Melody that runs through generations

Shyamaragam has three generations of Yesudas family in the singers’ line-up

One of the credits of the yet-to-be-released Malayalam movie Shyamaragam is the Yesudas family singers as its playback line-up. Malayalam’s most worshipped singer has crooned for the film along with his son Vijay and his granddaughter Ameya, who was just three when she sang for the movie in 2013.

Last work

Yet another credit of

Shyamaragam , Sethu Eyyal’s maiden one, is that its music is the last work of V. Dakshinamurthy, the legendary music director whose songs for Malayalam cinema still top charts. Mr. Dakshinamurthy passed away just a week after the songs of the film were recorded. He was 93.

Four generations

With this, four generations of the Yesudas family has worked with Mr. Dakshinamurthy — Augustine Joseph, Yesudas’s father, whom the master musician directed in the movie Nalla Thanka amd Velakkaran ; Yesudas himself in the innumerable songs that are hallmark of the Dakshinamurthy-Yesudas pair; Vijay Yesudas for Idanazhiyil Oru Kalocha ; and Ameya in Shyamaragam.

“Though it took almost five years to finish my film, I was lucky to do the music in 2013 itself. Otherwise I would not have that opportunity to have music made by the legend,” says Mr. Sethu Eyyal, who was Dakshinamurthy’s manager.

Dakshinamurthy had also put in much effort preparing Vijay Yesudas to guide Ameya through her song, which was recorded after his death.

The songs were written by Kaithapram and Rafeeq Ahmed. Chithra has also sung for the film.

Another credit

The film also has eminent dancer couple Dhananjayan and Santha Dhananjayan handling the choreography for the movie, a first in Malayalam cinema.

Also, Y. Gee. Mahendra, eminent Tamil actor, is making a come back to Malayalam after a very long gap.

The movie, made in Malayalam and Tamil, is set to release in January 2019.