Kerala

When masters of melody reunite

When Johnson meets ONV, great songs happen. Songs such as ‘Ente manveenayil…’ (‘Neram Pularumbol’), ‘Pavizham pol…’ (‘Namukku Parkan Munthirithoppukal’), ‘Aadi vaa katte…’ (‘Koodevide’), and ‘Kunnumanicheppu…’ (‘Ponmuttayidunna Tharavu’) are just some of the many beautiful songs the duo has contributed to Malayalam film songs.

The masters are working together again after quite a long gap and have recorded four songs for Jayaraj’s ‘Gulmohar.’ “Since music is important in my film, I decided to entrust the job of creating four songs to these two great masters,” says Jayaraj, “and the songs have come out pretty well.” There are four songs in the film, sung by Yesudas, Chitra, Shwetha, Vijay Yesudas. “ONV is a lyricist I have always enjoyed working with, because he is basically a poet, so even when I ask him to write a song after giving him a tune I always got excellent results,” says Johnson.

“ONV and I have worked for so many films, beginning with Balachandra Menon’s ‘Kilukilukkam,’ and we came up with so many good songs too, though not all of them were big hits. For instance, there was this song from ‘Neram Pularumbol’ (“Ente manveenayil…”). It is one of my favourite compositions, but since the film did not do well, the song did not reach the masses.”

P.K. Ajith Kumar

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