യവനിക വീഴും മുമ്പേ…
P. Jayachandran. The singer, who
set the heartbeats of millions, is no more. He was known for his soulful, passionate
singing. At eighty, he could still evoke a wide range of emotions through his
soulful numbers. His fans could still drown in the emotions that flooded his
songs.
മഞ്ഞലയിൽ മുങ്ങിത്തോർത്തി
ധധുമാസ ചന്ദ്രിക വന്നു…
His arrival on the horizon of film music was without
much ado. Without as much as a flutter. Like the moon, he sailed across gently,
as tides of emotions rose and fell in the listeners’ hearts. He carved a niche
for himself with the unique tenderness that filled his songs.
ഉറങ്ങുന്ന ഭൂമിയെ നോക്കി
ഉറങ്ങാത്ത നീലാംബരം പോൽ
അഴകേ നിൻ കുളിർമാല ചൂടി
അരികത്തുറങ്ങാതിരിക്കാം…
You may be a confirmed,
unromantic realist, but his love songs would still send tingles up and down
your spine. The romance in his voice would catch you unawares. His songs never
ever failed to stir his audiences.
ഇന്ദുവദനേ നിന്റെ നീരാട്ടുകടവിലെ
ഇന്ദീവരങ്ങളായ് ഞാൻ വിടർന്നുവെങ്കിൽ
ഇന്ദ്രനീലാഭതൂകും നിൻ മലർമിഴിയുമായ്
സുന്ദരീയങ്ങനെ ഞാൻ ഇണങ്ങുമല്ലോ…
Listening to
him, one felt he explored all possibilities in a composition to make sure the
emotion in the lyrics was manifest in his singing. No wonder he was the joy of
his music directors. Together they could spin musical webs in which we, the
listeners, were only too happy to be entangled.
പണിഞ്ഞിട്ടും പണിഞ്ഞിട്ടും പണി തീരാത്തൊരു
പ്രപഞ്ച മന്ദിരമേ…
To this day, I feel a tremor beneath
my feet when I listen to the above lines. He constantly built a world of
emotions through his melodies. He connected deeply with the lyrics he sang and
did full justice to the writers of his songs.
കനിവോലും ഈശ്വരൻ അഴകിന്റെ പാലാഴി
കടഞ്ഞു കടഞ്ഞെടുത്ത അമൃതാണോ…
A deceptively ordinary number would turn immortal
once he churned out its timeless beauty, seemingly, with ease. He doesn’t
intimidate you with his rendition, which is like a gentle breeze. He just enwraps
you in it and before you know it, you are held by its spell.
എൻ മണിയറയ്ക്കുള്ളിലുള്ളൊരീ
നിർമ്മലരാഗസൗരഭം
ഇങ്ങുനിന്നുപോം മന്ദവായുവും
അങ്ങു നിന്നരുളീലെന്നോ…
Like good wine, his singing got better and better,
and headier as he aged. At seventy or so, he could sing with a teenaged singer
a love song that crossed the barriers of genres and age to enchant both the
young and the not so young. And that too for a macho romantic hero of thirty
and some.
കുപ്പായക്കീശമേൽ കുങ്കുമപ്പൊട്ടുകണ്ടു
കൂട്ടുകാരിന്നെന്നെ കളിയാക്കി…
The hero’s shirt
pocket and the unmistakable traces of sindoor on it was really a mushy theme even in 1970, when the movie Ambalapravu was released. But the stirrings of subtle romance triggered by the inflections in the song could not be ignored. Several decades down the line, the theme is still syrupy.
The stirrings remain.
ഇന്ദുമുഖീ ഇന്ദുമുഖീ…
എന്തിനിന്നു നീ സുന്ദരിയായീ…
Some of his romantic
songs are quite intensely so. They have a haunting quality and they linger in
your ears even after the notes have faded away. You catch a drift of the intro, and you get hooked on to the song. You cannot stop listening until you
have heard them through.
ഇതുവരെ കാണാത്ത കരയിലേക്കോ
ഇനിയൊരു ജന്മത്തിൻ കടവിലേക്കോ
മധുരമായി പാടി വിളിക്കുന്നു
ആരോ…
His singing
style was such that you felt he never held on to his songs. He let them free. He
let them linger in the air and in the hearts of the lovers of his music. He
left his stamp on each one of his songs without claiming any credit whatsoever
for them.
He was witty and humorous. He wasn’t easily
flattered, if one goes by the numerous interviews with him which are as
popular as his songs. He was very matter-of-fact and down-to-earth, though his singing
set his fans soaring high on the wings of longing. Almost all of his popular melodies
have an intoxicating sweetness, but those seldom heard are even sweeter.
His singing was effortless. His approach egoless.
He would randomly pick any song of any of his contemporaries, sing it to a tee,
but still leave around it a magical aura of his own.
From singing
for the comedians and the side-kicks in the movies to crooning for generations
of heroes, he came a long, long way, sustaining through changing times, unlike
many of his peers. His fans never had enough of his songs though. They forever
yearned for more. However, the cycles of beats had to come to an end. The
refrains had to fade away. And the singer finally gave in, as he had to, and merged
with the rhythm of the universe.
©
Very nice Sujatha
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot.
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