Wafting through melody


This Malayali singer left his own state to settle down in Tamil Nadu to make it really big in the playback industry and has, over the last decade, worked towards becoming one of the leading singers on the Tamil film scene. The fact that so many talented and aspiring singers have forayed into Tamil playback points to the truth that undercurrent strife within the Malayalam film music industry and the steadily dropping standards of music have hastened the departure of many a promising singer and has lost local talent to the ever-growing Tamil music scene.
Pudu Vellai Mazhai Inge Pozhikindrathu is the celebrated song from Roja by A.R. Rahman that really heralded the arrival of Unni Menon, though he had been playbacking from ’81 onwards. Music is the ruling passion of his life — that’s the most obvious fact you realise when you talk to him. Even as a young boy, he was crazy about film music and at every opportunity remained glued to the radio, absorbing songs by Mohammad Rafi and Yesudas. They were Gods for him and he wondered how anybody could sing so marvellously.
Unni did not have the guts to tell his parents that it was music that ruled his own being to the exclusion of everything else. But like in any conventional home, he was forced to pursue serious academics.

“After my studies, I took up a job with Heavy Vehicle Factory at Avadi, Madras. Somehow my mind was not on this job. So within two years I resigned and decided to look around for a vocation that’d interest me. I didn’t know how to go about a career in music or whether I’d be successful if I took it up as a career. Luckily I know a few musicians and Kunhunni, a secretary to Yesudas gave me an opportunity to sing a track for Yesudas. My first film was Thenum Amudhum which never got released!” says Unni Menon.

Not cowed down by initial failure, he continued to sing whenever there was a chance to sing a track. Soon he caught the attention of big music directors like Shyam and Johnson who gave him his own songs to sing. The number Valakillukkam from the film Munnetam by Shyam introduced him as a playback singer. “The feeling of hearing your voice come through the screen is a joyous sensation I can’t explain. I sang three numbers in Kadathu and that was a good start to my career,” he reminisces. Unni had a chance to sing before Yesudas who immediately asked him why he was not learning serious classical music. Which led this young singer to take the advice of the man he so admired and to go to Dr. S. Ramanathan to learn music formally.

In ’84 Unni Menon sang for Ilayaraja for the film Oru Kaithiyin Diary and since the maestro felt that Unni was too obviously Malayali a name, he christened him Vijay and under this name, Unni Menon sang a number of songs. But he was not pleased at his original name being forgotten and he felt insecure that his career was going downhill. “To safeguard my future, I started a recording studio called Aalaaap in Cochin and even today it is the leading studio in Kerala. Playback singing took a back seat till the song in Roja came along. Pudu Vallai Mazhai became a big hit and I’ve never been out of work since,” he says. Songs from Thiruda Thiruda, Pudiya Mugam, Karuthamma, Minsara Kananavu (Ooh la la la) , Kathalir Dinam, Jodi and Time, have had hit songs sung by him, composed by Rahman.

To Deva’s music direction, Unni Menon sang melodious songs in Mugavari, Pudukuduthanam, Sabash, Masila Unmaiye, and many more. Singing for S.A. Rajkumar gave him more popularity with the hit songs in Vanathe Pole, the recent Penin Manathe Thottu and James Pandu. The lilting melodies in Gokulam, Jameem Kotai, Unnakkum Enakkum Kalyanam under Sirpi’s baton are Unni Menon’s other popular renditions.

“Thanks to Rahman a new trend in music was introduced. The audience for Malayalam films is limited to Kerala and so, horizons don’t widen and we get no mileage. Rahman says that the trend he started will last only for three or four years more. After that he predicts another Rahman will come along in the scene,” says Unni Menon. That prediction, of course, remains to be seen.

Malayalam and Tamil devotional cassettes got him as much, if not more popularity as his playback singing. Two volumes of Panchajanyam, Sudarshanam and Unnikannandu tharattu are just a few among the many hit albums he released. The Tamil devotional masterpieces Ayanayenne and Pambanadi made him as popular in Tamil Nadu as in Kerala for his devotional music.

He worked tirelessly and it didn’t go un-awarded. He bagged the state award for Ooh La La La from Minsara Kananvu, various fine arts and critics awards for best singer in Aksharangal (Mal), Roja and Pudiya Mugam. He was awarded the Golden Disc for Ragalahiri by CBS in recognition of outstanding sales performance.

Unni Menon’s recently started recording studio, Sound of Music Pvt. Ltd. in Chennai shows that this enterprising singer will not let grass grow under his feet and with his hectic playback career, he has no time to relax. Luckily he has cosy family support in his charming wife, Sasheela and sons, Ankur and Akash.

The unassuming singer says that as an admirer of Yesudas, he imitated him initially but realized that it was detrimental to his career to be a clone. With an individualistic style, all his own, Unni Menon’s forte lies in rendering songs with melody and rarely do you hear him sing a crude or mediocre number. He says, “I came to this industry without any godfathers to promote me. I’ve learnt the business the hard way. This is a field where aggressive marketing of oneself is proportionate to one’s success. I have never begged for work. I’ve come this far without any self-promotion.”

Girija Sudheendran


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