Malayalam Film Music

[raagadevan]

Continuing with the early Yesudas days; here is a ராகமாலிக composed by V. Daksinamoorthy (Swami) for the 1965 movie
kaavyamELA, sung by P. Leela & Yesudas. I am told that movie songs were composed in a different style (sequence) in the
"good old days"! The director decided where in the movie he wanted a song and what the song would be about. The lyricist
would then write the lines that would match the situation, and then came the music director who set the lines to appropriate tune(s).
It is my understanding that music was set to pre-written lyrics until the mid 1960s. Needless to say, a lot of those songs were
raagamaalikas! I remember Swami telling an interviewer that the only time he thought of the raaga(s) of a composition was
when others would compliment him for using this or that raaga! The arrival of Salilda and other North Indian musicians initiated the
process where lyrics were written to fit tunes/music that were already composed.

Coming back to today's song, here are Prem Nazir and Sheela serenading each other in Sahana, Shanmukhapriya, Kalyani, et al!



I had posted a different version of this song featuring (live) the "young" musicians P. Leela,
P.B. Sreenivas, K.J. Yesudas ("new kid on the block"), M.B. Sreenivasan and Swami himself.
Here is the link to that version:

youtube.com/watch?v=xCaLvV7oSGU