Pramadavanam-Tribute To Ravindran-Part-I

This is the first of a series of songs that I will be posting here as part of my tribute to one of the greatest composers of Malayalam Cinema, the late Ravindran Master. His songs range from heavy classics like, Goopaangane, Pramadavanam, Harimuraleeravam, Kalabham Tharam, Sreelavasantham, etc. to folk based songs like Manjakkiliyude, Pularepoonthoniyil, ghazals like Vidatharu, Nirangale paadu and fast numbers like Vaa vaa Manoranjini, sombre melancholy & romantic numbers like, Vishada Naugayil, Etho Nidrathan, Azhage Nin...He did every type of songs in his lifetime. He also introduced new singers like Biju Narayanan, Gayatri, Asha Menon, myself...to name a few. Some of his songs were so tough to sing that even celebrity singers avoided them at programs. He was the only one after G. Devarajan and V. Dakshinamoorthy to take maximum use of the heavenly voice & awesome range of singing colossus K.J Yesudas. This was only because Ravindran too was an awesome trained singer like Dakshinaamoorthy & Devarajan! In fact he first started his career as a singer. Then he switched on to dubbing, and later it was K.J.Yesudas who helped him to start as a music director in "Choola" his first film. "Vadakkumnathan" was his last film.
This tribute will continue till I exhaust my collection of good karaoke songs of Ravindran.
Since I have already posted some songs, I will just mention about them in between.
I begin with a terrific tongue twister "Pramadavanam" which I believe as one of the best songs of Ravindran. Be warned, it is also not for the yellow livered! I never had the guts to sing it in front of Ravindran master as did other reputed singers. This is a very very difficult song to sing and the whole of Yesudas's depth in voice, range, control, modulation, knowledge of classical music, flow of voice, flow of sangathis comes to the fore-front! This easily is the toughest song to sing composed for malayalam cinema after Kaattile Paalmulam. Harimuraleeravam stands next. But the biggest enigma of all is that when this song was there in "His Highness Abdulla" and should have easily got both Yesudas & Ravindran the National awards, M.G Sreekumar walked away with the the award for "Naadaroopini" in the same film! It still remains a mystery as do many ways of Malayalam Cinema Music.
As I mentioned earlier, this is my first attempt at "Pramadavanam" as a mark of respect to my mentor in Malayalam Cinema music. Pleae do keep in mind that what I am trying to do when singing such classical numbers is not blindly imitate the song by singing sangathi for sangathi but try to give new expressions without trying to lose the original mood of the song. As I know Ravindran master, he used to give full freedom to the singer after giving his version of sangathis. If the singer came up with a good or better expression he would keep it. So I follow his tradition. He was never rigid as some other Music Directors. Maybe that's why we have had such terrific songs rendered by Dasettan!

61) Pramadavanam Veendum-Ravindran-Yesudas-Kaithapram-His Highness Abdulla