Sreekumaran Thampi says his association with M.K. Arjunan began half-a-century ago. He is proud that he played a part in shaping up his career.
When he listened to the song on radio Manathin muttathe… (Karutha Pournami), he thought it was composed by G. Devarajan. But, R.K. Shekhar (A.R. Rahman's father), who assisted Devarajan and other music directors in Malayalam cinema then, told him it was tuned by a new composer named Arjunan.
When V. Dakshinamoorthy, with whom Sreekumaran Thampi had teamed up for several hits, refused to do the music for producer K.P. Kottarakkara’s new film, Rest House, Sreekumaran Thampi recommended Arjunan. All the songs of that film were hits and went on to collaborate for about 300 songs.
It is true that Arjunan did not get as much credit as he deserved. One of the reasons for that was that the names of the lyricist and the composer were usually not announced on All India Radio, which was about the only accessible medium for music lovers those days. With the arrival of social media, however, today's generation has become more knowledgeable.
