Film music,
which refers to playback singing
in the context of Indian music,
forms the most important canon of popular
music in India. The film music of Kerala
in particular is the most popular form of music in the state. Before Malayalam
cinema and Malayalam film music developed, the Keralites eagerly followed Tamil and Hindi
film songs, and that habit has stayed with them till now. The history of
Malayalam film songs begins with the 1948 film Nirmala. The film's music
director was P. S. Divakar, and the songs were sung by P.
Leela, T. K. Govinda Rao, Vasudeva Kurup,
C. K. Raghavan, Sarojini Menon and Vimala B. Varma, who is credited as the
first playback singer of Malayalam cinema.
The main trend in the early years
was to use the tune of hit Hindi or Tamil songs in Malayalam songs. This trend
changed in the early 1950s with the arrival of a number of poets and musicians
to the Malayalam music scene. People who stormed into the Malayalam film music
industry in the 1950s include musicians like V.
Dakshinamurthy (1950), K.
Raghavan (1954), Brother Laxmanan, G.
Devarajan (1955) and M.S.
Babu Raj (1957) and lyricists like P.
Bhaskaran (1950), Tirunainarkurichy Madhavan
Nair, O. N. V. Kurup
(1955) and Vayalar Rama Varma
(1956). They are attributed with shaping Malayalam film music stream and giving
it its own identity. Major playback singers of that time were Kamukara
Purushothaman, K. P. Udayabhanu,
A. M. Raja,
P. Leela, Santha P. Nair, P.
Susheela, P.
Madhuri and S.
Janaki. Many of these singers like A. M.
Raja, P. Susheela, Madhuri and Janaki were not Malayalis and their pronunciation was not perfect. Despite that,
these singers got high popularity throughout Kerala. In the later years many
non-Malayalis like Manna Dey,
Talat Mahmood,
Lata Mangeshkar,
Asha
Bhosle and S. P. Balasubrahmanyam sang for Malayalam films. This trend was also found among music
directors to an extent, with outside
musicians like Naushad Ali,
Usha
Khanna, M.
B. Sreenivasan, Bombay
Ravi, Shyam,
Bappi
Lahiri, Laxmikant-Pyarelal,
Salil Chowdhury,
Ilaiyaraaja, Vishal
Bharadwaj and A.
R. Rahman scoring music for Malayalam films.
This can be attributed to the fact that film music in South
India had a parallel growth pattern with
so many instances of cross-industry contributions.
K. J. Yesudas,
who debuted in 1961, virtually revolutionized the Malayalam film music industry
and became the most popular Malayalam singer ever. Vayalar, G. Devarajan
and Yesudas trio also made unforgettable songs like the earlier trio of
Kamukara, Tirunainaarkurichy & Brother Laxmanan. Yesudas became equally
popular with classical music audience and people who patronized film music. He
along with P. Jayachandran gave a major facelift to Malayalam playback singing
in the 1960s and 1970s. K.
S. Chithra, who debuted in 1979.By the
mid-eighties, she became the most sought after female singer in South
India. Malayalam film music also received
heavy contributions from composers and musicians like Johnson,
M. B. Sreenivasan,
Pukezhenty Vellappan Nair, MS Vishwanathan, Kannur rajan, Shyam,
M. G. Radhakrishnan,
Raveendran, S.
P. Venkatesh, Mohan
Sithara, Ouseppachan and Vidyasagar, lyricists like Sreekumaran Thampi,
Yusuf Ali Kechery,
Bichu T, Rameshan Nair, Papanamcode Laxmanan, Chyrinkil M Nair, Baharanikavu
Shivakumar and Kaithapram Damodaran Namboodiri, and singers like M.
G. Sreekumar, G.
Venugopal and Sujatha
Mohan. A notable aspect in the later
years was the extensive of classical carnatic
music in many film songs of the later
1980s and early 1990s. Interestingly, that particular period is also considered
as the peak time for Malayalam cinema itself and is quite widely known as the Golden
Age of Malayalam cinema, a period in which the difference between art films
and popular films was least felt. Similarly, classical carnatic music was
heavily used in several popular film songs, most notably those in films like Chithram (1988), His Highness Abdullah (1990), Bharatham (1991), Sargam
(1992) and Sopanam (1993).
At present, the major players in the
scene are young musicians like Rahul Raj,
Prashant Pillai,
Gopi Sundar, Bijibal,
Alphonse, lyricists Rafeeq
Ahmed, Vayalar
Sarath and Anil Panachooran, and singers Madhu Balakrishnan,
Afsal, Shewtha, Manjari
and Jyotsna Radhakrishnan, along with stalwarts in the field.
Young composers like Rahul Raj
and Prashant Pillai
are not only known for their catchy tunes, but also known for bringing in a lot
of electronics, digital sound and a variety of genres in Malayalam film scores
and songs.
The National
Award-winning music directors
of Malayalam cinema are Johnson
(1994, 1995), Bombay Ravi
(1995), Ouseppachan
(2008), Ilaiyaraaja
(2010) and Issak Thomas Kottakapally (2011). Till 2009, the 1995 National Award
that Johnson received for the film
score of Sukrutham (1994) was the
only instance in the history of the award in which the awardees composed the film
soundtrack rather than its songs. He shared that award with Bombay Ravi, who received the
award for composing songs for the same film. In 2010 and 2011, awards were
given to film score and both were bagged by Malayalam films: Pazhassi Raja
(2010; Score: Ilaiyaraaja) and Adaminte Makan Abu (2011; Score: Issak Thomas
Kottakapally). Ravindran
also received a Special
Jury Award in 1992 for composing songs for the
film Bharatham. The lyricists who have
won the National Award are Vayalar
Ramavarma (1973), O.
N. V. Kurup (1989) and Yusuf
Ali Kechery (2001). The male
singers who have received the National Award
are K. J. Yesudas (1973, 1974, 1988, 1992, 1994), P.
Jayachandran (1986) and M.
G. Sreekumar (1991, 2000). Yesudas has won two
more National Awards for singing in Hindi (1977) and Telugu (1983) films, which makes him the person who has won the
most National
Film Awards for Best Male Playback Singer
with seven awards, closely followed by S. P. Balasubrahmanyam with six awards. The female singers who have won the award
are S.
Janaki (1981) and K.
S. Chithra (1987, 1989). Chithra had also won
the award for Tamil (1986, 1997, 2005) and Hindi (1998) film songs, which makes
her the person with the most National
Film Awards for Best Female Playback Singer
with six awards, closely followed by P. Susheela with five awards.