Porayathu Leela (19 May 1934 – 31 October 2005) was an Indian playback singer, Carnatic vocalist and a music director. She has recorded more than 5,000 songs in various Indian languages including Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Hindi, Bengali, Sanskrit, Odia, Gujarati, Marati. and also Sinhale. She is also known for her extensive history of collaboration in the songs with Music Composers V Dakshinamoorthy., MS Baburaj, G Devarajan, Ghantasala, MS Viswanathan , K. Raghavan, Br Lakshmanan, LPR Varma, BA Chithambara athletes, AT Ummer, MK Arjun,Johnson, Ouseppachan, Ilaiyaraja, and with the playback singers KJ Yesudas and Ghantalasa over the years. Leela is known for her sweet and melodious voice that she named Ganamani. She was awarded Padma Bhushan in 2006. Early life Leela was born in 1934, in Chittur, Palakkad, Kerala to V.K. Kunjanmenon and Porayath Meenakshi Amma. She was the youngest of the three daughters – Sharadha, Bhanumathi and Leela. V K Kunjanmenon was a teacher in Ramavarma Higher Secondary School at Ernakulam. Her father wanted her and her sisters to learn Carnatic music, and she states that her father was the reason she became a singer. Starting at the age of 13, she has sung about 5000 film songs in all the South Indian languages – Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada. She also sang for a Bengali film and in Sinhala movies. Her songs are known for their emotional touch and classical discipline. She made a name for herself by singing both in film industry and in Carnatic music. She considered it an honor to have sung in the same period as M S Subbulakshmi, M L Vasanthakumari and D K Pattammal – three giants of Carnatic Music. She has worked under all great music directors and has sung with all the major singers of the South Indian film industry. Career Leela's first guru was Thiribuvana Manibhagavadhar, the uncle of musician T. V. Gopalakrishnan. Later she learnt from Paththamadai Krishna Ayyar, Maruthuvakudi Rajagopala Iyer and Rama Bhagavathar. Leela was trained in Carnatic music by doyens such as Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar and V. Dakshinamoorthy. Vadakkancheri Ramabhagavadhar was a close friend of Menon. He had settled down in Madras. He would invite Menon and Leela to Madras to learn music whenever he visited Ernakulam. The headmistress of the school where Leela was studying advised her father to take her to Madras for further training in music. It was Menon's ambition to make