Happy Birthday Hamsalekha: Top five unforgettable films of the lyrics writer-composer

Hamsalekha is popularly known as Nadha Brahma in Sandalwood. Hamsalekha is one of the popular composers and lyrics writers, who have worked for more than 300 movies since 1980. Hamsalekha started his career with the Balakrishna Orchestra Group and made his debut with the movie ‘Triveni’ in 1973 as a lyrics writer. In 1986, he became a music director for the movie ‘Henne Ninagenu Bandhana’. In the following years, Hamsalekha collaborated with Ravichandran and produced music for the movie ‘Premaloka’ which was a musical super hit. Hamsalekha has produced music for movies from different genres like western, pop, hip-hop, classical, folk, ghazals. He also became the mentor for many music directors like V. Harikrishna, V. Manohar, and others. As he celebrates his 69th birthday today, let’s take a look at the top five best movies of his career.

‘Premaloka’ was one of the biggest hits in the career of Ravichandran and Hamsalekha. ‘Premaloka’ is considered a multilingual romantic musical. Ravichandran made his directorial debut from this movie. Hamsalekha has composed music for this movie and songs like ‘Geleyare Nanna Gelathiyare- Hogona Collajige’, ‘Yarivanu’ ‘Premalokadinda’ and others created a big sensation in the minds of people. This movie has 11 songs which are mostly sung by S. P. Balasubrahmanyam and S. Janaki. The movie was a sleeper box-office hit.

‘Ramachari’ is another best movie where music was composed by Hamsalekha. Ramachari who is a worker falls in love with a rich girl. Hamsalekha showed the feelings between the couple and the love through beautiful and heartwarming music. ‘Yaarivalu Yaarivalu’, ‘Aakashadaage Yaaro’, ‘Kaadiruve Ninagaagi’, ‘Nammoora Yuvarani’ songs are still fresh in the minds of people and are considered as evergreen in the industry.

‘Huttidare Kannada Nadalli Huttabeku’ is the best song in the history of Kannada cinema. It is sung by Dr Rajkumar and written by Hamsalekha. This song is from the 1993 movie ‘Aakasmika’ starring Rajkumar, Madhavi, and Geetha. This song went on to become famous because of its explanation of the literature, sculptures, and nature of Karnataka in the song. Hamsalekha’s music made the song more beautiful.

‘Halunda Tavaru’ is a Kannada drama film directed by D. Rajendra Babu, and the music was composed by Hamsalekha. This was one of the super hit movies in Kannada for its sentiments and music. Vishnuvardhan and Sithara played lead roles in this musical blockbuster film. ‘Elu Shiva’, ‘Ele Hombisile’, ‘Thaayi Illadante’ and other songs in the movie are still remembered by people. The lyrics were also written by Hamsalekha himself. This movie made Hamsalekha win the Karnataka State Film Awards for both lyrics and music.

The music composition and lyrics for ‘Nenapirali’ was written by Hamsalekha. This movie was directed by Ratnaja, and starred Prem Kumar, Vidhya Venkatesh and Varsha in lead roles. Hamsalekha also won the Karnataka State Film Award for best music. ‘Olavu Ontiyalla’, ‘Koorakk Kukkaralli Kare’, ‘Preethi Paatavalla’, ‘Draupadi Draupadi’ and others were the most loved tracks from the film.