A writer honouring a singer with an award in memory of a wordsmith for whom music was a part of his life.
When M.T. Vasudevan Nair presented playback singer P. Jayachandran with Pravasi Doha’s Basheer Puraskaram here on Thursday, it had thus a uniqueness of its own. The writer was humble enough to acknowledge his lack of knowledge in music and the singer did not hide his ignorance in literature either.
MT said, “I don’t know much about music, but I liked watching music directors such as K. Raghavan and M.B. Sreenivasan compose songs from a respectful distance. I think they too liked my presence there.... I remember MBS sitting in the office verandah of Chandrathara Productions and teaching Jayachandran a song to be recorded the next day.” He said Jayachandran’s music was a thrilling experience for many.
“Music was Basheer’s constant companion too. Wherever he travelled, he took along with him a gramophone player and records of singers like K.L. Saigal, Pankaj Mullick, and K.C. Dey. Music gave him solace in solitude.... He has always been a magnificent presence in my mind, his stories showed the greatness of humanity,” MT added.
Jayachandran recalled watching Bhargavinilayam, written by Basheer, 21 times, just to listen to its wonderful songs. “I did not expect this award in memory of a great writer. I am not much of a reader, I am too lazy for it. But it was through the films of our beloved writer MT we learnt a lot about the river Bharathapuzha,” he said.
M.V. Sreepriya, a Class 10 student of National Higher Secondary School, Irinjalakkuda, was given an endowment in memory of M.N. Vijayan, one of the founder patrons of Pravasi Doha.
