Vaikom Vijayalakshmi’s story is not simply about a singer who has won a National Film Award. It is about a musician who has spent decades building her world around sound, beginning with a childhood in Vaikom where her parents recognised her natural affinity for music and encouraged her to pursue it. Born without sight, Vijayalakshmi learnt music largely by listening, absorbing songs and classical compositions through recordings and guidance from her teachers. Her father, V Muraleedharan, played a particularly important role in nurturing that passion, even putting songs on cassettes for her when she was very young.
That early encouragement eventually took her from classical performances and the rare Gayathri Veena to Malayalam playback singing. Her 2013 breakthrough with “Kaatte Kaatte” in Celluloid brought her wider recognition, and she went on to establish herself across South Indian cinema. In July 2026, that long journey reached another milestone when she won the Best Female Playback Singer award at the 72nd National Film Awards for “Angu Vaana Konilu” from Ajayante Randam Moshanam (ARM).
Learning Through Listening
For Vijayalakshmi, music began long before cinema. Her parents noticed her interest at a very young age and chose to nurture it rather than treat it as a passing childhood talent. In a recent interview, she recalled learning by listening to cassettes of K J Yesudas, M S Subbulakshmi, Balamuralikrishna and Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar. Her father’s role was especially significant: he encouraged her by playing recordings for her and supported her pursuit of music as she grew.
That process of learning through listening became central to her musicianship. Rather than allowing the absence of sight to define her relationship with music, she developed an intensely auditory way of learning and performing. Her parents and teachers became an important part of that journey, with Vijayalakshmi herself later crediting them for recognising her talent and encouraging her to follow it.
Her musical world also expanded beyond singing. Vijayalakshmi became closely associated with the Gayathri Veena, a rare single-string instrument that became one of the distinctive features of her career. In 2017, she set a record by playing multiple songs on the instrument in a short period, an achievement she credited to her parents and teachers.
Finding Her Cinematic Voice
The transition from classical music to cinema became a major turning point. In 2013, music director M Jayachandran chose Vijayalakshmi to sing “Kaatte Kaatte” for Kamal’s Celluloid. The song introduced her voice to a much wider audience and earned her a Kerala State Film Award Special Mention. It was the beginning of a playback career that would take her into Malayalam and other South Indian film industries.
But the film industry did not replace the musician she had already become. Vijayalakshmi continued to perform and explore music while taking on playback assignments, building a career across different forms rather than leaving her classical roots behind. Her voice gradually became recognisable for its distinctive quality and classical grounding.
Her latest recognition came with “Angu Vaana Konilu”, composed by Dhibu Ninan Thomas with lyrics by Manu Manjith for ARM. On July 18, 2026, Vijayalakshmi received the National Award for Best Female Playback Singer for the song. She later said the recognition was a surprise, although people around her had believed from the beginning that the song deserved an award.
Choosing Music Herself
Music has also been at the centre of some of Vijayalakshmi’s most personal decisions. In 2017, she called off her engagement after saying that her fiancé had asked her to stop performing at concerts and give up her playback career after marriage. She said the couple had initially agreed that she would continue singing, but that changed after their engagement.
“I opted for music because it is an integral part of me and has made me what I am today,” she told The Times of India at the time. Her parents, she said, gave her complete freedom to make the final decision.
The decision is revealing not because it presents music as more important than marriage, but because it shows how deeply Vijayalakshmi understood her own identity. Music was not simply the profession that brought her recognition. It was the life she had spent years creating, and one she was unwilling to abandon to fit someone else’s expectations.
Recognition After Years
The National Award, therefore, is best understood as one moment in a much longer story. Vijayalakshmi’s journey began with parents who listened closely enough to recognise a child’s talent, continued through years of musical training and experimentation, and grew into a career spanning classical performance and cinema.
Her blindness remains an important part of her lived experience, but it does not explain the entirety of her achievement. The more meaningful story lies in the work behind the recognition: the hours of listening, practice, performance, experimentation and the personal choices that allowed her to remain committed to music.
The Logical Indian believes stories of inclusion should move beyond celebrating people simply for succeeding despite a disability. Vijayalakshmi’s journey asks us to look instead at talent, ambition, family support and the freedom to make choices about one’s own life. Her National Award may be the newest chapter, but the story began decades earlier. How much more inclusive would our society become if we recognised people first for what they create, rather than defining them by what they cannot see or do?
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