K.S. Chitra reaches the studio one New Year’s day with her ‘music’ bag. In the bag is a book she carries everywhere religiously. The book has all the details of the songs she sings — the date and time, the music director and co-singers, the lyrics, the lyricist and the rest. Next to the book is a pen, a tape recorder, a set of headphones, a bottle of hot water and some emergency medicines. This time, it is for an Ilayaraja song she has come prepared with her little bag of belongings. The maestro suddenly calls everyone in the recording studio and hands out a new 100 rupee note to each of them. “I too got one, there was not a fold in it,” she recalls with the excitement of a child, sitting at Hotel Residency in Thiruvananthapuram. She has come to attend a function organised by 92.7 Big FM, announcing her as the face of the CERA Big Malayalam Music Awards.
In over three decades, she has sung tens of thousands of songs and every one of them is in these little books she keeps at a cupboard in her home. “One is missing, somewhere in the house of my sister K.S. Beena,” she says. It is on her sister’s birthday that she celebrates every New Year’s eve with family. “We greet every New Year with her birthday celebrations, singing karaoke together… but not in the last couple of years, you know why,” she stops.
Chitra is talking about her daughter Nandana, who died in a pool accident two years ago. Chitra has a charity trust called Sneha Nandana in memory of her daughter. “It is to sponsor ailing musicians. If I have a name for myself, it is because of the music industry.” This is her way of giving back.
Even as we talk, fans gather around, waiting to click a photo with her. Chitra remembers meeting her first fan years ago at a function in London. “I was about 21 at the time. This young girl pushed through the crowds and met my mother, who brought her backstage and introduced me. Valarmathi had my name tattooed on her hand. I am still in touch with her,” she says fondly. She knows about her fan pages on Facebook, with video strips of her funny moments on reality shows. “I would be teasing Mano on Vijay TV or joking with Sharreth on Mazhavil Manorama. I am generally a happy person.”
She does not remember every song she has sung, but there are memories behind many. “Once, after recording the song Malargale for A.R. Rahman, he came and asked if my mood was not alright. I have often wondered if I did not sing well that day.” Chitra does not harbour dreams of composing or writing songs, as she is happy with what she does. “Whatever it is that God gives, I will take it,” she says, the famous ‘Chitra smile’ never leaving her face.
