THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:Ganamela was to Kerala what pop music was to the West. It countered the elitism in music and indulged the masses with singable tunes from popular cinema. Thunderbirds, formed in Thiruvananthapuram in the early days of this wave of popular music, covets pride of place among ganamela troupes for adding class to the coup. The spirit and soul behind the troupe, Thunderbirds Babu (Sivarajan) who passed away in the capital city on Monday, imparted to the entertainment show its winning glamour quotient. “He made it a thoroughly professional troupe, mixing fun, fashion and good music in the right doses,” remembers founding member and the troupe’s accordion player Thunderbirds Venu. The ganamela troupe was formed in 1970-71. Babu had by then earned a name as a singer with a penchant for Hindi songs in general and Rafi in particular. “He started out early, singing for Adarsh Kalamandir and Hindustan Music Club since he was 15 years old,” says Venu. The idea of the troupe came up when guitarist S A Swami, who was back in the city from a stint in Delhi met Babu. They soon singled out Venu who was beginning to find work in music clubs as a harmonium player. Singer Sasidharan joined the team to sing Malayalam songs. “Those were the haydays of the troupe,” remembers Venu. “We got noticed almost immediately for the variety of songs we brought on stage. Songs with complicated background music were difficult to recreate in ganamelas as we did not have the help of electronic devices. Around the time we started, Chemmeen was released and it was a raging hit. The audience were excited when we presented the songs from the movie,” he says.
The troupe also has many firsts to its credit. Babu came up with the idea of making the singers stand instead of sitting on the stage in the traditional style of classical music concerts. “It was a huge style statement and I am not sure if the younger generations will be able to appreciate the boldness it took,” says Venu. The troupe went on to do more experiments like importing the Hippie code of fashion to music shows and giving the whole troupe trendy uniforms. “Back in those days, there were no female singers in ganamela troupes. The parts by female singers were imitated by male singers. Later on, female singers started joining and we had two lead singers while most troupes had only one,” he says.
The troupe, as long as it lasted, stayed ahead of the others. “Babu disbanded the troupe when Mohammed Rafi passed away. We got together to start it all over again in the 1990s, but then the times had changed,” says Venu.
At a time when there were hardly any western instruments on stage, the troupe had a trumpet player and Venu was perhaps the only accordion-player who performed on stages.
Lata Kailas, mother of actress Priya Mani, K S Chitra, Sujatha, and scores of others have sung for the troupe. It also had an orchestra which accompanied most celebrity singers when they performed in the city.
Commemoration Today
T’Puram: A commemorative meeting in honour of Thunderbirds Babu will be organised at Trivandrum Press Club on Thursday, at 5 pm. K Muraleedharan MLA, M A Baby MLA, Pannyan Raveendran, Kanayi Kunhiraman, Sukumar, Soorya Krishnamoorthi and others will participate.