From novices to veteran playback singer K J Yesudas, all seeks the help of Mansoor when they stumble upon doubts regarding yesteryear songs. Mansoor who is popularly known as Kochin Mansoor in music circles, holds the Guinness World Record for singing continuously for 19 hours.
An ardent lover of vintage music, he knows over 7,896 songs by-heart along with its details, a rare feat to achieve. The striking feature of Mansoor’s concert is the information he gives about the singer, music director, lyricist and even about the actors who acted in the songs. He has covered over thousand stages in Kerala and abroad. According to him he gets the most number of invitations from Kottayam district.
Mansoor began his career in singing by singing ‘eshwaran hindualla’ one of the perennial hits of Vayalar Ramavarma at the age of 10.”Some of my relatives were apprehensive about my interest in music but my father and mother were always there to support me,” says Mansoor about his initial days. Mansoor hails from a family with a flair for music.
His mother was a mappilapattu singer. Mansoor who does not have formal training in music draws inspiration from the words of Dakshinamoorthy, a doyen of carnatic music. He quit his job as a teacher to pursue his passion for songs.
Mansoor keeps a close relationship with the families of the yesteryear music directors and singers. Bharathi Thampuratti, wife of the famous bard Vayalar, regards him as a son and calls him lovingly as ‘Manukuttavarma’. “Receiving memento and cash award from legendry singer Yesudas after singing continuously for 19 hours was the most memorable day of my life. He was there to watch me sing along with his family,” says Mansoor.
According to Mansoor, the period between 1961 to ‘85 was the golden age of Malayalam film music. He believes that the Malayalam music industry by imitating western music is heading up the creek. “The remix culture is affecting our music industry very badly. Take the case of the song ‘Appangal embadum’ sung by Ayesha Begam. The soul of the song was lost in its remix version. While using an old song in film, the music director should do justice to the original song,” observes Mansoor. His favourite music composer is Devarajan master and favourite lyricist is Vayalar.
“One must be extremely careful while singing the old songs because the lyrics contain great meaning unlike songs with crass lyrics of present times,” quips Mansoor.
He believes that Keralites still cherish the old songs which is evident from his popularity. “Once when I was singing a song a person came up to the stage and presented me a gold ring,” recalls Mansoor.