Vaikkom Vijayalakshmi

Vaikom Vijayalakshmi is a playback singer from Kerala, India.She is an expert in a rare musical instrument called Gayatriveena. She won special jury mention for her much appreciated work in the movie Celluloid.She was born blind in Vaikom on October 7, 1981 and later on moved to Chennai.
She was blessed with the gift of voice but deprived of the pleasures of vision. She was born on October 7, 1981, on Vijaydashmi day, Living near the Udayanapuram temple in Vaikom, Vijayalakshmi is the only daughter of Muraleedharan and Vimala. It was only after her parents came to terms with the fate of her incurable blindness that they moved to Chennai. Here the young Viji grew up listening to Tamil movie songs by the likes like Ilayaraja and M S Viswanathan. She was spotted with the talent of catching a tune at the first hearing and reproducing it exactly in all its subtle nuances. Later, her parents bought classical music tapes of Jesudas, which Viji would listen to, most ardently. In a matter of less than a year, she learned more than a 100 ragas and made her own compositions. Until then, she had no formal training in music.