Deva (composer)

Deva
Background information
Birth name	Devanesan Chokkalingam
Born	(1950-11-20) 20 November 1950[1]
Origin	Tamil Nadu, India
Occupation(s)	Film composer, music director
Instruments	Vocals (playback singing), guitar, keyboard/harmonium/piano
Years active	1988–present

Devanesan Chokkalingam, popularly known as Deva, is an Indian film composer and singer. He has composed songs and provided background music for Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films in a career spanning about 20 years. Many know his gaana songs, written mostly using Madras Tamil. He is known as the "Father of Gaana Genre" in the Tamil film industry.^[2][3]

Deva has composed music for many films within a very short period. He debuted as a film music director in the film Manasukkeththa Maharaasa in 1989. In the intervening years he has composed music for a total of more than 400 films.^[4]

Personal life

Deva was born to M. C. Chokkalingam and M. C. Krishnaveni. Even in his childhood, Deva was attracted to the world of music. Teaming up with Chandra Bose, he staged many musical programmes. He started learning classical music under Dhanraj and has completed a course in Western music at Trinity College of Music in London. His son Srikanth Deva is also a music director, as are his brothers, who have formed the duo Sabesh-Murali. His nephew Jai is an actor.

Career

Before coming to cinema, Deva worked for some time in the television field. In those days, Deva's brothers were working in the musical troupes of Illayaraja and other music directors as instrumentalists. His first film, Manasukketha Maharasa, was released in 1989. He was then called to work on the movie Vaigasi Poranthachu. After the release of Vaikaasi Poranthaachu, his name became known throughout the Tamil community.^[1][5]

So far, he has composed music for more than 400 films, which include Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films. He is also famous for his compositions for religious films. He was widely acclaimed for his scores for the Rajinikanth starrer Basha. His other famous compositions include Annamalai and Baasha, both starring the superstar Rajinikanth.

In 2014, Anirudh Ravichander chose Deva to sing a gaana song in his album Maan Karate and labelled Deva as the "father of the Gaana genre".^[6]

Honours

Veteran music director M. S. Viswanathan conferred the title Thenisai Thendral upon Deva for his contributions. He mostly uses singers Swarnalatha, Anuradha sriram & Chitra.

Partial filmography

Discography

Onscreen appearances

Reused tunes

• Kotigobba (2001) from Baashha (1995) (3 songs added with one of them being reused version of "Athanda Ithanda" from Arunachalam (1997))
• Simhadriya Simha from Kattabomman (1 song "Priya Priya" has been reused; while "Kalladre Naanu" was reused as "Poove Mudhal Poove" in Kadhal Kirukkan with different vocals and instrumentations; "Malnad Adike" was reused from "Kottapaakum" in Nattamai).
• Naaga from Kushi (3 songs "Megam Karukuthu", "Macarina" and "Oru Ponnu" has been reused).

References