Tamil singer Uma Ramanan passes away

CHENNAI: Famous Tamil film playback singer Uma Ramanan (72) passed away at her residence in Chennai. She had been undergoing treatment for a few days after her health deteriorated. Her husband is singer AV Ramanan. Uma's only son Vignesh Ramanan is also a singer.

Uma had sung about 200 songs in Tamil. Among them, more than 100 songs were composed by Ilayaraja. Ilayaraja-Uma collaboration was a huge hit. Uma had sung several superhit songs along with Yesudas and SP Balasubrahmanyam.

Uma began her playback singing career with the song 'Mohanan Kannan Muralee..' composed by SV Venkataraman for the film 'Sri Krishna Leela' in 1977. She also sang with AV Ramanan in that movie. It was the beginning of a three-and-a-half-decade-long musical journey that gifted several immortal songs. Uma had performed more than 6000 concerts during this time.

Uma learnt classical music under Palani Vijayalakshmi. She also studied classical dance as a disciple of Padma Subrahmanyam.

Some of Uma's hit songs are Oru Jeevan Alaithathu from Geetanjali, Aagava Vennilave from Arangetra Velai, Poopalam Isaikum from Thambikku Entha Ooru, Poongathave Thal Thiravai from Nilalgal, and Nee Padhi Naan Padhi Kanne from Keladi Kanmani. Uma and Ramanan also sang a song together in the Hindi film Playboy. She has also sung for music directors like MS Viswanathan, Shankar-Ganesh and Vidyasagar. Her last film song was 'Kannum Kannum Than Kalanthachu' composed by Mani Sharma for the film Thirupaachi.