He has been suffering for the past several days and on 15th February he has been admitted with Surya Hospital, Chennai at critical stage.
One of the versatile singers of South Indian film Industry, Malaysia Vasudevan Nair was born on 15 June 1944 and brought up in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. He started singing when he was eight. He's the 8th in his family (last child). All his family members except his mother Ammalu were singers. He first started learning his music lessons from his father Chattu and later on continued with his brother. After singing on stage shows, he joined a theatre group to act in plays. His first film Raththa Pei based on the story Horror of Dracula was shot in India. He not only acted in the film but also sang a song in it. He left to India in 1967 to start his career in India and settled there.
He got his opportunity to enter the career in film music through producer Pollachi Rathnam. His first song was for the film Delhi to Madras through music director V.Kumar. Apart from this he joined Pavalar brother’s troupe and gave many stage performances along with them. He was christened as Malaysia Vasudevan by director AP Nagaraj.
He reached pinnacle glory through the song “Aattukutti Muttai Ittu…” from the film 16 Vayathinilae. From then there was no looking back for him. His ever green melodies like “Aagaya Gangai…” in Dharma Yudham, “Kovil Mani Oosai…” in Kizhakae Pogum Rail, “Kaadhal Deepam Ondru…” in “Thambikku Entha Ooru…”, “Podhuvaga En Manasu…” in Murattu Kalai, “Aawara Bhanwara…” in Sapnay, “Indha Minminikku…” in Sigappu Rojakkal, Poongkaatru Thirumbuma…” in Mudhal Mariyadhai, etc. stand as a shining testimony for his versatile singing.
He has started singing for movies of late he has completed nearly 8000 songs in tamil language and 4000 songs in other regional languages. He has been awarded 'Kalaimamani' award by the Tamil Nadu Government (1989).
He has worked with the leading musicians like MSV, Ilayaraja, Deva, Shankar Ganesh, AR Rahman and Vidyasagar. After TM Soundararajan he has been called as the ghost voice of actor Shivaji Ganesan.
Malaysia Vasudevan has a son Yugendran and daughter Prashanthini, both of them are play back singers.
