Mahathi

Mahathi. S மஹதி
Background information
Birth name	Mahathi. S
Also known as	Mahathy, Mahati
Born	10 February 1985
Genres	Carnatic, Film Music
Occupation(s)	Playback singer
Instrument(s)	Vocalist
Years active	2003–current
Website	mahathimusic.com

Mahathi (Tamil: மஹதி) is a Carnatic musician and playback singer for film songs in several Indian languages.

Family

Mahathi was born in Chennai to a family of Carnatic musicians. Her maternal great grandfather, Pazhamaneri Swaminatha Iyer, was a Carnatic vocalist and recipient of the Sangeetha Kalanidhi title. Her mother, Vasanthi Sekhar, was a flautist, while her father, Thiruvaiyaru Sekar was a Carnatic vocalist and disciple of M. Balamuralikrishna.

Mahathi moved to Kerala as a toddler, and did her schooling Hari Sri Vidya Nidhi School, Trichur and Sacred Heart Convent, Cochin. She graduated in Chennai from Meenakshi College, Kodambakkam with English literature as her main stream.

Mahathi married a surgeon in 2008; the couple have a child.

Career

Carnatic musician

Mahathi, according to her parents, had an early knack for identifying Carnatic ragas, and subsequently was trained in music in Trichur, she was put under the guidance of Sri. Mangad K. Natesan. Mahathi underwent advanced musical training under the tutelage of Sri O S Thiagarajan, Padmabhushan Chevalier Dr.M. Balamuralikrishna and Padmabhushan T. N. Seshagopalan.

She has been awarded the scholarship for Classical Music from the Central Government of India in the year 1994. At Trichur she began recording various Devotional Cassettes.

Mahathi has been giving Carnatic concerts since the age of 10, all over the country and abroad. She has been performing in Various Sabhas during the December Music Festival. In 2003, she had the blessing of performing before her guru T. N. S., on 25 December at the Parthasarathy Swamy Sabha, Chennai.

Playback singing

Mahathi's introduction to playback singing came in 2003 when she sang a duet, "Iyyaiyyo Pudichirukku", with Hariharan, under the music direction of Harris Jayaraj in the Tamil movie, Saamy. Although she had a previous experience singing a song ("Enna Maranthalum") under the music direction of Ilaiyaraja, the movie for which it was recorded, Kaadhal Jaathi, was not released.

In 2008, Mahathi won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer for the song "Naeraa Varattuma" from the movie "Nenjathai Killadhe".

Mahathi has since sung for movies in the Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam languages.

Television works

Mahathi presented the music based quiz program, "Aaha Paadalam" on Doordarshan Podhigai TV with Raaghav. In October 2005 she presented Ilaiyaraja's Live-in Concert organised by Jaya TV, "Andrum Indrum Endrum" with actor Parthiban.

Apart from hosting shows, Mahathi has also appeared as a judge for various music competition reality shows such as Kairali TV's "Gandharva Sangeetham" in 2013, and in seasons 2, 3, and 4 of Vijay TV's musical reality-talent shows Airtel Super Singer and Airtel Super Singer Junior. She was a guest judge in seasons 1, 2, and 3 of the Carnatic music reality-talent show Tanishq Swarna Sangeetham.

Mahathi has also recorded title songs for various TV serials in Vijay TV and Jaya TV, and several advertisement jingles.

Titles, awards, and other recognition

• 2008, Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Female Playback (for "Naeraa Varattuma" from Nenjathai Killadhe)
• 2008, ITFA Best Female Playback Award (for "Mudhal Mazhai" from Bheema)
• 2011, "The Chord Wizard" (title), WE Magazine, Chennai, India
• 2017, Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Female Playback (for "Nenje Nenje" from Ayan)