THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The man who gifted a spring to Malayalam light music genre. So said one and all as news about M G Radhakrishnan's demise spread. His stint with the All India Radio, which started in 1962 as a tampura artist, saw some evergreen light songs being churned out by the musician.
Songs like `Odakkuzhal vili...' sung by Sujatha (known as Baby Sujatha then), `Ghanashyama sandhyahridayam' by Yesudas and `Thangathoni...' by Latha Raju are still cherished by all.
``He had great knowledge of classical music and used to listen to music of great Carnatic composers. Yet, he composed light music songs which were so simple,'' remembered musician Perumbavoor G Ravindranath.
``The three of us myself, K P Udayabhanu and M G Radhakrishnan were together at the All India Radio and we always looked forward to the light music concerts organised by the AIR during festivals such as Onam and Vishu. Our songs were presented before an invited audience,'' he added.
According to Kavalam Narayana Panicker ``Radhakrishnan had indepth knowledge of classical music and light music. Till then people used to listen to only film music through radio and his songs were a different experience for listeners.''
There used to be differences of opinion when they worked together in AIR. ``But those disputes gave only best results. An example is the light music piece `Ghanashyama...' sung by Yesudas. Radhakrishnan wanted me to change the syllable `gha'. But I refused. He took it as a challenge and came out with a memorable song,'' Kavalam added.
Music was in Radhakrishnan's blood. His father Malabar Gopalan Nair was a musician and harmonium artist and mother Kamalakshi Amma was a Harikatha artist and a student of Swathi Thirunal College.
An interesting aspect of his AIR days was that his first song was sung by Karamana Krishnan Nair, father of playback singer K S Chithra. It was a beautiful coincidence that Chithra too got introduction into Malayalam film industry through him. In fact, Radhakrishnan had made her sing a song for AIR when she was a small girl. And then, her film entry too was under his music direction, through films like 'Attahaasam' and 'Njaan Ekananu'. There has been no looking back for her since then.
A composer armed with a unique composing style, Radhakrishnan was a voracious reader too, according to Perumbavoor Ravindranath. ``He liked poems a lot,'' he said. Perhaps, that is why he chose to give music to the poems of Kamala Surayya. ``He had given music to a poem of Ayyappa Panicker and that was wellreceived when it was performed at Senate Hall,'' Ravi Menon, music critic, remembered.