KOCHI: Johnson has composed music for more than 300 Malayalam films, the most by any composer except Devarajan.
The club used to accompany playback singers Jayachandran and Madhuri in their musical shows. The “Johnson effect” can be easily noted in Devarajan’s songs and film scores of this period.
Johnson combined native South Indian melodic patterns with the harmonic structure of European classical music and this has attained an expressive form of narration through film score. Though he obtained no formal training in classical music, he was able to incorporate the beauty of Carnatic ragas in his songs.
Most of his songs were composed on Kalyani raga. He changed the old music concept to the new version. Johnson is survived by wife Rani and children Shan and Renn.