Hariharan

He was born in 1955 in Thiruvananthapuram to Carnatic musicians, Alleppey Ananthasubramaniam Iyer and Alamelu, and grew up in Bombay, training in Carnatic and Hindustani music and in the ghazal; he won an All India Sur Singaar competition in 1977 and sang his first film song for Jaidev in Gaman (Ajeeb Saneha Mujh Par). Through the 1980s he recorded ghazal albums and a few film songs; Lamhe and Mohra in the early 1990s led to Bombay, Rangeela and a long partnership with Rahman in Hindi and Tamil.

Colonial Cousins (1996), with Lesle Lewis, won MTV awards and sold internationally; Border (Mere Dushman Mere Bhai, National Award-nominated), Roja Hindi, Jab Pyaar Kisise Hota Hai and later Jodhaa Akbar (Jashn-e-Bahara) added to the film side. He won the National Award for the Tamil film Kaadhalan and for the Hindi Jhonka Hawa Ka (Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam), and received the Padma Shri in 2004. He continues to sing ghazals, Carnatic concerts and film across languages.

Hariharan's voice is a rich, pliant tenor with a Carnatic singer's control of ornament and a ghazal singer's taste for the long, slow phrase. He can bend a note further than anyone else in film and still land it in tune, and Rahman used that elasticity in songs built on sustained lines — Tu Hi Re, Nahin Samne — while the ghazal records show the restraint underneath.