V. Dakshinamoorthy passes away
Top-notch music director V. Dakshinamoorthy, who composed music for hundreds of film songs in Malayalam and other southern languages over the last seven decades, died here on Friday.
He was 94 and was keeping indifferent health for some time. He breathed his last at his residence in Mylapore.
Endearingly called as ‘Swamy’ by the film fraternity and his fans, Dakshinamurthy’s songs stood out on account of their classical touch. The singers who rendered songs for him include K J Yesudas, P. Suseela, Jayachandran and P. Leela.
According to film scholars, it was Dakshinamoorthy, who, for the first time imparted a touch of originality to Malayalam film music in early 1950s by changing the track from merely copying Hindi and Tamil songs.
A Carnatic singer himself, Dakshinamoorthy infused classical touch to his songs. At the same time, most of his semi-classical scores are enjoyable to connoisseurs as well as lay music lovers as he displayed an uncanny ability to fit in raga-based songs well into the overall scheme of movies.
Occasionally, he also experimented by infusing various ragas in the same song, which, according to music buffs, reflected his resourcefulness and innovativeness.
Born in a family of modest means in Kerala’s Alappuzha district as son of Venketeswara Iyer and Parvathi Ammal, Dakshinamoorthy had his early lessons in music from his mother.
As a youngster, he conducted concerts in temples in south Kerala, accompanying senior musicians and singing light ‘keerthanas.” In the early phase of his career, he also did music for Malayalam drama.
His debut song was in ‘Chandrika” (1950). Despite his quest for origniality in the early years, he was compelled to follow Hindi and Tamil tunes as insisted on by directors and producers then. But later, he successfully demonstrated that based on classical ragas orignal numbers could be composed and made immensely popular.
Dakshnimurthy’s talent was behind scores of musical hits in Malayalam films since 1960s like ‘Bharyamar Sookshikua’, ‘Kannur deluxe’, ‘Marunattil oru Malayalai’ and ‘Arakkallan Mukkal Kallan’.
He made a distinctive contribution to devotional music, which include the songs for such ‘bhakti’ films as ‘Sree Guruvayurappan’ and ‘Adi Sankaran’.
He had teamed with almost all leading Malayalam lyricists but his combination with eminentpoet and director Sreekumaran Thampi generated a largest number of hits.
“Swamy’s was a life devoted entirely to music. Despite his thorough grounding in Carnatic music, his semi-classical numbers are enjoyable even to a lay listener. In life also, he was as simple, dedicated and selfless as his music was”, said film historian N. Balagopalan.
He was recipient of several honours including Kerala government’s highest musical honour ‘Swathi Puraskaram’.
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