thiramala in 1953 composed by Vimal Kumar. Then she stayed in Malayalam music till late 1960’s and gave many memorable songs like, are ‘Nazhiyurippalukondu naadake kalyanam’ and ‘Thumbi thumbi vaayo’. She also got opportunity to sing for the milestone movie of Malayalam, Neelakuyil (1953). The song was ‘Unarunaru Unnikanna’ which happened to be the first released movie of Raghavan master. She was a Carnatic singer also, who performed in many live concerts. She always completes it with light music.
Vayalar regarded as the greatest lyricist of Malayalam cinema was a well known poet who entered film music with the movie – Koodapirappu. The most memorable song of Santha is Thumbi thumbi, written by Vayalar Ramavarma, thus getting the credits to sing for Vayalar song for the first time. Vaalittu Kannezhuthanam of Minnaminungu is the first song of famous music director Baburaj too, sung by Santha. Kaalpadukal released in 1969 was the first movie for which Yesudas did playback singing. She sang his first duet for the same movie - Attention penne. `Kadavathu thoni aduthapol' in the film `Murapennu' was her last recorded song.
Published: N/A
Updated: January 20, 2014
