KOCHI: Writer and singer Bindu Ravi, who is the granddaughter of late veteran film producer and director Kalanilayam Krishnan Nair and late veteran actress K G Devaki Amma has come out with a special cover song from the old hit film, Neela Sari. Bindu has rendered the cover of the song, Kashmeera Sandhyakale, which was produced by her grandfather in 1976.
The song, uploaded on her YouTube channel ‘Binds channel’, as part of Kalanilayam Krishnan Nair’s 40th death anniversary, has become a hit. It received a warm reception from film personalities and audiences across the globe over social media. She sang the cover song of the old hit track as gratitude and love towards her grandfather who was the founder of the theatre group, Kalanilayam and founder-editor of Thaniniram Malayalam newspaper.
For Bindu, the song carries a lot of beautiful memories from her childhood that she shared with her grandfather. She was seven years old when the shooting of Neela Sari was happening. “Most of the scenes and song sequences were shot at my grandparents’ house at Poojappura. I was playfully roaming inside the room where V Dakshinamoorthy was composing the song with singer K J Yesudas. So I was very familiar with the song. I also managed the clapperboard for this film and everyone then teased me as the youngest assistant director,” explains Bindu.
Her happiness doubled when she received feedback from old colleagues of her late grandfather and the movie’s lead actors Ravikumar and Sumithra. “I released the song only to circulate it among our family and friends. But I was surprised by the feedback from the audience. It was a trip down the memory lane for many of my grandfather’s old colleagues,” she says. Bindu, a poet, has sung in many music albums and is gearing up to publish her collection of 100 Malayalam poems. “I plan to release more songs from my grandfather’s movies,” adds Bindu, who is a member of the Kerala Film Censor Board.