Shyam’s first preference has been melody while composing music. His songs have led us to serene states of mind in the 80s and music composer Shyam was hailed as the melody king of Malayalam in the 80s. The master composer has stayed away for long from the humdrum of head-banging music, focusing, in the meanwhile, on composing devotional songs. In a tete-a-tete, he expressed his optimism that the springtime of melodies will come again.
Shyam’s debut as a music director was with the Tamil film ‘Etrikal Jagrathai’ in 1968. His first independent project in Malayalam was ‘Manyashree Vishwamithran’ (1974), directed by actor Madhu. He was recommended to Madhu by none other than celluloid queen Sheela. And his career soared to heights in no time.
Shyam attributes his success to the opportunities he got to work with some of the finest composers and musicians in the country. Before taking up music direction, he had worked as a violinist with Subbayya Nayidu, T K Ramamoorthy, M S Viswanathan, C N Pandurengan, Salil Chowdhury, Devarajan Master, M S Baburaj, Ravi, Chitragupt, Madan Mohan and R D Burman.
And the association he values most is the one he had with M S Viswanathan. In fact, it was MSV who lovingly named him Shyam, a short form of his original name Samuel Joseph. As a more celluloid-friendly name, Shyam chose to retain it later.
“MSV’s knowledge of music is like an ocean. I would say he is a genius. I got the rare opportunity to work as a solo violinist in many of his famous Tamil film songs. I learned many techniques of music composition from him and I am very much indebted to him for that,” he said.
Most of Shyam’s hits were written by the second generation lyricists of Malayalam- Bichu Thirumala, Poovachal Khadar, Chunakkara Ramankutty and Sathyan Anthikkad. Shyam remembered, “Vayalar had difficulty writing to Salilda’s speedy dictation of music notes. I had helped Vayalar to record those notes. Now I feel very sad that I did not get any chance to compose music for a Vayalar song.”
Shyam has to his credit many evergreen melodies. We will always remember numbers like ‘Kasthuriman kurunne’, ‘Oru madhurakinaavin’, ‘Kannum kannum thammil’, ‘Olangal thalam thullumbol’, ‘Chandanakkuriyumaayi’, ‘Devadaaru poothu’, ‘Orikkalomana ponnattinakkare’, ‘Poomaaname’, ‘Poovirinjallo innente muttathum’, ‘Vaishakha sandhye’, ‘Kattukurinji poovum’, ‘Karukaruthoru pennanu’, ‘Ormathan vaasantha’, ‘Rappadithan’, ‘Thozhuthu madangum’ etc.
No other composer has perhaps given such hit theme music pieces as Shyam, with the one he gave for the 'CBI' series by K Madhu right on the top. He also gave theme music for ‘Nirakkoottu’, ‘Orikkalkoodi’, ‘New Delhi’, ‘Nadodikkattu’, and ‘Irupatham Noottandu’. The purpose of the theme music is to create a mood for the show that follows, said Shyam.
He shared, “The tune of song ‘Mainakam kadalil ninnuyarunnuvo’, sung by S Janaki, was originally introduced as the theme music of the film ‘Orikkal Koodi’. Every time Madhu and Lekshmi, the hero and heroine, met each other in this film, this theme music would be played in the background. Director I V Sasi liked the music very much that he asked me to compose a song in this tune for his next film ‘Thrishna’.”
Being the Director of the Indian Performing Rights Society, Shyam said he knew that an adaptation of his theme music of ‘Irupathaam Noottandu’ was done in the film ‘Sagar Alias Jacky’. When asked whether it was done with his permission, Shyam said, “The people behind that film did contact me for permission. I advised them to use it with the permission of the film's producer.”
A masterpiece of Shyam is ‘Mazha thulli thulli thulli nruthamadivarum vaanil…’ sung by K J Yesudas in ‘Saritha’. When asked about the influence Salil Chowdhury in the orchestration and chord progression of this song, he said, “This song is one of my hit numbers and I like it very much. I admit that Salilda’s style of composition had influenced me, but I had not adopted or imitated it. There may be resemblance in our songs. Salilda is a master composer who made use of folk melodies in his songs. I had also used folk melody in the song ‘Manjin thereri, oh kuliranu kuliranu...’ sung by S Janaki and Vani Jayaram in ‘Rowdy Ramu’.”
He chose not to comment on the influence of music reality shows on young singers. Rather, he talked about his passion for music, his devotional compositions, plain melody and detailed the nuances in his tunes during the course of the interview.
Hopefully, Malayalees will get to hear more from this inimitable composer in the coming days. Thanks to a scheduled remake of Aroma Mani’s hit movie of yesteryears, ‘Yengane Nee Marakkum’, Shyam melodies will fill the air shortly. The lyrics of this film are written by Chunakkara Ramankutty.
trivandrum@expressbuzz.com