PROGRESSION OF MAL. FILM MUSIC- ON THE RIGHT TRACK OR NOT???

PROGRESSION OF MAL. FILM MUSIC- ON THE RIGHT TRACK OR NOT???

Music is divine! Music is Universal! Music is soothing! Music is the Truth! Music is pain reliever ! Music takes you to a serenity... at times you are in trance ! Music brings peace of mind..!

Looking at the Mal film music scene it has gone through a metamorphosis.. from the simple tunes of folk and drama songs of 50s and early 60s to the sweet melodies filled with feel, lyrical quality, brilliant direction and sweet voices of mid 60s to late 70s... Perhaps that is aptly called the Golden Era of Mal Film music. ! Arrival of the great lyricists Vayalar, O N V, sreekumaran Thampi ,P.Bhaskaran, Yousuf Ali kecheri, to name a few along with brilliant music directors like Devarajan Master, Baburaj, Dhakshinamoorthy, Arjunan Master, Chidambaranath, Raghavan master again to name a few. The brilliance of their works were made evergreen or more aptly said immortal by the divine and golden voices of the likes of Yesudas, Janaki, Suseela and Jayachandran.. Gems produced by Devarajan- Vayalar or Baburaj-Bhaskaran , S.thambi-D.moorthi or Arjunan Mstr combinations became so touching When Yesudas gave voice to those creations.. The feel, sweetness, romance, depth, clarity and what not in his voice made all those songs evergreen in the listeners minds and hearts... Can any one ever forget the genius S.Janaki... Can anyone ever say that she was a non malayali? such is the commitment and talent she possessed that one can only sit and admire her.. what feel.. what a voice..
Baburaj's songs were given the full treatement the director wanted by Janakiamma.. Tharilittakanakal,. Sooryakanthi, thane thirinjum marinjum, vasantha panchami nalil, oru kochu pushpathin, eeranuduthumkondu, etc etc ..
Saddest part of that era was Devarjan Mstr -Janaki gems were extremely limited for reasons best known to them.. many theories and speculations had been there on this issue.. Suseela's classically rich voice gave some evergreen gems... then Jayachandran, the Bhava Gayakan stood on his own and kept his head high with own style of voice and singing.. !
Can we ever forget Salilda who revolutionised the mal music scene with his own style of music.. "Sagarame..." " kadarumasam", sarike, sandhye.., et etc... the list never ends.. all became hits..
Of course the contributions of Usha Khanna also cannot be forgotten.. !

The time passed and in 80s we saw the genius Ravindran Master emerging.. wow.. for a while one may wonder whether he belonged to the 70s golden era.. Perhaps to a large extent he and Johnson kept 80s and 90s going not to forget the likes of Ouseppachan, shyam, Jerry Amaldev etc..Pramadavanam, Devagangal ...etc will linger in our minds for ever.. But lyrical quality of many songs declined.. and slow transition of music into more mechanical, technical and modernity has been with lots of ups and downs. The other major gain for the musical scene was the melodius voice of Chitra and Sujatha.. There were underachievers like the brilliant Kannur Rajan , Gayathri etc with the turn of this century we saw the arrival of M.Jayachandran, Sarath,
and there was a revival in musical scene.. In between several trend changes took place.. some mediocre songs also came.. too much stress on technicalities and mechanisms used for recording.... But one has to adapt to the changes and one can only wish the musical scene will prosper in Malayalam.. Geniuses like Naushad too blessed us in between... classics from Dhwani songs?

Tailpiece.. : Can we ever forget Pransakhees, Thamasamenthes, indravallari, ayiram padasarangal... kayamboo, sundararavil nandana vaniyil , akale akale,, ,. chakravarthini, anuraga ganam pole, vasantha panchami, thaliritta kinakal,
Arikil, Himavahini, Chitra silapalikal, innale neeyoru sundararagamaym, ponveyil, ... list is endless... there is no space to put all here... ...
Sangeethame ..namikkatte aviduthe munnil???

Thoughts by Nandakumar