Sujatha Mohan, usually credited as Sujatha, is an award-winning Indian playback singer who is popular for singing in Malayalam and Tamil movies. She has also sung for Telugu, Kannada and Hindi movies. She is widely popular for her evergreen melodies and her sweet voice is considered to be her biggest asset. She has nearly 4,000 songs to her credit.
Sujatha was shot to fame in the seventies as Baby Sujatha, the schoolgirl who regularly used to sing with K. J. Yesudas in his stage shows all over the world. She recorded her first song, "Kannezhuthy Pottuthottu" when she was in sixth standard. The song was composed by M. K. Arjunan for the 1975 Malayalam movie Tourist Bungalow. She recorded songs for Shyam in Kamam Krodham Moham and Salil Chowdhury in Aparadhi. Around this time, composer M. G. Radhakrishnan got her to record many non-film songs; the biggest hit among them was "Odakkuzhal Vili".
She debuted in Tamil through the song "Kaadhal Oviyam Kandein" from Kavikuyil (1977), tuned in Hameer Kalyani raga by Illayaraja, but it was not included in the film. Her first released song in Tamil was "Kalai Paniyil" from the Tamil film Gayathri (1977), starring Sridevi and Rajinikanth with music by Ilaiyaraja. She sang for Ilaiyaraaja in Johnny, Kavikuyil and Ilamai Kolangal. After her marriage in 1981, she took a sabbatical from playback singing. She made a successful comeback in 1988 through Kadathanadan Ambadi, followed by the superhit Chithram.
She used to sing ad jingles in the late 1980s for A. R. Rahman (such as a Premire Cooker and Tilda Rice ads). Then, Rahman got her to sing "Pudhu Vellai Mazhai" from Mani Ratnam's 1992 film Roja, which became one of the biggest hit songs in India. The backing vocals for the song "Kadhal Roja" were also performed by Sujatha. She has had other hit songs, most of them with Rahman from films including Pudhiya Mugam (1992), Gentleman (1993), Jeans and Minsaara Kanavu (1997). She has also recorded some songs in Hindi, including "Dil Hai Sanam" (the Hindi version of "Thee Thee") from Chor Chor (Thiruda Thiruda), "Ishq Bina" from Taal, "Hai Jaana" from Pukar and "Ishwar Allah" from Earth, and provided backing vocals for the song "Tum Ho Meri Nigahom" from Kabhi Na Kabhi, all of them composed by A. R. Rahman. She has had many of her notable and successful songs under the musical direction of A. R. Rahman.
She had a strong comeback in the Malayalam film industry in the mid-1990s and most of her notable Malayalam songs were composed by Vidyasagar. Most of her hit songs from Telugu are composed by Mani Sharma. She lost her father at the age of two and her mother Lakshmi could not accompany her to Chennai where most of the recordings took place. So she lost out on a lot of opportunities. After getting married to Dr.Krishna Mohan (1981), she took a sabbatical from singing in films. But during the break she learned Hindustani music and, it was the noted director Priyadarshan who brought her back into playback singing with "Chitram", the all time musical super hit of Mohanlal.
Family Background
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