Legendary Indian playback singer K.J. Yesudas was felicitated on his 70th birthday by Malayalam superstar Mammootty during the award presentation ceremony of Ravindran Awards in Kochi on Tuesday.

After presenting a memento to the veteran singer, Mammotty said: "There are no words to describe the magic of Yesudas’ voice. If there is one thing everyone would agree to without any debate at all, it is about songs sung by Yesudas." Music composers Ouseppachan and Mohan Sithara were given the Ravindra Awards for the best music directors for 2008 and 2009 respectively.

In his reply, Yesudas said that Ravindran as a music composer, exploited all possibilities of his voice. “He used to give freedom to explore potential of a song he had composed, letting me hover like an eagle in a wide sky,” said Yesudas.

Ten dignitaries, including A.K. Basheer, Kerala High Court judge, music composers Jayan, Vidyasagar and Ignatius, Sreekumari Ramachandran, writer, and Leela Menon, journalist, draped ’ponnadas’ on Yesudas.

Veteran singer P.B. Sreenivas was also honoured at the function. He also led a ganamela featuring compositions by Ravindran, in which singers Biju Narayanan, Madhu Balakrishnan, Naveen Madhava, Sangeetha Prabhu and Sithara participated.

Gokulam Gopalan, chairman of Sree Gokulam Group of Companies, inaugurated the function. N. Sreekumar, Joint Managing Director, V-Guard Industries and chairman of the reception committee, presided. Sobha Ravindran, wife of the late music director, was also present.