Relive drama songs of 50s and 60s tomorrow

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: City residents, especially theatre lovers, will get a chance to go back in time on Tuesday. Drama songs of 1950s and 60s will be brought back on stage in its near-original audio-visual form as part of the second death anniversary observance of Malayalam poet and lyricist O N V Kurup.
The commemoration programme ‘ONV Smrithisandhya’ will be inaugurated by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan at Tagore Theatre at 6pm.Film director Adoor Gopalakrishnan will preside over the event.
The inaugural session will be followed by the programme titled, ‘Madhurikyum Ormakkal’ at 7 pm.
Recreating the ambience of the theatres of 1950s, music instruments such as harmonium, claret, violin, mandolin, flute, veena, accordion, guitar and tabla will be played in the programme. The music programme comprises drama songs, including ponnarivaal ambiliyil kanneriyunnoole, thunchan parambile thathe and marivillin thenmalar, by ONV Kurup and music composer G Devarajan, created for theatre groups KPAC and Kalidasa Kalakendram . There will be a total of 25 songs in the event, which are composed by the duo.
“We will be recreating the ambience of a theatre in the 1950s and 1960s, giving a nostalgic effect to people who can relate to it and a new experience to the young generation. We have included only acoustic instruments for the programme. Instead of digital options, cloth painted in different colours and other theatre props will be used for the stage setting, similar to 1960s,” said son of ONV’s son and musician Rajeev ONV.
Singers Kallara Gopan, Sreeram, Rajeev ONV, Aparna Rajeev, Rajalakshmi and Bejoy will participate in the music programme.
A collection of poems by ONV, which has been translated to English by former chief secretary K Jayakumar, will also be released in the event.
CM will release the book by handing over the first copy to director of State Institute of Languages V Karthikeyan Nair. Poet V Madhusoodanan Nair will deliver the memorial lecture in the event.