Mukesh Mohamed (earlier called Mukesh) is an Indian playback singer.^[1] As a singer, he sings melody, folk and gana songs. He has sung more than 500 film songs in various Indian languages.^{[citation needed]} He has also recorded a number of devotional albums. He has performed in numerous live concerts across the world, and has regular appearance in Ilaiyaraaja’s musical orchestras.^{[citation needed]} Mukesh Mohamed has sung some songs including "Vaa Saamy" in Annatthe.^[2][3]

Early life

Mukesh Mohamed was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. His parents are from Seythunganallur village, Tirunelveli district, Tamil Nadu.^[4] He was actively participating in singing competitions during his school days. His teacher had foreseen his future in music, and advised him to enter into film industry. Mukesh Mohamed was determined to make a career in film industry as it was his passion since his childhood. His father, N.P. Abdul Kadar, who was also a musician, trained Mukesh Mohamed to sing some of the toughest classical songs sung by the legendary playback singers^[5] including K. B. Sundarambal, T. R. Mahalingam, T. M. Soundararajan and Sirkazhi Govindarajan, and encouraged him to learn music properly. Mukesh Mohamed, then, started learning music from Dinakaran, a music composer, who changed his name to Mukesh.

Singing career

Mukesh Mohamed started his singing career in Dinakaran's musical orchestra. In the beginning, he used to sing a number of popular Tamil devotional songs.^[6] For more than 15 years he was singing in light music orchestras.^{[citation needed]}Simultaneously, he was participating in different musical competitions organized by leading TV Channels. In 2002, he was adjudged as the best singer of the year for "Raja Geetham", a musical competition conducted by Raj TV, and received the award in the presence of legendary musicians including M. S. Viswanathan, S. P. Balasubrahmanyam and A. R. Rahman. This reward gave him an entry to film industry.^[7] Mukesh Mohamed's debut in playback singing was for the song "Thee Kuriviyai" in the 2004 Tamil film Kangalal Kaidhu Sei. A. R. Rahman composed the music.^[8] He has sung a number of songs for many popular music directors including Ilaiyaraaja, Srikanth Deva, Bharadwaj, Devi Sri Prasad, D. Imman, Harris Jayaraj, Sirpy, Karthik Raja, Kannan and Yuvan Shankar Raja. Some of Mukesh Mohamed's hit songs include "Enn Theivathaikku" (Sivakasi), "Love Letter" (Kanna Laddu Thinna Aasaiya), “Azhage Azhage” (Oru Kal Oru Kannadi) and Kacheri Kacheri (Kacheri Arambam). He is popularly known for his singing of “Ullathil nalla ullam”, an emotionally loaded hit song from the 1964 Tamil movie Karnan in live orchestras across the world.^[9][10]

Discography

The discography of Mukesh Mohamed includes^[11][12]

• All songs are in Tamil, unless otherwise noted.