THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Since the national awards came after the state film awards, it can be said that composer M. Jayachandran has had the last laugh. He won the prize for the haunting number ‘Kaathirunnu kaathirunnu puzha melinju kadavozhinju...” from the film Ennu Ninte Moideen.
But when the state film awards were announced on March 1, it was Ramesh Narayanan who bagged the best music director prize for his retro number ‘Saradambaram charu chandrika dhaarayil muzhukave...’, again from Ennu Ninte Moideen.
Ramesh Narayanan treated the award as a vindication of sorts, a triumph especially over Prithviraj. He said that three songs that he had composed for Ennu Ninte Moideen five years ago, two of them sung by none other than Yesudas himself, were taken out at the insistence of the actor. Prithviraj called them “too academic.”
Narayanan said that he suspected Prithviraj to be behind the attempts to prevent P. Jayachandran from rendering the ‘Saradambaram’ song. So Jayachandran bagging the best singer for that very song in the state awards was doubly sweet for Narayanan.
Prithviraj, unhappy with Ramesh Narayanan’s compositions, had then roped in M. Jayachandran to ‘re-compose’ the songs. M. Jayachandran had gone on record saying that he had talked to Ramesh Narayanan before he set about composing anew Rafeeq Ahmed's words ‘Kathirunnu kathirunnu...’ Neither Prithviraj nor Jayachandran had responded to Narayanan’s outburst. The national award announcement, therefore, might have been music to their ears.
