Onam songs was a staple of Onam in the past. Many of us cherish melodies such as ‘Uthradapoonilave vaa’, ‘Ponnonam ponnonam’, ‘Para niraye’, ‘Atham pathinu’.... With takers for Onam cassettes going down every year, only few albums reach the market now. Nevertheless, every year a handful of musicians come out with their collection of songs.
This time we have singer Soumya Sanathanan composing Onam melodies for children. She has composed three songs for Mini Choral, a children’s group of singers of All India Radio (AIR) Thiruvananthapuram. The group has been defunct for long and the station is reviving the venture with the airing of Onam songs tuned by Soumya, who is a Grade I composer of AIR.
“We do miss the good old Onam melodies. I am happy that I could contribute to the collection. I had just two days to teach and record the songs. It was exciting to work with children,” says Soumya. The songs have been written by Sreekumaran Thampi (‘Kaattu paadi kaavadi aadum’), Mankombu Gopalakrishnan (‘Atham pathonathinu’) and Rafeeq Ahamed (‘Maveli mannane’).
Twenty-three children in the age group of eight to 12 are part of the Mini Choral. “We don’t know exactly when and why the Mini Choral was stopped. It was a prestigious programme of the station. So we decided to revive it and invited children for screening,” says R.C. Gopal, station director, AIR.
The selection process was tough with over 80 children turning up for the screening. “All stations of AIR will air the songs on Thiruvonam (September 14) and Avittam (September 15),” adds Manesh M. P., programme executive.
In fact, it is double delight for Soumya as she has composed songs for Doordarshan Malayalam that will be telecast this Onam. “They are not Onam-specific songs, but will be aired during the Onam time. There are five songs, written by Poovachal Khader, M. R. Jayageetha and Bindu Pradeep,” she says. Singers are P. V. Preetha, Ravi Shankar, B. Sobha and Divya.
Meanwhile it is a special Onam for composer S.R. Suraj as he has fulfilled a dream - that of composing Onam songs. He has composed 11 tracks of a new Onam album, ‘Ponnavani Pattukal’. That’s not all. He has worked with an illustrious line-up of singers- P. Jayachandran, Unni Menon, Vijay Yesudas, Gayatri, Madhu Balakrishnan and Sreya Jayadeep. Mridula Varier, Nayana Vinod and Suraj himself are the other singers. Syam Enath is the lyricist.
“I have grown up listening to melodious Onam songs, especially those of Das ettan (K. J. Yesudas) and always rue the fact that such songs aren’t composed these days. I have been working on these tracks for three years and it is produced by my group of friends for Ambadi Visual Media,” says Suraj, an employee with BSNL. He had earlier composed for a short film, Theeram Thedi made by his friends that had a song by Sudeep Kumar.
A disciple of Perumbavoor G. Ravindranath, Suraj can’t stop gushing about working with a legend like Jayachandran. “It is amazing that his voice is fresh even at this age,” Suraj says. The album is released by Muzik247.
