Memories unplugged

February 19, 2015 07:28 pm | Updated 07:28 pm IST - Thiruvananthapuram

Ormakalude Pattupetti

Ormakalude Pattupetti

There’s this very disturbing and touching incident that C. Suresh Kumar writes about in his book Ormakalude Pattupetti . The ‘Old is Gold’ music troupe was on a tour of West Asia. After a successful show at Doha, the team moved to Ibri, near Muscat. That proved to be disastrous for the audience who were expecting mimicry and fast songs, and were in no mood to listen to old songs. When singer C.O. Anto got on to the stage he was booed. Driving back to the hotel, Anto seemed disturbed.

At the break of dawn everyone was woken up by a loud cry from Anto’s room. When they rushed in they saw the singer in a state of distress with two tubes sticking out of his body. The author remembers how shocked they were to discover that this veteran singer was suffering from a serious kidney ailment and had been told not to sing. Anto’s predicament was pitiable. He needed to make money from this tour to make ends meet. His performance at Bahrain was to be the fine singer’s farewell. He died a few months later.

Such recollections and many such memories of Suresh Kumar’s long years as a compere of ‘Old is Gold’ and as anchor of the popular television show ‘Pattupetty’ make this book special.

What makes his observations about singers, lyricists and music composers different is a sort of intimacy, a first-hand account of stories, anecdotes and history behind Malayalam film songs. He also gives brief character sketches, touching on the defining qualities of some of the famous personalities in the world of music.

Suresh lists the names of people who have contributed a lifetime and sacrificed a lot for the sake of music, and includes some significant moments in their life.

Though the author does not really attempt to glorify his subjects, his admiration for some of them is evident. These music makers have been accorded a flesh-and-blood status; their failings, their values, the ups and downs in their life and career recorded without melodrama.

Through 18 articles interspersed with P. David’s memorable photographs, beginning with P. Bhaskaran, the genius who went unrecognised, to Kamukara Purushothaman, the unforgettable three-day musical extravaganza to celebrate 50 years of Malayalam music, organised under the stewardship of by Devarajan Master, to heart-warming moments with Vayalar, ONV Kurup, Sreekumaran Thampi, K.P. Udayabhanu, M.K. Arjunan, M.S. Baburaj, P. Leela, B.Vasantha, KPAC Sulochana, Johnson and others, the book pays tribute to those who enriched Malayalam film music.

Suresh’s reverence for Udayabhanu and Devarajan Master is clear all through the book, and quite naturally too. For it was the former who brought him into this field, advising him to do proper homework and introduce each song for the troupe with a pinch of history. And it was Devarajan Master who guided him in all his endeavours. The book is rightly dedicated to them.

Suresh, as noted poet-lyricist K. Jayakumar says in the foreword of the book, was the man who set a model for compering music shows. When songs on the radio and television are often restricted to just the name of the film, lyricist and composer, Suresh enhanced songs by providing interesting snippets and vignettes of history that made listening to songs all the more pleasurable.

And Suresh let’s out a secret too. He modelled his anchoring on the man who started this off – P. Bhaskaran who did this brilliantly for ‘Ennale Innu Naale’, the precursor of ‘Old is Gold’.

Ormakalude Pattupetti

C. Suresh Kumar

Lipi Books

Rs. 115

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