Legendary playback singer P Jayachandran passes away at 80

THRISSUR: Legendary Malayalam playback singer P Jayachandran passed away on Thursday at Thrissur Amala Hospital. He was 80. The singer was undergoing treatment for cancer in the same hospital.

In 1965, P. Jayachandran made his initial foray into music by singing the song 'Orumullapumalakan' written by P. Bhaskaran in the film 'Kunjalimaraikkar'. The music was from Chidambaranath. The singer, admiringly called ‘Bhava Gayakan’( expressionist singer) has sung more than 15,000 songs in Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu and Hindi languages.

Jayachandran was born on 3 March 1944 as the son of the late Ravivarma Kochaniyan Thampuran, a member of Cochin royal family and late Paliyath Subhadrakkunjamma, in Ravipuram Kochi. The family soon shifted to Thrissur Irinjalakuda. Jayachandran is married to Lalitha and the couple have two children, Lakshmi and Dinanath.

Director A. Vincent provided him with an opportunity to sing 'Manjalayil Mungithorthi' from the film 'Kalithozhan', a collaboration between Devarajan and P. Bhaskaran. With this song, Jayachandran emerged into the forefront of Malayalam playback singing and there was no looking back. This movie was released in 1967 adn the song turned into a rave.

His first teacher was KV Ramanathan, a music teacher at Irinjalakuda National School. In 1958, he won the first prize for light music and Mridangam at the State Youth Festival. In 1986, he won the National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer and also won Kerala State Film Award five times. In 2020, he was awarded the J. C. Daniel Award, the highest award in Malayalam cinema, for his outstanding contributions to Malayalam cinema.

Apart from music, Jayachandran had also tried his luck in film acting. He acted in films like Hariharan's 'Nakhakshatam', ‘Sree Krishna Parunthu’ and that last being ‘Trivandrum Lodge’.