Man who mentored Yesudas, Ilayaraaja

Composer of songs for more than 125 films and mentor of Ilayaraaja, K J Yesudas, N C Vasanthokokilam and P Susheela, ‘Malayalam’ Dakshinamoorthy left an everlasting impression on the south Indian film music industry.

In his birth centenary year, ignored by the film industry, his work continues to enthral audiences. He holds the unique distinction of having provided songs to four generations of musicians from a single family — Augustin Joseph, his son the renowned Yesudas, the latter’s son Vijay Yesudas, and Ameya, grand-daughter of Yesudas. What is more interesting is that Dakshinamoorthy used songs from all the four singers of the Yesudas family in his last film, ‘Shyaamaragam’ (2020), released some seven years after his death.

Venkateswaran Dakshinamoorthy Iyer was born to Parvathiammal and D Venkateswara Iyer, a banker at Mullakkal in Alappuzha, Travancore. His mother taught him Thyagaraja kritis from a young age. As a child, he had absorbed 27 of the kritis and learned Carnatic music from Venkatachalam Pothy in Thiruvananthapuram. He delivered his first public performance, when he was 13 years old at the Ambalapuzha Sri Krishna temple and was watched by M K Tyagaraja Bhagavathar, who told Swami’s father that the boy had a bright future. His first trip to Chennai was in 1942, for a 30-minute programme on AIR, and settled down in Chennai in 1948. The prefix Malayalam was given to him to differentiate him from S Dakshinamurthy who was called Telugu Dakshinamurthy.

He was widely regarded as a pioneer in the Malayalam film industry for introducing Carnatic raga-based film songs. He went on to compose more than 1,400 songs in a period of 65 years. Dakshinamoorthy came to be known as Swami while he mentored countless singers and music directors including father of A R Rahman, R K Shekhar, who worked as his assistant, and Ilayaraaja, who learned Carnatic music from Swami and worked as his assistant. It was from he who instilling in Ilayaraaja the need for semi-classical or light classical melodies.

Yesudas said it was this guru Dakshinamoorthy who shaped him as a musician and taught him to appreciate nuanced singing. It was Dakshinamoorthy who introduced P Susheela to the Malayalam music world. When P Leela did not turn up to sing a lullaby for the 1960 film, ‘Seetha’, he chose Susheela, whose Tamil songs he liked, but she wanted to opt out due to a problem with the Malayalam letter ‘na’. He later said, "I told her that she could touch her teeth with the tip of her tongue. She got it right finally." The song was "Pattu Padiyurakkam Njan", which remains a popular lullaby even after five decades.

His songs in Nanda En Nila‘ (title song), Oru Ooothaappoo Kan Simittugiradhu (Nalla Manam Vaazhga),Jeevanaadi (Aruvi Magal Alaiyosai) (Devi (DeviSree Devi), Adi Sankarar and Bhaktha Hanuman were well-received, especially his brilliant compositions soaked in bhakti by Yesudas. At 90, he composed music for ‘Mizhikal Sakshi’. Dakshinamoorthy passed on to younger music directors the burden of providing good pure music to listeners. "My music was merely to give emotional expression to the words," he would say.

(The writer is president of Chennai 2000 Plus Trust)