Renowned violinist Balabhaskar passes away

Noted violinist Balabhaskar, who was critically injured in a car crash a week ago, died at a private hospital here early Tuesday following a cardiac arrest, hospital sources said.

He was 40.

Balabhaskar’s two-year-old daughter Thejaswani had died in the accident on September 25, while his wife Lakshmi is undergoing treatment.

The family was returning here from Thrissur after a temple visit that day when their car rammed into a tree near Pallipuram.

Balabhaskar had married his college mate, Lakshmi, at the age of 22.

"Balabhaskar passed away at 12.56 pm following a cardiac arrest. He had undergone two neurosurgeries, was on ventilator support and had started reacting to medicines,” hospital sources told PTI.

On Monday, his friend and guitarist Stephen Devassy had visited him and Balabhaskar had made some lip movements, giving hope that he was on the road to recovery.

However, later on Monday night, he suffered a massive cardiac arrest and passed away, leaving friends and admirers of the musician in grief.

Lakshmi is recovering from the tragedy and has not been informed of the death of her husband, hospital sources said.

After post-mortem at Thiruvananthapuram medical college hospital, Balabhaskar’s body was taken to university college campus, where he and Lakshmi had studied.

Condolences pour in

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, his cabinet colleagues, politicians, actors, singers and classmates paid homage to him.

The funeral will be held tomorrow.

Vijayan said Balabhaskar’s untimely demise was "deeply painful". Congress leader Shashi Tharoor took to Twitter to convey his condolences.

"Deeply saddened by the passing of violinist Balabhaskar. A loss to the music world and to Thiruvananthapuram. My heart goes to the grieving family," he tweeted.

Veteran singer KJ Yesudas said his death was an “irreparable loss to the music world".

Actor Mohammad tweeted that “Balabhaskar’s fingers created magic. That music never dies".

Best known for promoting fusion in South India, Balabhaskar hailed from a family which was deeply devoted to music. He was introduced to the world of Instrumental music by his uncle B Sasi Kumar at the age of three.

Balabhaskar became the youngest music director in the Malayalam film industry when he composed for "Mangalya Pallak" at the age of 17.

His compositions for albums ‘Ninakaai’ and ‘Aadyamayi’ are still much sought after romantic song collections.

Balu, as he was known in his circle of friends, had a flair for connecting with his audience, making him a favourite in major stage shows and classical concerts.

Balabhaskar had performed with many noted musicians and instrumentalists in India and abroad, including Ustad Zakhir Hussain, Sivamani, Louis Banks, Hariharan, Mattannoor Shankaranarayanan and Fazal Qureshi, among others.

He was the recipient of the Bismillah khan Yuva Sangeetkhar Puraskar in 2008 by the Kendra Sangeet natal academy for Instrumental music (violin).

Apart from his concerts and stage shows, Balabhaskar has given music in ad films, movies, teleserials and albums in Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Sanskrit.