Noted violinist Balabhaskar passes away; Kerala CM Vijayan pays homage

Noted violinist Balabhaskar, who was critically injured in a car accident, died at a private hospital here early Tuesday. Politicians and celebrities offered their condolences and paid tribute to the musician. Balabhaskar's two-year-old daughter, Thejaswani, had died in the accident on September 25. His wife, Lakshmi, is undergoing treatment. The family was returning here from Thrissur after a temple visit when their car rammed a tree near Pallipuram. The 40-year-old musician had undergone a surgery.

He was on ventilator support and suffered a massive cardiac arrest and passed away at 1 am Tuesday. After the postmortem, the mortal remains were taken to the university college campus here where Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Finance Minister Thomas Issac, and people from various walks of life paid homage to the departed. Balabhaskar and his wife were students of the university college.

The funeral is expected to be held on Wednesday. Condoling the musician's demise, Vijayan said Balabhaskar's untimely death was "deeply painful." Veteran singer K J Yesudas said Bhaskar's death was an "irreparable" loss to the music world. Music director M Jayachandran said Balabhaskar was a blessed and creative musician. A leader of Opposition in the assembly, Ramesh Chennithala was among those who condoled the musician's death.

Balabhaskar began his stage shows at the age of 12 and brought out several music albums which went on to become very popular. At the age of 17, Balabhaskar had composed music for a song is sung by Yesudas. In his tweet, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said, "Deeply saddened by the passing of violinist Balabhaskar. A loss for the world of music and for Thiruvananthapuram. My heart goes out to his grieving family". Malayalam actor Dulqur Salman tweeted, "heartbroken hearing about Balabhaskar and daughter Tejaswani" and prayed that his family would have the courage to face their loss.

(With inputs from agencies.)