Mahathi

Mahathi. S மஹதி
Background information
Birth name	Mahathi. S
Also known as	Mahathy, Mahati
Born	10 February 1985
Genres	Carnatic, Film Music
Occupation(s)	Playback singer
Instruments	Vocalist
Years active	2003–current
Website	mahathimusic.com

Mahathi (Tamil: மஹதி) is a Carnatic musician and playback singer for film songs in several Indian languages.

Family

Mahathi was born in Chennai to a family of Carnatic musicians. Her maternal great grandfather, Pazhamaneri Swaminatha Iyer, was a Carnatic vocalist and recipient of the Sangeetha Kalanidhi title. Her mother, Vasanthi Sekhar, was a flautist, while her father, Thiruvaiyaru Sekar was a Carnatic vocalist and disciple of M. Balamuralikrishna.

Mahathi moved to Kerala as a toddler, and did her schooling Hari Sri Vidya Nidhi, Trichur and Sacred Heart Convent, Cochin. She graduated in Chennai from Meenakshi College, Kodambakkam with English literature as her main stream.

Mahathi was married on 16 March 2008 to Dr. K. Sreekumar, an oral and maxillo facial surgeon. Their son, Samarth, was born on 27 February 2011.

Career

Carnatic musician

Mahathi started identifying Carnatic Ragas at the age of 1 ½ years. This talent was identified by her parents during her father's concert at a temple in Palakkad. Her parents nurtured her talent by teaching her more and more Ragas. When she was 2 ½ years old she was able to identify about 75 Carnatic Ragas. Just to test her talents, her father mixed up Carnatic Swaras but Mahathi did not fail to identify the exact Swaras of the Ragas.

When she was 3 years old she came to Chennai with her mother for the December Music season (1988). At the Concert of Mandolin U. Srinivas at the Mylapore Fine Arts, on 25 December, Mahathi, sitting on her mother's lap kept identifying the Ragas played by the musicians on stage. The Secretary of the Sabha, who was sitting next to her mother arranged for a live demonstration of the child's talents, soon after the main item of the concert. Mahathi, without the slightest hesitation, identified all the Ragas and enthralled the audience. This incident appeared in all the leading newspapers at that time.

Mahathi underwent her initial musical training from her parents and from Deepa and Gayatri of Trivandrum. When Mahathi's family moved to Trichur, she was put under the guidance of Sri. Mangad K. Natesan. Mahathi underwent advanced musical training under the tutelage of Sri O S Thiagarajan, Padmabhushan Chevalier Dr.M. Balamuralikrishna and Padmabhushan T. N. Seshagopalan.

She has been awarded the scholarship for Classical Music from the Central Government of India in the year 1994. At Trichur she began recording various Devotional Cassettes.

Mahathi has been giving Carnatic concerts since the age of 10, all over the country and abroad. She has been performing in Various Sabhas during the December Music Festival. In 2003, she had the blessing of performing before her guru T. N. S., on 25 December at the Parthasarathy Swamy Sabha, Chennai.

Playback singing

Mahathi's introduction to playback singing came in 2003 when she sang a duet, "Iyyaiyyo Pudichirukku", with Hariharan, under the music direction of Harris Jayaraj in the Tamil movie, Saamy. Although she had a previous experience singing a song ("Enna Maranthalum") under the music direction of Ilaiyaraja, the movie for which it was recorded, Kaadhal Jaathi, was not released.

In 2008, Mahathi won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer for the song "Naeraa Varattuma" from the movie "Nenjathai Killadhe".^[1]

Mahathi has since sung for movies in the Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam languages.

Television works

Mahathi presented the music based quiz program, "Aaha Paadalam" on Doordarshan Podhigai TV with Raaghav.^[2] In October 2005 she presented Ilaiyaraja's Live-in Concert organised by Jaya TV, "Andrum Indrum Endrum" with actor Parthiban.^[3]

Apart from hosting shows, Mahathi has also appeared as a judge for various music competition reality shows. Mahathi, music director Ouspechan, and director Rajasenan were permanent judges in Kairali TV's "Gandharva Sangeetham" in 2013. Mahathi has appeared as an audition judge in seasons 2, 3, and 4 of Vijay TV's musical reality-talent shows Airtel Super Singer and Airtel Super Singer Junior. She has also appeared as a guest judge in seasons 1, 2, and 3 of Raj TV's Carnatic music reality-talent show, Tanishq Swarna Sangeetham.

Mahathi has also recorded title songs for various TV serials in Vijay TV and Jaya TV, and several advertisement jingles.

Tours and performances

• Toured all over Malaysia and Singapore for classical concerts in 2002.
• Toured Burma (Myanmar) for Star Night Shows with Sri. Gangai Amaran and Sri. Malaysia Vasudevan in 2002.
• Performed for Boy's Boom Boom night with Singers Vasundhara Das, Manikka Vinayagam, Tippu, Karthik, Malathi Lakshman etc. at Colombo
• Toured London, Colombo, Kandy for light music and classical concerts in 2004.
• Toured Germany, Sweden, Norway and Denmark for concerts and shows in 2005.
• Toured Dubai and Bahrain for Asianet Onam Festival Shows(Malayalam) in 2006.
• Toured Australia (Melbourne & Sydney) with Dr. kJ Yesudas & Smt.Sujatha Mohan in October 2006. Performed at the concert hall in Sydney Opera House. This Performance is the first Tamil show at the Sydney Opera House.
• Performed for the Enfield Nagabooshani Amman temple, London with Sri. Harish Raghavendra in March 2008.
• Performed at the Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium with Deva (music director) for a star nite show in February 2008.
• Performed a live concert for the Tamil new year at Colombo for the Sri Lankan Government Tamil Channel Roopavahini.
• Toured all over the United States in May – June 2010 for Concerts and Shows.
• Toured UK for concerts in November 2010.
• Performed for the Kuwait Tamil Sangam in May 2011.
• Performed a Live Concert with Dr K. J. Yesudas at Kuala Lumpur for Astro Vanavil Channel.
• Toured all over the United States in October – November 2012 for concerts and shows along with playback singers Harish Raghavendra and Sathya Prakash.
• Performed at The 4th Tamil Trinity Festival, Melbourne in March 2013.
• Performed a fusion concert with Rajhesh Vaidhya and Stephen Devassy at London and Toronto in March 2013.

Titles, awards, and other recognition

References

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