Veteran music director K. Raghavan, who lent a local flavour to Malayalam film songs, passed away after a brief illness here on Saturday morning. He was 99.
The musician breathed his last at 4.20 a.m. at the Thalassery Cooperative Hospital.
Raghavan Master, as he was called by his fans, started his career as a thamburu artiste at All India Radio, Chennai, and worked at AIR, New Delhi, before taking over as programme officer in charge of light music at AIR, Kozhikode. He composed and sang the song ‘Kayalarikathu valayerinhappol…’ penned by Bhaskaran for the film Neelakkuyil in 1954. This song was an instant hit which was followed by more melodious numbers with a fusion of folk and classical music in over 400 songs in about 60 films.
Some of his popular numbers are ‘Ellarum Chollanu…,’ ‘Nalikerathinte Naatilenikkoru…,’ ‘Unarunaroo…’ and ‘Shyaamasundara pushpame…’
The final composition for a Malayalam film by Raghavan was for the cinematic adaptation of Vaikom Muhammad Basheer’s Balyakala Sakhi , which is yet to be released.
