One song at a time - 10. Oru Murai Vandhu Kaeleero - Tribute to M G Radhakrishnan

The noted Malayalam film music director M G Radhakrishnan passed away recently. This edition of 'One song at a time' is a tribute to him.

The first time I encountered M G Radhakrishnan's name was when I wanted to find out who was the music director for 'Manichitratazhu' (which was later remade as 'Chandramukhi'). I stored the name in a corner of my mind and did not encounter the name for some more time. Then, when I was watching an interview of the popular Malayalam playback singer M.G.Sreekumar, I came to know that M.G.Radhakrishnan was his elder brother. Much later I came to know that the noted Carnatic musician, Omanakutty, was their sister.

I first saw M G Radhakrishnan on TV screen as a judge for one of the singing shows. He had come in as a 'guest judge'. From the way he passed comments you could clearly make out that he was a very simple and unassuming person. (There is generally lot of 'simplicity' and 'humility' in the music industry, which we need not take seriously but M G Radhakrishnan's simplicity was very genuine.) I liked the comment he made on R D Burman's 'Beeti na Bitayi Raina' sung by one contestant. He said, "If you observe the song, you will find that the song does not have too many complicated phrases, it doesn't have too many brigas and such. But the song goes deep into your heart and pulls at your heart strings, doesn't it?" My respect for him immediately went up. Looked like he was first and foremost a music lover and then only a musician.

While I did see a lot of M G Radhakrishnan on the TV Screen, I still hadn't acquainted myself with his music much, except for 'Manichitratazhu', in which I liked most of the songs. Idea Star Singer on Asianet once had a 'Lalitha Geetha' round, which featured the non-filmi songs composed by M G Radhakrishnan. Every day one of the contestants would sing one of these 'Lalitha Geethams'. I used to wait for them every day since each one of them was based on some carnatic ragam and moreover M G Radhakrishnan would briefly talk about each of these compositions. I liked all of them and was very impressed by the very original use of ragams and the complexity of the tunes.

In one such episode I heard a singer sing a song based on 'Reethigowla'. It was very nice treatment of 'Reethigowla'. Not the standard carnatic style 'Reethigowla' but a more lighter version of it suited for 'Lalitha Ganam'. I thought I should find this song but as it happens I did not note down the song pallavi. So I did not know where to search and did not make any effort to find it. When I heard that M G Radhakrishnan has passed away, I thought one way of paying homage to him would be to discover this song and then make it known to a few more people. I searched the past episodes of Idea Star Singer and finally located the song. That is one song which I will feature in this post.

Doing some more research I also discovered that M G Radhakrishnan worked at AIR and during that time gave many such non-filmi tunes, which were called 'Lalitha Gaanam'. They were supposed to be very popular in Kerala during those times (and even now.) Those who were in Kerala during those times can give their experiences. (Ramki, are you listening?) After listening to many of his compositions I can easily see his originality and the complexity of his compositions. I could make out that he had his own aesthetics and operated in that range, where the tunes were soothing, slow and based on Carnatic ragas.

Now lets hear some of the songs created by M G Radhakrishnan. So I call all of you to 'oru murai vandhu kaeliro'.

Here is the Reethigowla based number I was talking about. I am giving the song as sung by the Idea Star singer contestant since this video features M G Radhakrishnan talking about the song.



Here is a lovely song based on 'Kharaharapriya'. Very pleasing melody.



A lovely melody from the movie 'Jalakam': (Quiz: What ragam is he using here?)



And finally, probably the most famous of his creations. I still get goosebumps when I watch Shobana in this song. Superb portrayal of a person who is mentally unhinged. Based on Kunthalavarali.



P.S.: The Tamil version of this movie had Jyotika doing this dance which was nowhere close to what Shobana did. But the Tamil version had something that Malayalam version did not have and has now become a legend. "Enna Koduma Saravanan"