Remembering RAVEENDRAN

His life was like most of his songs, starting off in a low mode, then taking off to a high pitch and again coming down to serenity. He was a music director who strived for perfection. His music, stands out due to its sublime elegance. It’s been one year since the saga of “Raveendran Sangeetham” ended.

Though he was a much celebrated music director, life was never a cakewalk for Raveendran. Born as the son of a policeman in Kulathupuzha village in Pathanamthitta, Raveendran had to work hard for fulfilling his ambitions.

After his schooling, he joined the Swathithirunal Sangeetha Academy in Thiruvananthapuram. But he discontinued his studies due to financial constraints. He joined a music group called ‘Thunderbirds’. It was during this time that he got introuduced to the popular music director, Baburaj. He stayed with Baburaj for some time and got a chance to sing ‘Parvana rajani than’ a song in the film Velliyazcha. Later he went to the Gulf searching for job, But his passion for music soon brought him back.

It was none other than K.J. Jesudas who found his talent and recommended him to director Sasikumar. Thus his first film Choola came out and the song “Tharake…” turned out to be a big hit. The rest is history. The songs he did for the films Chiriyo chiri, Thenum Vayambum, Sukhamo devi, Oru may masa pulari etc were all great hits and we remember them even today. Later he tuned songs for several films like Bharatham, His Highness Abdullah, Kamaladalam, Aram Thamburan and Nandanam. His songs ‘Harimuraliravam’ (Aram Thamburan) is arguably one of the greatest songs in Malayalam film history. However, it was Bharatham that won him a national award in 1990. He also has won the state award and several other awards.

“Raveendran has the distinction of using the not-so-used ragas such as ‘Shanmukhapriya’ and ‘Hindolam’. He was a music director with a creative approach”, says Prof. Mavelikkara Prabhakara Varma, Raveendran’s teacher in the Sangeetha Academy. As a student, Raveendran was quite sluggish, but was really talented. I never thought he would go so early, Varma said.

Raveendran gave a new expression to the kind of composing pattern that existed traditionally. Even while adhering to Carnatic classical music, he used many Hindustani ragas like ‘Jogu’ in his compositions.

In his career of over two decades, Raveendran has composed songs for over 100 films and created nearly 1000 songs. His last film was Vadakkumnathan. Though the film is not released yet, songs like ‘Kalabham Tharam’ and ‘Gange….’ are already hits. He was doing music for a film called Cholliyattam when he died.

Text by Sajith Varma Designed by Shahul Hameed