Kalyani Menon was 80. (Photo: Twitter/onlynikil) Popular playback singer Kalyani Menon passed away on Monday at a private hospital in Chennai due to age-related illness, sources close to her family said. She was 80.
Kalyani, the mother of noted director and founder of Mindscreen Film Institute, Rajiv Menon, developed symptoms of stroke and was immediately rushed to the hospital where she breathed her last, sources added.
The last rites and cremation would take place in the city’s Besant Nagar on Tuesday afternoon.
Kalyani Menon began her career in singing in the 1970s as a classical singer. Menon’s famous songs with noted singer K J Yesudas in Malayalam include “Rithubheda Kalpana Charutha Nalkiya” from the 1983 movie Mangalam Nerunnu and “Pavanarachezhuthunnu Kolangalennum” from Mohanlal-starrer Vietnam Colony released in the year 1992.
Born in Ernakulam, Kalyani started singing at the age of five in the “Navaratri sangeeth utsav” organised in the famous TDM hall in Chennai. She began her career as a playback singer by singing in Thoppil Bhasi directed Malayalam movie Abala.
Besides Malayalam, she has sung in several Tamil movies, for top musicians Ilaiyaraaja and AR Rahman.
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