Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Arjunan's second coming

N.J. Nair

M.K. Arjunan

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It is a matter of delight for all those who have an ear for music. The sweet melodies composed by the veteran music director M.K. Arjunan for amateur and professional drama troupes in the State during the past four decades will once again hit the music stalls.

The Kamukara Foundation, formed in memory of the playback singer Kamukara Purushothaman, has drawn up a project to bring out the best from the 1,000-odd drama songs composed by Arjunan.

The foundation honoured Arjunan by conferring the Kamukara award for lifetime contribution to music at a function here recently. Arjunan had scored music for almost all major troupes and made an invaluable contribution for developing an indigenous school that reflected the cultural ethos of Kerala.

The songs in Pallikuttam, which marked his debut in 1959, were sung by four generations and are still in vogue among avid music lovers.

"Even those belonging to my grandchildren's generation sing such songs. The lyrics of Paulose, later known as Pallikuttam Paulose, such as Swapna sarasil neenthi thudikkum swarna matsyame ... , are cherished by people of all ages," he says.

The songs he had composed for the amateur theatres in Kochi and its precincts too were equally popular.

But Arjunan hardly remembers any of them.

"I never had the habit of collecting and conserving my works. I could not even remember the tunes that I composed an hour ago. Perhaps, this had worked to my disadvantage. I have collected the songs which were recorded for various troupes. But the system of recording songs became a practice only about 14 years ago and collecting those before that period was rather an arduous task," he says.

The interest evinced by the foundation to bring out the songs once again has enthused Arjunan. Some time ago, his close associates, Kumarakom Rajappan and Francis Valappad, had painstakingly collected a number of songs. "Both of them have the ingenuity to recollect and render all the songs they learned years ago to utmost perfection and services of some others can be utilised for acquiring the songs once again," he says.

Foundation treasurer R. Sreelekha, musicologist and Professor at the Department of Music of NSS College, Karamana, has taken the responsibility to collect and select the songs from the huge collection.

"Arjunan master was celebrating the golden jubilee of his career. The foundation members felt that Keralites had not given him the due for his contributions, and we had the fortune to honour him with the 10th award of the foundation.

The foundation annually conducts competition for visually challenged students. We are planning to rope in the winners over the years to present the selected songs. Though it is a time-consuming process, we are planning to organise it at the earliest, Sreelekha says.

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