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THE GURUS
DIVINE
Jayachandran's first Guru was his school master K.V. Ramanathan.
He was the one who had given a chance to Jayachandran to sing in
the school stage at Irinjalakuda National High School. Jayachandran
still cherishes the memories of his master with full respect.
Another person to whom Jayachandran is highly indebted is G. Devarajan,
the famous music composer in the Malayalam films. Jayachandran considers
him as his father, Guru and also a friend. Jayachandran makes it
a point to visit G. Devarajan whenever he is in Thiruvanthapuram.
B.A. Chidambaranath is another music composer whom Jayachandran
respects very much. He is the one who introduced Jayachandran to
the Malayalm film industry by giving him a chance to sing in his
film "Kunjali Marakkar" in 1965.
He also holds P. Bhaskaran and Vayalar Rama Verma, noted lyricists
of yester-year in the Malayalam film industry with deep reverence.
Jayachandran proudly comments about Vayalar, "He is a fantastic
lyricist who wrote poems which were full of life in their lyrics..
Singing his songs was really a pleasure for me".
Bhaskaran Master is another personality with an omniscient essence
in music.
EPISODES
TO REMEMBER
About Yesudas
Jayachandran met Yesudas way back in 1958 when he participated in
the state youth festival. Yesudas won the Best Classical Singer
award and Jayachandran got the best Light Music Singer as well as
best Mridamgist award in the same year. After that Jayachandran
met Yesudas, then a famous singer in 1965 in Chennai when the former
was staying with his brother Sudhakaran, who was a close friend
of Yesudas. Yesudas used to visit Jayachandran's house in those
times to meet Sudhakaran, who was also a singer. This was the beginning
of his intimate relationship with Yesudas, who is like an elder
brother to Jayachandran. The trio, Sudhakaran, Yesudas and Jayachandran
used to ride in a motor cycle during their leisure times. It was
Yesudas who took Jayachandran to a recording studio for the first
time when he was singing a song, Manikya Veenayumayi for "Kattupookkal".
Once the triothree went to see a Hindi film called "Taj Mahal" and
while returning home they imitated a song sequence from the film.
Yesudas sang and Jayachandran danced to the song. Jayachandran considers
Yesudas as a great singer and admires him. He believes that Yesudas
has a god-gifted voice and is a great fan of his.
About Innocent
Jayachandran personally knew the famous comedy actor in the Malayalam
film Industry, Innocent, much before the actor entered the film
world. Both of them studied in the same school. The two had a childish
rivalry in their childhood. Once when Jayachandran was returning
from the school on a bicycle, he collided with Innocent who was
walking on the road. Though Innocent was annoyed, this matter was
amicably settled on the spot and they still love to remember this.
To Jayachandran's utter surprise, when they met again after many
years, Innocent jokingly mentioned this incident to Jayachandran.
About S.R Puttanna
S.R. Puttanna
is one of the famous Kannada directors in Karnataka. A very interesting
but most moral episode regarding the relationship with this director
and Jayachandran is that years back when Jayachandran had just entered
the film field he was invited to sing a song for a Malayalam film
of Puttanna by the producer of that film. Puttanna strongly opposed
letting Jayachandran, a new comer to sing a sentimental song in
that film, the film being "Mayor Nair" and the song being "Swapna
Sakhi" . Puttanna had the strong notion that only Yesudas should
sing that song and none could match his voice. But luckily for Jayachandran
he got the chance of proving himself and, the song was an instant
hit. Later when Jayachandran became well known all over India, he
was invited by Puttanna to sing a song "Mandara Pushpavani" for
a Kannada film "Ranga Nayaki". The song proved to an instant hit
and the film itself was a great success. From that day onwards till
the day of Puttanna's death, Jayachandran sang for his films.
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